9781422277676

communes as a big step toward the achievement of pure com- munism. On the communes, workers would control for themselves the means of pro- duction—the factories, tools, machinery, and raw materials used to produce goods. There would be no private property. All differences in wealth and

Key Idea

Means of production refers to the physical factors—other than human labor—that are used to produce goods. These include fac- tories, machinery, tools, and raw materials.

status would be eliminated. Most communes even tried to do away with money. But commune members didn’t need money. The commune provided everything they needed for free: hous- ing, clothes, food. Children went to commune-run schools. Infants were cared for at commune nurseries so that their mothers could work. The sick received treatment at the com- mune hospital. To Mao, all this added up to a Communist utopia . Questionable Assumptions By October 1958, more than 25,000 people’s communes had been set up all across rural China. And nearly every commune had at least one new factory. The factories had been construct- ed on land previously used for agriculture. They were kept run- ning by millions of peasants who only months earlier had been full-time farmers. The Great Leap Forward seemed to be off to a good start. In fact, it was on very shaky ground. Neither Mao nor the other top leaders of the CCP under- stood much about economics. The Great Leap Forward

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Communism: Control of the State