This Manifesto was the attempt of C.C.P. leader Li Lisan to convene an All-China Soviet Congress. Shortly after this was published, Lisan was recalled to Moscow where his leadership was replaced by the ’28 Bolsheviks’ faction. The All-China Congress they called would be the actual first, meeting in November, 1931.

‘Manifesto of the First All-China Soviet Congress’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 10 No. 51. November 13, 1930.

Workers, Peasants and All Oppressed and Exploited Masses of China!

The great time of the revolution has come! To the fight for the Soviet Pover!

The bloody rule of the Kuomintang has existed for three years. It has done its lackey-work for imperialism. It is its confederate in exploiting and squeezing the workers and peasants. The position of power of the imperialists in China has become stronger and the country is becoming more and more a colony. The most bestial methods of oppression are employed against the resistance of the working and peasant masses. During these three years’ bloody rule of the Kuomintang the revolutionary masses have been slaughtered in hundreds and thousands by being shot, beheaded etc. The unbounded greed of the robber imperialists and of the Kuomintang generals to increase their political power and to extend their sphere of exploitation leads to uninterrupted wars of the generals. There is hardly a district of China which lies outside the field of battle. The tremendous economic crisis, the rising prices, the complete ruin of the peasant farms and the fact that large areas of land lie fallow are the results of this unending wars of the generals. Broad masses of the workers are being daily thrown onto the streets. Millions of peasants are delivered over to starvation. Innumerable soldiers are slaughtered amidst the thunder of the guns. Mountains of corpses are being piled up. The earth is drenched with blood. Apart from the tiny handful of military rulers, big landowners and capitalists who live lives of luxury from the sweat of the working masses, there is not a single person in China who is not most seriously affected by this scourge of war. Fellow workers and peasants! Can we suffer this any longer? Awake and recognise that only by annihilating this bloody rule, the rule of the imperialists and Kuomintang reaction, only by setting up your own power, the power of the Soviets, can we free ourselves from misery, poverty and starvation!

See, the time of the upheaval is approaching! The rule of Nanking is shaky. The camp of the Northern Government is disintegrating. The whole of the ruling class is approaching its end. It no longer finds any way to maintain its power. In Shanghai, Wuhan, in Tientsin, in Honkong, in all the important industrial districts of China, workers fights are flaring up. Everywhere political demonstrations, political strikes and armed collisions reveal the fighting determination of the working masses. The flames of the agrarian revolution are spreading over the whole country. In the most important parts of the provinces of Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi and Fukien the flag of the Soviet Power is waving. The Soviet districts in the provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Anhwei, Honan and even Chekiang are steadily growing. The revolutionary red workers and peasants’ army is taking up the fight against the military rulers. Everywhere victories are being achieved. In all localities the mutinying soldiers of the generals are joining the Soviet Revolution. The fight of the city poor against military service is increasing. The stormy wave of revolution is advancing! The hour of our emancipation has come! We cannot and will not remain still any longer under the whips of the Kuomintang generals, the landowners, capitalists and imperialists. Courageously and determinedly take your places in the fight for the Soviet Power!

Only the setting up of the Soviet Power can abolish the terrorist rule of the possessing classes! Only the victory of the Soviet Revolution can finally drive out the imperialists and destroy the regime of the militarists. Only the Soviet Power can free all the oppressed and exploited sections of the population and lead them along the path of socialism to the emancipation of the whole of humanity!

In spite of the campaign of suppression carried on by the imperialists and the Kuomintang and in spite of their blockade, in the Soviet districts the Soviet governments have thoroughly carried out the agrarian revolution and abolished the exploiting class. The poor peasants received land and the workers the eight-hour day. Wages have been increased. Woman has been freed from the age-long customs and barriers, and has obtained full social and economic equality. The newly set up peasants’ banks provide the peasants with capital, so that the former usurious loans have been done away with. Thousands of Lenin schools have been set up. Every child has the right and the opportunity to learn. In the Soviet districts the price of rice has been reduced to six dollars a “Dan”, as against 20 dollars a “Dan” in the districts where the Kuomintang rules. This shows the striking difference between the well-being of the population under the Soviet Power and their misery under the Kuomintang regime.

The first Soviet Congress of the whole of the Soviet districts was already held in May this year under the leadership of the C.P. of China and of the All-China Trade Union Federation. At this Congress the policy and the fighting tactics of the Soviet districts were decided on. Laws regarding land and labour were issued and the Programme of the Soviet government laid down. It was further decided to mobilise the whole of the workers and peasants and to fight against the wars of the generals by a revolutionary revolt. The capture of power in one or a number of provinces will hasten the victory of the Soviet Power in the whole of China.

The Presidium of the Soviet Congress of all Chinese Soviet districts, on the basis of the decisions of the Congress, has convened the first All-China Soviet Congress for 11th December, the anniversary of the Canton uprising, and appeals to the workers, peasants, soldiers and town poor to accelerate the preparations for this Congress by determined revolutionary fights. It was decided to form a “Central Preparatory Committee” consisting of representatives of the Communist Party, the All-China Trade Union Federation and delegates from the Soviet districts, the Red Army and other revolutionary organisations, in order to conduct the preparatory work on a national scale and to ensure the success of the All-China Soviet Congress. It is necessary to mobilise the broad masses of workers and peasants and, under the leadership of this Preparatory Committee, to exert all forces for this Soviet Congress. Organise mass meetings and demonstrations in every factory, in every workshop, in every residential district, in every village and every school. Everywhere elect delegates for the First All-China Soviet Congress!

Workers and Peasants! The success of the coming All-China Soviet Congress will undoubtedly open a new epoch in the Chinese Revolution. This Congress will pronounce the death sentence on the rule of the Kuomintang and the imperialists. The Chinese workers and peasants’ Soviet Republic will be born and will give a fresh impetus to the world revolution.

The advance-guard of the Chinese proletariat, the Communist Party of China, is the only leader of the Chinese revolution. It is necessary under its leadership to carry out the political strike up to the armed revolt, to surge forward to the fight against the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, for the realisation of the Soviet Congress up to the victory of Soviet China!

The whole of the counter-revolutionary front, the imperialists, the Kuomintang, the militarist rulers, the bourgeoisie and big landowners will of course seek with all means to prevent the success of the Soviet Congress. But we shall vanquish these criminals if our masses, numbering thousands and millions, now determine to take up the decisive fight.

We see the whole movement of the world revolution marching irresistibly forwards. The victorious advance of socialist construction in the Soviet Union, the intensified class struggles in the capitalist countries; the flaming revolts in the colonies, the determined fights of the Indian workers and. peasants against the English imperialists and against their own bourgeoisie, the armed insurrection of the revolutionary. masses in Indo-China against the yoke of French imperialism all these are our best allies. The firm alliance of the Chinese revolution with the world revolutionary movement will mean the doom of the rule of world imperialism.

The Reorganisationists, such as Wang Chin Wei, the Northern militarists, Yen Shi Sen, the liquidators, Chen Du-Hsu, who have realised the danger of the downfall of the ruling class and are aware of the impossibility of maintaining their power, have recently issued the slogan of the so-called “people’s meetings” in order to divert the broad masses of the workers from the revolutionary fight. Workers, peasants and all toiling sections of the population! So long as the ruling regime of the Kuomintang and of the imperialists is not overthrown, we shall remain exploited and oppressed in spite of any changes in the political form of this rule. Our position will become still worse. The “people’s meeting” is obviously only a new ruse of the ruling class. Only by the establishment of our own power, the power of the Soviets, can we achieve our real emancipation. Defeat the deceivers! Drive away the traitors! Up with the flag of the Soviets! Forward to the attack!

Workers! Only the setting up of the Soviet Power can bring the eight-hour day and abolish the inhuman exploitation by the capitalists! Prepare for the armed revolt, for the realisation of the Soviet Power!

Peasants! Only the establishment of the Soviet Power can give you land and bring about a final annihilation of the rule of the big landlords. Unite with the workers for the fight against imperialism and the Kuomintang and for the Soviet Power!

Soldiers! The militarist rulers are driving you to mutual slaughter in order to increase their power. Only by the setting up of the Soviet Power can you free yourselves from the wholesale slaughter and obtain land and work. Rise up! Turn your rifles against your officers and generals! Join the workers and peasants’ front for the fight for the Soviet Power!

All exploited and oppressed sections of the population and revolutionary students! Only the Soviet Power can abolish all the cruel oppression and exploitation and create real freedom! It is up to you also to join the revolutionary front for the victory of the Soviet Power!

The great revolution stands before us! The final victory is ours! Only by heroic, determined fight can we shake off the thousand-year-old slavery, and then this world will be ours!

Long live the All-China Soviet Congress of workers, peasants, soldiers and all the poor!

Long live the Chinese Soviet Republic of workers and peasants!

Long live the world revolution!

Presidium of the Soviet Congress of the Whole of the Soviet Districts of China.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecor’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecor, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. A major contributor to the Communist press in the U.S., Inprecor is an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1930/v10n51-nov-13-1930-Inprecor-op.pdf