In Part Two we described how the revolution began in 1925 with an explosion of strike activity and mass protests as a result of capitalist exploitation and imperialist oppression. This new high tide was prepared for by years of increasing proletarianisation and unionisation, victorious strikes, peasant land seizures and of course the experience of 1911. But the scope and militancy of the movement in 1925-6, strong enough to bring the workers to power in Shanghai and Guangzhou had the leadership been conscious of it, was breathtaking.

Guangzhou

May 30th Movement Propaganda PosterGuangzhou, probably the second most important economic hub of the country at that time, with amongst the highest concentration of workers, was immediately brought to its knees by a general strike that was the result of the May 30^th Movement. In colonial, oppressed nations even more than in the West, everything in society is dictated behind the scenes by powerful, distant interests. Handfuls of apparently omnipotent people decide the fate of millions. The monotony of this fact gives rise to an illusion whereby the mysterious forces dictating our lives appear utterly unquestionable and unshakable. But then at special moments, known as revolutions, all this is turned on its head when suddenly the one condition for the ruling class’ power, the acquiescence of the exploited majority, disappears and is replaced with its opposite.

How could an unknown, uneducated, impoverished Cantonese person possibly hope to exercise any sway over how their city was run, let alone his or her own life, especially when the city was really owned by the imperialists? And yet in June 1925 we see that it was precisely these “nobodies” who held decisive control over the city by bringing it to a halt. Thanks to their heroic determination and unity as a class, there was nothing even the British could do to stop them.

It is worth quoting Harold Isaacs at length on this unstoppable movement to convey the scope, strength and militancy of it, just in case there were any doubts as to the independence and class consciousness of the workers’ movement, without which the revolution would never have begun. In particular, note the level of organisation, discipline and maturity displayed by the workers in whose hands Hong Kong and Guangzhou lay,

“Incomplete statistics gathered by a Chinese labour investigator recorded 135 strikes arising directly out of the May 30^th shootings, involving nearly 400,000 workers from Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the south to Beijing in the north. At Hankou on June 11^th, a landing party of British sailors fired on a demonstration, killing eight and wounding twelve. In Guangzhou, Chinese seamen employed by British shipping companies walked out on June 18^th and three days later were joined by practically all the Chinese workers employed by foreign companies in Hong Kong and Shameen. On June 23^rd, a demonstration of students, workers, and military cadets paraded in Guangzhou. As they passed the Shakee Road Bridge, British and French machine gunners on the concession side of the creek opened fire on the marchers. Fifty two students and workers were killed and 117 wounded.

“A boycott of British goods and a general strike were immediately declared. Hong Kong, fortress of Britain in China, was totally immobilised. Not a wheel turned. Not a bale of cargo moved. Not a ship left anchorage...The strike halted all foreign commercial and industrial activity. It drew 250,000 workers out of all principal trades and industries in Hong Kong and Shameen. In Guangzhou workers cleaned out gambling and opium dens and converted them into strikers’ dormitories and kitchens. An army of 2,000 pickets was recruited from among the strikers and a solid barrier was thrown around Hong Kong and Shameen. The movement was, by all accounts, superbly organised. Every fifty strikers named a representative to a Strikers’ Delegates’ Conference, which in turn named thirteen men to serve as an executive committee. Under the auspices of this body, actually the first embryo of workers power in China, a hospital and seventeen schools for men and women workers and their children were established and maintained...A strikers’ court was set up which tried violators of the boycott and other offenders against the public order.” (Isaacs, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution)

This shows clearly that the embryo of a workers' state was being formed in China at this time. The workers were sending out a clear signal that this was their revolution. Unprompted by anyone else, they expressed a bold creativity, determination and fearlessness in the face of the mightiest military powers on earth, taking to the organs of workers' power, soviets (for that is what was being established), in an exemplary fashion. The Chinese working class was proving in action that it had not only learnt very quickly from the West, but that it was actually the most advanced proletariat in the world at the time.

“It is possible for constituent parts of society to hasten their retarded development by imitating the more advanced countries and, thanks to this, even take their stand in the forefront of development, because they are not burdened with the ballast of tradition which the older countries have to drag along.” (Kautsky, quoted in Trotsky, Results and Prospects)

Wang Fanxi, a direct participant in the movement at this time, describes the powerful effect it had on him,

“The strike committee of the Guangzhou-Hong Kong general strike...and its constituent bodies (the workers’ tribunals and militia, the huge strikers’ canteens, and so on), particularly impressed me. I had never seen anything of the sort before...On my second day in Guangzhou I looked across the creek to the British concession on the island of Shameen, where I saw all the doors and windows of the Western-style houses sealed and shuttered. There was not a sign of life, and in the open spaces between the houses the grass was growing knee-high. The effects of the strike were to be seen everywhere...I took part in lively mass meetings of the strikers. I remember vividly to this day the activities of the local strike-committee branches in Guangzhou. In each branch there was a long table covered with red cloth, and on the walls were the pictures of revolutionary leaders framed in red...I was amazed to see how knowledgeable and capable the Guangzhou workers were...the strike committee was in fact rivalling the authority of the National Government in a situation of dual power, and had even taken the law into its own hands. This was the first time I understood what the theory of the hegemony of the working class meant in practice.” (Wang Fanxi, Chinese Revolutionary)

The Straits Times, a mouthpiece of British Imperialism based in Singapore, reported a similar situation in Shanghai at exactly the same time, “June 4: Shanghai: no attacks on foreigners are reported today, but the strike is spreading. The newspapers report that roughly 100,000 men are out, chiefly coolies...Practically all the Chinese staffs of the Eastern and Great Northern Telegraph companies have joined the strike.” The CCP convened a General Council of Shanghai Trade Unions, whose call for a general strike was the cause of the above quoted actions. Thus Shanghai was also brought to a standstill.

As was the case in the Russian and countless other revolutions, this unplanned realisation of workers’ power was too sudden to be consolidated and transformed into a workers’ government. The vast majority of the country, i.e. the countryside, had not yet risen, was probably largely unaware of what was going on in the big urban centres, and was still under the control of the old state apparatus and landlords. The actions of the workers would inevitably inspire the peasants to their own insurrection, but not yet. Without a clear political programme of taking this power that lay in their hands and using it to complete the revolution, inevitably the political initiative was seized by the bourgeois Guomindang.

As has been mentioned in Part Two, the Guomindang had in 1924 taken power in the Guangdong area. The way in which they took this power is very instructive. Local feudal militarists had wanted to strike a deal with the Guomindang so that they could maintain the status quo in this strike afflicted region by wearing a “progressive” Guomindang mask. Instead pressure from workers and particularly peasants in the countryside provoked a struggle for power between the militarists and the Guomindang lead forces of the Whampoa Military Academy. The workers and peasants tipped the balance of forces for the Guomindang by actively sabotaging the militarists’ strategy. In other words a deal between the Guomindang leadership and the militarists over the heads of the masses was prevented by the mass forces of workers, peasants and rank and file officers, which combined on a class basis to sweep away the generals.

The Whampoa Academy

The Whampoa Academy was a military academy set up in 1924, which means it succeeded in driving out the forces of these two militarist generals in the very same year in which it was founded. Such military successes that appear to be against all the odds express a profound truth neglected by bourgeois historians and military strategists – that wars are fought for class interests, and in the wars between the classes, that class which represents the future has an enormous advantage despite often having technically inferior forces.

Whampoa academy, with Chiang Kai-Chek (uniform) and Sun Yat Sen (behind table)The Whampoa Academy had been planned by Sun Yat Sen and the Guomindang for years, with the aim of establishing a force with which to wage a war against the ruling warlords and to unite China into one modern republic, completing the failed aim of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. But of course, if one wants to wage a war, in a country the size of China, against numerous warlords, one requires substantial funds, access to military hardware and plenty of soldiers, who need to be fed and paid. In other words, an army must have an economic and social basis. The class character of the Guomindang is summed up in the fact that, despite announcing the ambitious plan to overthrow the old regime, to unify and modernise China, they were obliged to seek financial and political support for this scheme from the various Western imperialist powers – the very same people who had been making deals with the old regime, bombing the Chinese people on behalf of the old regime, and plundering the country’s resources. This may sound ridiculous, but if a party does not base itself on the power of the working class, where else is it to find a reliable and powerful source of finance and technology, if not from the ruling class? That support was sought for from abroad also shows that there was no up-and-coming Chinese moneyed-class prepared to bankroll such an adventure. Unsurprisingly, the imperialist powers rejected Sun’s pleas for aid.

When the Whampoa Academy finally was formed, it was not on the Guomindang’s initiative – they had by then given up on the idea. Instead the idea had to be resuscitated by the Comintern. Comintern representatives as well as Li Dazhao from the CCP eventually persuaded Sun Yat Sen to set the Academy up, by making him an offer he couldn’t refuse – the Soviet Union would bankroll the project, provide it with military advisers, and the members of the CCP would help the academy in various ways, all without the Guomindang having to surrender political and military leadership. Under pressure from the Comintern the CCP even obligated itself not to criticise Sun Yat Sen and his “Three Principles of the People”, a petty bourgeois theory of class collaboration.

In other words, the Comintern went out of its way to ensure the success of this military academy on the class basis of the power of the Chinese working class and peasantry and with money from the Russian workers’ state. And yet the Comintern unnecessarily abnegated control of this powerful force to an alien political party. This party had not wanted to create the academy unless it had the backing of the very same imperialism that had sent its armies to invade Russia only six years previously. This academy was to be essential for the later successes and dictatorial rule of the Guomindang over the CCP and the Chinese people.

The victory against the Yunnanese warlords was clearly assured by the enthusiastic participation of workers and peasants. In a classical bourgeois revolution, such as in Britain or France, the movement would not go much further than this military victory over the reactionaries. In both cases, the new found power of the bourgeoisie was later used to make a compromise with the nobility. But one year after the establishment of Guomindang power through the Whampoa Academy, a new, far higher phase of the revolution swamped the city and completely overtook the Guomindang regime. The spontaneous movement of the working class in 1925 shows that there was a direct struggle for power between the bourgeoisie and the working class, something that was impossible in Britain and France in 1640 and 1789 respectively.

Nevertheless, as we have stated, this situation of dual power in Guangzhou between the bourgeoisie and the working class could not be sustained. Lacking a political expression of their power, the working class could not consolidate it or become fully conscious of it, and inevitably the Guomindang reasserted control. This was especially easy for them, since the Comintern and CCP failed in its basic task of helping the workers to understand the necessary political lessons. The whole purpose of the Comintern should have been to impart the invaluable experience of the Russian Revolution to workers throughout the world, i.e. the lesson that the working class cannot ally with the bourgeoisie, since the latter has diametrically opposed interests. As Lenin said of Russia:

“Ours is a bourgeois revolution, therefore the workers must open the eyes of the people to the deception practised by the bourgeois politicians, teach them to put no faith in words, to depend entirely on their own strength, their own organisation, their own unity, and their own weapons.”

Instead of bringing the workers to consciousness of the fact that they had control of Guangzhou, did not need to rely on the Guomindang, and must not trust the Guomindang, the Comintern deliberately suppressed any consciousness of this.

The “Three Principles of the People” and the “Four Class Party”

Sun Yat SenAs a result, the Guomindang declared a new National Government in June 1925, although in reality it only had power in Guangdong. But thanks to the mass movement of workers and peasants in the province, which had consolidated the Guomindang’s power as against that of the militarists, the basis was now laid for the anti-warlord Guomindang led “Northern Expedition”, a march from Guangdong province in the far south up to Shanghai and ultimately Beijing in the North East. This would establish the national power of the Guomindang and its new leader Chiang Kai-shek 17 years after they had failed to do so in 1911. But it couldn’t have been done without the CCP.

Ever since the starting gun for the revolution had been fired by the working class and the Communist led trade unions, the strategy of the CCP should have been to win sections of the rank-and-file of the Guomindang (as well as non-aligned workers) to an open Communist programme. This could be done by fighting alongside and supporting the progressive steps that the Guomindang was obliged to take (such as taking power from the militarists in Guangzhou, or starting the Northern Expedition against Warlord rule), with the precondition that the CCP present itself as an independent party fighting for socialism. It could show in practice its commitment to the struggle for national independence, explaining that the best way to achieve this would be through mobilising the working class and peasantry to fight against the Warlords on a programme of land redistribution, etc.

Although seeking to work with and influence members of the Guomindang, the Communists should never have concluded from left statements by Guomindang leaders that the friendship with such a bourgeois party was guaranteed. As we explained in Part Two, the entire lesson of Bolshevism is the need for the class independence and discipline of the revolutionary party. Bourgeois parties, which in the era of the 20^th Century could not be revolutionary, are not like this. The leadership determines its policy through its ties with the bourgeoisie and imperialists. It can hardly tell this truth to its own membership (who are mostly petty bourgeois) let alone the general public. So it has to lie to its membership/voters and cannot permit them any real control over its policy. It is for this reason that bourgeois parties are more loosely organised at the rank and file level.

“'Lefts' predominate in conferences, congresses, and the Executive Committee of the Guomindang, but this solacing circumstance is 'not reflected in the composition and politics of the Nationalist government.' How astonishing! But, after all, the left petty bourgeoisie exists only to display its radicalism in articles, and at conferences and banquets, while handing the power over to the middle and big bourgeoisie.” (Trotsky, Class Relations in the Chinese Revolution)

Despite the sudden successes of the CCP, there is no doubt that the party was in 1925 too weak to engage the revolution without appealing to the Guomindang masses, who were indubitably against imperialism but did not understand that the leadership of their party was not sincerely so. The task for the CCP then was to help them to understand that,

“'And what about the Kuomintang masses, are they mere cattle?' Of course they are cattle. The masses of any bourgeois party are always cattle, although in different degrees. But for us, the masses are not cattle, are they? No, that is precisely why we are forbidden to drive them into the arms of the bourgeoisie, camouflaging the latter under the label of a workers’ and peasants’ party.” (Trotsky, The Third International After Lenin)

Naturally the Guomindang right wing was concerned from the start about its partnership with the CCP, which they never trusted no matter how many compromises it made, so the situation of dual power in Guangzhou must have set the alarm bells ringing in all the cliques at the top. “How can our respectable party have allowed itself to be associated with this dangerous riff-raff?” they must have thought.

Of course without a leadership able to present a programme to take the movement forwards, the strike wave abated. As we said, in Guangzhou it cemented the Guomindang’s power, a step forward at least, but in Shanghai, where the workers' movement was initially supported by some merchants (they predictably left the movement before the workers), the strike fizzled out with no party, neither CCP nor Guomindang, strong enough to take power.

Despite the stunning power and organisation of the pickets in Guangzhou, there was little change in social conditions under the newly consolidated Guomindang government. Much like the current situation in Egypt and Tunisia, the masses were effectively told to be patient and not to expect any immediate change in life by the very people who had ridden to power on the backs of the masses. Instead, they should place their trust in their new leaders to sort everything out in time,

“These forces [of popular struggle] had been primarily responsible for the victory of the Guomindang in Guangdong. Only by grace of them did the Guangzhou government exist at all, a fact which Chiang Kai-shek even publicly acknowledged. Yet the government was not required to respond in any concrete manner to the interests of the workers and peasants. A few minor tax burdens were eliminated. The rest was in the realm of promise.” (Isaacs, op cit., our emphasis)

There are moments in history which are like great ruptures after which everything is changed, when all the previous social alignments are rearranged. Those who appeared as great friends suddenly showed themselves to be mortal enemies. Following the tumultuous events of June 1925, it was recognised not only within the corridors of Guomindang power, but also amongst the hitherto anti-Western merchants, that the working class, its powerful unions and the CCP that led them were their mortal enemies who threatened their entire existence.

The guiding theory of the Guomindang, as espoused by Sun Yat Sen, was that of the “Three Principles of the People”, which was basically a utopian theory of bourgeois national unity and harmony, directly inspired by Western liberal democracy. Mirroring the thinking of the Chinese bourgeoisie, it was anti-imperialist and “socialist” only insofar as these things could be granted peacefully and under the smooth leadership of the merchants. It never asked serious questions as to which social class and in which way such a break with imperialism might take place. If it had asked these questions, it would have stumbled across the unfortunate fact that China’s national independence could only be achieved through a determined revolutionary struggle in which all the masses would have to be brought to their feet.

Whenever the workers and peasants moved against imperialism, it was condemned by the Guomindang for not involving all the classes of China and for breaking from harmonious Guomindang leadership – in other words, they detested the real face of revolution which they could not lead. “The peasants, workers, owners of businesses, and merchants – are all allies in the national revolution...The Guomindang is placing before itself the task of freeing from oppression not only the workers and peasants, but also the industrialists and merchants.” (Left Guomindang statement, May 25th 1927, Hankou, our emphasis). As Trotsky commented “this is precisely why the left Guomindang is demanding that the workers observe “revolutionary discipline” – with respect to the industrialists and merchants” (Trotsky, It is Time to Understand, Time to Reconsider, and Time to Make a Change).

Abandoning Marxism, Stalin announced that the Guomindang was a “Four Class Party” or “Bloc of Four Classes”, in which the working class, peasantry, urban petty bourgeois and “national bourgeois” were united in a common cause. Only the landlords and the compradore bourgeois were excluded, although exactly how a line was drawn between these two and the national bourgeoisie was unclear. This idea is utopian and marks the rapid decline in political leadership and theoretical analysis under Stalin. Less than ten years previously the Bolsheviks had taken power on the basis of a political leadership that understood that there could be no dual class leadership of the peasantry and the working class (let alone with the bourgeoisie) because the peasantry’s scattered and varied interests meant they could never play a leading political role. They will always follow the leadership of the workers or bourgeoisie. Any party of dual class leadership would in reality mean the subordination of clear working class leadership to that of the bourgeoisie.

Intra-Party Fissures

Of course the presence of irreconcilable class antagonisms within Chinese society was expressed in the fact that there was not one party of four classes, but two parties. And in each party a balance sheet was being drawn up for the mass working class led struggle in Guangzhou and the Guomindang government it had led to. On the surface, both the CCP and the Guomindang were in alliance, but these events had exposed the knife edge that these peaceful relations rested on. Whereas before the struggle broke out in Guangzhou and Shanghai, the class distinctions and balance of forces were unclear, allowing for the persistence of the illusion of a common struggle of all classes against imperialism, after these  epoch changing events, the class contradictions and social tensions were plain to see, and it was only a question of which class had the necessary social strength and political leadership to recognise that fact. Consequently, a growing awareness of the danger of the working class and the Communists sprung up within the Guomindang:

“Various organisations for ‘saving the party’ sprang up. Their members attached themselves to the entourages of the various local militarists in North China and Manchuria. They scurried between Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, organising, propagandising, intriguing, and conspiring. After Sun Yat Sen died, they raised the slogan of rescuing ‘pure’ Sun Yat Senism from the ‘Bolshevism’ of the epigones...these groups considered themselves the guardians of the policy of compromise with the powers. In practice, they played the role of keeping open the path to such a compromise until the time when it would become propitious.” (Isaacs, op cit.)

Thus the future policy of the Guomindang would be determined by the balance of class forces in the heat of the Chinese revolution – if the workers took too many “excesses” against private property as in Guangzhou, those advocating an alliance with imperialism to crush the workers would win out.

A mirror image of this unease at the alliance was also felt in the CCP throughout 1925-7. We have already shown how the party was initially opposed to the alliance with (or rather subordination to) the Guomindang, and could only be convinced to carry it out under severe Comintern pressure. Within the ranks of the CCP there was a mood analogous to that point in all revolutions when the vanguard begin to feel that, despite the initial successes and apparent power of the masses, the revolution is beginning to slip through their fingers due to a toothless leadership unprepared to take power. This is being felt by revolutionaries in Egypt and Tunisia as we write these lines. This is a feeling of extreme unease, confusion and helplessness in the face of the most unforgiving of tasks. It is summed up in the phrase “A mountain was in labour, sending forth dreadful groans, and there was in the region the highest expectation. After all, it brought forth a mouse.” Wang Fanxi describes the frustration and confusion this policy led to in the ranks of the CCP, a policy which was not only false but must also have fatally weakened the CCP by undermining the confidence of its membership in the leadership and purpose of the party:

“There were two things that worried me: the relations between the Communist Party and the Guomindang, and the general contempt for theory in the party. Among the revolutionaries actively working underground in Beijing at that time there was not a single real member of the Guomindang...None of the young students had any confidence in the Guomindang or even respected Sun Yat Sen...we found much of what we read in his lectures on ‘Three People’s Principles’ – nationalism,    democracy, and people’s livelihood – too laughable for words. Nevertheless we were forced to join the Guomindang..When I mentioned my reservations to leading comrades, they explained that this was necessary on account of the united front. ‘But there is no Guomindang to unite with’, I protested. ‘The whole thing is a farce.’” (Wang Fanxi, op cit.)

So in this uneasy stalemate between the classes, the party of the bourgeoisie and that of the working class were both experiencing a similar process of questioning, readjustment and sharpening of tools. However, whereas those opposed to the alliance in the Guomindang camp had not only great personal wealth and power but also the backing of the most powerful imperialist armies and economies on earth, their equivalents in the CCP, the real revolutionaries, were left utterly isolated throughout 1925-7, ignored by the Comintern and artificially deprived of the ability to reorientate the party through democratic discussion.

Tai Chi-tao, a leading member of the Guomindang, published a book titled “The Fundamentals of Sun Yat Senism” in July 1925, which was an attempt to draw a clear line of distinction between revolution and the Guomindang by stressing Sun Yat Sen’s traditional values, belief in property and “national interest” and attacking the role of the CCP and the notion of class struggle. This found a ready echo in sections of the party and the influential military leader of the Whampoa Academy in Guangzhou, Chiang Kai-shek. He organised the “Society for the study of Sun Yat Senism” amongst his military forces (which incorporated many CCP members) in the newly conquered territory in Guangdong. Its purpose was to combat the influence of the CCP. It is impossible to believe that amongst the hundreds and thousands of CCP members active in the Guomindang and under Chiang Kai-shek’s orders, none would have noticed these developments.

It is elementary for Marxists that the big bourgeoisie, the monopolists, tend always to dominate over the smaller bourgeoisie. The smaller bourgeoisie cannot effectively oppose the big bourgeoisie because on its own it is too weak – it lacks the money, political connections and control of the press, and above all it lacks social weight. The only way it can gain the latter is by appealing to the masses, but it will, as part of the capitalist class, only ever do so from within the confines of the bourgeoisie’s overall interest in maintaining capitalism. And in revolutionary situations, when the working masses are directly threatening capitalism, the smaller bourgeoisie’s room for manoeuvre is greatly diminished and they are reduced to tail-ending the big bourgeoisie, their opposition never being more than an empty pose.

Chiang Kai-shek, the general who held in his hands, unopposed by the communists, the armed bodies of men in revolutionary Guangzhou, and his ally Tai Chi-tao, quickly came to represent this layer of Guomindang rightists in their mission to re-establish ties with the big, compradore bourgeoisie and imperialists against the workers. Although this move was opposed by the Guomindang leftists (more so than by the CCP in fact!), what could they do to oppose it without mobilising the revolutionary masses?

Imperialism Steps in once again

Unless one takes the line that the Comintern was consciously sabotaging the revolution, which cannot be entirely ruled out, we must say that the imperialists displayed far greater intelligence, cunning and understanding of the class dynamics of Chinese society than the Comintern. We revolutionaries can ill afford light-mindedness and illusions.

No doubt thanks to their experience in managing colonial oppression, the more intelligent imperialists quickly understood what the outbreaks of mass strike action meant, and initiated a policy of rapprochement with the Chinese bourgeoisie, offering petty concessions to national sovereignty such as tariff autonomy. At the same time they played on the inevitable fears of the whole of the Chinese bourgeoisie, even the liberal, anti-imperialist sections, that the strikes were out of hand, threatened private property and represented foolish insolence on the part of the rabble, who would bring the whole of Chinese society down with them. And then the foreign and native big businessmen starved Shanghai and Guangzhou of supplies to let it be known that they too had economic and social might. They employed a “carrot and stick” tactic, where the carrot was dangled in front of the Chinese bourgeoisie, and with the stick the masses were given a good beating.

Trotsky very truthfully stated:

“It is a gross mistake to think that imperialism mechanically welds together all the classes of China from without... The revolutionary struggle against imperialism does not weaken, but rather strengthens the political differentiation of the classes... everything that brings the oppressed and exploited masses of the toilers to their feet inevitably pushes the national bourgeoisie into an open bloc with the imperialists. The class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the masses of workers and peasants is not weakened, but, on the contrary, it is sharpened by imperialist oppression, to the point of bloody civil war at every serious conflict.” (Trotsky, The Chinese Revolution and the Theses of Stalin).

Prior to these events one could be forgiven for thinking that this was not so. The imperialists managed to alienate the whole of Chinese society with their racism, cordoning off special areas of cities as “concessions” in which only rich westerners were permitted to move (except for their servants of course). Even the most illustrious of Chinese businessmen were denied entry to these gentlemen’s clubs.

But revolutions are good for bringing into sharp relief the real class relations. In this gravest of hours for imperialism, when these westerner only concessions were starved of resources and humiliated by the striking workers, the British, American and French suddenly forgot their racism. Eminent Chinese “gentlemen” were invited into a special meeting with the most powerful western businessmen on March 18^th, 1926 in precisely the concession area in Shanghai from which they were previously denied access. This was only two days before Chiang Kai-shek would violently seize power from the more established Guomindang leaders in Guangzhou. High praise and sickly sweet compliments were exchanged from both sides, an hour of dire need was declared, and a common interest in preventing any future nonsense from the working class agreed. Interestingly, the American chairman of the meeting stated that a fatal “extreme credulousness of the Chinese working classes” had been displayed, and that therefore this must be “taken advantage of for their good and ours.”

In other words, from this point onwards, the Chinese bourgeoisie gave up its superficial anti-Westernism, it had now achieved “the kind of social revolution they wanted” (Isaacs, ibid), and had become fully conscious, along with the imperialists, of the need to exploit the weak leadership of the working class and to use their influence and connections to control the Guomindang leadership. They were able to fool the workers thus only because the CCP was artificially shackled within the Guomindang, unable to present an alternative leadership.

The manoeuvrings within the Guomindang continued. Liao Zhongkai, finance minister for the government in Guangzhou and the CCPs closest ally in the Guomindang, was executed in  August 1925. As one of the most prominent Guomindang leaders and a representative of its far left, it is not hard to understand the significance of his murder, which resulted in the balance of forces shifting to the right in the top of the party. Hu Hanmin, a leading Guomindang right winger, was arrested for his murder, and shamefully Borodin, the Comintern representative in China, helped him escape punishment. Not only this, but he later was presented to the Comintern as a “sympathiser” and given a leading role in the “Krestintern”, the so-called international peasant union. This, along with many other facts, displays the extent to which the Comintern would fly in the face of the reality of the Chinese revolution in its desperate attempt to befriend the Chinese bourgeoisie.

This also raises certain questions of tactics. It would be false and one sided to say that the Guomindang, including its left wing, was one reactionary bloc. It is true that they were tied to the bourgeoisie, who were reactionary. But should communists who are only in the process of establishing a mass base in the working class, and in colonial countries which have not had a bourgeois revolution, adopt the same hostility toward bourgeois parties as in the West, where the national bourgeois is already firmly in control? One must recognise the continuing hold over the masses, still filled with illusions in the democratic bourgeoisie, that these parties have, especially in largely peasant countries where winning over the peasants is of the utmost importance to the working class.

In 1917 the Bolsheviks offered an alliance in government with the petty bourgeois Social Revolutionary Party (SR), or at least its left wing, and they adopted the SR’s land reform programme. This was absolutely correct in the circumstances, under the precondition that the Bolsheviks were clearly distinguished as a separate party of the working class. In certain circumstances it is tactically correct for communists to propagandise in favour of a revolutionary constituent assembly, that is a bourgeois parliament, so long as they explain its limitations and use it always to show the bourgeoisie’s real counter-revolutionary role by refusing to call such an assembly.

People such as Liao Zhongkai, as well as millions of ordinary Chinese who supported the Guomindang more passively, could have been won to the Communist cause provided the CCP were free to present an alternative leadership and to criticise the likes of Chiang Kai-shek. In the absence of this, such leaders either capitulated to the Guomindang right wing or were simply killed.