The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 23, 1927, Page 8

The Position of the Chinese Revolution EDITOR’S NOTE: Since the following ar- ticle by Bucharin was written, the Wuhan gov- ernment has_gone over completely to the counter- revolution and is following the anti-labor tactics of Chiang Kai-shek. China is today the greatest laboratory of the class struggle in the world and the developments there cannot be given teo much attention. Only by reading analyses such as this can the average worker understand from the disjointed and misleading news—most of it manufactured—ihat appears in the capitalist press, what is actually taking place in China. 4 * + HE Chinese revolution is in the most difficult stage of its development. The armed forces of ie national bourgeoisie are combining more and mére, are carrying away with them sections of the Wuhan army and are directing their spearhead against the mass movement of the lower social strata, against the workers and peasants, against the “plebeians” who have been roused by the great agrarian. revolution and are storming against the “enlightened” intriguing politicians of the possess- ing classes in town and country. Behind the chequer- ed curtain of political groupings, of personal con- flicts, of combinations of generals, behind the screen of military and official diplomacy, behind the con- fusion of solemn declarations and equally solemn execution parades, of insinuating gossip about the “three principles” and the throttling of revolution- aries. of “Chinese ceremonies” and orders of éxecu- tion, behind the chequered and manifold mixture it is easy to see how the sword of the wildest class-war is being drawn, behind all this a desperate class struggle can be clearly seen, about the elementary forces of which some are not yet clear. The block between Feng Yu Hsiang and Chiang Kai-shek is giving expressicn to a great differen- tiation of the class forces in the country. The spe- cial peculiarity of the situation is that the three social class camps (roughly speaking) have three organized national centres. It is true that rash en- quirers of the type of Comrade Radek (“All the worse for the facts!”) have denied the existence of feudalism in China. These comrades have indeed built up their conclusions on the basis of this “analy- sis,” and Radek’s colleagues in the opposition have not wasted any words on this error. (This is called an “honest Marxist investigation!”). Nevertheless facts remain facts. The camp of the Northern army with Chang Tso-lin at its head is the camp of feudal reaction. This camp is entirely in the service of the imperialists and thinks of no “reforms” but the one, that of founding a new dynasty by crowning the “Marshall.” At the present moment. this camp is obviously approaching its downfall. The second camp is the camp of the Liberal bour- geois counter-revolution. It is characteristic of the present moment that this second camp, at the present stage of develop- ment of Chinese events represents for the present a victorious force and holds a very special place in the class-war. The class foundations of the revolutions of the generals against the people has been sufficiently elucidated; this class foundation is the going over of the Liberal bourgeoisie into the counter-revolu- tionary camp. Here we must add however that the agrarian revolution of the Chinese peasantry with its tempestuous rise, which dealt a destructive blow at the Liberal bourgeoisie and caused it to’fly into a furious rage, must also be apprehended in its spe- cifically Chinese pecularity. Whereas in Russia the seizure of the land at first united almost all the strata of the peasantry against the landowners and ranged the whole mass of this peasantry against our Russian “landlords,” a class between which and the peasantry there is a shar dividing line, in the Chinese village, where the land is too limited, where also there are but few large landed proprietors and very many small landowners who are interwoven with the Kulak elements, the class-war takes much more desperate forms, The strata against which the agrarian revolution is fighting are very much larger and thus come into contact with the urban Liberal bourgeoisie over a much wider surface, The class differentiation was responsible for the overthrow of Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek was responsible for the treachery of Feng. Feng, on his part will cause the treachery of other gen- erals. This is a source of very serious danger to Wuhan. Chiang Kai-shek plusFeng, plus other gen- erals, plus (possibly left) “Mukdeners”—this is the military aspect of the bourgeois block. This block is at present the strongest among the camps which are at war. It forces will inevitably continue to grow in the immediate future. We must weigh the situation quite without preju- dice; it would be a short-sighted policy to underes- timate the strength of our opponent who is already taking his stand as executioner of the workers and peasants. The strength of this liberal-counter-revolutionary camp consits firstly in the numerical superiority of its armed forees and secondly in its political po- sition as compared with the political situation of the feudal camp. We have written several times that the bourgeois camp is already shooting workers and peasants but that it has not yet amalgamated with feudal reac- By N. BUCHARIN tion and imperialism. It has a tendency to amalga- mate with that camp. The mare this camp is threat- ened by the revolts of the workers and peasants the more clearly will this tendency come to the fore. For the moment hdwever an amalgaygation has not taken place. It still possesses a certain in- dependence and a still greater apparent independ- ence, and that ensures it a still greater political force in the country. This fact is most clearly evidenced by the program announced by the leaders of the bourgeois counter- revolution—as far as its “ideology” is concerned— and by its battles against Mukden as far as the “facts” of the civil war are concerned. The tenth thesis of Chiang Kai-shek’s declaration (of the “Program of Action” of the Nanking gov- ernment) runs: “Three paths lie open before China: 1—Subjugation to militarism and imperialism. 2—To follow the path of Communism. 2—To carry out in reality the three prin- ciples of the Kuomintang and to create a strong government.” z : The Liberals are turning this point of view to account most cleverly. They pose as genuine libera- tors of China and contrast themselves with the Communists, whom they treat as agents of the “Russian state,” using for this purpose all the lies of Poincaré, Chamberlain and the “international” social-democrats, A paragraph of the fourth thesis of the declaration referred to formulates the stand- point in a very cunning and perfidious way though at the same time, viewed from the standpoint of stupefying the masses, in an extremely clever way, in the following words: “The Kuomintang (needless to say the right clique of Chiang Kai-shek, N. B.) holds to the standpoint of the right of self-determination of the peoples and of joining the world revolu- tion (do not make jokes! N. B.) on the basis of equality between the nations, whereas the Communists kow-tow to the manipulations of Russia.” The masses will of course, from day to day, see the mendacity of these Statements more clearly. This lie is contradicted and will be contradicted by the language of steel and iron spoken by the execu- tions. This language is being used more and more frequently by the Liberal “liberators” towards the Chinese workers and peasants. This lie will be con- tradicted by the reprisals employed by these strange adherents of the “world revolution” against the agrarian movement and against the majority of the Chinese nation. In the end moreover this lie will not be helped by the shameful speeches of our opposition which, in a criminal way, calumniates the policy of our Party representing it as a policy ~ the sieve of heavy trials, which is “nationally restricted” or as the incorpora- tion of “national conservatism” and which are grist to the mill of the declared enemies of the revolu- tionary help of the Soviet Union (that is, if the opposition is right in this question, for then Chiang Kai-shek must be right with his clamor about “Rus- sia’s manipulations”). Nevertheless we must ack- nowledge that the combination of a real fight against the North and of the exploitation of the traditions of the national fight for freedom represent definite political capital which for the time being still bears political interest. For the moment we will not concern ourselves with the other points of the Nanking “program” which are based on a clever exploitation of the unemploy- ment in Wuhan (whence the capitalists have fled, having stopped the work in their factories), on prom- ises with regard to the introduction of the eight hours’ day “in the future” ete. We will only for the moment bring into relief another strong point of the Liberal counter-revolution, the fact that it has its agents in the third camp, the Wuhan camp, while the opposite is not possible. Where then does the weakness of the third camp, the Wuhan camp lie? It lies chiefly in the fact that this camp and this centre of government has notwa sufficiently reliable armed force at its dis- posal. Its army is melting away. Feng’s treachery deprived it of its (from the military point of view) best division. The part which has remained, with Tan Shen-shi at its head is equally unreliable. It is not even possible to rely on the personal enmity between Chiang Kai-shek and Tan Shen-shi. The voice of class blood is stronger than personal en- mity, and the logic of the class-war is stronger than the logic of personal conflict. The few troops which are to be relied upon are obviously insufficient. A second weakness of ‘Wuhan is that in that camp (both in the C. C. of the Kuomintang and in the government) there are direct .informers of Chiang Kai-shek’s and vacillating typical petty-bourgeois politicians of the worst brand who, at a moment of crisis, would be certain to side with the Liberals. Their terrible fear of the agrarian revolution may drive them into the arms of the Liberal adherents of Chiang Kai-shek. When we recall that even lead- ing Communists have made opportunist mistakes, we can easily understand that the extremely weak and variegated political leadership in Wuhan, which is in direct contradiction to the growth of the lower Strata, is the most vulnerable spot in the Wuhan camp. If the instructions of the Kuomintang had been carried out; if the agrarian revolutions had not been checked; if the arming of the workers and peasants had been effected with energy; if the faith- ful divisions of troops had been brought together; if a clear political line, comprehensible to the masses had been pursued ; if the instruction with regard to the democratization of the Kuomintang had been properly executed, ete., then the situation would not be ‘so dangerous for Wuhan. The chief fault of the Wuhan camp is the misunderstanding, nay, even to Some extent the existing opposition between the upper stratum of the Kuomintang and the mass of its oe between the lead and the actual move- ment. The strength of this third camp is the forceful movement of the workers and peasants. The revolu- tion repels the vacillating gas-bags and the vaillat- ing intimidated “leaders” who sympathize with the enemy. The revolution sifts these leaders through The mass movement is vance of a so gigantic long run it will Sweep so mighty, involves the ad mass of people, that in the away all obstacles, This is the position of the chief strength of the separate classes, It is not difficult to see that the present situation brings up in all intensity the question of the two paths of development of the Chinese revolution. Theoretically we have faced this question from the beginning. Life has, as it always does, proved richer, more significant, more “eunning” than dull theory. The practical value of this way of putting the ques- tion is nevertheless completely confirmed. The camp of the borgeois counter-revolution is, for the time being, fighting against, the feudalists and partly against the imperialists, contradictory as it may sound. (Even though it consents to compro- mises, agreeménts, ete.) On this side of its “work” it still has in tow remnants of the traditions of the fight for freedom. At the same time, however, it is waging a furious fight against the workers and peasants of its own nation and is becoming its (Continued on page 8) ens TO JOHN D. — ON HIS. BIRTHDAY Thy smiling face is made of all the laughter of the sad, Thy wrinkled brow of all the age of young ones laid below. All thy poise rests on the crutches made of shattered broken men. And this day marks but the spending of so many toiling lives ° Thy life is but the weaving of the web of slavery for humanity. a ee —T. HEJURY.