Li Lisan (1899-1967)

Chinese proletarian revolutionary; outstanding leader of the Chinese workers' movement. Original name Li Rongzhi, native of Liling, Hunan Province. In September 1919, he went to France for the study-work program and actively participated in the patriotic movement of students studying in France. In the spring of 1921, together with Zhao Shiyan and others, he planned to establish a communist alliance, organize a labor association and Work-Study Alliance, and set up the China Labor Combination Secretary's Department group to seek the welfare of Chinese workers. In mid-December, after joining the CPC in Shanghai, he was sent to Hunan to engage in the workers' movement. In January 1922, he founded civilian school and a worker's tutorial school in Anyuan, established the Anyuan Railway and Mining Branch of the CPC and served as its secretary. After establishing the Anyuan Railway and Mining Club, he was elected director, initiated and led the famous Railway Workers and Miners' Strike. In April 1924, he served as Secretary of the Workers' Movement Committee of the Shanghai District Committee of the CPC and was responsible for leading the workers' movement in the Shanghai region. In February 1925, he led the strike of the Japanese cotton mill workers in Shanghai. In May of the same year, he directed the protest against the shooting of Gu Zhenghong, a worker, by Japanese capitalists. After the May 30 Massacre, he participated in and led the anti-imperialist patriotic May 30 movement. In May 1926, he was elected member of the Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions at the Third National Labor Congress and served as Head of the organization department of the Federation of Trade Unions. In January 1927, Li Lisan participated in leading the struggle to repossess British concessions in Hankou and Jiujiang. He was elected member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee at the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Since then, he attended the Sixth and Seventh National Congresses of the Party and served as member of the Central Committee. On July 12, the CPC Central Committee was reorganized, and Li Lisan was one of the five members of the newly established provisional Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee. After the failure of the Guangzhou uprising, he served as secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and went to Hong Kong to rebuild the Guangdong Provincial Committee and resume the Party's work. From June to September 1930, he committed the error of “Left” adventurism, which caused heavy losses to the cause of revolution. The Third Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the CPC corrected the error of the "Lisan line" and ended Li Lisan's leadership in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In August 1948, he was elected standing vice-president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions at the Sixth All-China Labor Congress. After the founding of New China, he successively served as secretary of the working committee of the CPC Central Committee, Vice-Chairman and secretary of the Party group of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, standing member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, member of the Central People's Government and Minister of Labor, and presided over the formulation of “Trade Union Law of the People's Republic of China”. In 1960, he served as secretary of the Secretariat of the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. He suffered cruel persecution during the “Cultural Revolution”. He died at the age of 68 on June 22, 1967. In March 1980 he was rehabilitated.