Revolutionary Communist Party of China

The Revolutionary Communist Party of China is a Trotskyist political party based in Hong Kong. The party's members fled from Mainland China after the anti-Trotskyist Communist Party of China seized power in 1949, and its activities have since been limited to Hong Kong. Since 1974, the party has been legally active as the October Review, its official publication.[1]

Revolutionary Communist Party of China

中國革命共產黨
FounderPeng Shuzhi
FoundedSeptember 1948 (1948-09)
Preceded byCommunist League of China
NewspaperOctober Review
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism
Trotskyism
Political positionFar-left
International affiliationFourth International
Regional affiliationPro-democracy camp
ColoursRed
Revolutionary Communist Party of China
Traditional Chinese中國革命共產黨
Simplified Chinese中国革命共产党

Background

In the earlier days, various factions of the Chinese Trotskyists were in contact with Leon Trotsky, notably the October Society and the Proletarian faction. The October Society tried to turn Trotsky against Ch'en Tu-hsiu, the founder of the Chinese Communist Party who played an instrumental role in forming an alliance with the Kuomintang under the instruction of the Comintern.[2] On 8 January 1931, Trotsky addressed a letter entitled "To the Chinese Left Opposition", urging different factions to unite. On the basis of Trotsky's appeals, the Chinese Trotskyists held a conference on 1 May 1931 and established the Communist League of China, adopting Trotsky's document "The Political Situation in China and the Task of the Bolshevik-Leninist Opposition".[2] It elected Ch'en Tu-hsiu as its secretary general and P'eng Shu-tse, Wang Fanxi, Song Fengchun, Chen Yimou, Song Jingxiu, Zhang Jiu, Zheng Chaolin, Liu Hanyi, and Pu Yifan as the Central Committee members. The Communist League of China was cracked down and persecuted by the Nationalist government and subsequently the Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of China.[2]

The internationalist dissident Trotskyists, led by Wang Fanxi and Cheng Chiao-lin, split from the Communist League in 1941 and developed contact with the Fourth International and the Socialist Workers Party of the United States. It was transformed into the Internationalist Workers Party of China in 1949 and moved to Hong Kong soon afterwards. It was dissolved in the 1950s.[2]

Founding and exile

The Communist League reestablished some branches in the major cities after the war. In 1948, the Third National Convention of the Communist League adopted a new political program and a new name, the Chinese Revolutionary Communist Party. During the Chinese Civil War, the RCP took the position that "both the KMT and the CCP should unconditionally stop the war." It concluded that in the Kuomintang-controlled area the RCP's general slogan was "Down with the Kuomintang government: For a National Assembly chosen by universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage!". It also they would be threatened with physical annihilation under the Stalinist dictatorship of the CCP.[2] In an emergency Executive Committee meeting in December 1948 when the Communist armies were approaching the Yangtze River area of central China, the party leadership decided that the political bureau of the party would be transferred to Hong Kong. Many Trotskyists did not leave the Mainland were arrested, "some were shot on the false charge of being 'Kuomintang agents'".[2]

The two surviving RCP Central Committee members P'eng Shu-tse and Ch'en Pi-lan were forced to move to Vietnam after the British authorities in Hong Kong, anxious to maintain good relations with the forces which dominated China, began to persecute and deported Trotskyists. A group of Vietnamese Trotskyists, accompanied by Liu Chia-liang, were also arrested by Stalinist Vietminh where Liu died in prison forced P'eng and Ch'en to move to Paris. A handful of Chinese Trotskyists set up the Provisional National Committee (PNC) in replacement of the elected Central Committee in 1952. P'eng and Ch'en recognised the PNC as the legitimate directing body of the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1954.[2] Since the major trade unions in Hong Kong and Kowloon were under Maoist control, the RCP activities in Hong Kong were minimal. In Paris, P'eng acted as the RCP spokesman in the International Committee of the Fourth International where he took centre stage in the conflicts with the European Trotskyists led by Michel Pablo over the stances on the Maoist policies in China including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in which P'eng was highly critical of.[2]

1970s revival and post-Maoist activities

In Hong Kong, the resurgence of a small Trotskyist movement appeared in the 1970s emerging from the student movement of the 1960s and the discrediting of the CCP due to the Cultural Revolution and the Lin Biao Incident. The Revolutionary Communist Party had launched an "open" periodical, October Review. It also organised its own youth group, the Revolutionary Communist Youth, which worked largely through the Young Socialist Group. The youth group published a periodical called Young Militants. October Review often carried articles by Ernest Mandel and other United Secretariat leaders, maintained the traditional position that the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and other Stalinist-controlled regimes were "workers states", and called for "political revolution" in those countries. It also supported the Polish Solidarity and highly critical of the Maoist and the post-Maoist regimes.[2] Since 1974, the party has been active as October Review.[1]

The Trotskyists and other radical groups supported the Tiananmen Incident of 1976. Since then, Trotskyists became closely associated with the Chinese democracy movement, as there were similarities between their analysis of the bureaucracy, proposition of multiparty system and democratisation among others. The October Review voiced support for Wei Jingsheng, a dissent who was prosecuted by the Peking government in the Peking Spring in 1979.[2] In April 1977, the Revolutionary Communist Party held its Fourth Convention which was attended by sixteen voting delegates as well as observers from the Revolutionary Communist League of Japan and the Socialist Workers Party of Australia.[2]

On the Sino-British Joint Declaration over the Hong Kong sovereignty, the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Revolutionary Marxist League issued a statement in late 1984 expressed its regret for the Chinese not insisting on immediate return of the colony. The statement observed that "this is not only a recognition of the unequal treaty which leased the New Territories, but is also in practice recognition of the legality of British rule of Hong Kong based on the unequal treaties. This is a serious political mistake."[2] The statements ended with appeals to the people of China and Hong Kong, calling for the opposition to the Sino-British Joint Declaration, demanding the Chinese government to assist the Hong Kong people to took the initiative to convene a generally elected, full-powered General Assembly and realise democratic self-rule of the Hong Kong people, and compelling the Chinese government abolition of the China's one-party dictatorship and bureaucratic privileges, practice socialist democracy and legal system, and return the government to the people in which Hong Kong people should be closely concerned and join forces.[2]

Chan Cheong, a member of the October Review had been a member of the Kwun Tong District Council from 1985 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2007, running as a nonpartisan from 1999 to 2003 and as a League of Social Democrats (LSD) candidate in 2007. He also ran for the 1991 Legislative Council election in Kowloon East, receiving 3,431 votes and was not elected.

Performance in elections

Legislative Council elections
Election Number of
popular votes		 % of
popular votes		 GC
seats		 FC
seats		 Total seats +/− Position
1991 3,431 0.25 0 0
0 / 70
 N/A N/A

District Council elections
Election Number of
popular votes		 % of
popular votes		 Total
elected seats		 +/−
1985 1,909 0.28
1 / 237
 1
1988 1,532 0.24
1 / 264
 0
1991 2,382 0.56
1 / 272
 0
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See also

References
  1. "Leftist Parties of the World - China". Marxists Internet Archive.
  2. Alexander, Robert J. "International Trotskyism". Encyclopedia of Trotskyism Online.
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