What would soon be called ‘ultra-left’, this call exemplifies the perspectives of C.C.P. leader Li Lisan, who assumed leadership of the Party after the debacle of 1927 and political fall of Chen Duxiu. This attempt to convene an All-China Soviet Congress was scuttled by Li’s recall to Moscow where his leadership was replaced by the ’28 Bolsheviks’ faction whose ‘Bolshevization’ of the C.C.P. would denounce these policies for as ‘ultra-left’ and contrary to the ‘national-democratic’ revolution China was then engaged in. The All-China Congress they called would be the actual first meeting, held in November, 1931.

‘The First Congress of Representatives of the Soviet Districts in China’ by L.I. from Communist International. Vol. 7 No. 5. May 1, 1930.

IN 1925-1927, when, for a certain period of time, the Chinese Communist Party entered a bloc with the Kuomintang, the Chinese communists, in spite of big opportunist mistakes on the part of the then party leadership, were able to penetrate in amongst the masses of workers and peasants and lay the foundations for an independent movement of these masses. When later the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-Shek and Wang-Chin-Wei, betrayed the cause of the anti-imperialist fight and became the leading counter-revolutionary force in China, the betrayal was first and foremost dictated by the fear of this independent movement of the Chinese masses. The temporarily victorious counter-revolution was faced with the problem, on the one hand, of deceiving the masses by promises of reforms in order to stop the further spreading of the revolutionary movement, and on the other hand, in self-preservation of tearing by the roots the movement which already existed and was led by the communists. And the Chinese counter-revolutionaries, in alliance with the imperialists, bent all their energies to this latter task. The toiling masses of China replied with stubborn resistance. The worker of the industrial centres–Canton, Shanghai, Hankow and other places–defended their trade unions and other revolutionary organisations with arms in hand. In their wake followed the peasant masses, who would not allow the peasant unions to be destroyed. The culminating point of this struggle was the rising of the Canton proletariat in December, 1927.

The temporary defeat of the toiling masses and the victory of the counter-revolution, whereby tens of thousands of revolutionaries were killed and their organisations smashed up, was bound to cause a temporary lull in the revolutionary camp. But there was not long to wait before new events happened. The Chinese C.P., under the guidance of the Communist International, after recognising the mistakes made during the participation in the united national-liberation movement of 1925-27, purged its ranks of counter-revolutionary elements, such as Tan-Ping-Siang and removed from the leadership incurable opportunists like Cheng Du-Siu. On the basis of the existing revolutionary mass movement, the Communist Party began the organisation of the workers and peasants under the new conditions, and in new forms. One of the big political and organizational achievements of this work is the First Congress of Representatives of the Soviet Districts of China, being convened this year. The very fact that this Congress is being held is an expression of the growing new wave of revolutionary feeling in China.

AFTER VICTORY OF COUNTER-REVOLUTION.

The Kuomintang counter-revolution, after its victory, did not solve one of the problems that confronted it. The liberation of China from foreign imperialism, and the unification of the country, still remain on paper. The agrarian problem, which is most vital for 99 per cent. of the Chinese people, is not solved. The living conditions of the Chinese peasantry, the overwhelming majority of whom consist of landless or land-hungry peasants, have not merely not improved, but have become worse. The position of the peasantry is made still more disastrous by the continual wars of the militarists, the robbery of the peasants by the feudal lords, the landowners, gentry, Tukhaos, and the Kuomintang. Last year, according to the assertions of the imperialist and Kuomintang press, 60 millions of the Chinese population were starving. But that figure embraces only that part of the starving population which in one way or another makes its starvation known (risings, mutinies, emigration, etc.). No true general statistics as to starvation are to be found anywhere, for the various militarists only state the quantity that suits them. On the basis of separate information from the various provinces, however, the sum total aimed at, starving and semi-starving combined, reaches 200,000,000. Already in 1928 the crop of rice was 50 per cent. below the normal, while in 1930, the harvest in certain provinces has decreased to 30 per cent. In the provinces of Shansi and Shensi a terrible famine is raging. In certain districts of these provinces 90 per cent. of the population had died from starvation. According to official statistics, 30,000,000 of the starving population are doomed to extinction.

Such a situation to an ever greater degree entangles the Chinese peasantry in a knot of contradictions, insoluble within the framework of the existing order. The economic pressure of the ruling classes upon the peasantry is increasing. The triumph of Chinese reaction has brought the peasants increased tax oppression, new supplementary levies, punitive expeditions, cruel repressions, starvation and death from famine.

All illusions as to the possibility of alleviating the agricultural crisis and improving the well-being of the peasant masses, while preserving power in the hands of the Chinese reaction, are now almost completely shattered. The sharpening of the conflicts between the main bulk of the peasantry and the exploiters sitting on their backs has furnished the prerequisites for a powerful new rise of the peasant movement. Already in 1928, after the reaction had been victorious for some months, peasant actions took place in various provinces. One of the biggest actions was the rising of Moslem peasants in April, 1928, in the province of Kansu. The fighting between these insurrectionary peasants and the punitive expeditions despatched against them lasted several months. Only at the end of October did the counter-revolutionary forces succeed in breaking the resistance of the rebels. These obdurate struggles of the Moslem peasants against the numerous and much better armed counter-revolutionary armies, shows their determination. But all these actions by separate villages, and even the heroic fight of the Moslem peasants were small affairs in comparison with the subsequent big peasant risings.

At the end of the first half of 1929, when militarist wars between the generals broke out anew,on the background of the growing political and economic crisis of the Chinese reaction; when the workers of the industrial centres (Shanghai, Hong-Kong, Tientsin, Tsin-Tao, etc.), having recovered from their temporary defeat, and led by the Chinese Communist Party, conducted numerous strikes, peasant risings started in a number of districts in the provinces of Fukien, Kwangtung, Kiangsi, Hunan and Hupeh.

ROLE OF RED ARMY DETACHMENTS.

The detachments of the Red Army, which had been preserved in these provinces after the revolutionary fights of 1927, played a tremendous role in organising the peasant risings. On the boundaries of the Fukien and Kwangtung provinces a detachment of Red Guards has been continually in operation, under Comrades Mao-Kie-Tung and Chu-De. For two years the Nanking reaction fought unsuccessfully against these detachments. It has equipped three expeditions against them. The fight of these detachments is a truly heroic epic: without cartridges, without money or food, they have fought an enemy overwhelmingly superior in numbers, hiding in the hills and staying there months on end, without ceasing their revolutionary work. In western Hunan and western Hupeh the detachments of Comrades Ho-Lung and Chau-I-Chung have been at work. Besides these forces, which derive their personnel mainly from the remnants of the revolutionary peasant armies of 1927 and from Canton proletarians, small detachments have also existed in various parts of those same provinces and in the province of Kiangsi. The detachments of Comrades. Moa, Chu, Ho and Chau have worked under the political guidance of the C.C. of the Chinese Communist Party of China. They include a big percentage of Party and Y.C.L. members. The political guidance of the C.C. of the C.P.C., the revolutionary consciousness and devotion to the revolutionary cause shown by the direct leaders, comrades Mao and the others, provide the guarantee that these detachments will fulfil their revolutionary duty, and at the time of the rising wave of insurrection will become the backbone of the future All-China Red Army. Of this kind is Comrade Mao-Kie-Tung, member of the C.C. of the C.P.C. for several years, who himself grew up among the peasants and knows the life, the needs, the customs and the psychology of the Chinese peasantry.

When in 1927 the majority of the then leadership of the C.P.C. became confused, and in spite of the directness of the Eighth Plenum of the E.C.C.I. made concessions in principle to the Kuomintangites, very often holding up the actions of the workers and peasants, Comrade Mao-Kie-Tung in his report after a tour of Hunan in January-February, 1927, wrote: “The peasants, with their strong organisation (many peasant unions existed then-L.) have begun to bring about the overthrow of the shady usurers, the gentry, the criminal landowners, the officials and bribe-takers, and the abolition of the existing stupid village customs, in other words–everything that has been perpetuated these last thousand years. All this has been smashed to atoms.” Further on in the same report, Mao wrote: “Their rough horny hands (the peasants–L.) have been laid heavily on the heads of the gentry. Every day these may be seen strongly bound with cords and being led through villages.”

How well Comrade Mao understood the peasant movement is seen from the same report: “The peasant movement constitutes a very serious and big question. Soon, hundreds of thousands of peasants will rise up throughout the whole of China: in the central parts of China and in the Southern and Northern provinces. This movement is developing like a storm. No force can stop it and suppress it. It will overthrow all the militarists, officials, grafters, gentry, cheating usurers, and bury them all in a dark grave.”

NOT “HORRIBLE” BUT EXCELLENT!

When the Kuomintangites inveighed against the peasant movement as being “horrible,” Comrade Mao not only did not give way before these counter-revolutionary howls, but said: “The rising of peasants in the hamlets and villages has spoiled the sweet dream of power of the town proprietors and their position has rapidly changed. When I had just arrived in Changsha they were talking about the rising at every street corner. From the middle and upper. classes of society and from the Kuomintangites I only heard one word: ‘Horrible.’ Even advanced people said: Although it is inevitable in a revolution, it is horrible.’ This little word ‘horrible’ in regard to the peasantry was on the lips of everyone, but what is the fact of the matter? The fact is that the peasants have awakened and achieved their goal. What Sun-Yat-Sen strove for during forty years, and what has not been done in a thousand years, has now been attained by the peasants. That is not horrible; it is excellent. The peasants are to receive seven parts of the fruits of the revolution and the urban population and the army–only three. “Horrible” is the slogan issued by the landowners in order to prevent the peasants from rising and to preserve the former order and the former situation. It is a counter-revolutionary word. Not a single revolutionary comrade should repeat such stupid things. Any true revolutionist who himself knows the situation in the countryside will undoubtedly experience a feeling of unprecedented joy. An innumerable multitude of slaves–peasants–are there overthrowing their man-eating enemies. The peasants are acting absolutely correctly.

Their acts are excellent. ‘Excellent’–that is the slogan of the peasants and the revolutionaries!’ Comrade Mao’s slogan “excellent” came from a profound understanding of the significance of the peasantry for the revolution. “The revolution is not a banquet, not a piece of poetry nor of embroidery; the revolution requires varying methods and a turbulent movement. One class overthrows another.

The revolution means at the same time that the peasant class overthrows the land-owning class. For this the peasants must resort to violence, otherwise they can achieve nothing. Responding to the criticism of the peasant movement on the part of the counter-revolutionaries, and foreseeing the treachery of the Kuomintangites, Comrade Mao replied: “All Kuomintang members and every Party will come before the judgment of the peasants and will either be chosen or turned down. To be their leader (the peasants–L.) or to become their enemy–such is the alternative facing every Chinese. Everyone is quite free to follow whichever path he chooses.”

Comrade Mao took the right course when the remnants of the present revolutionary armies and of the Canton proletariat were compelled to hide in the mountains in face of the pursuit by their class enemies. Comrade Mao retreated with these forces under the instructions of the C.C. of the C.P.C. In these mountains for two years, assisted by other comrades, he led these detachments, trained them politically and gave them military instructions. These detachments soon became the point of concentration around which all peasants pursued by the counter-revolution rallied. The detachments of Comrades Mao and Chu were the heralds of communist ideas in the neighbouring localities. The C.C. of the C.P.C. having at its disposition such true representatives of communism, was always able to feel the pulse of the rising movement in the countryside. The actions of Comrades Mao, Chu and others were always strictly coordinated with the instructions of the C.C. of the C.P.C. No complaints about difficulties; no special requests in consideration of “services,” or “capability,” no petty-bourgeoisie pretensions to substitute the Chinese C.P. and its C.C. by their own “I” were ever heard from these comrades. Tracked down by the imperialists, by the Kuomintang, by the feudal lords and by the landowners, by the whole pack of counter-revolutionary hounds, the peasants sought their defenders in these heroic Red detachments. Small in numbers, poorly armed, naked, half-starved and almost all ill from exhaustion, these Red heroes, on their own initiative, and often at the call of the peasants themselves, went to aid the peasants in their fight against counter-revolution. At every place occupied by the Red detachments, Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’ and Red Army delegates were formed. These soviets enacted the dividing up of the land and property of the wealthy. The eight-hour day was enforced and the remnants of feudalism abolished. Equal rights for women were introduced. All the poor sections of the population were given military training. Schools and clubs were opened. The trade unions and peas int unions were revived. Revolutionary newspapers were issued.

REVOLUTIONARY REVIVAL.

And, as we have already said above, at the end of the first half of 1929, in unison with the rising revolutionary movement in the towns, the revival of revolutionary risings in the villages also started. The leadership of the present movements taking place in localities adjacent to the areas where the Red detachments were operating, (the provinces of Fukien, Hunan, Hupeh, Kiangsi and Kwantung) passed into the hands of the communists. The C.C. of the C.P.C., taking this position into consideration, took up the following orientation in its political resolution at the Summer Plenum, 1929:

“After the defeat of the revolution in a number of provinces, the present movement has not died down, but in some provinces–Kwangsi, Kwang-tung, Hunan and Hupeh–has continued and still continues to develop; big areas exist there in which a soviet regime has been established, and a Red Army is operating there. The fact that the soviet regime is continuing to exist in these provinces, must be attributed to the growing revolutionary fight of the peasants.”

As a result of this, in June, 1929, the Party was already at the head of several soviet areas. This required that the Party should strengthen its leadership and influence. It was precisely for that reason that the Summer Plenum of the C.C. of the C.P.C. declared: “The Party must increase its propaganda still more in the soviet  districts, but it should not restrict itself to revolutionary slogans alone…In conducting propaganda in the soviet districts we must enlighten from all sides the weakness, the conservative nature and the local patriotism of the peasants; demand an improvement in their electoral representation, etc.; try to get the masses to understand the necessity for extending the struggle…and to develop mass activity. Here we must correct past errors, such as propaganda by orders or declarations, for that would confuse still more the views of the masses on the military-political regime. All propaganda work should be of a class nature, and should be linked up as much as possible with the everyday life of the masses, so that the masses themselves consciously accept the policy of the Party and fight for it with determination.” Here we see that in June, 1929, the C.P.C. was not only faced with the task of organising and leading the peasant risings, but also the problem of organising a revolutionary regime of the workers and peasants. There now arose the problem of transferring the movement to a higher plane, the problem of creating powerful soviet districts in China.

The developing revolutionary peasants’ movement, as expressed in armed risings, and in the establishment of a soviet regime, extended still more powerfully after the attack of the imperialists and militarists against the U.S.S.R. around the Chinese Eastern Railway. The same Plenum of the C.C. of the C.P.C. (June, 1929), discussing the raid on the Soviet Consulate at Harbin in May, 1929, stated in its manifesto to the toilers of China:

“The search at the Soviet Consulate Harbin, is a proof that the imperialists are taking further steps for an attack on the Soviet Union from the East.” “The Harbin affair is merely an initial provocation against the U.S.S.R.; the imperialists and the Kuomintang will not be content with that; they will conduct a more serious offensive against the Soviet Union, until, finally, a violent war against the U.S.S.R. will be started.” “A decisive crisis in the national liberation of China is approaching, and we must be ready to arm in order to support the Soviet Union. We must reply to the anti-soviet war by a revolutionary war.” The C.C. of the C.P.C., orientating itself on the rising revolutionary movement in the towns and villages of China, correctly estimated the position on the Eastern Railway question (“the imperialists and the Kuomintang will not be content with searching the Harbin Soviet Consulate”). It recognised that this was a “question of life and death for the national liberation of China,” and exerted all the strength of the Party to explain to the masses the meaning of the seizure of the railway by the militarists and imperialists. It did everything possible to get the masses to take part in strikes and demonstrations and to form Committees of Defence of the U.S.S.R., also calling upon the peasants to join the Red Army, in defence of the U.S.S.R. This Party manifesto met with a response from the workers of the industrial centres. On July 14th, and July 16th, workers’ demonstrations took place in several industrial centres, led by Shanghai. The demonstrations of August 1st and September 1st (Youth Day) were conducted under the slogan: Defend the U.S.S.R.! The Red Army, the stalwart supporter of the Communist Party in the countryside, built up of workers, poor peasants, and the sections of the urban population oppressed by the militarists, took the lead of the peasant risings organised by the C.P.C. Already in November-December, 1929, the partisan movement had reached in Fukien 16 out of 64 rural districts; in Kiangsi 40 out of 81 districts; in Hupeh, 30 out of 72; in Hunan, 40 out of 75; in Kwantung, 30 out of 94; in Honan, 7 out of 89. The total population of these districts is 60,000,000.

PEASANT ARMIES PENETRATING COUNTRY.

And now, even according to bourgeois press figures, we know that the insurrectionary peasants, supported by the Red Army detachments and led by communists, are penetrating into the heart of the country, occupying big towns like Lu-chow and Fuwan in the Kwangsi province, the town of Kanchow, with a population of 100,000, and the town of Nankow, a big centre in the southern part of the Kiangsi province. The imperialists and Chinese reactionaries are now talking of the fortunes of the counter-revolution against the insurrectionaries. The district of Luchow has already been attacked by four French aeroplanes, which dropped many bombs. It is characteristic that the imperialists and militarists have been compelled to write about the Red Army. The correspondent of the imperialist paper, North China Herald, writes from the Hupeh province: “The communists are trying to put an end to fortune-telling. Their leaders are not only prohibiting gambling games and opium-smoking, but also the smoking of tobacco. Robbery is not allowed. No oppression of those who obey the communist regime is permitted…Towns are usually taken by means of treachery (i.e., a revolt inside the town itself) or else by previously sending their own people into them, disguised in peasant clothes (agitators.–L.)…Women, as a rule, are not sent in. When a town or village is captured, attempts are made to destroy all merchants’ papers and accounts, and most important of all, all official papers and documents” (leases, peasants’ bills, lists of debtors, etc.–L.).

There is no doubt whatever that in the provinces of Kwangsi, Kwantung, Fukien, Kiangsi, Hunan, Hupeh, Szechwan and Honan, a soviet regime exists in a whole number of districts, guarded by a Red Army of 30,000 and many thousands of insurrectionary peasants. This is a great achievement on the part of the C.P.C. in the matter of developing the national liberation under its leadership. The C.P. of China is the unifying factor of the anti-imperialist revolution. It enters actively into the struggle, develops and organises partisan movements, takes the leadership of peasant risings, helps the peasants to establish a soviet regime, arms them and brings about the agrarian revolution. But at the same time, the C.P.C. and its leadership realise that the communists must not be transformed exclusively into a general staff of the partisan movement, for the peasant movement can only be successful on condition that decisive action is taken by the working-class in the industrial centres. The revolutionary disturbances taking place in the industrial centres provide a guarantee that the C.P.C. will be able to link the peasant movement up closely with the workers’ movement, that the movement will be developed along parallel lines in the towns and in the villages. But the C.P.C. also realises that the peasant risings, now set moving, will not remain in one place, that the soviet districts will extend more and more widely. The development of the soviet districts will call forth all the hatred of the imperialists and militarists. It must be reckoned that in spite of all the contradictions and the wars between the militarists, these latter will unite in the endeavour to wipe out the soviet districts.

THE CONGRESS.

That is why the C.P.C. and its leadership is faced with a task of first-rate importance to exert every effort to dominate the peasant movement, to link it up with the movement of the working-class, to make the fullest possible use of everything that is now taking place in China, in order to spread communist ideas. Only then will the militarist and imperialist counter-revolution, on attempting to destroy the soviet districts, encounter the adequate resistance of the toiling masses in town and village.

It is for this purpose that the coming First Congress of Representatives of the Soviet Districts of China is being convened. This Congress will be representative of all the soviet districts. There will be representatives of the workers’ trade unions and revolutionary organisations from all the industrial centres of China, and also representatives of the peasant unions. The Congress will help the C.P.C. and its leadership to utilise the tremendous experience of the direct participators in peasant rising, and the builders of soviet regimes in the localities. The draft programme for the work of this Congress, drawn up by a specially-convened conference of representatives of the most important soviet districts-with the participation of representatives of the C.P.C. and Red trade unions, embraces the following points:

I. GENERAL PROGRAMME OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENTS.

(1) Overthrow of the imperialists’ power; (2) confiscation of enterprises and banks belonging to foreign capitalists; (3) unification of China; right of self-determination for peoples; (4) overthrow of the government of Kuomintang militarists; (5) the formation of soviets of workers’, peasants’ and soldiers’ deputies; (6) putting into force of the eight-hour day, increased wages, aid to unemployed and social insurance; (7) confiscation of the landowners’ lands and their transfer to the peasantry; (8) improvement of living conditions of the soldiers; their provision with land and work; (9) abolition of all taxes introduced by the various militarists and rulers; introduction of a single tax; (10)

unity with the world proletariat and the U.S.S.R.

II. WORKERS’ LEGISLATION.

(1) Introduction of the eight-hour working day; increased wages; (2) introduction of workers’ insurance and unemployed benefits; (3) equal pay for equal work; holiday for working-class expectant mothers one month before and two months after child-birth, with payment of wages; (4) abolition of the “system of foremen”; (5) not more than six-hour working day for adolescents; not more than one year apprenticeship; abolition of loans to relatives of apprentices; payment of wages to apprentices; (6) abolition of dismissal of workers without trade union sanction; (7) organisation of workers, co-operatives; (8) confiscation of property of the reactionary bourgeoisie; organisation of workers’ and peasants’ banks; (9) holidays on Sundays and fete-days with retention of wages; (10) dispersal of the reactionary armed forces; formation of workers’ and peasants’ troops; (11) prohibition of money-lending at high rates.

III. AGRARIAN LAWS.

(1) Overthrow of the power of the gentry, landowners and old officials; disarming of counter-revolutionary detachments and arming of the peasantry; establishment of a regime of peasant deputies in the villages; (2) confiscation of property and land of the gentry and landowners, and their transfer to peasant soviets for redistribution among the propertyless and poor peasants; (3) transfer of the property and lands of the pagodas and temples, also of official, uncultivated, and uneconomical lands to the jurisdiction of peasant soviets for redistribution among the peasantry; (4) apportioning of a part of the state lands in the various provinces for settlement and colonisation, and for assignment to demobilised workers and peasants; (5) declaration of all loans and advances at high percentages to be invalid; (6) annulment of all exploiting land contracts; (7) withdrawal of all taxes introduced by the various militarists and local authorities; abolition of the system of arbitrary taxes; abolition of the likin; introduction of a single agricultural tax; (8) state aid to the peasantry (a) in land tillage, (b) in land improvement schemes, (c) in protection from pests and natural disasters, (d) in granting credits through peasant banks and co-operatives, (e) in resettlement schemes; (9) unification of the coinage and weights and measure systems; (10) afforestation and waterway improvements to be transferred to the soviet state.

IV. LEGISLATION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN.

(1) Equality of men and women, politically and economically; (2) abolition of the system of purchasing wives; freedom of marriage and divorce, with state registration; (3) prohibition of concubinage and the system of adopting girls as future wives.

The First Congress of representatives of the Soviet Districts of China will discuss this project in all its details; will put the programme on a concrete basis in accordance with conditions in the districts; will elect a Central Executive Committee for all the soviet districts and provide the toiling masses of China with a platform, on the basis of which, guided by the proletariat under the leadership of the C.P.C., these masses will carry on the revolutionary struggle for their liberation from the yoke of the imperialists and militarists and will establish the democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants in the form of soviets.

Long live the First Congress of Representatives of the Soviet Districts of China!

The ECCI published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 irregularly in German, French, Russian, and English. Restarting in 1927 until 1934. Unlike, Inprecorr, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecorr are 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/ci/vol-7/v07-n05-may-01-1930-CI-riaz-orig.pdf