The Historical Significance of Guangzhou Uprising

The past year of 2017 is the 90th anniversary of Nanchang Uprising, Autumn Harvest Uprising and Guangzhou Uprising. In his speech celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army in China, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that the Nanchang Uprising, together with the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the Guangzhou Uprising and other armed uprisings in many other areas, marked the beginning of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s independent leadership of the revolutionary war and the founding of the people’s army, and opened a new era of China revolution. Guangzhou Uprising was the last of the three uprisings, which played an important historical role in the transformation of China Revolution from crisis to agrarian revolution.

First, the Guangzhou Uprising, like the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising, was an important step for our Party to lead the China Revolution independently at the critical and changing moment of the revolution. Since the outbreak of the "April 12th" counter-revolutionary coup, a series of counter-revolutionary coups in various places have failed the great anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution of China people, and the hopes of the working masses of workers and peasants to win liberation and freedom have once again been thrown into the dark abyss. Faced with bloody repression, the Communist Party of China (CPC) people were forced to embark on the arduous journey of independently leading the agrarian revolution and exploring a new revolutionary road, and determined the general policy of armed resistance against Kuomintang reactionaries and carrying out the agrarian revolution. This general policy is in line with the main tasks in the stage of China’s democratic revolution, mobilizing the main force of China’s revolution to the maximum extent, and grasping the most prominent and important feature of China’s revolution-opposing armed counter-revolutionaries with revolutionary armed forces, so it is the only correct general policy. Guangzhou Uprising, Nanchang Uprising and Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong and Jiangxi are not only symbolic actions to implement this general policy, but also, as a whole, they set off a huge revolutionary storm in the vast land of Central China and South China, dealt a heavy blow to the reactionary arrogance of Chinese and foreign reactionaries, greatly inspired the revolutionary fighting spirit of the broad masses of workers and peasants, widely spread the revolutionary flame, and made the slogan of agrarian revolution and the banner of workers, peasants and soldiers Soviet deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Without these three uprisings, there would be no later creation and development of revolutionary base areas such as Jinggangshan, Central Soviet Area, Hailufeng, Qiongya, Zuoyoujiang, Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi, and Hunan and Jiangxi.

Second, the three uprisings are a whole, and the Guangzhou Uprising is a bold attempt to establish a Soviet regime in the city. The three uprisings followed each other in time. After the failure of the Great Revolution, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China first led the first shot of armed resistance against the Kuomintang reactionaries in Nanchang. Nanchang Uprising was based on the route map of returning to Guangdong, rebuilding the revolutionary base area in Guangdong, and having access to the sea in order to obtain assistance from the Soviet Union, and then going north again to revive the revolution. The Autumn Harvest Uprising is a part of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s plan to launch the Autumn Harvest Uprising in four provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong and Jiangxi, and it is integrated with the plan of Nanchang Uprising to seize Guangzhou. This was also clearly written in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s letter to Nanfang Bureau and Guangdong Provincial Committee on August 22nd: "The central authorities have stepped up their efforts to urge the realization of the uprisings in the two lakes. On the one hand, the realization of the riots in Hunan and Hubei is solidarity with Guangdong; " The Guangzhou Uprising had two stages: welcoming Nanchang Rebels to invade Guangzhou and launching Guangdong province riots to occupy Guangzhou, but it was consistent to seize Guangzhou through riots, establish communist party’s absolute leadership and call on the workers’ and peasants’ democratic regime throughout the country. At that time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China thought that "if peasant riots broke out in two lakes and three provinces in Guangdong, the whole country could change a situation and enter a new period of agrarian revolution".

Thirdly, Guangzhou Uprising learned the experience and lessons from Nanchang Uprising and Autumn Harvest Uprising, and carried out new practice and creation. This is mainly as follows: First, for the first time, the flag of communist party was publicly called. Nanchang Uprising used the name of "Revolutionary Committee of Chinese Kuomintang" to launch the uprising. Although Mao Zedong repeatedly asked to publicly display the banner of communist party during the brewing of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasized that "at this time, we still have to sponsor the democratic regime of the peasants and workers in the name of the Kuomintang" and pointed out extremely sternly: "In this emergency struggle, the Central Committee instructed the Hunan Provincial Party Committee to absolutely implement the central resolution without hesitation." Therefore, at the beginning of the autumn harvest uprising, the former enemy committee played the banner of "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants" for the first time according to the instructions of the Central Committee, but it had to abide by the instructions of the Central Committee on whether to play the banner of communist party. After the resumption of the Guangzhou Uprising, it has always been called by the flag of communist party. Related to this, regarding the banner of the rebel army, Nanchang Uprising continued to use the "National Revolutionary Army", Autumn Harvest Uprising used the "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants", and Guangzhou Uprising simply used the banner of "Red Army of Workers and Peasants". Secondly, the Guangzhou Uprising put the agrarian revolution into practice for the first time. The platform of Nanchang Uprising stipulated that more than 200 mu of land of landlords should be confiscated, which failed to play a practical role in mobilizing farmers to participate in the revolution. Before the Autumn Harvest Uprising, although Mao Zedong formulated the policy of "confiscating all land, including small landlords and yeomen" and distributing it to farmers, it was a pity that due to the war, Only on November 27th did the Soviet government of workers, peasants and soldiers in Chaling County be established. During the brewing of the Guangzhou Uprising, the Soviet governments of Lufeng and Haifeng were established on November 13th and 18th, respectively, becoming the earliest county-level Soviet governments of workers, peasants and soldiers in China. The Guangzhou Soviet, established after the outbreak of the Guangzhou Uprising on December 11th, was the first Soviet regime of urban workers, peasants and soldiers established by the Chinese Communist Party. This is the first time that a brand-new democratic regime of workers and peasants has been established in urban and rural areas of China, and it is one of the most important political achievements made by the Chinese Communist Party at the beginning of its great struggle against the Kuomintang reactionaries and deepening the agrarian revolution. It integrated the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the workers and peasants being the masters of the country and the workers, peasants and soldiers’ representative meeting as the highest authority, and provided the initial model and experience for the political power construction of the Communist Party of China and the Soviet areas.

Fifthly, in the process of systematically summing up the significance and failure lessons of the Guangzhou Uprising, the CPC deepened its understanding of China’s revolutionary problems, and some of its viewpoints directly promoted the correct understanding of China’s revolutionary problems and the choice of the revolutionary road suitable for China’s reality. The Guangzhou Uprising was a major historical event that shocked China and foreign countries in the 1920s. After the failure of the Uprising, the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Comintern conducted in-depth and systematic reflection and summary on the causes and responsibilities of the failure of the Uprising, which lasted until the convening of the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in June 1928. This discussion involves the nature of China society after the failure of the Great Revolution, the nature of the China Revolution, the leading class, main forces, participants and their targets of the China Revolution, the organizational construction of the Communist Party of China, the new features of the workers’ movement, the launching areas and methods of armed riots, the composition and construction of revolutionary troops, the scope and distribution methods of land confiscated from landlords, and the composition of the Soviet Union of workers, peasants and soldiers in urban and rural areas. Examining the various viewpoints expounded in this discussion with historical conclusions that were later proved to be correct, there are both right and wrong, and there are also mixed right and wrong, among which there are many sparks that can enrich or deepen the understanding of the road surrounding cities in rural areas and deepen the understanding of the revolutionary road in China. It is based on the above-mentioned thinking process that the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in June 1928 not only liquidated the right-wing capitulation mistakes that once appeared in the party in the late period of the Great Revolution, but also criticized the "Left" blind movement mistakes that prevailed in the party after the failure of the Great Revolution.Correctly concluded that the nature of China society is still a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the China Revolution is still in the stage of bourgeois democratic revolution, and its basic task is still anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, and formulated the "Ten Revolutionary Programmes" of the Chinese Communist Party during the democratic revolution, thus unifying the thinking of the whole party and laying an ideological foundation for the in-depth development of the agrarian revolution and the all-round development of the Soviet movement. In a sense, the great discussion about the experience and lessons of the uprising after the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising is also a turning point after the failure of the Great Revolution. The comprehensive summary and reflection of a series of revolutionary practices in the past six months, including the Nanchang Uprising, the Autumn Harvest Uprising and the Guangzhou Uprising, are in-depth reflections on the new revolutionary situation, new revolutionary tasks and new revolutionary roads. This is an important political legacy and historical contribution left by the Guangzhou Uprising to the China Revolution.

The question of whether the China Revolution, which has been arguing endlessly since the Guangzhou Uprising, is in a high tide or a low tide, was finally judged by Stalin after in-depth reflection on the failed lessons of the Guangzhou Uprising: "The Guangzhou Uprising is not the beginning of the revolution, but the end of the revolution’s retreat." He said, "Although the climax has a signal, it only proves that there will be a climax in the future, not that it is already high now", that is to say, the China Revolution is between two climaxes. The first climax of the armed struggle against the Kuomintang reactionaries led by the Chinese Communist Party, which started with the Nanchang Uprising, ended with the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising. As Mao Zedong pointed out in Order No.36 of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Union signed on December 2, 1932, the Guangzhou riots opened a new stage of the Soviet revolutionary movement in China. Since then, the China revolution has gradually entered a new stage centered on the in-depth development of the agrarian revolution. (Author: Jiang Jiannong, Professor of School of History and Culture, South China Normal University)