17 Chihli
was the old name for Hopei Province.
18 The
Triad Society, the Society of Brothers, the Big Sword Society, the Rational
Life Society and the Green Band were primitive secret organizations among the
people. The members were mainly bankrupt peasants, unemployed handicraftsmen
and other lumpen-proletarians. In feudal China these elements were
often drawn together by come religion or superstition to form organizations of
a patriarchal pattern and bearing different names and some possessed arms.
Through these organizations the lumpen-proletarians sought to help
each other socially and economically, and sometimes fought the bureaucrats and
landlords who oppressed them. Of course, such backward organizations could not
provide a way out for the peasants and handicraftsmen. Furthermore, they could
easily be controlled and utilized by the landlords and local tyrants and,
because of this and of their blind destructiveness, come turned into
reactionary forces. In his counter-revolutionary coup d'etat of 1927 Chiang
Kai-shek made use of them to disrupt the unity of the labouring people and
destroy the revolution. As the modern industrial proletariat arose and grew
from strength to strength, the peasants, under the leadership of the working
class, gradually formed themselves into organizations of an entirely new type,
and these primitive, backward societies lost their raison d'etre.
No comments:
Post a Comment