Li Lisan’s “Left” Opportunism

Also called Li Lisan's “Left” Adventurist Line. It was the second “Left” deviation error produced by the CPC following the “Left” putschist movement error in the early days of the Agrarian Revolutionary War.

After the Sixth National Congress of the Party held in June and July 1928, Mao Zedong not only developed the correct aspects of the six Party lines in practice, but also gave the direction of Chinese revolution more specifically and completely in theory on the scientific basis of Marxism-Leninism. At this time, however, some “Left” ideas and “Left” policies existing in the Party made new developments, stimulated by the domestic situation after the outbreak of the war between Chiang Kai-shek, Feng (Yuxiang) and Yan (Xishan) in May 1930.

In June, under the chairmanship of Li Lisan, the Central Committee of the CPC held a meeting of the Political Bureau in Shanghai, and at the meeting, the “Resolution on the Present Situation of China and the Tasks of the Communist Party” drafted by Li Lisan, i.e., the “The New Revolutionary High Tide and Winning Victory First in One or More Provinces”, was adopted.

So far, Li Lisan's “Left” adventurist line had gained a dominant position in the CPC Central Committee.

The resolution made a wrong estimation of the revolutionary situation, one-sidedly exaggerated the general crisis of international capitalism and the domestic ruling class, overestimated the development of revolutionary forces, denied the imbalance between the development of the Chinese revolution and the world revolution, and mistakenly believed that once the Chinese revolution broke out, it would "set off the great revolution of the whole world" and that the Chinese revolution would win a complete victory in this final decisive battle.

The resolution denied the long-term and complex nature of China's democratic revolution and unrealistically proposed that the Party no longer needed to gradually accumulate and prepare its revolutionary forces; the masses did not want to do small things, but only did big things, that is, only armed riots, and it was a nationwide armed riot.

In addition, the resolution proposed that the Red Army should have fundamentally changed “its guerrilla tactics" in the past, organized in a centralized way, commanded in a unified way, and launched a general nationwide riot with the masses, so as to achieve the first victory in one or more provinces and then establish a national political power.

The resolution also made a wrong judgment on the nature and transformation of Chinese revolution, confused the boundary between democratic revolution and socialist revolution, and proposed that although the revolution was still a bourgeois democratic revolution with anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism as its main task, "the bourgeoisie is already a part of the reactionary alliance", therefore, the revolution should also "confiscate bourgeois factories, enterprises and banks", and at the same time, in politics, "it is necessary to advance from the dictatorship of workers and peasants to the dictatorship of the proletariat."

The resolution held that "the beginning of the victory of the revolution and the establishment of the revolutionary regime is the beginning of the revolutionary transformation", "it is a serious mistake to think that the revolution can only begin the revolutionary transformation after the victory of the whole country", and the theory of the stage of the revolutionary transformation "is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous right-leaning concept".

Under the guidance of the above-mentioned “Left” erroneous ideas, the leaders of the Li Lisan line formulated an adventurous plan to organize the armed uprising in the central cities of the whole country and concentrate the Red Army to attack the central cities, and then, the leading organs of the party, the Youth League and the trade union at all levels were merged into action committees at all levels to prepare for the armed uprising, bringing all regular work to a standstill.

Facts proved that where Li Lisan's “Left” adventurism was wrong, the Red Army and the base areas suffered serious losses. However, the ruling period of the Li Lisan line in the Party was very short, less than four months. In the process of its formation and implementation, it was criticized and resisted by Party members and cadres engaged in practical work within the Party.

In September 1930, under the chairmanship of Qu Qiubai and Zhou Enlai, the Third Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, held in Shanghai, criticized Li Lisan's “Left” adventurism mistakes, ended organizing a country-wide general uprising and concentrating the Red Army to attack central cities, and ended the rule of this “Left” mistake in the Party Central Committee.