Minneapolis, MN – On Oct. 24, 30 people gathered in Minneapolis to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the Chinese revolution. In an event sponsored by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, they celebrated by watching the movie Founding of a Party, which was followed by a lively discussion about the meaning and importance of the socialist revolution in China.

Founding of a Party was made in 2011, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1921 founding of the Communist Party of China. It was a follow-up to the 2009 movie, Founding of a Republic commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 1949 victory of the Chinese revolution.

Founding of a Party is a Chinese movie with a star-studded cast that portrays the ten years from the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911-1912 to the founding of the Communist Party in 1921. The movie shows the end of the monarchy, and the complex power struggles that ensued between those trying to bring back the monarchy, and various forces within the Republican movement led by Sun Yat Sen. It also shows the emergence of the Chinese student movement and workers’ movement on to the stage of history, out of which emerged the leaders that went on to found the Communist Party of China and lead the revolution.

Before the movie there was a presentation to add political context about the lives of Chinese peasants and workers during the Qing Dynasty and before the 1949 revolution, and the incredible gains that have been made by workers and peasants as a result of the revolution and socialism. A central lesson of the movie is that none of those gains would have been possible without the creation of the Communist Party to lead the struggle through its many complex twists and turns.

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