Shanghai People's Commune

The Shanghai People's Commune (Chinese: ; pinyin: Shànghǎi Rénmín Gōngshè) was established in January 1967 during the January Storm (Chinese: 一月风暴), also known as the January Revolution (Chinese: 一月革命), of China's Cultural Revolution.

The Commune was modelled on the Paris Commune. It lasted less than a month before it was replaced.

As the Cultural Revolution gained momentum in 1966, it became clearly evident that Chairman Mao Zedong and his Maoist followers in Beijing had underestimated the ability of local party organizations to resist the attacks from Red Guards. By the end of 1966 many local party groupings had survived by paying homage to Maoist teachings while countering the attacks of local Maoists.

To break the stalemate which had begun to form, Maoist leaders called for the "seizure of power by proletarian revolutionaries", a concept originally mentioned in the Sixteen Articles (a statement of the aims of the Cultural Revolution approved at the 11th Plenum of the Communist Party of China in August 1966). Shanghai was chosen as the first place where this "seizure" would be attempted.

Shanghai's experience of the Cultural Revolution had begun in the summer of 1966 with the formation of Red Guard groups proclaiming their loyalty to Chairman Mao. The movement quickly became heavily factionalized (as was the norm), but also rapidly developed very radical tendencies, with attacks on the authority of the city's mayor and physical attacks on government buildings. By the autumn of the same year, the spirit of rebellion had spread from the city's schools to the factories, and there soon followed the creation of many different worker-based groups. In November, several of these groups proceeded to form an alliance (the 'Headquarters of the Revolutionary Revolt of Shanghai Workers') led by Wang Hongwen.

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