Social Democrats merely by utilizing a fake leftist discourse. In 1928, however, the Communist Party adopted a position to work for the unification of the Japan Labour-Farmer Party and the Labour-Farmer Party. The Communist Party directed cadres to work within the Japan Labour-Farmer Party. In practice, however, they could not establish any foothold inside the party like they had in the Labour-Farmer Party. Mass organizations The 1926 split in the Social Democratic Party was followed by a split in the Sodomei trade union centre. The leaders of the Japan Labour-Farmer Party were asked to resign from their leadership positions in Sodomei, as they refused they were expelled from the organization. The Japan Labour-Farmer Party regrouped their followers in the labour movement and formed a new trade union centre of their own, the Japan Labour Union League. In February 1927, farmers sympathizing with the party broke away from the Social Democratic Party-led General Federation of Japanese Peasant Unions, and formed the All-Japan Peasant Union as the agrarian wing of the Japan Labour-Farmer Party. In October 1927, a women's organization connection to the party was formed, the National Women's League. 1927 and 1928 elections According to a 1927 Communist Party document, the party was estimated to have around 6,000 members. The party won three seats in the prefectural elections in October 1927. In total it had presented 32 candidates, whom together got 34,718 votes. Ahead of the 1928 national Diet elections the Japan Labour-Farmer Party proposed various far-reaching reforms, such as scrapping military education for students and introducing government regulations on food prices. The election was characterized by fierce confrontations not only between the governing side and the opposition, but also between the different proletarian parties. Moreover, the proletarian parties lacked well-known candidates and the financial resources of the established politicians. Bribery and coercion was common in several constituencies. In Ashio, where the Japan Labour-Farmer Party leader Asō Hisashi stood as a candidate, police used to break up electoral meetings of the party and the local mining company contributed financially to the campaigns of Asō Hisashi's opponents. The party supported 14 candidates in the elections, whom together mustered 93,400 votes (0.9% of the nationwide vote). One of its candidates got elected. (Banno, however, states that the party had 13 candidates, with a combined vote of 86,698 votes, out of whom one was elected.) The sole winner of a parliamentary seat of the