ABSTRACT
On April 12, 1927, brutal attacks on Communist unions in Shanghai by Kuomintang troops and affiliated underground gangs brought the first united front between the Nationalists and the Chinese Communists to a bloody conclusion. More than just a political defeat for the Communists, the purge necessitated a change in revolutionary strategy by indicating the frailty of Communist organization in the urban areas. The cities, as bastions of Chinese and foreign wealth and power, did not offer a safe haven for labor unions, regardless of Marxian dictates which required the proletariat to serve as engine of the future revolution.
