October 1927 Peng Mobilisers A Peasant Army example essay topic

When the KMT turns against the Communists and the United Front breaks down, the government is overthrown and many including Mao Zedong are forced underground. As secretary of the Front Committee of the CCP; Mao establishes his revolutionary base in the Jiangxi Mountains and during that Jiangxi period many decisions regarding future Communist directions and strategy were made and ordered. For the Chinese Communists the Hailufeng experience was important because in its heyday it had attracted over 200,000 members through its many peasant organisations and associations, -whilst ultimately, it spurred the first soviet China had ever seen. For this reason it was seen as a Communist stronghold and became a model for future communist advocator's to heed to.

The major reason for the Hailufeng's success lied in its many village alliances in the form of associations, societies, organisations, and alliances. There was a national assembly, provincial assemblies, provincial educational associations, Peasant association, Women's association, Communist Youth League, Trade Association -all of which Peng Pai was the head. Peng was the very important to the Hailufeng experience because he was one of its most successful peasant mobilisers and really demonstrated how peasants could be mobilised for revolutionary change. In fact, his strategies would later be associated with Mao Zedong. He led 100,000 peasants first in Haifeng and later in the whole Guangdong. Trying to find a way to work with peasant was always an important issue.

Especially since in 1922, the Chinese Communist Party was by no means a people's party or even a working class party. It relied very heavily on the collaboration it had with the KMT (the United Front) and whilst the KMT consisted of 30,000 members... it itself only consisted of only a handful of members and nearly all were radical intellectuals -not of the working class background. The Communists forced out from the cities had been forced to pay attention to the countryside and evoke a mass base from there. The obvious working class there was the peasantry and the task at hand was to transform the peasantry into a revolutionary and activist force when for such a long time they had been so passive.

The socio-economic reasons i.e. the hardships facing the peasants at the time were very important in rustling up support amongst the peasantry. Over-population, high taxation, money lending difficulties, natural calamities and an inadequate availability of sideline activities helps us understand why Peng and earlier rural mobilisations were able to take place, but the main obstacle to revolutionary change had always been the familial aspect to peasants. Although one might have been able to attract a following, the support of the peasants has rarely been whole-hearted, -but just because the man on the spot was 'one of them'. Certainly all those early rural mobilisers and agitators of successful peasant insurrections; (Fang Zhimin, Shen Dingyi and of course, Peng) did have local roots. Perhaps, it was this which made it possible to organise peasants there.

For example, Fang too, was a revolutionary, militarist, but especially a native of Jiangxi Province. Being that he was a school teacher there he had been to the cities, saw ideas and took them back to the countryside. Nevertheless, the idea of natural associations although not irrelevant can be overstated because over the years due to much agricultural hardships people had migrated. There were certainly more recent settlers in different terrains, and so these people did not have very distinctive kingship networks. So in a second case, there must have been much voluntary associations as well.

For example, in the Hailufeng we can see that it is an area where secret societies are very much present. In these societies people feel association through a common initiation ritual and Fang used this kind of initiation ritual to win people over to the revolutionary cause. He himself became a leader of the farmers movement in the early beginnings as well. It was very much the idea that one had to adapt themselves to local conditions and work within the peasantry and not over them. Although Peng was educated in the traditional Chinese manner he also was exposed to more modern study when he went to study in Japan -noted for its socialist circles. There, he was to already show an interest in the plight of the peasants as he became a member of the alliance of 'Remembers' which focused on agrarian problems.

Upon his return, he became a founder of the Socialist League in Canton and Peng is appointed commissioner of local education of the Haifeng county but was dismissed in 1921 for leading his students on a May Day demonstration. and in an article published on the 1st June 1920, Peng maintains that Chinese society could only be maintained through the avocation of Marxism. Socio-economic issues were being ignored by the GMD and the Communists wanted to set about setting it right. Intimate peasant involvement in all kinds of peasant programmes had said that there was a role for peasants to play but the reality was rather different because they did not pay much attention to the peasants except for a few individuals who did do something about peasants whilst others merely talked about them from time to time. Remember comintern Certainly all the agitators of successful peasant insurrections; Fang Zhimin, Shen Dingyi and of course, Peng had local roots. In these societies people feel association through a common initiation ritual).

Fang used this kind of initiation ritual to win over people to the revolutionary cause and became a leader of the farmers movement in the early beginnings of Communism. It was very much the ideas that one ought to work within the peasantry and not over them and it was realised one had had to adapt themselves to local conditions. Peng known as the peasant king of Esa tern Guangdong was from a landowning family and was as expected greeted with mistrust as he tried to organise the peasantry. A chapter in his diary tells us of a time when he goes into town wearing a white student suit and the peasants run away from him thinking that he must be an official, tax collector or army recruiter. And when he sits down to talk to the peasants, they find it hard to understand and are not convinced by his philosophy of changing things for the better.

Their response is constantly "the will of heaven" and it is as though they are imprisoned and entrenched in their own conservative ideas. It is at this point that Peng realises the need for a change in tactics; to live, dress and speak like a peasant. He uses music to attract people to his meetings, and at those meetings he would call for people to organise into peasant unions. Peng is the first to set up this kind of association. The peasant's collective power is greater then if they were on their own and collective decision making proves to the peasants that it can get them somewhere. Some 20,000 peasant families (a quarter of the counties populations) joined the Peasant associations and it even spilled into neighbouring Lu feng County which led rise to the Provincial Peasant association.

The weakening of the landlords (the clan system) was rapidly making the condition right for peasant mobilisation. "To create a mass base, the CCP's challenge was to loosen Chinese from their existing social framework and tie them to CCP institutions". But social and economic factors on their own were not really sufficient for rapid expansion of peasant associations, because that would forget the existence and assume the non-existence of secret societies. Peng assumed pre-existing networks such as some triad groups that sympathise d with Peng and his peasant associations.

As more hardships came about and more conflicts... so did village alliances. They were often two competing organisations and although they were mutually antagonistic, Peng managed to get them mobilised against Warlords; their symbol would be a red and black flag diagonally halved. The first type of association of this type was a savings and loan association. Although it was fairly low level it was quite a useful method in bringing them all together.

In addition, Peng incorporated local merchants to this system of using existing networks; he recognised that as local merchants went from village to village to sell to peasants they would have to have a good relationship with peasants in order to sell things to them and so would be a good natural affiliation to use for the Communist cause. Another aspect of the Hailufeng experience that contributed greatly to the mobilisation techniques was the idea of educating peasants. A more educated peasantry would be more accommodating to Marxist ideology, whilst be more likely to help with further administration such as legal aid to fellow peasants and further reforms, and in general give Communism a better chance of overcoming its obstacles. Again collective power of associations put peasants in a better position to keep rent low. This approach also regulated irregular and illegal rent collections... helping to gradually take over the clans and landlords.

However, what emerged after the new education reforms in 1900 was that it did not really help the peasants, so in the Hailufeng area Peng had been innovative enough to come up with a system whereby schools were built with land attached to them, and the land was used by pupils, teachers and parents to get revenue to pay teachers. Mao Zedong resorts to this much later in the 1940's. In addition, dispensaries are set up to provide for medical needs. The problem was that although Comintern had said that there was a role for peasants to play, the reality was rather different because they did not pay much attention to peasants. So the except for a few individuals such as Peng and those early rural mobilisers who did something about peasant... others merely talked about it from time to time. Even the Communist was far more interested in the urban proletariat industrial workers regarding the boxer uprising as superstitious and insignificant.

They regarded peasant organisations as romantic notions especially since peasants were not property owners and would not support Communism and disbandonment of private property. Therefore, with little support it was inevitable that the Peng and his associations would have to disband and go underground in the face of a threatening war-lord, as in August 1923. On the return they found a great number of peasant associations had been executed. Later on in the Jiangxi period... the importance of lending support to these peasant mobilisations was greater understood and carried out, and Mao did exact revenge on those seen responsible for forcing out the Hailufeng in 1927. The peasants (if we consider their numbers) really did form the greatest revolutionary potential in China. "Mao declared that a strong China would emerge as people in one small association woke up to their shared interests with members of other associations and as they became accustomed to function cooperatively.

They would then unite in ever-expanding circles until China was one "Great Union. "Almost all of them (the Chinese Communists) were deeply involved in these societies, and early CCP cells developed directly out of them. In 1926 history of the CCP, Cai He sen described study societies as the organisational antecedents of the CCP. "They were not", he wrote, "fully communist... they lacked a national umbrella, but they were the rudiments (of our party) " and thus, the Jiangxi period also. The failure of the United Front and the fact that the Communists were betrayed by the KMT proved the ever important reason to be reject future corporation with other sectors and a greater emphasis on self-reliance and military strength, whilst it also liberates Communists to go towards more radical campaigns.

"They believed that combining into a group of like-minded people was absolutely essential to withstand the corrupting pressures of society". The Chinese Communists would later establish their political party on these principles -so as to maintain their consistency and uprightness. In 1924, Peng set up and became the head of the Peasant Movement and Training Institute. Mao Zedong also gave lectures in this institute so we can infer that he must have been familiar with Peng's experiences, 'success's tories and ideology. This must also have had a great effect on the Jiangxi period where Mao was to become a main figure in strategy and mobilisation techniques there. Indeed, in 1925, Mao would take many students on a two week trip to the Peasant Movement Training Institute.

There they were lectured by Peng himself and shown the achievements and developments of a rural revolution 'in progress'. In October 1927 Peng mobilisers a peasant army. It proved very successful in its counter-attack and Haifeng is taken back from the KMT previously occupied in 1927. Land reform dictating land should be confiscated from peasants and redistributed to peasants -proved very popular and inspired much peasant gratitude and support. The Jiangxi period would learn much from the techniques that brought about profits and perhaps the final lesson it learnt was that in the end all change had to (at least in the short term) be enforced ultimately by force because echoed by Lenin "no reform program could be effective otherwise".

Bibliography

Bianco, Lucien, Origins of the Chinese revolution, 1915-1949 / translated from the French by Muriel Bell (Stanford [Calif.
Stanford University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1971) Little, Daniel, Understanding peasant China: case studies in the philosophy of social science (New Haven;
London: Yale University Press, 1989) Ven, Hans J.
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Oxford: University of California Press, 1991) History of the Chinese Communist Party: a chronology of events (1919-1990) / comp.
by the Party History Research Centre of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1991).