The Rise of the Youth in the War of Resistance

1927 8 Month 7 Day.

An emergency meeting held in Hankou, Hubei.

The meeting was attended by:

21 people including Li Weihan, Qu Qiubai, Zhang Tailei, Deng Zhongxia, Ren Bishi, Gu Shunzhang, Cai Hesen, Mao Zedong, Lu Dingyi, and Wang Yifei.

Also attending the meeting was Deng Xiaoping, director of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China.

The Communist International representative, Romy, and two comrades from the White Bear Country also attended the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by Li Weihan.

He first introduced:

"I have sent out many invitations for this meeting, but many people have not yet arrived. Since less than half of the Central Committee members are present, we can only hold an emergency meeting.

The meeting has three agenda items:

1. Reports by representatives of the Communist International;

2. Representatives of the Central Standing Committee will deliver reports;

3. Re-elect the Central Political Bureau.

……

Now the first item of the meeting begins.”

The representative of the Communist International, Rommel, made a report on the party’s past mistakes and new line.

In his report, he pointed out the importance and urgency of convening an emergency meeting of the Central Committee, as well as the issues to be resolved at this meeting.

Then, he made a speech on the main contents of the draft "Letter from the Central Executive Committee of the Longguo Rabbit Party to All Party Members".

First, he divided the situations of various classes in China and said that only the proletariat could lead the Chinese revolution.

The peasants of Longguo can achieve their own liberation only under the leadership of the proletariat.

If the Party had provided correct leadership to the peasants in the past, had not made concessions to the skinheads on the peasant issue, had not stopped the peasant movement, and had upheld the independence of the Party, the revolution would not have failed.

It was not until the August 1st Nanchang Uprising that the revolution in Longguo began to take a decisive turn for the better.

He also criticized the leaders of the Longguo Communist Party for their mistake of giving up the party's leadership in the united front.

At the same time, he believes that he should not quit the skinhead party yet.

Li Weihan said:

“The Standing Committee has accepted the report, and now we invite everyone to discuss it.

 …”

Mao Zedong, Deng Zhongxia, Cai Hesen, Peng Gongda, Luo Yinong, Ren Bishi, Li Zifen and Qu Qiubai all made speeches.

The speeches mainly focused on the following three issues:

1. On the issue of the opportunist line within the united front.

Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, and Ren Bishi believed that:

"In the past, the Party only focused on a few leading figures at the top on the issue of the united front, while neglecting the broad masses of workers and peasants. This caused the Party to lose its mass base."

Deng Zhongxia said:

"Yes, in the past many comrades felt that the Central Committee's guidance was not good. Now, looking at the facts, it is even more clear that opportunism did not just start today but has long been a thing. Now, with the intensification of class struggle, it is manifesting itself even more clearly."

Luo Yinong believes:

“Before the Fifth Congress, the Party overestimated the big bourgeoisie.

At the Fifth Congress, the petty bourgeoisie was overestimated, and therefore the skinheads were overestimated."

Deng Zhongxia said:

“In the past, even landlords, compradors, and warlords like Tan Yankai, Tang Shengzhi, and Sun Ke were considered petty bourgeoisie.

In short, due to errors in class assessment and class analysis, this inevitably led to errors in the Central Committee's guiding line in the past."

Cai Hesen, Deng Zhongxia, Ren Bishi and others also criticized Chen Duxiu's feudal patriarchal style and demanded that Chen Duxiu be removed from his leadership position.

The international representative made a summary speech, talking about the revolutionary situation and the nature of the revolution.

A vote was then held, and the "Letter from the Central Executive Committee of the Longguo Rabbit Party to All Party Members" was unanimously passed.

The "Letter to All Party Members" emphasized:

"The revolutionary party of the working class can correct its own mistakes only by openly criticizing these mistakes and by involving all members in this criticism.

The proletarian party is not afraid to openly admit its mistakes.

If communists cannot criticize the party's mistakes, negligence and shortcomings without fear or reservation, then communists are finished.

Our Party openly acknowledges and corrects its mistakes, without ambiguity or concealment. This is not a sign of weakness, but rather a testament to the strength of the Communist movement in Longguo...

We are the most advanced class, the vanguard of the proletariat, able to learn from our mistakes, fearlessly disclose our errors, and possess the strength to resolutely correct them."

……

2. On the issue of farmers and land.

In response to this issue, Mao Zedong criticized the central government's past mistakes of opposing the peasant movement based on his own personal experience.

他 说:

“…The peasants want revolution, and the party close to the peasants also wants revolution, but the situation is different for the upper-level party organizations.

I once made a report on my opinions in Hunan and also made a report to the Central Committee, but this report had an impact in Hunan but had no effect on the Central Committee.

The masses inside and outside the Party want revolution, but the Party leaders are not revolutionary..."

Cai Hesen said:

“…The Fifth Congress focused on the land revolution and adopted very good resolutions, but the Central Committee after the Congress did not implement them and instead adopted an attitude of suppressing the peasant movement…”

Ren Bishi said:

"...In my opinion, the Party currently lacks the resolve to launch a land revolution. Since ancient times, revolution has always been based on land... Therefore, I have come up with a theory: if we want to inspire the peasants to revolutionize, we must start with the land, returning the land that belongs to them to them. Agrarian revolution is a very long process..."

Deng Xiaoping stopped him and said:

"The Land Revolution has been written into the Action Program..."

The second item on the agenda of the meeting was a report by Qu Qiubai on behalf of the Central Standing Committee.

The report states:

The main thing now is to create new forces from the land revolution, and our army is entirely in aid of the land revolution.

The peasants are demanding an uprising, and there are many armed forces in various places. With such a good opportunity and so much power, we must ignite the fire of the outbreak and bring about a land revolution.

The report proposes three strategic principles for future work:

First, we must strive for leadership with the bourgeoisie and expose the false mask of the Wang Jingwei faction's democracy movement.

Second, we must pay attention to the masses and unite with the real left;

Third, organize a temporary revolutionary government during the revolution.

At the end of the report, it was also suggested that attention should be paid to uniting the skinhead revolutionary left and strengthening work among the army and soldiers.

3. On military work and armed struggle.

In his speech, Mao Zedong criticized Chen Duxiu's mistake of not doing military work and for the first time put forward the idea that political power comes from the barrel of a gun.

他 说:

"Chiang Kai-shek and Tang Sheng-chih both rose to power with guns, but we are the only one who does nothing about it. We have been noticed, but we still don't have a firm idea.

For example, the Autumn Harvest Uprising had to rely on the army. This meeting should pay attention to this issue, and the Standing Committee of the new Political Bureau should be more determined to pay attention to this issue.

The failure in Hunan this time was entirely due to subjective errors. We must pay close attention to military affairs in the future. We must remember that political power is obtained through the barrel of a gun."

Luo Yinong said:

"In the past, the Party paid no attention to the armed forces used to seize power. In both Shanghai and Hunan, the process was abandoned halfway. This was a serious mistake."

Due to the white terror and the urgent situation, the meeting ended successfully after only one day.

…………

On August 8, the Provisional Central Political Bureau held its first meeting and elected Qu Qiubai, Li Weihan and Su Zhaozheng as members of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau.

The division of labor in the Politburo was discussed, and it was decided that Li Weihan would be the Minister of the Central Organization Department and concurrently in charge of the Central Secretariat; Qu Qiubai would be the Minister of the Central Propaganda Department, Director of the Agricultural Committee and Editor-in-Chief of the Party newspaper; Su Zhaozheng would be the Director of the Central Workers' Movement Committee; Zhou Enlai would be the Minister of the Central Military Affairs Department, with his secretary Wang Yifei acting as the director of the department; Yang Zhihua would be the Minister of the Central Women's Department; Gu Shunzhang would be the Director of the Central Transportation Bureau; and Zheng Chaolin would be temporarily in charge of the Central Publishing Bureau.

The meeting also decided that Wang Hebo would be the secretary of the Northern Bureau and Cai Hesen would be the secretary; Zhang Tailei would be the secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee; and Mao Zedong would go to Hunan to lead the Autumn Harvest Uprising.

.........