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tion teams” consisting of several dozen households. This organization, Mao and other CCP officials believed, would allow for flexibility in using the labor force. Workers could be assigned wherever they were most needed at a given time. At planting or harvest time, extra production teams might work in the fields. But at other times, teams could be spared for different tasks. They might do factory work, for example. Or they might mine coal. Sometimes, entire brigades could be deployed on large infrastructure projects. These included the building of roads, dams, and irrigation canals. If Mao was counting on the commune system to free up labor for industrialization, he also saw other important bene- fits. He believed the communes would cement peasant loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. Party cadres —trained and highly motivated members of the CCP—would monitor peas- ants during virtually every waking hour on the communes. Indoctrination would be constant. Further, Mao viewed the

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Nightmare in China

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