Opening Address at the Welcome Banquet for
Delegates to the Pacific Labor Conference

(May 31, 1927)

It is of extremely great significance that the Pacific Labor Conference is held
this time in Hankou. For this reason, the All-China Peasant Association and
the Provincial Peasant Association hosted a welcome banquet in the Pu Hai
Chun Restaurant in Hankou on May 31. The peasant associations of
Wu[chang], Yang[xin] and Xia[kou] xian also participated. About one hundred
people attended the welcome banquet, including Mao Zedong from the All-China Peasant Association; Chen Yinlin, Fu Xiangyi, Guo Shuxun, and Deng
Yasheng from the Provincial Peasant Association; and representatives from
Wu, Yang, and Xia xian. Twenty-eight delegates to the Pacific Labor Conference were invited to attend the banquet as guests. It began with an opening
address by Mao Zedong, the chairman [of the banquet]. The gist of his remarks
was as follows:

The Chinese revolution is a part of the world revolution. In the past, this was no
more than an empty slogan, but the welcome banquet today has already given
substance to it. The international imperialists, in an attempt to oppose the Chinese revolution, have already fabricated the Second World War. The workers
along the Pacific Rim are the first to raise the banner of righteousness and to
oppose this cruel massacre. The Chinese peasants should become even more
united and follow the workers in their fight to the death. The Chinese peasant
movement is the main force in the revolutionary process. They should especially
go hand in hand with the working class of the whole world and rely deeply on
the influence and guidance of the workers' movement. This demonstrates that
the workers have quite naturally become the leaders of the peasants. It will truly
be of immeasurable benefit to the future of the revolution that the Chinese
peasants are able today to receive guidance from the leaders of the international
proletariat.

--- Notes

This report first appeared in the Hankou Minguo ribao on June 6, 1927. We have translated it from that text as reproduced in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 2, p. 277.