Going to Work: Farmers’ “Collective Labor”

“Going to work,” or farmers’ “collective labor,” was the discourse expression used by Chinese farmers who engaged in agricultural production labor from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s. Its emergence had a direct relationship with the construction and nationalization of the “collective.” The nationalization process of the “collective” was manifested as two processes of separation and unity, namely, the separation and unity of labor materials and the labor force and the separation and unity of labor ability and laborers. The result was the nationalization of the object of labor, the nationalization of laborers, and the nationalization of labor. In the process of the state authorizing collective organizations to organize farmers’ labor, a set of management norms for production labor was established. Under the guidance of these norms, the production team was the basic labor unit, and the responsibility of organizing farmers to work together was borne by the team leader. The article describes the performance of farmers in “going to work.” Based on this, the historical contribution of farmers “going to work” is explored.