Severe Confusion in the Cultural Revolution

Criticism against "reactionary bourgeois authorities" made China drop into confusion, and China had no government for a while. Under such conditions it was clear that it would be hard to keep promoting the Cultural Revolution, and Mao had already recognised that. He said 1967 would be " a year in which the class battle will expand all over China". And he expected that Shanghai would become the model of how to get out of confusion.

The Red Guards, like the other Party committees in other main cities attacked the Party committee in Shanghai. At that time a battle between the Red Guards and the workers took place, but even among the workers rebel groups formed, and they beat workers who were against the Cultural Revolution. The Party committee lost power, and Shanghai's government collapsed. Although the rebel group made their own newspaper, workers who were against the revolution opposed them and the Red Guards, striking for higher pay. In consequence Shanghai was economically paralysed. After receiving instructions from the Authority of the Cultural Revolution, the rebel group held a meeting to defeat the Party committee, declare the take over of power, and halt the strike.

Mao praised the movement in Shanghai, as he would encourage the promotion of the Cultural Revolution all over China. The Cultural Revolution Authority also regarded the movement by the rebels as "completely right", in not tolerating the economic demands by workers.

In those days the battle to take the initiative raged among the rebels. A rebel group, including Wang Hongwen, tried to take power, but the subsequent group to rebel established their own power.

Shanghai People's Commune

Finally in February the "Shanghai People's Commune" was established. It declared the "new organisation of regional national power" formed only of the working classes excluding the power of Party committees and the people's committees.

But the Shanghai People's Commune couldn't get the approval of the Party Central Committee because of the "February Resistance". That old movement and the Cultural Revolution Authority had a hot argument about the methods of the Cultural Revolution. The members of the Politburo got angry because the Cultural Revolution Authority had established the Shanghai