Earl Browder

“ Will the Chinese revolution from now on become purely a bourgeois movement, ending in the establishment of a unified bourgeois China with workers and peasants suppressed?
The defeat of the revolution is certainly but temporary and partial. None of the problems of the revolution have been solved, and the masses of China are in motion. Nothing can stop the movement of these 400 million people, except the solution of their life problems, which are the problems of the revolution.
It is impossible for the workers and peasants to be eliminated from the nationalist movement. ”

“ It is the same class which fights mercilessly against you, soldiers and sailors, who but yesterday were workers and farmers yourselves, and who tomorrow will be workers and farmers again.
Like you, the Chinese people suffer from this exploitation. Like you, they aspire to liberation. Like you, they struggle to improve their miserable conditions. ”

“ I emphasize this situation in Kianfu because it is the best concrete instance that I know of to illustrate the revolutionary role of those sections of the proletariat (coolies and artisans) who have as yet been affected by modern industry only in a negative way. Kianfu was a revolutionary oasis in a desert of counter-revolution in the province, so far as governmental power was concerned. But from this point on we were again immersed in civil war. At Changshu-ki we found the trade unions existing in a semi-legal condition, the city being under the control of the chief bankers. ”

“ Organizing what is practically a new government from below, with its own armed forces for defense, the Peasant Movement is transforming China from one of the most backward countries into a modern land. ”

“ Hankow is the capital city of Nationalist China. It is the industrial and commercial center of China, having the most modern industry and developed working class of any city except Shanghai, which is in many respects a foreign city. As might be expected, therefore, the labor movement here is the most highly developed. There are 300,000 trade union members in the Wuhan cities (Hankow, Wuchang and Hanyang) which make up one economic whole. In order to have a definite idea of the conditions of these 300,000 workers, it is necessary to examine in detail a few separate groups. ”

“ What is the difference between Chiang Kai Shek's murdering the workers at Kiukiang, and Wu Pei-fu's murdering the workers of Kin Han Railway, and between his poisoning party members and Chang Tsung-chang's killing the Nationalists at Tientsin?
To speak frankly, Chiang Kai Shek is no longer a Kuomintang member, for he has fundamentally overthrown the Presdent's policy of alliance with Russia, and the Peasant and Labor policies. He is not worthy to be a follower of the President. He is not worthy to be a man . ”

“ The wage for artisans of average skill is about $20 per month when he has been in the trade for 10 years. In addition to his wage, the artisan gets fed a bowl of rice, twice or three times a day, with a piece of pork twice a month; and has a hole to sleep in, or a bench in the shop.
The coolies form a large and important part of the working class in Canton, as everywhere in China. There are several groups, such as rickshaw coolies, warehouse coolies, etc. They perform the labor that in other countries is done by animals or machinery ”

“ Only under the condition, therefore, of the working class playing the leading role, and the peasantry furnishing the main driving force and the city petty-bourgeoisie supplementing this combination with its technical and political aid, is it possible for the Chinese revolution to move forward now to the establisment of a firmly united China proceeding to solve its social and economic problems and holding its own against foreign aggression. ”

“ Counter-Revolution in Kanchow
After leaving Canton we plunged into an atmosphere of even more active civil war. For us this atmosphere crystallized itself around the name of Kanchow, the third largest city of Kiangsi province. Days before reaching there we began to hear of events which had spread terror throughout the trade union and peasant movement of the south. At Nananfu on March 16th we had a conference with the leaders of the trade unions and peasant unions. They told us: "The countryside is in terror; the Kuominchun (revolutionary army) has turned against the people. ”

“ The Communist Party of China always has recognized frankly and honestly that the Kuomintang and the Three People's Principles laid down by our late leader, Sun Yat-sen, are the foundation of the Nationalist movement. It is only counter-revolutionaries who seek to overthrow the San Min principles of the Kuomintang, and it is only counter-revolutionaries who seek to split the Nationalist front . ”

“ The average earnings of an able-bodied young coolie is $15 (Chinese) per month—when employed. Unemployment, a terrible scourge for all kinds of labor in China, is especially chronic among the coolies, on account of the constant flow of peasants, driven from the land, coming into the cities. Old and infirm coolies live from hand to mouth on the few coppers they pick up here and there from odd jobs. ”

“ Gradually order and system is being brought even into the lives of these miserable shop clerks. In Canton, after a long strike, the hours of clerks in the big department stores were limited to 10 per day. In the small stores hours are still 13 to 16 per day. In some of the tea houses the hours are 12, because they keep open night and day and the Union will no longer permit the 24-hour shift that used to prevail, when the workers slept at odd moments when there were no customers but had to be present at all times ready for work. ”

“ It is the very same ruling class which exploits you, and your brothers and sisters, in your own country. It is the same class which draws scandalous profits and enriches itself from your toil and misery. ”

“ Women and child labor is even more exploited than that of men. Generally their wages are from 30% to 60% of that of men. Besides ordinary coolie labor, they are found principally in the small factories (matches, hosiery, silk, food preparation, etc.) . There are 16,000 women members in the trade unions of Canton, which the union leaders claim is 80% of the women workers. The hosiery workers are 100% organized, the match factories 70%. Women and children have relatively made the greatest gains from trade union organization. ”

“ In the administration of the Union, the women are taking a constantly increasing part. Although women in China are only now emerging from the terrible fetters of feudalism, bound-feet, and double-oppression, they are displaying a remarkable talent which already has given them a position in the trade union movement of China at least equal to that of women in the United States. ”

“ Thus, the rickshaw coolies, even in Canton, pay a tax which, in proportion to their earnings, is doubtless the heaviest borne by any section of the population. Paid in the first place to the Government by the owner of the rickshaw, it is then added to the rent which the coolie must pay; but when it gets to the coolie it is 12 cents per day, instead of five. The coolies of all kinds and grades suffer from the middleman, who contracts jobs and then lets them out to all sorts of sub-middlemen, so that the coolies get about half or less of what has actually been paid for the work. ”

“ Conditions of labor are bad, but rather above the average of even industrial workers in China, and considerably better than artisans. Hours of labor are 12 per day. In most of the mills there is no lunch time off. Pay is mostly by piece-work. Wages run from 30 to 50 cents per day, depending upon the volume of work available, being now about 30 cents. The working week is six days. The six-day week prevails in Shanghai also, but in Hankow the workers get paid for seven days, the extra day being paid for at the average rate of earnings for the week. ”

“ And this necessity of revolutionary solution for the problems of existence of hundreds of millions is the guarantee that the Chinese workers and peasants will rise again and again if necessary; and that there is no peace for China until these problems have been solved.
It is in the interests of all workers in America to help the Chinese masses in this most difficult struggle. ”

“ The Canton Mechanics Union is one of the older labor organizations in China. It claims a history since 1905 when it was organized along the lines of the old Chinese Guilds, comprising workers and employers alike. In the old days it conducted struggles only against the British in Hongkong. In 1922–23, at the time when the trade union movement proper was organizing itself in the All-China Labor Federation, this Canton Mechanics Union partially reformed itself into a trade union in a modern sense. ”

“ The scholar fields are lands of which the incomes have been assigned to certain learned persons as a reward for learning. These lands are either assigned from ancestral land to some one who has made his clan famous by becoming a scholar, or by a society of learning from great estates or funds procured from the government. These societies are a trade union of the literate sections of the village ruling class. All these lands are cultivated by propertyless tenants.
The mass of peasantry gets no benefits from public lands. ”

“ I have already dealt with the textile workers, who represent those workers most thoroughly brought under the conditions of modern machine production. The rickshaw and cart coolies, who are the least directly influenced by modern methods in their work will balance the picture. These two groups may be taken as the two extremes of the working class in Wuhan. Conditions of artisans here are much the same as elsewhere. ”

“ Throughout the pamphlet I have taken for granted that the reader has a general knowledge of China, and of the Chinese revolution up to 1926, in the main aspects a reported currently in the capitalist newspapers and magazines. It is assumed that the reader knows of the fall of the Manchu Dynasty (1911) the resignation of the Dr. Sun Yat-sen in favor of Yuan Shih-kai as President of the Chinese Republic; the attempt of Yuan Shih-kai to make himself Emperor and establish a new dynasty, with the resulting revolt of the South, and the death of Yuan Shih-kai (1914) ”

“ However, our Delegation, consisting of representatives of the British, French and American workers, have traversed Southern China, and have everywhere been received with open arms and with the greatest enthusiasm by the Chinese people. Everywhere the workers, peasants, students, soldiers, merchants and artisans have manifested the complete unity of the oppressed peoples of the East with the exploited classes of the West. ”

“ The trade unions and city Kuomintang of Kiukiang had just been burying their dead, killed in a pitched battle with the reactionaries a week before our arrival. Here as elsewhere under civil war conditions we had the experience of the actual street fighting being suspended during our visit while the leaders of both sides talked to us. The tactic of the right wing was always to prevent us from getting information, and to endeavor to occupy all of our time with formalities, banquets, and entertainments. ”

“ Then the movement began to revive. On January 18, 1925, occurred the beginning of a series of strikes in Shanghai, Tsingtao, and other cities. These were all successful, and regained some of the losses of hours, wages, and conditions which had been lost in the period of reaction. This period had been made use of by the workers to assimilate the lessons of past experiences. There occurred during this period a great change among the leaders of the Kuomintang, who finally had come to realize the vastly important role of the working class in the Chinese nation revolution. ”

“ Although the city working class is the leader of the Chinese revolution, and has occupied the forefront of the stage, yet it is the peasantry, and the problem of the land, that forms the key to the Revolution in its present stage of development. ”

“ After greeting the gathering as the highest organ of the Chinese revolution, and explaining why the workers of the West have such deep confidence in the complete success of the revolution, he dealt at length with the situation of American Imperialism and its role. ”

“ Trade union leaders were in hiding, and their headquarters were guarded by soldiers of a "Left" Army to prevent their destruction by soldiers of the official garrison. Wages and working conditions were the worst we had seen. The artisans were receiving 10 to 15 cents per day; the hosiery industry employing a large number of women, was paying 15 cents per day without food; 40% of all workers were unemployed. ”

“ The Central Kuomintang, through the Northern Expedition, had emerged from the narrow confines of Kwantung Province; there had been an enormous release of revolutionary forces, in the organization of eight million peasants and workers in the conquered Provinces; the masses had learned that their own revolutionary energy and initiative was the basis of the military victories ”

“ China's socalled public lands are in effect though not formally absorbed into the system of private ownership. There are 3 main forms of public lands, ancestral lands, village lands, and scholar fields. The most important is the ancestral land, which in Kwantung province comprises 25% of all cultivated fields. Rich landholders many generations ago set aside portions of their holdings to be preserved from division or sale, the produce of which was to be devoted to ancestor worship. Many also provided that a proportion of the income must be used to purchase additional land. ”

“ According to the logic of political struggle, it was necessary for the Wuhan Government to turn to the left, to base itself more squarely and consciously upon the labor and peasant movement in China and internationally. ”

“ Some unions, which existed before for many years during the illegal period, are stronger and more solid. Others of the new organizations in the trade union movement may not yet make such a good showing. But on the whole, the Textile Workers Union of Wuhan may serve as a good sample of the Chinese Labor Movement.
15. Wages and Working Conditions in Canton
There is so little exact data on wages and working conditions in China, that every bit of information that can be added to the store of information on the subject is of value. ”