The Great Leap Forward took two forms: a mass steel campaign, and the formation of the people's communes (人民公社, renmín gongshe). On the one hand, all the people in the country were organized to help produce the amount of steel that was needed to attain the goal of surpassing England. Life was militarized for this battle for steel.
Everywhere, small backyard furnaces were built, where everybody pitched in in around-the-clock shifts. Quota for the collection of used iron had to be met, cooking pots were smashed, door handles were melted down in order to meet the production demands. Only later it became clear that the quality of this mass-produced people's steel was so poor that no use could be found for it. The effects of this production battle proved to be disastrous for the environment. On the poster below, rows of such small backyard furnaces can be seen.