Labor and the Chinese Revolution by S. Bernard Thomas

Author:S. Bernard Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VIII

From the Japanese Surrender to Communist Victory: 1945-48 Labor Policies

As the war moved into its final phase during the first half of 1945, the CCP again turned its attention to the cities and to the urban labor movement in anticipation of occupying many towns and cities (particularly in north China) during the final battles against the Japanese as well as in preparation for the inevitable postwar political and/or military contest with the KMT. The Communist position vis-à-vis the KMT in 1945 was, of course, far stronger than it had been at the time of the 1937 united-front agreements; at the same time, the hostility of each side toward the other had been intensifying, the formerly unifying pressures of the Japanese threat no longer operative.1 Both sides moved to improve their military positions in the wake of the Japanese surrender in August 1945, while efforts to negotiate cease-fire arrangements and to resolve the complex political and military issues separating the two parties were undertaken. This proved to be an intricate, protracted, and ultimately fruitless task, which finally exploded into full-scale civil war by the end of 1946.

As an indication of their intensified military pressure against Japanese-occupied areas during the early months of 1945, the Communists reported more than a hundred towns under their control by May 1945, a number which increased to 175 two weeks after the Japanese surrender and to more than 190 by the end of 1945.2 Among them was the important city of Kalgan (Changchiak’ou), capital of Chahar Province, which was under Communist control from late August 1945 until its occupation by Nationalist forces in early October 1946. In the spring of 1946, as part of the great postwar expansion of their power in Manchuria, the Communists occupied Harbin, the major north Manchurian city, which remained permanently in their hands and became the scene of the 1948 congress which reconstituted a national labor federation under Communist leadership for the first time since the 1920s.

In response to this developing situation, the CCP took steps early in 1945 to create a unified structure for the labor organizations of the Communist base areas. This was presumably envisaged as both a nucleus and a foundation for future progress toward a new national labor body and, more immediately, as a Communist labor grouping that could parallel the functions of the KMT-sponsored CAL on the national scene and at the same time maintain an affiliation with the latter body.3 Reporting to the United States State Department from Yenan on this development, John Service observed that this action was “a logical step” toward an open Communist challenge to the National government and toward a possible move to consolidate the various base areas under a single government. Noting that the Communists were then claiming a union membership of 800,000 (including secret organizations among workers in Japanese-held mines and railways in north and central China), Service added that in “setting up their own general labor organization, the Communists prepare for competition with the Kuomintang when it [the KMT] tries to regain control of [the] cities and the occupied areas of Central and North China.

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