Mass organisations in China coalesced into two hostile factions, the radicals who backed Mao's purge of the Communist party, and the conservatives who backed the moderate party establishment. At his birthday party on 26 December 1966, Mao declared an "All-round civil war" to resolve the standoff and asked the military forces of PLA to support "the Left," which was however not clearly defined. As the PLA commanders had developed close working relations with the party establishment, many military units worked instead to repress Mao's radicals.