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18 MAO TSE-TUNG

5. Proclaim a programme for improving the livelihood of the
people and immediately begin to put it into effect. Start with the
following minimum points: Abolish exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous
levies, reduce land rent, restrict usury, increase the workers’ pay, im-
prove the livelihood of the soldiers and junior officers, improve the
livelihood of office workers, and provide relief for victims of natural
calamities. Far from making a mess of the country’s finances as some
people argue, these new measures will increase the people’s purchasing
power and lead to thriving commercial and financial conditions. They
will add immeasurably to our strength for resisting Japan and
consolidate the government’s foundations.
6. Institute education for national defence. Radically reform the
existing educational policy and system. All projects that are not urgent
and all measures that are not rational must be discarded. Newspapers,
books and magazines, films, plays, literature and art should all serve
national defence. Traitorous propaganda must be prohibited.
7. Adopt financial and economic policies for resisting Japan.
Financial policy should be based on the principle that those with money
should contribute money and that the property of the Japanese im-
perialists and Chinese traitors should be confiscated, and economic
policy should be based on the principle of boycotting Japanese goods
and promoting home products — everything for the sake of resistance
to Japan. Financial strain is the product of wrong measures and can
surely be overcome after the adoption of new policies such as these,
which serve the interests of the people. It is sheer nonsense to say that
a country with so vast a territory and so huge a population is financially
and economically helpless.
8. Unite the entire Chinese people, the government and the armed
forces to build up the national united front as our solid Great Wall.
The application of the policy of armed resistance and of the above
measures depends on this united front. Here the key is close co-
operation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Let
the government, the troops, all the political parties and the whole
people unite on the basis of such co-operation between the two parties.
The slogan “Unity in good faith to meet the national crisis” must not
be limited to fine words but must be demonstrated in fine deeds. Unity
must be genuine; deception will not do. There must be more large-
mindedness and a broader sweep in the conduct of state affairs. Petty
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niggling, mean tricks, bureaucracy, and Ah Q-ism are of no use at
all. They are of no avail against the enemy and simply ridiculous if