Land reform
Not everyone thought the move from mutual aid teams (MATs) to agricultural producers’ cooperative (APCs) was a good one and indeed, the experience was different for everyone, depending on who was in your village, team, or cooperative. I thought the move was good and in my village, we believed in Mao and the possibility within China to be a great nation. Truly the peasant class was large, but we had strength in numbers and besides we always had what we needed to survive.
During the time when we had a MAT, things were working out only okay. Some of us had more land than other families and during harvesting season, families with smaller portions of land would be angry at having to work on our farm as well. We did it this way to make sure everything was harvested and nothing went to waste. We did not mind sharing with the neighbors when they needed a little more grain because we knew that they would help us sow our harvest when the time came. This ensured that things went well for the most part, although some neighbors were still resentful for not having as much land or having to feed more people with less land.
When we made the change to APCs, these neighbors liked it more, but I also was glad for the movement. Firstly because, although I had to give up my land, now everyone was doing the same share of work every season and still everyone was getting enough to eat for themselves and their families. The change was complicated because some people needed to do the accounting for everyone and all the output o the fields while others still had to labor and toil in the sun, but those of us who worked outdoors knew it was for the better and besides, many of us could not read or write anyhow. So the change from a MAT to APC was for me and my village good because we all got along well and could understand one another’s needs. There was little complaining since we all worked hard together, and we could all go home to a good meal at the end of the day.
Under the APC system, we had a cadre who kept track of our harvest and grain output and would report to the capital what we would had reaped. The first year, the cadre was honest and reported the correct amount. After a month, we did not see him again and he was replaced by another man, who was very distant from us and did not communicate with us very often. There was like a contest, to see which APC would output the greatest surplus of grain and because this cadre wanted to look good, he lied to higher officials, telling them that our surplus was higher than it actually was. So when they came to take away the surplus, we found that we were not left with enough food and we had to ration it amongst ourselves. There was hardly enough to keep us satiated and we could barely eat even one meal each day.
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