Following is a detailed summary of an article by the Representative of the Central People's Government in Tibet, published in "Renmin Ribao" on May 25, 1962,under the title "Correctly Carry Out the Policies of the Communist Party on Democratic Reform in Tibet." Some of the highlights of this article were covered in our last issue. Subheads are ours.-- Ed.

A DEMOCRATIC reform movement was launched in Tibet after the armed rebellion staged by the reactionary clique of the upper social strata there was quelled. This movement has now been completed in the main. It has ended the most backward, the most savage and the most reactionary feudal serfdom known in China's history; it has led to the establishment of a social system of people's democracy which the masses have long wanted.

Democratic Reform--Urgent Demand Of Tibetan People

The feudal serfdom in Tibet was of an exceptionally backward and reactionary type. Under that system, the three categories of manorial lords--the former Tibetan local government, the monasteries and the nobility who constituted less than 5 per cent of the population in the region--owned the major means of production, that is: all the land and by far the largest part of the livestock. They led a life of luxury and extravagance. On the other hand, the serfs, who made up over 90 per cent of the population, had had no land for generations and only the smallest of herds. They were chattels of the lords who seized more than 70 per cent of their annual produce. The house-slaves, who accounted for about 5 per cent of Tibet's population, possessed nothing at all.　Serfs and slaves were treated like animals. This is why the Tibetan people urgently wanted democratic reform, the overthrow of the feudal serfdom which had long fettered the growth of the social productive forces, and the establishment of the people's democratic system.

It is explicitly stipulated in the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet that democratic reform should be carried out in the region. But neither of the two important tasks of reforming the social system and reorganizing the Tibetan army, as stipulated in the agreement, was fulfilled owing to obstruction and sabotage by the former Tibetan local government and the reactionary clique of the upper strata. In spite of this, the Central Government, in order to give the reactionaries time to think things over and wake up from their wrong doing, announced at the end of 1956 that democratic reform would not be carried out during the period of the Second Five-Year Plan (1958-62) and that whether it would be carried out during the Third Five-Year Plan (1963-67)would be decided in the light of the situation at that time.

But the reactionary clique refused to come to their senses. Colluding with imperialism, they even went so far as to launch an all-out counter-revolutionary armed rebellion in March 1959. This rebellion was a counterrevolutionary war designed to suppress the Tibetan labouring people; it was a betrayal of the motherland. The putting down of the rebellion was a revolutionary war for the liberation of the Tibetan labouring people and in defence of the motherland. The war was one between the revolutionary classes and the counter-revolutionaries and certainly not one between nations. It was precisely for this reason that the quelling of the armed rebellion enlisted the active support and participation of the million Tibetan serfs and patriots of the upper strata and was rapidly brought to a successful conclusion. Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the Tibetan people launched a democratic reform movement throughout the region immediately after the swift suppression of the rebellion.

Victory for Policy of Democratic Reform

During the democratic reform, a policy of "buying out" has been followed in regard to the surplus means of production of those serf-owners or their agents who did not take part in the rebellion. Once bought out, these means of production are distributed among the serfs. The means of production of the serf-owners and their agents who took part in the rebellion were confiscated and distributed to the serfs. Since the participants in the rebellion betrayed the motherland and the people, the policy of redemption naturally did not apply to them. But this policy is firmly applied to people who did not take part in the rebellion, those who have shown that they are patriotic and are in favour of democratic reform. Since this policy takes the interests of the patriotic members of the upper strata properly into account and is in the fundamental interests of the Tibetan people and of liberating the productive forces, it is not only warmly supported by the patriotic upper strata, but has won complete endorsement from the masses of labouring people as well.

The policy of redemption does not mean that reform is "granted" from above, rather, it is based on rousing the masses and letting them carry out the reform themselves. In carrying out democratic reform in Tibet, the Communist Party adopts on the one hand, the method of buying out after fully consulting the upper strata; on the other hand, it fully arouses and organizes the masses to liberate themselves. The class line in Tibet's democratic reform is to rely on the serfs and slaves, unite all forces that can be united with, deal blows at the most reactionary, rebel serf-owners and their agents, and abolish serfdom. Leaders and cadres of Communist Party organizations and of the government at various levels have gone out to the villages to help the masses wage this revolutionary struggle. At "struggle meetings," the serfs have accused and settled accounts with the reactionary serf-owners. Finally land is distributed, peasant associations and organs of state power established and the people's democratic dictatorship instituted.

Two Steps

Democratic reform in Tibet has been carried out in two steps. The first was the campaign to oppose the rebellion, unpaid forced labour and slavery and to reduce rent and rates of interest. The second is the distribution of land and other means of production, confiscated or bought out from the serf-owners, among the serfs and slaves. In the pastoral areas, only the herds belonging to the rebel manorial lords and herd-owners were confiscated and turned over to those who tended the herds or to the poor herdsmen. The policy towards the other herd-owners is one of not confiscating their herds, neither determining their class status nor struggling against them. The campaign to oppose rebellion, unpaid forced labour and slavery and the policy of benefiting the interests of both the herdsmen and herd-owners and assisting the poor herdsmen has been carried out to safeguard the herds, develop livestock-breeding and improve the life of the herdsmen.