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imported by Sun Yat Sen to re-organise the Kuomintang. The
party split into two factions of which the. more extreme
approximated to the Communist party, advocated the unification of China by military force, and encouraged the formation of unions of peasants and labourers to that end. During the same year the pro-Communist or Communist section of the Kuomintang established itself firmly in Canton, having suppressed the opposition of the Merchant Volunteers.
,
The country was in a state of ferment. A National Labour Conference was held in Canton in May 1925, with 250 delegates said to represent 570,000 organised labourers. An all-China Labour Federation was formed and it was decided to
affiliate with the Red International of Labour Unions. The re were serious incidents at Shanghai (30th May), at Hankow and and Kiukiang, and Shameen (the British Concession at Canton) (23rd June). This was followed by the Canton-Hong Kong Boycott and General Strike during which about a hundred thousand labourers left Hong Kong, and which lasted till 10th October, 1926. Meanwhile, on 9th July, 1926, the Northern Expedition was inaugurated under Chiang Kai Shek who had been principal of the Whampoa Militery Academy, and was appointed commander- in-chief of the Kuomintang forces, which had been trained and were directed by Russians. In August, a quarrel between the right and left wings of organized labour in Canton led to the passing of regulations by the Canton Government for the settle- ment of disputes among the labourers. These regulations prohibited the use of arms by labourers. On 23rd September the Political Council of Canton decided to terminate the boycott of Hong Kong. After considerable military success, a split between the moderates and extremists in the Kuomintang culmin- ated in April, 1927, with the expulsion of the Communists from the party by Chiang Kai Shek, the closing of the Shanghai General Labour Federation and the suppression of the Communists in Canton. In December 1927, occurred & Communist coup d'etat at Canton, which received no popular support and was quickly suppressed.
Prior to the inception of the Republic there were no trade unions in the modern sense, and their history for the last twentt-five years is a history of Chinese politics with their rise to power in the radical revolution of 1925-6 and
In 1926, their subsequent decline to practical impotence.
there were 180 labour unions in Canton of which only 74 originated from guilds, the remainder being new organizations. They were mostly under two lenour federations, the Kwangtung Provincial Federation of Labour Unions and the Labour Congress, which were the Right and Left or Communist Wings. The total
union