The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 23, 1927, Page 12

The Position of the Chinese Revolution (Continued from page 4) worst executioner; in this way it is becoming (and this overbalances everything else), the worst and most murderous counter-revolution, This however is just the concrete personification of the question as to the two paths open to the class forces and the fight between them. The first path is that of a Liberal compromising solution of the question, a union of China on the basis of a “per- manent” bourgeois order of justice under an eco- nomic protectorate of imperialism (with correpsond- ing concessions on the part of the latter) and of a compromise with the feudalists within the country. The second way of solving the question is that of a “plebeian” solution of the tasks of the democratic revolution, of a decisive extermination of all rem- nants of feudality, a decisive fight against imperial- ism, the dictatorship of the workingclass and the peasantry, the prospect of following a socialist path. Or, in other words, a fight for the hegemony in the bourgeois democratic revolution between the’ work- ingclass and. the Liberal bourgeoisie. This struggle for the hegemony, or, which amounts to the same thing, the struggte between the liberal and the ple- beian line of development of the Chinese revolution, is the very grist of the present class conflicts. The more dangerous the situation is at persent, the more energetically must the third camp be sup- ported, the more completely must the masses of workers, peasants and petty bourgeois be mobilized. The ”plebs” must be organized and put on its feet in this great historic battle against the forces of imperialism, of the feudal and bourgeois counter- revolution, who all together, “on parallel lines” are shooting and executing the workers and peasants, setting on fire whole villages and workingclass dis- tricts, and who are howling in chorus against the Communist Party of the Chinese proletariat, against the agrarian revolution, against the “terror” of the workingclass. It is obvious that the policy of the Communist In- - ternational is to mobilize the masses to let loose the agrarian revolution, to unchain the labor move- ment, to fight to the death against traitors and renegades. One of the chief slogans must be: “Workers and peasants, trust in your own forces alone! Do not trust the generals and officers! Or- ganize your armed troops!” The fight is develop- ing now along all the lines; very clear thinking is demanded. It is necessary to reject with great ten- acity all attempts to come to an understanding on the part of the semi-agents of Chiang Kai-shek and Feng. It is imperative to steer towards purging the leading section of the Kuomintang of these vacillat- ing elements. It is essential to consolidate the real “Jacobin” plebeian cadres which are capable of hold- ing out in the fight, in spite of all dangers and de- feats. Feng has gone over to the camp of the opponents of the people’s revolution; we must de- clare merciless war on him. It would be absurdly naive to imagine that the Communists, the wokers and peasants, are now under an obligation to pursue tactics of compromises with Feng & Co. Such tactics could only be based on an attitude of absolute abandoment of the agrarian revolution and of the fight for the plebeian way of Chinese development. There is however no reason to adopt such an at- titude. Even supposing that Wuhan were to be surrounded by the enemy and to fall, the struggle would have to go on in another form. It is by no means an easy task to effect a military occupation of the whole of China, the China of the people of the workers and peasants. The desperate forms What the Geneva Conference Is Worried About. which the fight is taking are proved by the very fact that more than 3,000 peasants were murdered in the province of Hupeh in the months of May and June; the troops of the landowners have murdered about 2,000 functionartes of the Peasant Union in the territory of the National government. However furiously the rabble of officers and nobles may rage, even large armies cannot occupy vast territories in which the flame of the peasant revolt will inevitably flare up. The objective tasks which the revolution has set itself, will not be promoted an iota by the shooting of hundreds or thousands, nay, of tens of thousands of peasants. The Liberal coun- ter-revolutionaries are not capable of finding even a half-solution to the peasant question, the agrarian question, and this fact leads them on to an inevit- able defeat, however great may be the partial vic- ge they carry off against the revolutionary peo- ple. The following fact necessarily belongs to the pic- ture; the more desperate the fight of the bourgeoisie against the masses of the people becomes, the sooner will the bourgeoisie throw itself into the arms of the imperialists and implore them for help. The more rapidly, on the other hand the bourgeoisie squanders the remains of its political capital, the faster it will rush towards its defeat, the more rapidly will it become evident that a consistent na- tional fight for freedom in China can only be waged against the bourgeoisie. Another question may arise, that of the policy of ‘the Soviet State. The question may be asked: Is it essential that the Soviet State should renounce all connections with the Nanking government? This question must of course be answered in the negative. None but the poorest politicians and ex- tremely “naive” persons imagine that the nature’ of the proletarian state is such that it has absolutely no connections with capitalist milieu. Certain rela- tions are indeed desirable. No reasonable person has suggested “abolishing” completely the institutions of Soviet diplomacy and the foreign minister for the sake of the so-called “purity” of our principles. If however this Soviet state has its representatives in the bourgeois countries of the west and east, if it maintains relations with the feudal state of Marshall Chang Tso-lin, if it has its representatives in the fascist “paradise” of Signor Mussolini, there can be no reason why it should forego relations with the Nanking government. These customary forms of connections should be kept up. : Still more! If Soviet diplomacy is obliged to take into account the relative contradiction of interests of the imperialist powers in certain directions, it is all the more bound to take into consideration the antagonism between the Liberal claimants to the unity of China and their imperialist partners, both of whom, it is true, plunder China without regard to the “form of government.” : The practical distinction between the Comintern and the Soviet government is so absolutely clear in this respect, and we believe we have explained it in so popular a way, that even Chamberlain could understand it. In its diplomatic and trade relations the proletarian.state refuses to be guided in any way by the point of view that it should “approve of” the policy of the capitalists or the feudal exploiters. The Communist International however conducts neither diplomatic nor trade relations with “other | powers.” It directly organizes the revolution. Let us return to the question of the policy of the Comintern. Our violent opposition who all the time has been “indignant” and “enraged” and has protested against the slogan of secession from the Kuomintang being unjustly attributed to them, now openly declares that it demands this secession. The question is why? Is it possibly because those at the head of the Kuomintang vacillate?. And the mass of the members of the Kuomintang—is that of no account? Since when has the attitude towards a& mass organization been determined by what hap- pens at its very “summit”? All the forces of the Liberal counter-revolution are at the present moment concentrated on driving the Communists out of the Kuomintang and on sur- rounding them. All the forces of the counter-revolu- tion are piping to the same tune. It is a well-known fact that the influence of the Communist Party in the Kuomintang is steadily growing. It is a matter of common knowledge that the inferior organizations of the Kuomintang, especially the worker and peas- ant organizations, are under the leadership of the Communists. It is known that the very reason why Chiang Kai-shek and his clique fight against Wuhan is that they regard the left Kuomintang as an “agency” of the Communists. Finally, it is well- known that the slogan of the. arrest and execution of Borodin, the slogan of the removal of the Com- munists from the Wuhan government and from the C. C. ef the Kuomintang are Chiang Kai-shek’s slo- gans. And at a time like this it is suggested that we ourselves fulfil the wishes of these gentlemen from the “revolutionary” standpoint! We must not let ourselves in for such tactics. We must strengthen still more our work in the Kuo- mintang, must cleanse it from the bourgeois ele- ments and the renegades of every species. To secede voluntarily, however, just when the bloc of our opponents demands it, would indeed be strange tac- tics. At the conference between Chiang Kai-shek and Feng when they met at Sui Chou, a platform about on the following lines was passed: 1—Wuhan shall acknowledge its “mistakes.” 2,.—The Communists shall be excluded from the Kuomintang. 3.—Borodin shall be dismissed. 4—The “high contracting parties” shall or- ganize a campaign in common against Peking. Chiang Kai-shek’s “informers” are prepared to accept this plan (Wan Chin-wei is not among them, he takes'a firmer stand than the others). Those who are in opposition to us however are steering straight for this “platform.” Instead of dealing in detail with such naivities we must see to it that our position in the Kuomintang is reinforced. We must maintain our position in the national government by throwing overboard and unmasking the “informers.” Whilst freeing our- selves from ballast and organizing the “real left’ from above we must fight round our banner. And if we do not succeed? If our opponent gains the upper hand at the present moment? This may happen. It is possible that the central government may, in certain circumstances, be disrupted by its internal dissensions and that it may be impossible to organize.a truly Jacobin “left.” But we must fight our way along such a path. We must fight still more valiantly for our positions in the Kuo- mintang, to maintain and consolidate them, when the overwhelming majority of its members are under the influence of the Communists. The Kuomintang will perish unless it follows the path of giving rein to the agrarian revolution. The Communist Party is not interested in that; it is interested in con- solidating its influence-in these organizations, in developing it rapidly and turning it into a powerful party with workers and peasants as its foundation, into an organ of the democratic plebeian revolution. This possibility exists, and it would be senseless to forego it now. Let the despairing sceptics croak over the success achieved by the traitors. The Marxists-Leninists know that the elementary forces of the Chinese re- volution which have been aroused cannot but break their way through to victory, however imposing be the obstacles placed in their way by the bourgeois counter-revolution, however many revolutionaries feudal reaction may execute, however huge be the guns with which the foreign troops of occupation fire on Chinese towns. KEVIN O’HIGGINS Hyenas wet this hangman’s grave With tears of lamentation, This grave that was not dug too soon For one who sold his nation. They buried him with martial pomp, His fellows in betrayal, These servants of the foreign Lord Whose treason stumps portrayal. At last the killer has been killed. Good riddance Irish tory. To you will go the palm of shame, But to your victims, glory. —ADOLF WOLFF.