against the new police regulation which requested the Chinese to show their identification cards on entering and leaving the district . The strike went on for over a month , and the imperialists were eventually forced to withdraw that discriminating regulation . The strike caused more than a local sensation ; its repercussions resounded as far as Central and North China . It was followed by strikes of the workers in the Nanyang Tobacco Factory , Shanghai , of Hankow rickshamen , Soochow weavers and the salt workers in Yuyao , Chekiang . Over 10,000 workers took part in each of these strikes . All this evidenced the revival of the working-class movement in the country .
During this period the peasant movement also developed steadily in the South . As early as 1921 , Peng Pai ( Peng Pai was a Communist leader of early peasant movement in China and founder of the revolutionary government in the rural areas of Haifeng and Lufeng , Kwangtung Province . He was elected to the Central Committee of the Party and to its Political Bureau in 1927 and 1928 respectively . In 1929 he was arrested and murdered by the Kuomintang government in Shanghai .) had already done much revolutionary work among the peasants in Kwangtung . Struggles against the despotic landlords and for rent reductions were waged by the Haifeng Peasant Association , which was set up in January 1923 and had a membership of 100,000 . Although the association was dissolved in February 1924 by the reactionary warlord Chen Chiung-ming , this form of peasant organization rapidly spread from Haifeng and Lufeng to Chaochow and Swatow and then to the whole province of Kwangtung . In October 1923 the Party organized 100,000 peasants into peasant associations in Hengshan , Hunan , and led them to wage bitter struggles against the Hunan warlords and December-2024 landlords . The peasant movement in the South centring on Kwangtung and Hunan not only expanded its organizations and conducted economic struggles , but took part in political struggles as well . The peasant self-defence detachments around Canton even helped Sun Yat-sen to suppress the riot of the Merchant Volunteers Corps .
In the course of the Second Chihli-Fengtien War , Feng Yuhsiang of the Chihli clique staged a coup d ’ etat in October 1924 . He renamed his troops the National Army and expelled the Chihli warlords from Peking .
Following the coup d ’ etat , the influence of the Fengtien warlords penetrated into North China and eventually they took over political power in Peking . The main forces of the Chihli clique , after the defeat of W u Pei-fu , withdrew to the Yangtse Valley , and proceeded to gather strength for a comeback . The Peking regime took the form of a coalition government under the control of three cliques : Chang Tso-lin , Tuan Chi-jui and Feng Yuhsiang — with Tuan Chi-jui as its head , assuming the title of “ Provisional Executive-General .’’
The new warlord government in Peking , unstabilized as yet , temporarily relaxed the oppression of the workers . This gave the Party an opportunity to rescue the worker leaders imprisoned since the February 7 Massacre , restore the railway trade unions and find work for the unemployed . In February 1925 , the Second National Congress of Railway Trade Unions was held in Peking . The immediate sequel to the congress was the great strike of the Tsingtao-Tsinan Railway workers , followed by a series of other strikes at Peking , Wuhan , Shenyang and Tangshan .
Under these circumstances the Party decided to mobilize and organize the broad masses under the banner of the democratic revolution by initiating a nation-wide mass movement for the convocation of the National Assembly and the abrogation of unequal treaties . In answer to the Party ’ s call , “ Associations for the Promotion of the National Assembly ” were successively set up in Shanghai , Chekiang , Kwangtung , Hunan , Hupeh , and other places .
In January 1925 when the mass movement was already in full swing , the Fourth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Shanghai . It was attended by 20 delegates , representing 980 Party members .
The congress analysed in detail the political situation at that time and decided on the political task of the Party . It was a period when the rule of the warlords was rapidly heading for collapse , as the old ruling warlords had been overthrown and the new ruling warlords had not yet consolidated their position . This was favourable to the further development of the people ’ s movement in China . As the success of the movement entirely depended on the Party ’ s policies and its propaganda and organizational work among the masses , the problem of how to develop a nation-wide people ’ s movement naturally became the centre of discussion at the congress .
The congress pointed out that in participating in the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution the working class had an aim of its own , namely , to lead the people on to a proletarian revolution after the complete success of the democratic revolution . Therefore , the position of the working class in this revolution was different from the other classes . The working class must not be an appendage to the bourgeoisie , but keep its own independence and aims . Only with the working class assuming the leadership could the Chinese democratic revolution score a complete victory .
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