January 1928
The outcome and the lessons of the Chinese revolution, a revolution that constitutes
one of the greatest events in world history, have been kept in obscurity, barred from
discussion, and have not been assimilated by the public opinion of the proletarian
vanguard. In reality the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party has prohibited
discussion of the questions related to the Chinese revolution. But without studying the
mistakes that were committed-the classic mistakes of opportunism-it is impossible to
imagine the future revolutionary preparation of the proletarian parties of Europe and
Asia.
Aside from the question of knowing who was directly responsible for the leadership of the
December events in Canton, these events furnish a striking example of putschism during the
ebb of the revolutionary wave. In a revolutionary period, a deviation towards putschism is
often the result of defeats whose direct cause is to be found in an opportunist
leadership. The Communist International cannot take a single new step forward without
first drawing the lessons of the experience of the Canton uprising, in correlation with
the course of the Chinese revolution as a whole. This is one of the main tasks of the
Sixth World Congress. The repressive measures taken against the left wing will not only
fail to correct the mistakes already made, but even more serious, they will teach nothing
to anyone.
Published in English for the first time. Excerpted from "Appeal of the Deportees." Text from Contre le Courant (Paris), February 11, 1928. Translated from the French by Jeff White.