Heller, here as head of the Eastern Department of the Profintern, on the formative moves of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat (PPTUS). Established first in China in May 1927, the PPTUS had to move its offices to San Francisco after the fall of the Shanghai Commune in 1927. Constituents would include the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Indonesian Labor Federation, the Japanese Trade Union Council, the National Minority Movement (UK Colonies), the Confédération Générale du Travail Unitaire (French Colonies), the Korean Workers and Peasants Federation, the Philippine Labor Congress, the National Confederation of Farm Laborers and Tenants of the Philippines, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions of the Soviet Union, and the Trade Union Educational League of the U.S.

‘The Trade Union Conference of the Pacific Ocean Countries and the Labour Movement in the Far East’ by Lev Heller from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 7 No. 36. June 23, 1927.

In the last two years the Chinese revolution and the growth of the Left wing in the labour movements of India and Japan as a result of the general change in universal economy and politics in the Far East have attracted the attention of the ruling classes and of the reformists alike in a growing degree to the labour movements of the East.

In India, where the labour movement is still greatly influenced by the bourgeois and Right nationalist elements, reformists meet with no very serious difficulties in their activity. The representatives of the British Labour Party and British trade unions who have been sent as delegates to India have already made successful attempts to bring the labour movement of India under the influence of British trade unionism and thereby also under the influence of the ruling class in Great Britain.

In Japan the situation is somewhat more complicated. There the Right wing under the leadership of Susuki had to effect a decided split, thus still further dividing up the already dismembered movement in Japan for the purpose of turning the Rodo Sodomei (Japanese Labour Federation) into a bodyguard of the reformist tendencies in the country. This naturally did not hinder the rapid development of the revolutionary wing of the Japanese labour movement, but the entire Japanese bourgeoisie and the reformists of the world have now an ally in the Rodo Sodomei.

The most difficult problem with which the reformists are faced, is the position in China. True, there are yellow labour organisations in Southern China, at Canton, e.g. the Kwantung Federation and the Union of Mechanics, but these are the only props the reformists have in all the vast realm. The reformist organisations comprise only one per cent of all the trade union movement, and outside Canton they command only quite insignificant groups. The overwhelming majority of the labour movement, very nearly 99 per cent pronouncedly represents the standpoint of revolutionary class warfare.

With a view to forming a breech in the Chinese labour movement, it was resolved that the international reformist forces be mobilised. To his end the Pan-Asiatic Workers’ Conference was envisaged at Geneva two years ago, on the occasion of the conference of the Labour Office attached to the League of Nations. The purpose of this planned conference was obviously that of combining the Chinese labour movement with the reformist movement in India. But the Pan-Asiatic Conference has not yet been realised by reason of the resistance which the Chinese workers offered to the reformist plans.

The latest events in China have encouraged the hopes of the reformists, who hastened to exploit the new situation with a view to penetrating into the Chinese labour movement. A few days after Chang Kai-shek’s coup, the Right Japanese organisation known as the National-Socialist Party, sent its delegates to Shanghai for the purpose of getting into touch with the new “associations” of Chang Kai-shek, which in their turn sent representatives to Tokio. According to press reports the attempt was made to convoke for this summer some conference after the manner of the Pan-Asiatic Conference originally planned.

The proletariat of Asia is to be saved from the influence of the Red International of Labour Unions. The connection of the labour movement of the East with the revolutionary Jabour movement of the West and the workers of the Soviet Union is to be loosened, the labour movement of Asia being drawn into the sphere of interests of the reformists (i.e. of Amsterdam) and the Geneva Labour Office attached to the League of Nations. In this way the labour movement of the East is to be rendered harmless to international imperialism, which is the real task which has always occupied, and still occupies, the attention of the reformists. The fact that in all these matters the conduct and initiative are in the hands of the League of Nations Labour Office, which has erected a special branch at Tokio for the purpose of more effective work in the countries of the Far East, plainly shows for what interests the reformists are at work in the East.

But far in advance of the reformists, the revolutionary wing of the labour movement turned its attention to the Far East.

In contradistinction to Amsterdam, which was until quite recent times in all essential details a purely European organisation, the R.I.L.U. has from its very inception endeavoured to be truly international and has indeed succeeded in being so international in the sense that it represents the revolutionary labour movement of all countries and all continents. Already five years ago the labour movement in the Pacific Ocean countries attracted the attention of the R.I.L.U. Already on the occasion of its Second Congress, in the year 1922, the suggestion of the Australian delegation regarding the convocation of a workers’ conference of the Pacific Ocean countries, was accepted. This occurred at a time when the danger of an armed conflict between the United States and Japan appeared particularly acute. But the immediate danger passed over, and the convocation of a conference was postponed. It was, indeed, partly replaced by the Congress of the Transport Workers of the Far East in the year 1924, at which representatives of China, Indo-China, and the Philippines were present. It was not until 1926 that the question of convoking this conference was again broached.

The Trade Union Conference of the Pacific Ocean Countries, which was to have been opened at Canton on May 1st, was intended to be on a particularly broad basis as regards participation. The organisatory committee consisted of the Trade Union Council of Sidney (Australia) and the All-China Labour Federation. All steps were taken to ensure this conference being attended by representatives of the broad masses of the Chinese trade union movement and also by the peasant movement of Japan, which is well-known to be in close connection with the Japanese workers’ movement. It was likewise intended that the conference be attended by representatives from the Japanese colonies Formosa and Corea, the Philippines and the East Indian Islands, and the American countries bordering on the Pacific, viz. Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America.

The entire political position appeared highly favourable for the convocation of such a conference. However, the counter-revolutionary coups at Shanghai, Canton, and a number of other towns of Southern China altogether altered the position and very greatly impeded the task of convoking a conference, since in all these large cities the revolutionary movement was denounced as illegal, while the big industrial centres of China were divided from one another by the military operations. The Governments of Great Britain, Australia, and Japan did what they could to prevent the conference by purely disciplinary means, such as the arrest of delegates and the refusal of passports. Nevertheless, the conference was merely delayed and transferred from Canton to Hankow. In spite of all obstacles, a considerable number of delegates from Japan and the representatives of Java, Corea, and the American Pacific Ocean countries succeeded in reaching this centre of the revolutionary labour movement.

The Trade Union Conference of the Countries of the Pacific Ocean concentrated its attention on central questions of international politics, the intervention in China, the war preparations of the British imperialists against the Soviet Union, the general effect of imperialism, the labour movement in the countries of the East with special reference to India, and the role of American imperialism in relation to the broad masses in Latin America. The conference passed a number of important resolutions:

1. To support the Chinese revolution.
2. To protest against the intervention of the imperialists in China.
3. To oppose the danger of war in the countries bordering on the Pacific.
4. To support the national liberation movements in India, Corea, Java, the Philippines, and the countries of Latin America.
5. To support the programme of economic demands of the working classes.

Special attention was paid by the conference to the question of the unity of the trade union movement. This question is of particular importance under circumstances such as prevail in the East. Anyone who has been in the Far East will know how isolated the workers of the individual countries China, India, Japan, are from one another. This both by reason of the great geographic distances, and also in view of the fact that the labour movement is still very young in those countries. The separation, however, is yet far greater, for the Chinese, Indian, and Japanese workers employed in the same factory, or the sailors and stokers of these nationalities serving on the same ship, keep apart from one another and form their own separate groups. The imperialists systematically encourage this separation with all means at their command and very often incite the workers of the different countries against one another. Any approach among the workers of the various nationalities of the Far East to one another meets with the most vehement opposition on the part of the foreign capitalists. The problem of unity in the countries bordering on the Pacific is therefore of the utmost significance and the cry for unity more than usually convincing.

A special resolution passed by the conference referred to the International Labour Office attached to the League of Nations. The reformists of the type of Susuki in Japan attempted to convince the workers of the countries of the East that the Geneva Labour Office was doing very important work. As in a number of Eastern countries there are no laws at all in regard to working hours, the reformists were able to make a great amount of propaganda and to point to the resolutions which were passed in Geneva in the interest of the workers of the East but were never fulfilled, as to quite outstanding achievements.

In a resolution in this connection, the conference declared it

“a matter of duty to warn the workers of the whole world against any connection with the International Labour Office in Geneva and to denounce all labour leaders who maintained such a connection to the detriment of the true interests of their followers”.

“The honest workers”, the resolution goes on to say, “have nothing to expect of this bourgeois institution of Geneva. We want neither class peace nor class collaboration, but only a consequential class warfare against the exploiters.”

At the close of the conference a Secretariat was instituted, which will be of great importance for the development and consolidation of the connection among the organisations represented at this Conference as also for the standardisation of their activity. This Secretariat will comprehend the workers’ organisations of China, Japan, Corea, the United States, Australia, and the Soviet Union. It will prepare the convocation of a Trade Union Congress of the countries bordering on the Pacific, to take place in the course of 1928.

The Trade Union Conference of the Pacific Ocean Countries will be of the greatest significance not only for the Chinese labour movement which is just at present experiencing such hard times, but also for the labour movement throughout the world. More than ever before, the labour movement in China requires the active support of the revolutionary proletariat of the whole world. At the same time the workers of Europe

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. Inprecorr is an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1927/v07n36-jun-23-1927-inprecor-op.pdf