Chapter 108 Guidelines on trade union work [1]

(August 11, 1949) Comrades: It has been a year since the Sixth National Labor Conference[2].The political program and work guidelines of the Chinese labor movement stipulated by that conference are completely correct and must be realized.The whole situation has changed a lot in the past year, requiring us to do a lot of work.This trade union work meeting will resolve many specific issues in the work. We have a lot of experience, experience of doing well and experience of not doing well.Comrade Li San [3] said that in our work there is a tendency towards closed-doorism in organization and formalism and bureaucracy in methods.Today our country has an army of nearly 20 million workers, but too few of them are organized.The trade unions in the old liberated areas developed very little, and the new liberated areas have just started.Except for saboteurs and capitalists, all employees, even those who are politically backward, even the staff of the Kuomintang trade union, as long as there is a possibility of reform, should be included in the trade union organization.For those who are backward and who have made mistakes, we should adopt the policy of unity and education, proceed from the desire for unity, and achieve the goal of unity through criticism or struggle.Otherwise, we would be a minority in the factory, we would be isolated.Of course, saboteurs are not allowed to join trade unions, and some even have to be arrested for crimes with evidence.We would err if we were not vigilant against them.The door is open to progressive workers, less advanced workers and backward workers (including those who had faults in the past but hope to reform them), so we have sufficient reasons to isolate the reactionaries.The Kuomintang has been overthrown on the surface, but in fact it has not been completely overthrown.They organized Yiguandao and other congregations, and there were 100,000 people in Anhui and Henan.There are also hidden bad elements among the workers who oppose us.If closed-doorism is adopted, they cannot be isolated.The correct policy is to win over the centrists, and the backward elements should be won over as much as possible.

Comrades working in trade unions should adopt a proactive attitude and take the initiative to build good relations with the capitalists and the administration (the factory director should also emphasize initiative, such as the factory director Song [4]).The common goal of the party, the government, and the industry is to improve production. Is there any problem that cannot be solved? You have to do propaganda work, you must do propaganda work to the secretary of the municipal party committee and the mayor, and you must also do propaganda work to us , because we take care of many aspects, and we cannot concentrate on one like you.

Actively unite progressive elements, intermediate elements and backward elements, actively improve relations with all parties, unite the working class, peasant class, urban petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie, and eliminate imperialism and all reactionary forces! Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the banquet held at the National Trade Union Work Conference. [2] The Sixth National Labor Conference was held in Harbin from August 1 to 22, 1948.The meeting discussed how to further consolidate and expand the unity of the working class, unite the people of all walks of life in the country to actively support the People's Liberation War, completely overthrow the reactionary Kuomintang rule, and establish a new China under the people's democratic dictatorship. ".The meeting decided to restore the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and passed the "All-China Federation of Trade Unions Constitution."

[3] Lisan, that is, Li Lisan, was the vice chairman and party secretary of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions at the time. [4] , is a feature film completed in April 1949 by the Northeast Film Studio.This film tells the story of the working class repairing the destroyed Songhua River Iron Bridge under extremely difficult conditions during the Northeast Liberation War.In the film, Director Song fully relied on the masses and mobilized everyone to find ways to overcome all kinds of difficulties encountered one by one.