Chapter 13 National Revolution and Peasant Movement

——Preface to "Peasant Issues Series" [1] (September 1, 1926) The peasant question is the central question of the national revolution. The national revolution will not succeed if the peasants do not rise up to participate in and support the national revolution; Solve, the peasants will not support this revolution. ——There are still many people in the revolutionary party who do not understand these truths until now.They do not understand that the biggest target of the economically backward semi-colonial revolution is the rural patriarchal feudal class (landlord class).Economically backward semi-colonies, imperialism on the outside and the ruling class on the inside, mainly oppress and extract the peasants. The realization of their oppression and extraction depends entirely on the support of the feudal landlord class. It cannot be squeezed.Therefore, the rural feudal class in the economically backward semi-colonies is the only solid foundation for its domestic ruling class and foreign imperialism. If this foundation is not shaken, the superstructure of this foundation must absolutely not be shaken.China's warlords are only the leaders of the rural feudal class. If they say they want to overthrow the warlords but not the rural feudal class, don't they know the importance of the matter? An obvious example is in Guangdong: whichever county where the local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials have relatively few traces, must It is the counties where the peasant movement has already started and a large number of peasants have joined the peasant association.In other words, whichever county where Chen Jiongming's influence was reduced must be the county where farmers rose.We have no doubts: a year ago, Chen Jiongming had Guangdong, but the revolutionary government did not have Guangdong; a year ago, the revolutionary government and Chen Jiongming have divided Guangdong equally, although Chen Jiongming himself is not in Guangdong; Only gradually can it be proved that Chen Jiongming's influence has been gradually reduced from the counties in Guangdong.Chen Jiongming's hometown, Haifeng County, has always been home to local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials. Ever since there were 50,000 households and 250,000 farmers' associations in the county, it has become clearer than any county in Guangdong—the county magistrate dare not do evil. Expropriation officials dare not include extra money, there are no bandits in the whole county, and the local tyrants and evil gentry have almost disappeared.Therefore, we know that the situation of the Chinese revolution is just this: either the foundation of imperialism and warlords—the local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials suppressing the peasants, or the foundation of revolutionary forces—the peasants rising to suppress the local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials.The Chinese revolution has only this kind of situation, and there is no second situation.The victory of the revolution can be counted only when Haifeng is like Haifeng in all parts of China, otherwise it will not be counted as anything else.The whole of China must be like Haifeng, so that it can be regarded as the foundation of imperialism and warlords has indeed been shaken, otherwise it will not be considered.Therefore, it is known that most of the so-called national revolutionary movement is the peasant movement.Therefore, it is known that anyone who does not value or even loathes the peasant movement is actually sympathizing with the local tyrants, evil gentry, and corrupt officials, and in fact means not to overthrow the warlords and not to oppose imperialism.

Some people think that the rampant comprador class in the city is exactly the same as that of the landlord class in the countryside, and the two should be compared.It is right to say that it is crazy, but it is wrong to say that it is exactly the same.The areas where the comprador class is concentrated are only a few places along the coast and along the river such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hankow, Tianjin, and Dalian. It is not as good as the territory of the landlord class in all provinces, counties, and townships of China.Politically, warlords big and small across the country are all leaders selected by the landlord class (not counting bankrupt small landlords). The comprador class is its subordinate.Financially, 90% of the warlord government’s annual consumption of tens of millions of yuan comes directly and indirectly from the peasants under the control of the landlord class. The comprador class, such as the bank guild, owes the Beijing government conditional debts. very little.Therefore, I always feel that urban workers, students, small and medium-sized businesses, and businessmen should rise up and attack the comprador class, and directly deal with imperialism, the progressive working class, especially the leaders of all revolutionary classes, but if the peasants rise up from the countryside to defeat the patriarchal feudal landlords Without class privileges, the warlords and imperialist forces will never completely collapse.

For this reason, in addition to organizing workers, students, and small and medium-sized businessmen, our comrades must have a large number of comrades who must immediately make up their minds to do the enormous work of organizing peasants.We must immediately make up our minds and begin to study the peasant problem.You must immediately make up your mind, ask the party for orders, and run to the middle of your familiar or unfamiliar villages, basking in the scorching sun in summer and braving the blizzard and snow in winter, holding the hands of farmers and asking them Pain something, ask them what they want.From their pain and needs, guide them to organize, guide them to fight against the local tyrants and evil gentry, guide them to cooperate with urban workers, students, and small and medium-sized businessmen to establish a united front, and guide them to participate in the national revolutionary movement against imperialism and warlords.We estimate that among the more than 300 million farmers in the country, if one-tenth joins the farmers' associations, more than 30 million organized farmers can be obtained.In particular, Hunan, Guangdong, and Jiangxi in the south, Zhi, Shandong, and Henan in the north, and Hubei and Anhui in the central part should make great efforts to organize them.Once the peasants in these important provinces have risen, it will be easy for the peasants in other provinces to follow suit.Only then can the foundations of imperialism and warlords be shaken and the national revolution won definite victory.

When it comes to studying peasant issues, I feel that there is too little material.The collection of such materials will naturally be enriched with the development of the peasant movement. At present, except for Guangdong, the peasant movement is just beginning, so the materials are extremely scarce.This time, I collected as much as possible of this point and printed it into this series as a reference for comrades in the peasant movement in various places.Among them, a part of the survey on rural conditions in each province was done by more than 300 students of the sixth class of the Peasant Movement Workshop. It was discussed in the research meeting on peasant issues in each province organized by the students, and it was published after considerable review.Most of them did not have a detailed survey of the farmers' conditions before, so what they said is only a rough outline.However, in the past, I didn't even have a rough idea, but now I have a little bit, and I feel it is precious.We should take this as a general idea and draw up a detailed and specific national survey from the actual work and actual inspections in various places in a short period of time.This book collects only five materials (22nd to 26th) on the issues of agricultural production.The materials on this issue are not very lacking, and in order to publish in a hurry, they will not be collected in time, so they will be compiled and printed separately in the future.The peasant problem originally included two aspects: man-made oppression by imperialism, warlords, and the landlord class, and natural oppression such as floods, droughts, natural disasters, pests, poor technology, and reduced production.The former question is, of course, an urgent one at present, and comrades' attention is naturally focused on it.But the latter problem is also very serious, and we cannot help paying attention to it.To solve the latter problem requires a national revolutionary government and scientific methods, and it cannot be done immediately, but the time is coming, and we should prepare in advance.There are eight kinds of materials about Guangdong in this book, which is the most essential part of the book. It gives us the method of carrying out the peasant movement. Many people do not understand how to carry out the peasant movement, so please read this part carefully.It also enables us to understand the nature of the Chinese peasant movement, and enables us to know that the Chinese peasant movement is a movement of class struggle that combines political struggle and economic struggle.Among them, the most special feature is the political struggle, which is quite different from the nature of the urban labor movement.The current struggle of the urban working class is politically only seeking complete freedom of assembly and association, and does not want to immediately destroy the political status of the bourgeoisie.The peasants in the countryside, on the other hand, encounter the regime that the local tyrants, evil gentry, and landlords have been using to oppress the peasants for thousands of years (this landlord regime is the real foundation of the warlord regime). Unless this oppressive regime is overthrown, they cannot have the status of peasants. , which is one of the biggest features of the peasant movement in China today.From the experience of the peasant movements in various places in the past five years, we can't help feeling this way after reading the resolutions of the Peasants' Congress in Guangdong, the report on the Peasant Movement in Haifeng, and the story of two peasants' rebellion against the landlords in Quangning and Puning in this book.This book also collects a little foreign material (No. 15 to No. 18), but it is too little.There are many materials on the peasant movement and agricultural economy in various countries, especially in Russia, but it is a pity that no one has gone through them in detail.In this book, only the Russian Peasant and the Revolution is relatively detailed, and we can also compare it with the situation in China.

According to the eighth issue of "Peasant Movement" published on September 21, 1926. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] "Peasant Issues Series", edited by Mao Zedong during the period when he hosted the Sixth Peasant Movement Seminar in Guangzhou from May to September 1926, aimed at summarizing and promoting the experience of the peasant movement at home and abroad, especially in Guangdong, with To guide and promote the development of the national peasant movement.Fifty-two titles were originally planned to be published, but twenty-six titles were actually published.

[2] Chen Jiongming, see note [2] on page 17 of this volume.