Kuang-Chou Uprising of 1927

(Canton Commune), an armed uprising against the Kuomintang reaction by workers and soldiers in the city of Kuang-chou (Canton) on Dec. 11–13, 1927. The Canton uprising was prepared by the Chinese Communist Party after the defeat of the Revolution of 1925–27 in China in response to the establishment of a reactionary dictatorship of the Kuomintang and the campaign of mad terror that it was waging against revolutionary forces.

On the night of Dec. 11, 1927, armed detachments of the workers’ Red Guard and soldiers of a school regiment occupied a large part of the city and seized stocks of weapons, which were distributed to about 20,000 workers who had joined the uprising. A revolutionary government was established—the Council of People’s Commissars, which was headed by Su Chao-cheng and Chang T’ai-lei. Its program was promulgated, providing for the establishment of the power of soviets, the introduction of democratic freedoms and an eight-hour workday, nationalization of large industrial enterprises, banks, and transportation, and nationalization of the land and its transfer to the peasants. Having recovered from the shock of the uprising, the reactionaries went on the offensive with the backing of British, American, and Japanese imperialists. On December 13 their military forces crushed the revolt and slaughtered about 6,000 of its participants. The Kuang-chou uprising and other contemporaneous revolts that were led by the Chinese Communist Party marked the transition of the revolutionary movement in China to the stage of struggle for the armed overthrow of the Kuomintang dictatorship.