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the supply of light industrial products falls far short of the increasing
needs of the people, the handicraft industry takes on even greater
importance. Those handicraftsmen whose products are indispensable
to the national economy and the people’s livelihood will play a signif-
icant role in the economic development of our country, if we help them
get organized, give them systematic guidance in production and help
them increase labour productivity. This does not mean, of course,
that we can afford to neglect the development of modern industry.
Rather, we must attach due importance to the development of the
handicraft industry while at the same time stimulating the growth
of modern industry.
Socialist transformation of the individual handicraft industry is
an integral component of the Party’s general line or general task in
the transition period. We should gradually change the handicraft
economy from individual to collective ownership by organizing co-
operatives. Co-operatives are the only form of organization by which
we can transform the individual handicraft economy and help it in
its transition to socialism.
Handicraftsmen are both labourers and private owners of the
means of production. If we leave them out of our socialist transform-
ation, they might go capitalist. Of course not all of them could
become capitalists. Only a few could get rich, while the majority
would go bankrupt and be unemployed. Thus handicraftsmen would
have no future if they went capitalist. In China today, they still
have many difficulties in their work and life because of their scattered
productive activities, meagre funds and the small number of outdated
tools. They produce in an erratic way and have both busy and slack
seasons. Moreover, they are subject to exploitation by middle men
in buying raw materials and selling products. Therefore, it is neces-
sary to help them organize co-operatives, which will make possible
the collective purchase of raw materials and the collective marketing
of their products, thus preventing their exploitation by capitalists.
This will also enable them to engage in normal production so that they
can better serve agricultural and industrial production and the daily
life of the people.
Handicraft producers’ co-operatives are needed in the cities, but
even more urgently in rural areas. China has more than 225,000
townships, the smaller ones of which each have several thousand peo-
ple and the larger ones more than 10,000. If handicraftsmen are
organized in all of these townships, they will constitute a considerable