In July 1914, the Shanghai Association of Anarchist Communist Comrades published its statement of principles, concluding with the resolution that, "the implementation of anarchist communism depends on the strength of our party. If we wish to increase our party’s strength, uniting as a whole body and advancing together is our most important task today. Wherever they are, all our comrades should unite with those who share the same purposes and establish groups in free association.” The key member of this group was a Chinese anarchist known as Shifu who was to die a mere nine months later. Although the group carried on after his death, the core concept of this paragraph was never to be implemented. [Italian translation] [Greek translation] [Dutch translation]
I recently read Jonathan Fenby’s biography of Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek. I intended to write a review but got interrupted. Returning to what I had written I’ve decided to salvage it as a blog post on how Chiang Kai-Shek came to power through his alliance with the Chinese communist party and in particular the events of the Northern Expedition and the crushing of the workers movement in Shanghai in 1927. Fenby’s book is well worth reading, it aims to provide a post cold war account of the man who came to power on the back of the fragmentation of Chinese republicanism. This was in a manner similar to what happened in the period of retreat of republican revolutions elsewhere and at other times in history.
Outside of a few events including the Long March and the Shanghai commune the development of the Chinese revolution is relatively unknown on the western left in comparison with the revolutions in Russia in 1917, Spain in 1936 or even the Paris spring of 1968. Those sections of that left influenced by or proclaiming themselves to be Maoist haven’t helped that situation much. Their histories have tended towards simple tales focusing on the role of one man and collapsed a 100-year history of revolution into the events important to him. [