ABSTRACT
In the North, the Communists observed two informal mutual labour patterns which were unlinked to the imperial administrative system and had therefore largely survived the degenerating effects of the Manchu decline and the civil wars. The first were the small groupings based on clan and kinship bonds between families, under which related families helped each other in cases of need. The other was a form of hired gangs of landless labourers, dominated by labour bosses and open to unscrupulous exploitation. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adopted the "Saturday shifts" and has maintained it to the present time. During the Yanan period the Communists evolved four novel patterns of labour utilization. During the last stage of the Civil War and in the years immediately following the assumption of power by the Communist party, i. e. the Period of Reconstruction and Stocktaking, the reforms tested in the Yanan days were extended to all China.
