The site of the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China located in Shanghai
The Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China memorial hall
In order to strengthen the leadership of the growing revolutionary movement, the Fourth National Congress of the Party was held in Shanghai in January 1925. The Congress raised the issue of leadership of the proletariat in the democratic revolution and the issue of in the alliance between workers and peasants, indicating that the Party has made significant progress in its understanding of the issue of the Chinese revolution.
(I)
After the Third National Congress of the Communist Party of China in June 1923 and the First National Congress of the Kuomintang in January 1924, first cooperated with the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in entered a substantive stage. With the realization of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, most Communist Party members and youth league members have joined the Kuomintang. Through the joint efforts of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the revolutionary situation has developed rapidly. After joining the Kuomintang, Communist Party members actively established and developed Kuomintang organizations across the country. Previously, the Kuomintang was nominally a national party, but its organization only existed in a few areas such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Sichuan, Shandong and overseas, and its work was only in the narrow upper class and lacked the lower mass base. Communist Party members carried out arduous publicity and organization work in areas under the rule of warlords and established the Kuomintang organization. During this period, many heads of the Kuomintang provincial and municipal party departments, such as Li Dazhao from the Beijing Executive Department, Dong Biwu from the Hubei Provincial Party Department, He Shuheng from the Hunan Provincial Party Department, Xia Xi from the Hunan Provincial Party Department, etc., were all Communist Party members.
After the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Sun Yat-sen also set out to establish a revolutionary armed force. Although Sun Yat-sen understood the importance of armed forces in the revolution, an important reason for his repeated failures was that he did not have an army in his hands. After the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was realized, with the suggestion of the Communist Party of China and the help of the Soviet Union, Sun Yat-sen decided to establish a military officer school in Huangpu, near Guangzhou. He personally served as the prime minister of the military academy and appointed Chiang Kai-shek as the principal and Liao Zhongkai as the party representative. The Communist Party of China has fully supported the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy, and not only sent a group of outstanding party members such as Zhou Enlai to serve in the military academy, but also selected a large number of party members and revolutionary young people from all over the country to study in the military academy. During the first period of Huangpu, there were fifty or sixty members of the Communist Youth League, accounting for one-tenth of this class of students.
With the joint efforts of the Communist Party and the Kuomintang, the thoughts of the national revolution spread to the whole country from south to north at an unprecedented speed. In October 1924, Feng Yuxiang launched a coup in Beijing, overthrew the Beijing government controlled by the Zhili warlords Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, and asked Sun Yat-sen to go north to discuss the country's affairs. In November, Sun Yat-sen left Guangzhou and went north, promoting the proposal of convening the National Assembly and abolishing the unequal treaty along the way. Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei and other places also organized national meetings one after another, and people from all over the country sent telephone support.
After the Third National Congress of the Party, the once depressed workers' movement was able to recover and develop. In July 1924, thousands of Chinese workers held a political strike in the Shamian Concession in Guangzhou where foreigners lived in concentrated areas, protesting the restrictions on Chinese workers' free entry and exit from the Shamian Concession. Even the Chinese police participated in the strike. The struggle lasted for more than a month and finally won. This strike became the starting point for a new round of workers' movement.
The peasant movement has also made great progress. After the First Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1921, party members launched a peasant movement in front of the Yaishan, Zhejiang Province and organized peasant associations. In July 1922, Peng Pai also organized a farmer's association in his hometown of Haifeng County, and mobilized farmers to reduce rent and interest rates in . After the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was realized, farmers in various counties in Guangdong established peasant associations to fight against local tyrants and evil gentry and corrupt officials. At the suggestion of the Communists, the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang decided to open a peasant movement training center in Guangzhou in July 1924. It was chaired by Communists Peng Pai, Ruan Xiaoxian and Mao Zedong, and cultivated a group of backbone forces for the peasant movement. In this way, China has an unprecedented new revolutionary atmosphere.
However, with the development of the revolutionary situation, the contradictions within the revolutionary camp were gradually exposed, and the right-wing members of the Kuomintang began their anti-communist separatist activities, opposing and destroying the newly formed situation of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
In November 1923, before the First National Congress of the Kuomintang, rightists in the Kuomintang secretly wrote a letter to Sun Yat-sen, slandering Boroting and the Communist Party to help Sun Yat-sen reorganize the Kuomintang. It was to use the body of the Kuomintang and inject the soul of the Communist Party. It was only because Sun Yat-sen's determination to reorganize the Kuomintang and resolutely refute its fallacies that the reorganization work did not stop. However, the right-wing Kuomintang did not give up. In June 1924, they filed the "Impossible Communist Party Case" with the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, making a big fuss on the excuse that Communist Party members had a "party group" within the Kuomintang, claiming that Communist Party members and Communist Youth League members joining the Kuomintang "has major hindered the survival and development of their own party", and advocated that "there is absolutely no party within the party" within the Kuomintang, that is, they wanted to break up with the Communists. On August 15 of that year, the second plenary session of the First Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang was held in Guangzhou. At the meeting, the right-wing Kuomintang once again "impeached" the Communist Party and rebuked the old tune of opposing the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, which was strongly refuted by the Communists and the left-wing Kuomintang. After this meeting, the Kuomintang right-wing anti-communist words and deeds had to be restrained.
Despite this, with the development of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the Kuomintang will inevitably be further divided, and the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party will become more complicated. In order to cope with the complex situation, solve many new problems faced by the revolution, and welcome the arrival of the climax of the revolution, the Communist Party of China decided to convene the Fourth National Congress.
(II)
1 On August 31, 1924, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China wrote a letter to its organizations, requiring local party organizations to express their opinions on various policies since the Third National Congress of the Party, and put forward discussions at the group meeting and report the results to the central government. If individuals have special opinions, they are also required to write an opinion letter and the Party committee or group leader send it to the Central Bureau. In September of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China formally issued a notice to convene the Fourth National Congress of the Party. It said that the Fourth National Congress of the Party is scheduled to hold a meeting in November, and the representatives should be presented and the Russian and French special groups should convene a meeting. The representatives elected to arrive in Shanghai before November 14, and the meeting place is in Shanghai. Since , the Communist International, representatives will not arrive until December, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to change the conference to be held after December 20.
On January 11, 1925, the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Shanghai. There were 20 representatives attending the meeting, representing 994 party members across the country. The meeting site was chosen in the Chinese world and was close to the concession, and the detectives in the Chinese world and the concession were not very careful. This is a small building in the Shikumen. The downstairs is a living room. The rooms on the second floor are decorated as classrooms with desks and blackboards. The conference is held in the "classroom". There is a bell installed at the entrance of the stairs. If a detective comes in, he will notify the upper floor so that the representatives can put away the documents and pick up the English textbooks, using the excuse of a private English school as a cover. The room on the third floor serves as a temporary dormitory for the representatives of the outside world.
Chen Duxiu delivered a work report to the conference on behalf of the Third Central Executive Committee. The representatives agreed with the Central Executive Committee's analysis of China's political situation and basically expressed satisfaction with the Central Executive Committee's "leading the activities of the Party in the Kuomintang and the National Movement, making the Party increasingly closer to the actual political life and having a trend of leading the Chinese National Movement." At the same time, they expressed criticism and suggestions for the organizational mistakes of the Central Executive Committee, such as the lack of technical organization and the delay in implementing the resolution of the Expanded Executive Committee. The representative of the Communist International, Weijingsky, attended the first day of the meeting and made a report on the status of the world communist movement, and the Congress passed the resolution on this report. The conference focused on discussing how the Party strengthened its leadership over the growing revolutionary movement, as well as how to prepare for organizational work and mass work.The meeting successfully passed 11 resolutions, including the "Declaration of the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China", "The Second Amendment of the Communist Party of China", "Resolutions for the Workers' Movement", and "Resolutions for the Peasant Movement".
Finally, according to the decision on the composition of the Central Executive Committee in the "Second Amendment of the Charter of the Communist Party of China", Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Cai Hesen, Zhang Guotao, Xiang Ying, Qu Qiubai, Peng Shuzhi, Tan Pingshan, and Li Weihan were elected as members of the Central Executive Committee; Deng Pei, Wang Hebo, Luo Zhanglong, Zhang Tailei, and Zhu Jintang were elected as alternate members. Then, the Central Executive Committee held its first meeting, and decided that Chen Duxiu, Peng Shuzhi, Zhang Guotao, Cai Hesen and Qu Qiubai would form the Central Bureau, and determined the specific division of labor of the central leadership body: Chen Duxiu served as General Secretary of the Central Executive Committee and Director of the Central Organization Department of , Peng Shuzhi served as Director of the Central Propaganda Department, and Zhang Guotao served as Director of the Central Workers and Agriculture Department. Central Committee members and alternate Central Committee members were sent to various places: Li Dazhao was stationed in Beijing, Tan Pingshan was stationed in Guangdong, Li Weihan was stationed in Changsha, Xiang Ying was stationed in Hankou , Deng Pei was stationed in Tangshan , and Zhu Jintang was stationed in Anyuan . Xiang Jingyu was later added to a member of the Central Bureau, responsible for the work of the Ministry of Women.
(III)
The most outstanding contribution of the Party’s four major issues is to clearly raise the issue of leadership of the proletariat. The program adopted by the First Congress of the Party in 1921 stipulated that the Party’s goal was to directly overthrow the bourgeois regime, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, eliminate the private ownership of capitalism, and realize communism. In 1922, the Second Congress of the Communist Party of China made great progress in understanding the nature of China's society and revolutionary nature. It formulated a thorough anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolution program, and put forward the principle of establishing a democratic joint front. However, the status and relationship of various social classes in the Chinese democratic revolution were not fully understood. By 1923, the Third National Congress of the Communist Party of China further clarified that the central work of the Party at this stage was to unite the revolutionary classes to work on the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal national revolutionary movement, formulate a strategy to establish a united front with the Kuomintang, and decide that all Communist Party members will join the Kuomintang, while maintaining their organizational independence. But in the three major aspects, many people believe that the leadership of the national revolution belongs to the bourgeoisie, and the proletariat can only stand in the subordinate position of the bourgeoisie. It can be seen that before the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party still could not give a theoretical correct answer to how to realize the democratic revolution program and how to implement the principles and policies of this front.
An important reason why the Four National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly raised the issue of leadership is that the Communist International has given relatively correct instructions on this issue. In May 1923, on the eve of the Third National Congress of the Party, Executive Committee of the Communist International emphasized in its instructions to the Third Congress of the Communist Party of China: "The leadership should belong to the political parties of the working class", "Consolidate the Communist Party and make it a mass proletarian party, and gather the power of the working class in trade union . This is the primary task of the Communists." In addition, the Communist International also asked the Communist Party of China to pay attention to the peasant issues, believing that this is the "central issue of all policies". As a working-class party, the Communist Party should strive to realize the worker-peasant alliance.
At that time, there was no telecommunication contact between the Communist Party of China and the Communist International, and China and Russia were far apart, so the conference was not held, so the issue of leadership was not clearly raised at the third National Congress of the Party.
Regarding the issue of the leadership of the proletariat in the national revolution, the " Resolution on the National Revolutionary Movement" passed by the Four National Congress of the Party pointed out: "The proletariat should know that the proletariat participates in the national movement, not affiliated with the bourgeoisie, but participates with its own class independence status and purpose. In this way, the proletariat will not lose its characteristics - class nature and global nature when participating in the national movement."Not only in the fight to overthrow foreign imperialism, we must rely on the efforts of all working masses, such as the proletariat and peasants. Even if such struggles win, we must also have their strong class organizations and political parties to ensure the victory of the revolution, resist the new reactionary forces, and carry out their own class revolution. "
The four major parties analyzed the political attitudes of the major classes in Chinese society, believing that comprador bourgeoisie is a tool of imperialism. Small merchants and handicraftsmen, especially the intellectual class who live uneasy, all hope to have a national democratic revolution; the homeless proletariat is mostly bankrupt peasants and handicraftsmen, and if they can be under the guidance of the proletariat, they will also play a considerable role in the national revolutionary movement. The peasants who account for the majority of China's population are naturally ally members of the working class. From the current situation of all classes in Chinese society, it can be seen that the higher the upper class, the more compromise, and the most oppressed and collective proletariat is the most revolutionary class. "Therefore, the most revolutionary proletariat in China must participate effectively and gain leadership status in order to win. "
So, how can we obtain leadership? The resolution emphasized: "If the national revolutionary movement wants to achieve a more thorough victory, it is certainly necessary for the most revolutionary proletariat to stand in the leadership position, and at the same time, this leadership class must be able to seize the power of the oppressed social classes and fight against the common enemy - imperialism and its tools (domestic warlords and landlord comprador classes) - to avoid being in an isolated position. This is an important issue. "
(IV)
The Fourth National Congress of the Party also specifically discussed the importance of peasant issues in the Chinese revolution. The "Resolution on the Peasant Movement" passed by the Congress pointed out that peasant issues occupy an important position in the world revolution led by the proletariat, especially in the national revolution movement in the East. In China with economic backward China, the peasant class is still an important component of society, accounting for about 80% of the national population. Therefore, peasant issues are particularly important in China, especially in the era of national revolution. "If the Communist Party of China and the working class want to lead the Chinese revolution, they must as systematically encourage and organize farmers from all over the country to gradually engage in economic and political struggles. Without such efforts, it is impossible for us to hope that the Chinese revolution will succeed and achieve leadership in the national movement. "
The four National Congress of the Party summarized the experience and lessons learned from the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party for more than a year, emphasizing that the proletariat should oppose both the "left" tendency and the right tendency in the national movement. The tendency of the "left" is manifested as opposing joining the Kuomintang and even opposing participating in the National Revolution, thinking that this is a compromise with the bourgeoisie. But the mistakes of the right tendency are more dangerous than the mistakes of the "left" tendency, and more common: First, I think that since I work with the National Movement as the center, I should focus on the work of the Kuomintang and do not have to carry out the Communist Party’s work at the same time; second, since the Communist Party has joined the multi-class Kuomintang to carry out the national movement, it has to adopt a policy of labor-management coordination, which is inconvenient to incite the struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie; third, I think that "the entire Kuomintang should be helped, and there is no need to encourage the division between the left and right factions."
htm The l3 Congress emphasized that our comrades should always be wary of the "rightist danger of tilt in the party". The Communist Party should do: adhere to a thorough democratic revolution program and maintain its independence; expand the left in ideological, organizational and public propaganda, strive for the middle and oppose the right; not only help the Kuomintang develop in actual movements and organizations, but also intensify the struggle against the compromise tendency within the Kuomintang.
Naturally, this Congress also has its own shortcomings. For example, the Congress lacked a correct analysis of the national bourgeoisie , believing that the Chinese national bourgeoisie has not yet formed an independent class, but is still in the process of "from the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie to the national industrial bourgeoisie, so it cannot participate in the national revolutionary movement." It did not make a correct understanding of the status of the national bourgeoisie in the democratic revolution.Although the conference clearly raised the issue of leadership of the proletariat, there was no specific answer to the issue of regime and armed struggle, and the issue of armed struggle, which was not given enough attention from the conference. At this time, Peng Shuzhi, who had just returned from the Soviet Union, participated in the drafting of the conference documents, and he believed that "the Chinese working class is naturally the leader of the national revolution", which means that revolutionary leadership can be obtained without struggle. His view must have a negative impact on the conference. After the Fourth National Congress of the Party, the climax of the nationwide revolution has arrived with the May 3 Movement as the starting point. The vast majority of Communists devoted themselves to the fiery revolutionary struggle, led the massive May 30th Movement and the Provincial and Hong Kong General Strike, and cooperated with the Kuomintang to complete the work of unifying the Guangdong revolutionary base. The peasant movements in Guangdong and Hunan developed rapidly and ushered in the vigorous Northern Expedition. (Author’s unit: Party History Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of Henan Provincial Party Committee)
Source: Learning Times
