A look at women’s actions both in the urban factories and the emerging rural Soviet districts.

‘Chinese Working Women in the Revolutionary Struggle’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 10 No. 59. December 24, 1930.

It is the working women of China who have to suffer most under the burden of the protracted war of the Kuomintang Generals and the extraordinarily severe economic crisis. The strike struggles of the working women against the capitalist offensive against wage reductions and the lengthening of working hours are becoming more frequent; the peasant women too are taking an increasingly active part in the strikes against taxes and ground rent and also in the armed fights in the Soviet districts The approaching Soviet Congress is calling forth great sympathy among the working masses. Among the first to elect delegates to the Soviet Congress were the thousands of working women of the Shanghai silk mills who elected three delegates at the strike Conference on 23rd October last This campaign soon spread to other branches of industry.

In the middle of October practically the whole of the 106 spinning mills in Shanghai were closed. More than 100,000 working women were thrown out of work. They do not receive any relief whatever and their sufferings were indescribable. In the last few months the Kuomintang government has issued a State loan amounting to 10 million Chinese dollars for the purpose of subventioning and maintaining the silk industry. The first condition for the reopening of the factories is a general wage cut of 2 per cent. The working women were told that they must share the burden of the economic crisis together with the employers for the benefit of the community. A part of the working women, driven by the whip of hunger, returned to work. Nevertheless there prevailed a very militant mood. The women are saying: rather be without work than accept wage cuts. Today the clerks and employees have taken up the fight. The stokers in the new factories have ceased work in order to render it impossible to start the works again. The employers’ proclamations are everywhere torn down. The Kuomintang sent police reinforcements to guard the factories, and threatened the ring leaders with severe punishment.

In August the working women in the silk factories carried out a general strike, which however ended in a defeat. The chief reason for this defeat was the inadequate leadership of the red trade unions. In the meantime a general wage cut was effected. Wages now amount to 30 to 60 Pfennigs a day. Rationalisation is carried out to an unheard of extent: at the same time the working women are subjected to corporal punishment. But the working women are not despondent. A number of smaller strikes are being carried out with courage and tenacity. The families of the working women who were arrested enforced their release. The yellow and reformist trade union leaders were driven away with blows of fists and chairs. Equipped with the lessons drawn from the former struggles, the working women of the silk factories are facing new and greater struggles.

Great struggles against wage cuts, lengthening of the working day, corporal punishment and dismissals have taken place in the textile, cigarette and match factories. In October last 7000 textile working men and women went on strike in Shanghai and 4000 in Tsingtao. The strikes in these industries embraced 21,000 working men and women in October, and were mostly led by the Red trade unions. In spite of suppression by the Kuomintang and betrayal on the part of the liquidators and renegades, partial victories have been achieved.

In November the American tobacco factory resumed work; Nanyang Brothers, the largest Chinese Tobacco company, are about to resume work. There is taking place a systematic replacement of dear by cheaper labour, the substitution of male labour by female labour, of the skilled by the unskilled. The textile factories are also adopting the same course.

The temporary armistice between the Kuomintang Generals has only led to a partial revival of industry. The armaments for new wars place enormous taxation burdens upon industry. The capitalist offensive is encountering the resistance of the workers: mass strikes will be the inevitable outcome of the situation.

In the Soviet districts in South West Kiangsi two thirds of the women are engaged in production, the remaining third are debarred from production owing to the small crippled feet, a result of the old barbaric practice of binding the feet. Since the Soviet law has given them equal rights with men in regard to elections, the usufruct of land, marriage, they are developing a great activity in the revolutionary struggles. For the greater part the women are small-holders or agricultural workers. They are organising agitprop groups, courier service, first aid groups, laundry and tailors’ groups. They are active in every defence organisation as pioneers, red guards and even in the Red Army. Shock troops of women took part in the fights for Kian; they number about 2 per cent of all the revolutionary troops.

Women are represented in every Soviet committee, agrarian committee etc.: they even occupy the posts of chairmen and secretaries. Women’s Committees, dealing chiefly with women’s questions, are organised by the Soviets. The political and economic questions are solved without difficulty. But the greatest difficulties arise from the marriage and divorce questions. This is not surprising if one bears in mind that the Chinese women have for thousands of years been without any rights, suppressed and enslaved, and now all at once they are receiving full freedom. In the Yun-Shin district a Soviet delegate conference, after a very lively discussion of this problem, finally agreed that marriage must be quite voluntary, but that divorce can only be granted on the following grounds: 1. counter-revolutionary activity. 2. long separation from the husband (except in the case of Red soldiers and those who are in the military service of the or revolution). 3. on account of vice, 4. mutual agreement. The Soviet Congress will settle the details in this respect.

In June last the number of organised women in South West Kiangsi was 100,000 and has since increased to 300,000. Their demands are: 1. participation in the Red Army; 2. economic independence; 3. absolute freedom in marriage; 4. establishment of children’s nurseries and kindergarten; 5. instruction in reading and writing. In order to realise the demands they are heroically fighting for the Soviet Power.

The women in Tunkiang are already on a higher cultural level and have undistorted feet. They have already gone through several revolutionary struggles and therefore display greater activity. Vast numbers of them are organised in peasant leagues and trade unions of agricultural workers. The following are a few statistics showing the number of women organised:

Maishin—300,000.
Funshun (in peasant leagues)—45,000.
Wuhua—over 10,000.
Shinin—over 1,000.
Tapu (in the trade union of agricultural workers)—500.
Chaugnan (in peasant leagues and others)–15,000.
Yauping (in peasant leagues and others)—over 2,000.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1930/v10n59-dec-24-1930-Inprecor-op.pdf