The Study Of The Change Of Workers' Number In Lanzhou Refinery (LR) And Lanzhou Chemical Plant (LCP) (1958-1962)

During the Great Leap Forward movement and the following years,the number of workers and the urban population of China fluctuated dramatically.To deal with the problem of industrial labor shortage brought by the Great Leap Forward movement,the government released the strict control of workforce recruitment in urban district,where later thousands of farmers flew into.However,when the food problem became serious,a large number of workers were sent back to the rural areas because of the strict rustication policy issued by the administatraion.Exposed to this situation,Lanzhou Refinery(LR)and Lanzhou Chemical Plant(LCP),two largest state-owned factories in this region,were barely affected by the Rustication movement.Actually,the number of LR's workers even increased.This special phenomenon reflected the complexity of carrying out the rustication policy in the early 1960 s.On one hand,the government wanted to solve the food crisis by decreasing the urban population;on the other hand,the major state-owned factories needed to ensure sufficient labors to maintain its normal operation.As LR and LCP are factories which central government efforts to ensure at that time,after the game of the relevant departments and the efforts of the party committees of the two factories,LR and LCP finally through the lower proportion of the reduction of Gansu province's staff streamlining,successfully saved a relatively complete workforce.