The Primacy of the Movement for Agricultural Production – The Khmer Rouge, 1975

Republished from Revolutionary Male & Female Youth’s, Angkar’s publication for the youth.

The first article was entitled “Revolutionary Youth Are Determined to Go Down Into the Fray of Productive
Labour in Order to Forge and Strengthen Their Revolutionary Stance and Actively to Defend and Build Up
the Nation.” It noted that during the period of “revolutionary war” from 1970 to 1975, the revolution had
been characterized by “three big seething movements”: storming attacks against the enemy at the battle
-front; the search for water to sustain production on the “rear battlefield” of the liberated zones; and the
“struggle movement for internal refashioning” within the revolutionary ranks. Revolutionary youth had forged,
tested, built up, and strengthened their revolutionary stance through participation in all three wartime
movements. This had been a prerequisite for victory in the fight against American imperialism. Now that
the country was at peace, however, a further all-round strengthening of revolutionary stances was needed
to win new victories in defending and building the country. In this regard, the “most seething and biggest”
movement was the movement to increase production, so as to create a basis for the country to escape
agricultural backwardness and ensure its rapid advance toward the status of a modern agricultural and
industrialized country. “Storming attacks to increase production” were everybody’s primary duty. “Going
down into the fray of productive labour” was the most active and effective way to contribute to national
defence. Any further “struggle movement for internal refashioning” was relegated to secondary importance,
although it was not to be ignored. In concrete terms, members of the Communist Youth League were
admonished that they must go down to the countryside to put up many dams, dig many ponds and feeder
canals, and make many reservoirs at the village and sub-district levels in order to achieve mastery over
the water problem and thus make it possible to farm paddy in both the rainy and dry seasons.

The Party was striving to utilize all the existing potential in terms of land and labour power available to it.
Revolutionary youth must therefore go down into the fray of paddy farming with the people in the same
way that they had previously engaged in storming attacks against the enemy at the battlefront. Ideological
Problems from the Old Society However, the article recognized that there was not complete enthusiasm
for such work among members of the Youth League inside and outside the armed forces because of the
continued existence among them of erroneous views from the old society. If their participation in the move
-ment to increase production was to be robust, these views had first of all to be wiped clean and utterly
cleansed, and then replaced with a solidly correct revolutionary stance vis-à-vis productive labour.
The “erroneous views” still present within the revolutionary ranks reflected a reactionary desire to live
in showy plenty and comfort while avoiding any exertion of strength in labour. The article asserted that,
due to the ideological hegemony of the ruling classes in the old society, such reactionary views had
predominated among youth in general, regardless of their class background. The children of the rich
had simply had no capability whatsoever to engage in labour. The more intelligent among the children
of those less well off had been obsessed with making all-out efforts to study and obtain major degrees
so that they would be able to become mandarins or officials and get big salaries, making it possible for
them to live happily in ease, plenty, and comfort. Despite the poverty of their background, they weren’t
at all pained if Cambodia and its people fell into being lackeys of imperialism and colonialism. As for those
youths who were so poor that they lacked the means to study, they were willing to sell themselves as
mercenaries, or prostitutes, or became thieves.

The article asserts that the overwhelming majority of Cambodia’s old society youth descended into being
fodder for foreign imperialism and colonialism and for the feudalists and reactionary capitalists. The article
complained of the continued existence among revolutionary youth of an outlook and stance of loathing
and disdain for productive labour. Instead, they preferred to do office and ministerial work, to work as
medics or cooks, or to serve in bodyguard units. It warned that those who persisted in such attitudes
would be incapable of forging and refashioning themselves or strengthening their revolutionary stance.
Production Targets The article called for a one hundred-fold increase in rice production so as to create
the potential to defend the country and build it into a powerful, affluent, and happy one in a short period
of time. Agriculture, Foreign Aid and Mechanization The article proclaimed that in the initial steps of
national construction, we must rely on agriculture. Moreover, in proceeding with agriculture, it is imperative
to have an outlook and stance that independence, mastery, and self-reliance are important, and that
reliance upon foreign aid is not important. For the time being, therefore, the important thing is relying
on our own labour power, and not on machinery. This was because, on the one hand, we don’t yet have
the know-how to make such machinery, and on the other hand, it consumes a lot of petrol, which our
country is not yet able to produce and which we must wholly import from abroad. Thus an agricultural
policy of relying on machinery would be unworkable or would compel us to rely upon requests for
foreign aid. However, the article clearly indicated that agriculture would move toward mechanization
in the future. Thus, so long as we carry out storming attacks and are able to produce a lot, we will
be able not only to sort out and improve the living standards of the people such that they will enjoy
sufficiency, plenty, and relief from difficulty, we will also be able to export abroad and then buy machinery.
In the meantime, however, it was imperative not to lie back and beg for foreign charity assistance.