Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-08-09
BY DON FRIFIELD
Contributing Writer

HONG KONG.-To describe the
labor situation in Communist
China is almost a problem in dia-
lectic; nothing is similar to the
United States in terms of what
labor is, what rights 1t has, what
its goals are, and what values
are held by the people and the
government.
1t is as If the mysteries of
the inscrutable Orient" and the
even greater philosophic abstruse-
ueSses Of communism had mated
into something new and strange,
passing understanding. Only &C.
casionally does human nature
shine recognizably through cracks
in the enigma, and only once in a
while we can say that we under
stand what is going on.
All labor in Communist China
is forced labor by any Western
standard. There is no labor
movement" because every man.
woman, and child is part of a
labor pool that the government
may draw from as it pleases and
control as 1t wishes. Policy comes
from above, flltering down the
hierarchy of the Communist
Party. On the surface, the system
is as CLASHES as Alcatraz. but
when you look closely, you see
differences in status, privilege,
earnings, character, and accom-
plishment because China is still
subject to human nature, even
after a decade of Communist rule.
Greet Monpower Resources
Because mainland China's $50
million people give her leaders
the worlds greatest manpower
resources from which to work,
her laboring force in farms and
cities is the largest on earth. 1t
is even more swollen thar in.the
free world because children old
enough to walk, and aged people,
who would be in retirement else
where, are part of the active
labor force. Taken individually,
they are not very efficient, but
their numbers-at least $50 mil
lion-are almost beyond compre-
hension, and a high birth rate
adds at least IL million per year
to their potential number.
Communist China has its. fac
tory workers, miners, construc-
ton workers, pipefitters. and in
deed all the other multitudinous
categories of industrial labor, but
to make these distinctions is to
blur the essential mediocrity of
mass labor in Red China. In
every category, skillS are far below
those of the West, techniqueS just
beginning to evolve under the
Russian aegis, working conditions
close to unthinkable in our terms.
safety and health factors all but
non-eXistent, tools and equipment
basic or primitive with few ex-
ceptionS, and productivity per
worker almost ludicrous by the
standards of America and Eu-
rope, or even Japan.
Communist Dictates
In Communist China, the Com
muniSt Party is the dominant
governing organism. Its dictates
are the law of the land, even be-
fore the laws actually placed on
the books. 1t is enough for a party
newspaper to set down a structure
for it to become as strong as a
statute. Outside the inner circle
of Communist Party policymak-
ers, no disagreement is tolerated.
Since the party theoretically
speaks for the people," it would
be "antipopular" to disagree with
the party.
Following this kind of logic,
there is no place for a labor union,
or indeed a union of manufac-
turers, since the party speaks for
all. The workingman in Commu-
mist China does as he is told,
working for wage decided upon
without consultation with him.
Were he tn disagree with his lot