The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-03-31
BY SOU CHAo-JEN.


Another instrument of the bour-
geoisie within the working class is
the Mechanics Union in Canton and
Hongkong. This union has a history
and some masses. Formerly is he'd
eight or ten percent of the workers;
it grew out of a guild, is ruled by
small group of reactionaries who
have always been in intimate rela-
tons with the reaction; it supported
Chen Chung ming when that mill
tarist drove DR.. Sun Yat-sen out of
Canton, and now it supports the new
r'ilitarists who rule the Kuomintang.
But although the leaders who rule
this Union with Fascist methods are
rcactionary, the workers whom they
control are not as bad.
Long Strike.
A section of their members have
been striking five months under our
leadership.
The members therefore are now
growing friendly to us and hostile to
their leaders; they say "our leaders
fell us to support the Kuomintang,
but they get us nothing from the
Kuon1intang, the police Cypress US
and we receive no protection; they
have led us on the wrong path" ard
"wh,- onnose the Red trade unions
and the Communists when they sup
mort us. rid whom we agree with their
demands 2" Another significant de-
velopment in the Mechanics Union is
seen among the dockworkers of Hong
kong. who have been dominated by
that Union.
Force Action.
They mad a movement in Noven-
Der against contracting and for full
money wage; the Mechanics Union
opposed them. hut our secret Unions
gave them help A mass meeting
adorted a resolution, proposed by us,
forcing action; but the Mechanics
Union, Theoretically bowling to this
decision Of the masses, secretly went
tc the Government of Hongkong and
betrayed the leaders of the move
1 Il.
how to crush it. Then they stepped
in. and accepted settlement which
they called a Compromise" in which
the workers lost their demands but
gained few more minutes for lunch
time.
The workers ere enraged ard see
the treachery of the Mechanics Union
leaders: now it is much easier to dis
credit this leactionary tool before the
workers Of Hongkong; although it
still in Carton controls the arsenal
end waterworks But even there, the
temper of the workers themselves
may be seen in the fact that on De-
cember II, IL and 13, when the Sow
let Power ruled in Canton. these
workers continued their work with
cut striking, and expressed their ap-
proval of our Slogans. The entire
strength of the Mechanics Union as
courter-revolutiona force lies not
/ in anv masses of workers, but in it's
military force. the so-called "Physi-
cal Culture Groups"
Chiang's Tool.
A third tool has now been estab-
lished in Shanghai by Chang Kali
shek. known as the Labor Fedora
ton" The Labor Unification Com
mittee" originally set up by him had
been so thoroughly discredited that
it was necessary to find new in
strument. 1t pretends to oppose the
Qualification Committee" but in real
/ ity it is the same thing. 1t cleverly
began with new tactics, offering to
assist the strikers of the British
American Tobacco Co. "a strike be-
gun by us) Under cover Of sub
sidy to the strikers, they arrested our
| leaders, and then compromised with
the employers, getting few insig
nificant concessions for the workers.
and several million dollars for the
government. When the workers bring
| forward demands, the new Fedora
ton" is more prompt to attend, and
tries to get some little gains. 1t
uses the mask Of reformis,n, and talks
about establishing connections with
Geneva and Amsterdam. Therefore it.
like the Mechanics Union, is more
dangerous than the Reorganization
Committees" and the Labor Unifica-
ton Committee"