ABSTRACT
This is the closing day of the Congress of Representatives of the Guangdong Council of the Chinese Guomindang, and I, your younger brother, have the opportunity to offer some suggestions to all you comrades. That is an excellent thing. There is no need for me to praise the past work of all you comrades, nor do I think I should praise it. Consequently, for now I will only raise one question for discussion with all the comrades. Because in the case of any question whatsoever, it is only if it can be fully discussed within the party that it can be uniformly propagated outside the party, and at the same time the Second National Congress will soon be opening, and so it becomes even more necessary to raise and discuss this question. What is this question I wish to raise for discussion? It is the question of the middle elements. At the First Congress, our party decided on various policies, and the results of their application during the past two years have already demonstrated that the policies of the First Congress were correct. As regards the policy toward the peasants, our party decided to support the middle and lower strata of the peasantry in their efforts to get organized, and to help them eliminate their misery by such means as rent reduction. But because of this, another question arose. As soon as the movement for rent reduction was launched, it was necessary to oppose the village bullies and bad gentry, and criticisms then surfaced. Some comrades held that the present period is the period of unity against the foreigners, and we should all unanimously oppose imperialism. The landlords are our Chinese compatriots, and we must not advocate attacking one another. Comrades of this type seem to 235want to constitute something like an intermediate faction within the party. In my oppinion, this problem is extremely important. Formerly, Comrade Liao Zhongkai had a slogan, “Let the revolutionary factions unite!” Since Comrade Liao was slaughtered, Comrade Wang Jingwei has put forward another slogan, “Those who wish to make revolution should move toward the left!” 2 Those comrades who want to create an intermediate faction hold that right is no good and left is no good either; only the way of the invariable mean 3 is good. But all of you comrades must ask yourselves whether this thinking is correct or not. Are their views harmful or beneficial to the party and to the interests of the majority of the popular masses? Can such an intermediate faction be created, exist, and develop within the party and within China? According to my observations, this intermediate faction will not be able to exist. I/shall now put forward three proofs. First of all, before the European war there were intermediate factions in all the European countries, and moreover rather big and powerful intermediate factions, such as the Social Democratic Party in Germany, the Labor Party in England, and the Socialist Party in France. They all took up an intermediate position, but after the European war the world was divided into two big camps. One is the great camp of counterrevolution, led by the big bourgeoisie; the other is the great camp of revolution, led by the proletariat. Once these two are engaged in close combat, the basis of the intermediate faction is shaken, and so the intermediate faction undergoes further splits. One part subordinates itself completely to the counterrevolutiuonary forces of the bourgeoisie, and another part joins the revolutionary forces of the proletariat. Such is the situation in Europe. Secondly, in China, since the 1911 Revolution, there have been some instances of strong intermediate factions. At that time, the faction of the left was the Guomindang, and the faction of the right was Yuan Shikai. 4 The intermediate faction was the Progressive Party, which later became the Research clique and then joined with a number of backward members of the Guomindang to split off and form the Political Studies clique. 5 It even regards itself as an intermediate 236faction. These people oppose the Guomindang on the one hand and the oppression of the warlords and the foreigners on the other, but if we watch what this lot finally becomes, it turns into the running dog of the imperialists and the warlords. They turn completely into the public enemy of the popular masses; they turn completely into a counterrevolutionary faction. Thirdly, let us look once more at the situation in Guangdong. It is evident that Guangdong is split at present into two great factions: the counterrevolutionary forces, led by Hong Kong and British imperialism, and the revolutionary forces, led by the left and the Guomindang. A lot of people want to stand between the two, but just consider whether they can do this or not. If they stand in the middle, the counterrevolutionary faction of the right will try to drag them over, and the leftists—that is to say the revolutionary faction—will want to shoot at them. Consequently, no one in Guangdong dares to stand in the middle at present. We have demonstrated by the foregoing facts that the centrist faction cannot stand in the middle. Because only leftist theory and tactics constitute the theory and tactics of our party. Mr. Sun’s theory and tactics, the theory and tactics of the First Congress, are like this. If there are people who want to create centrist theory and tactics, and who want to attempt to revise the revolutionary theory and tactics of Mr. Sun, they have turned against the party and will definitely stand on the side of counterrevolution. [They have turned against] the interests of the majority of the popular masses of the whole country. 6 They have turned against Mr. Sun. Although at present they do not want to be frankly counterrevolutionary, or to stand frankly on the side of imperialism, they will assuredly become counterrevolutionaries in the future and go over to the side of the imperialists. So I, your younger brother, would like to leave all you comrades with these two sentences. One is that spoken by Liao Zhongkai, “Let revolutionaries unite!” The other is that spoken by Wang Jingwei, “Those who wish to make revolution should go toward the left!” [At the end of the speech, all the party members present shouted the slogans: “Down with imperialism!” “Down with the warlords!” “Down with the counterrevolutionaries!” “Liquidate corrupt officials and evil armed forces!” “Eliminate the village bullies, bad gentry, big landlords, and compradors who oppress the classes of the peasants and the workers!” “Long live the unity of the revolutionaries!” “Long live the great union of the workers and the peasants!” “Long live the great union of all classes!” “Long live the Congress of Party Members of Guangdong Province!” “Long live the Chinese Guomindang!” “Long live the liberation of the Chinese nation!”] 7
