The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 19, 1931, Page 3

The Canton Uprising By M. JAMES Dec, 12. 1931, the fourth annivers- “ry of the the Canton Uprising, wit- esses the extension and consolida~ ton of the Chinese Soviet Power over about one-sixth. of China proper with its central government in Kiangsi province as a revolutionary counter- pole to the reactionary Nanking gov- ernment of the Kuomintang and im- perialism. This Soviet road of development was determined by the Canton Up- rising, which for the first time in the Chinese history hoisted the soviet flag in a commercial and political center. The Canton Soviet showed the way. A Rearguard Against Reaction. ‘The Canton Uprising was an heroic rearguard fight of the Chinese work- rs and peasants to preserve the vic- wy they had hitherto achieved and » prepare a ground for further ad- vance. During the Great Chinese Revolution in 1925-27, the Kuomin- tang, fearing the increasing power lof the Chinese workers and peasants, turned its back against the Revolu- ‘tion and shamelessly jumped into ithe camp of imperialism. Chiang Kai-Shek, representing the Chinese bourgeoisie and the right wing of the Kuomintang, betrayed in April, 1927; and Wang Ching-Wei, repre- senting at that time the petty bourg- Poisie and the “left” wing of the Kuo- jmintang, betrayed tn July, and both lanited with the imperialist masters to ‘suppress the Revolution. This con- ee JAPANESE PEASANTS TOILING AT HUNGER WAGES luded the revolutionary period and “pened the reactionary period for the Kuomintang. i | The workers and peasants in Hu- tan and Kjangsi had resisted the Kuomintang, imperialist reaction in whe form of uprisings and failed. The vanton proletariat, who were faced ‘ith the following alternative: “either ‘o accept the challenge to struggle, ir to yield without struggle.” They cepted the challenge. Under the nero of the Communist Party, pre than twenty thousand workers, ye thousand and six hundred sold- pdes and two thousand peasants, at fhree o'clock in the morning, Dec. th, 1927, started the Uprising and jtormed the heavens.” The heroic ruggle of the workers and peasants efeated the superior forces of the lefh” wing of the Kuomintang which fo,i2 the uprising controlled Canton. * Kuomintang militarists, includ- Chang Fa-Kwei, t-side General, fled to Honan, on other side of the Pearl River. we: hours after the uprising, the Red wii, the flag of the worker and asants, flew over the whole city of anton. The heroic struggle was icipated in by adult, young and en workers, the soldiers and the asants. It was a mass struggle. ing the first day of the uprising, ore than eight thousands workers luntarily asked for rifles to fight inst the militarists, “The Historical Canton Soviet ‘Che Canton proletariat, right after ,eir seizure of power, smashed the d bureaucratic state machine of e exploiters and established their ctatorship in the form of the Can- m Soviet for the interests of the ‘kers and the toiling masses. The wiet Government was formed with myrade Sou Chou-Jen as its chair- . The revolutionary program pro- the so-called | claimed by~the Soviet Government included the eight hour day, unem- ployment insurance, nationalization of big enterprises, transportation and banks, increase of wages, nationali- zation of land, allowance of land to the peasants, liquidation of the land- lords and the gentry, freedom of association, organization and press of the toiling masses, etc, Besides, the guiding principle of the foregoing policy of the Soviet Government was: the defense of the Soviet Union and the overthrow of imperialism. This revolutionary program can never be forgotten by the Chinese toiling masses. In fact. they are now realizing it in actual life! The Canton Soviet Drowned in Blood “Revolution precipitates the con- solidation of counter-revolution.” It was natural that the Kuomintang powers all came together to smash the Canton Soviet. The militarists who had fled to Honan and Hong- Kong, gathered their forces from var- ious parts of the province to launch @ counter-attack on Canton, under the protection and with the delib- erate support of the Japanese, Am- erican, British, French and other im- perialists whose gunboats transported ; the Kuomintang army across the} Pearl river and bombarded Canton re- peatedly. The workers and peasants in Canton repulsed several times the Canton Soviet to the last drop of their blood. Late on the second day of the uprising, the Kuomintang mi- litarists who got reinforcements from various quarters, launched the final attack upon Canton on two fronts. The workers and: peasant were de- feated and the Canton Soviet was drowned in blood on the third day of its establishment. A reign of extreme white terror prevailed over Canton after the Kuo- mintang reaction regained control. Over five thousand workers, many of them young boys and girls, were murdered in the most cruel manner. The reactionary rule of the Kuomin- tang and imperialism was again set upon the mountain of corpses of the workers and peasants! The white terror spread from Canton to all parts of China under the counter-revolu- tionary flag of the Kuomintang. The Chinese Workers and Peasants Carrying on the Fight. Although the ‘Canton proletariat and its allies were defeated, the Can- ton uprising has everlasting historical significance of national and inter- national importance. It. opened the new stage of proletarian hegemony the higher stage of the Chinese Re- volution, the Soviet stage. It con- firmed to the workers and peasants in China and in all colonial and ca- pitalist countries the Leninist posi- tion that the Soviets are the basic and historically jnevitable form in which alone can be accomplished the revolutionary emancipation both of the proletariat of the capitalist coun- tries and of the toilng masses of the backward and colonial countries. After four years of the Canton up- rising, the Soviet power in China stands as an indestructable monu- ment to the heroic Canton workers and peasants who sacrificed their life to show the way. RENEW YOUR OLD SUBSCRIP- TION TO THE DAILY WORKER NOW! tae (Upper Right) British troops searching a Chinese worker for revolutionary literature and arms. (Upper Left) A revolutionist ex- ecuted at the order of Chiang Kal- shek. (Lower) Fortifications of the imperialists from which they aid the Chinese capitalists murder workers and peasants. Four years ago, on Dec. 12, the first Soviet arose in China, the Canton Commune. It was drowned in blood after three days bythe combined forces of American, British and Jap- anese Imperialism with the local mi- litarist forces of Wang Ching-wei and the Kuomintang. But the spirit of this short-lived Commune swept through the rebelling masses of south and central China, giving birth to the Chinese Red Army and the Soviet Districts which today rule a territory of 80 million population, successfully repulsing the repeated attacks of Chiang Kai-Shek’s armies of 300,000 soldiers armed by America with the most modern implements of war. The Soviets in China have come to stay. They date their birth from the Can- ton Commune of Dec. 12, 1927. In the beginning of 1927, the great upsurge of the revolutionary masses had been headed by the allied Kuo- mintang and Communist Parties, which in a few months swept from the south up to the Yangtse Valley and smashed the rule of the old mi- litarists Sun Chuang-fang, Wu Pei- fu, Chang Tsung-chang, etc. But the same class forces represented by the old militarists, namely the landlords, bemkers and compradore elements, quickly found representatives within the Kuomintang, chief of them being Chiang Kai-Shek. They amalgamated the old militarist armies into the Kuomintang and turned their guns against the revolutionary masses who had won their victories for them, The Kuomintang split in two, Chiang Kai-shek heading the Nanking re- gime, while the majority of the Kuo- mintang in alliance with the Com- munists, established the “left” Han- PENG PEI Comrade Pei was one of the out- standing leaders in the peasants’ movement and a member of »the Central Committee of the Com-. munist Party of China, Last year he was one of the many Commu- nists brutally murdered by Chiang Kai-shek. JAPANESE WORKERS DEMONSTRATING AGAINST IMPERIALISM a phys ‘This demonstration of revolutionary workers is one of the many which have recently taken place in’ Japan, despite the vicious terror exercised against all revolutionary workers’ organizstions The Canton Commu Page Three DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1931 ELRE kow government. In a period of a y tivity in organizing the r it y mass movement, the Chinese Com- munist Party ade magnificent strides forward. The All-China Fed- eration of Labor, led by such men as y-jen and Hsiang Chung-fa es, in which the outstanding had over 10 million members. These mass organizations were under the ienged leadership of the Com- munist Party. It was during this period of the powerful sweep of the open mass or- ganizations, that the Chinese revolu- tion was also brought closely to the workers of the other countries. One of the main instruments of the in- ternationalization of the Chinese Re- yolution was the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Conference which opened in Hankow on May 20, 1927 with rep- ne wo million mem- { ‘as Peng-pei, | IMPERIALIST FORCES WARING AGAINST THE CHINESE REVOLUTION ~* gram t support, and S | to w ' munist all th the n ing of t The from their live kept revolution: 5 i the ory owner who to obey the conditions set by the work- ers and le; ! e December 12, 1927. ee vada pickets” wot , : and take t BROWDER — by the trade sweat there he nging to China the i t of the revolutionary |movemen: of the other countries. The tremendous rise of the power | of the workers and peasants in China frightened the “left” Kuomintang jallies of the Communist Party of eir own bourgeois class in- c2 them to continue ong the rev jionary path. They n to develop the same policies in Hankow as Chiang Kai-shek in Nan- | king. They demanded the disarming | of the workers and peasants. Certain elements within the leader- | ship of the Comumnist Party, weak- | ened under these elements and coun- seled surrender to the bourgeoisie. These included Chen Du-shu, who | quickly turned renegade and became a leading Trotskyite, hiding his | treachery behind “left” phrases. The |fight against disarming the workers |'was led by Sou Chou-jen and Hsiang | Chung-fa, who were also supported resentatives. of the red trade-unions| by the delegates from abroad to the of China, Japan Soviet Union, Java,|P. P. T. U.S: Sou was elected chair- France, England and the U. S. A.|man of the Canton Commune a few Delegates from the Philippines, Aus- | months later, and Hsiang became the tralia and India were prevented by their governments. from attending, secretary of the Chinese Commnuist Party when it purged itself of the but later joined the Pan-Pacific} Trade Union Secretariat established there, and attended later conferences. | the workers and peasants broke up The P. P. T. U. S. was to be a great | the Hankow government, which, with extent a product of the Chinese Re-| the dissolving of the alliance with volution, spreading its influence | the Communis.-, quickly surrendered throughout the Pacific and the world,' to Chiang Ka-shek. The “left” Kuo- renegades. The struggle over the disarming of CHINESE SOVIET MONEY Chinese Soviet paper money, issued by the Kiangsi Workers’ and Peasants’ Bank in Kiangsi Province. Kentucky Miners Hungry Blues By AUNT MOLLY JACKSON I am sad and wearied, I have got the hungry ragged blues. Not a penny in my pocket to buy one thing I need to use. I was up this morning with the worst blues I ever had in my life Not a bite to cook for breakfast, or for a coal miners wife. When my husband works in the coal mines he loads a car on every trip, ‘When he goes to the office that evening and gits denied of scrip Just because it took all he had made that day to pay his mine expenses Just because it took all he had made that day to pay his mine expenses A man that will just work for coal light and carbide, he ain't got a speck of sense. All the women in this coal camp are asittin’ with bowed down heads All the women in this coal camp are a-sittin’ with bowed down heads Ragged and barefooted and their children a-cryin’ for bread, No food, no clothes for our children. T am sure this ain’t no lie, If we cain’t get no more for our labor, we will starve to death and die, Please dort go under those mountains, with the slate ahangin’ over your head. Please don't go under’ those mountains with the slate ahangin over your head. And work for just coal light and carbide, ard your children acryin’ for «breda I pray you take my counsel, pleare take a friend's advice Don't load no more, don’t put out no more tilf you can get a livin’ price, This mining town I live in is a sad and a lonely place; This mining téwn Tlive in is a sad and a lonely place; For pity and starvation is pictured on every face. Everybody hungry and ragged, no slippers on their feet, Everybody hungry and ragged, no slippexs on their feet. All a-goin’ around from place to place bummin for a little food to eat. Listen my friends and comrades; please take a friend's advice, Don't put out no more of your labor till you set a livin’ price, . (T/'en at macs mecting held in Siwal, wv Cree Eenwuesy, Nov, 7, 193i) shorten the h mintangites with Wang Ching-wei id lengthen the at their head, then went to Canton | P&Y aS per the “labor code. and with the army of Wang Ching-| Tt Was against the Commur with their “labor code” and the wei seized that city. The Army at Nanchang revolted against the Kuo- mintang and turned to the Commu- nist Party under the leadership of Ho-lung and Yeh-ting, marching south toward Canton, A large section of the army in Canton turned to the Communist Party and joined with the armed workers and peasants. In this situation Wang Ching-wei and Chang Fa-kwei, so-called “lefts” de- manded the Communist forces lay down their arms and surrender to their forces. | But there were to be no more dis-/ arming by Chinese workers and pea- sants. Instead of obeying Wang- Ching-wei, the revolutionary soldiers, workers and peasants proclaimed the Canton Soviet, with the program of confiscation of the land, the banks, and imperialist-held industries, the pickets” that the reac loosed the most ghi Sou loved the ally un- terror. But im|ing his st eight hour day for workers, etc. They smashed the landlord-banker-imper- ialist government of. Wang Ching-wei. | For four days the Canton Soviet held power. The U.S., Japanese and English warships intervened on be- half of the ggupter-revolutjon.,and drowned it in’one of the most brutal, monstrous blood baths that history has ever seen. The Canton Soviet was crushed. But its spirit was invincible. Soviets sprang up throughout the provinces of Kiangsi, Hunan, Fukien and northern Kwangtung. Today after four years they solidly rule an area comprising 80 million puoplation, and are protected by a Red Army of workers and peasants steeled in years of successful battle against the Kuo- mintang militarists. Today the bloody hangmen of the SOU CHOU-JEN ers from the docks and factories, de- fied the imperialist might of the 54 warships of all sizes and all nations jlaying at anchor with their frowning guns facing the city, and calmly went about their business with belts of cartridges swung round their should- ers and heavy Ma rs strapped to their sides. Such was Hankow before it “turned | White” and the blood of these heroic |workers ran like water as the Kuo- mintang butchers took vengeance. But the execu er’s knife never got Revolution, the Kuomintang, slaugh- ; Comrade Suo Chou-jen. Warned and tering the flower of the Chinese secreted by the workers, his life was people, have handed over China to saved as it was ved a hundred times before and afterward. the partition between the Imperialist As it Powers. Japan's seizure of Manchu- | was saved earli in March that year, ria is the first big action in this when Canton “went White” and thousands were excuted by Chiang Kai-shek’s local general Li Chi-sen. Canton was Comrade So home, partition. In the dungeons of Nan- king are the Secretary of the P. P. T. U. S. Noulen (Ruegg) and his! wife, awaiting death sentences. War ,if @ seaman who had twenty years against the Chinese people, against | S@iling can be said to have a home. In Canton Comrade Sou had his the Chinese Soviet Power, is being carried on jointly by the Kuomin- tang and the Japanese, U. S., British and French imperialists, as a pre- lude to the world war, against the U. S. S. R., and for the redivision of first experiences of class struggle. And in Canton and Brit Kong he had organized the r toric strike of Asiatic histor a strike that tied up the two ¢ : a sea-ports of the East and brought Wie, Wel, world, ._|the haughty British to their knees. On the anniversary of the glorious I s Canton was the nerve center of the Canton Commune, let the workers]... ees » Fike whciteceis. acol ts Chinese revolution, and Sou Chou- wah le whole world declare With On! jen was its leading spirit, Tireless, vere modest and brave beyond all reckon- Long live the Chinese Soviet Power, ing Comrade Sou led the masses to the only power that can defend the | victory after victory in the two years Chinese people! ee the strike lasted. Under his leader- Down with the imperialist united ship the trade unions flourished and front of war against the Chinese the Communist Party rooted itself masses! ,deep into the hearts of the masses Defend the Soviet Union, father-\ what more natural, then, than that land of the oppressed of the whole}—when the Canton workers in De- or the though he d miles away in Han- n risking his he Commun- building up the gtze') Valley, m Hankow to Shang- e opportun- g the Party the red flag Soviet over’ 80,000,000 in hina. Not 2 moment in that work was late Cen “1 Comrade Sou free from the threat of death at the hands of Chiang Kai- 's beheaders, as he traveled with 1/a prize of $50,000 gold on his head. le workers have to death to force them 1's whereabouts, But not d a work of betrayal, their flesh was being pieces from their living s the lové &fd loy- pired by Sou Chao-jen, head nton Commune! u continued his work. More, he r utte cut off g|bodies! Such jalty in: the still gr risk of worming his way through the ~ imperialist |}bloodhounds circling the :.@#oviet | border, and got to Moscow, in. March 1928 to attend the Fourth .Congress the Red International of Labor Unions and, later, the sixth Congress of the Communist International. But the privations and. hardships nad told. Comrade Sou was frail and (ill While he recovered somewhat dur- y as guest of the Soviet workers, he returned too soon to,duty jin China, and there, under the hard- hips of illegal work, he died of ap- pendicitis early in 1929. ‘Comrade Sou was a real. leader, jpushed up by the millions of toilers lot the Far East in their struggle for i |freedom. He was their leader, but he belongs in the great heart.of the in- ter ational proletariat. Beside him, Gandhi is an insect, snivelling and before the imperialist over- ords. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, the bourgeois Nationalist, Soii avoided personal fame. Jomrade Sou was no “noisy” reyo- |lutionist, Except when addressing an audience, his voice was rarely raised above a tone fol woconversation, He jwas modest, yet daring. But he'never swerved from duty, and in. opposing ;Wrong policies he was firm and full of fire. A real leader! This was the chairman of the first Soviet in the Far East, the Canton Commune! And though he is dead, yet the soul of his courage and the heart of his class loyalty lives on and forever! It lives in the Red Army of Soviet China, now the. only force j tallying the million masses in the fight not only against the Japanese jscizure of Manchuria, but against all imperialisms now trying to dismem- ber the whole nation! And upon the red banner of victory there will be inscribed together the story of the |Canton Commune and the name of Sou Chou-jen! Down with the Japanese im- perialist invasion of Manchuria! Down with the Kuomintang, the agents of imperialism! Smash the intervention moves of imperialism against the | Soviet Union! Down with the war on the Chin- ese masses! Long live the full independence of China! Long live the Chinese Red Armyt Long live the Chinese Soviets! CHEN KIEN Before he was murdered by Chi- ang Kai-shek’s henchmen last year, Comrade Kien was a member of world! cember 1927 rose in arms and elected Long live the glorious Canton 'the first Soviet on the res of the Commune! {| Pacific, they elected Comrade Sou the Central Committee of the Com- munist Party of China. DEMONSTRATING IN SUPPCRT OF THE CHA A mass meeting of workers at the time when Changsha fell to the Red Army of the Chinese Soviets Note the red flags with the emblem of the hammer and sickle. ® terrific bombardment by the gunboats of the foreign imperialists, the white army recaptured Changsha, 6,000 workers and peasants, many of them pictured here, were massacred for supporting the Changsha tn August, 1930, Soviet NGSHA SOVIET When, with the aid of ,