3. The Nature of the Regime

The Chinese Communist Party and the Workers

From International Socialism (1st series), No.78, May 1975, p.15.

1. On Coalition Government (1945. p.304):

‘The policy of adjusting the interests of labour and capital will be adopted under the New Democratic system. On the one hand, it will protect the interests of the workers, institute an eight to ten hour working day according to circumstances, provide suitable unemployment relief and social insurance and safeguard trade union rights; on the other hand, it will guarantee legitimate profits to properly managed State, private and co-operative enterprises.’

2. Factory Regulations (governing factory committees etc, 1950):

‘If a decision passed by a majority of a Factory Committee shall be judged by the Head of the Factory (or Manager) to be in conflict with the said Factory’s best interests, or when the said decision shall be in conflict with the instruction of higher authority, the Manager or Head of the Factory is empowered to prohibit its implementation.’

3. Provisional Procedure for the mediation and settlement of Labour-Capital disputes in Private Enterprises, August 1949:

Workers ‘must comply with factory administrative regulations and with the work orders of the capitalists. The capitalists alone have the right to hire and fire workers and employees’.

4. Central Committee May Day slogan, 1950:

‘Chinese workers in public and private enterprises— Resolutely carry out the policy of taking into account both public and private interests and benefiting both labour and capital, welcome the national bourgeoisie in investing their capital in, and developing productive enterprises beneficial to, the national welfare and the people’s livelihood’
(Cited Gluckstein, p. 195).

5. Constitution of the All-China Trade Union Federation, 1953

Trade unions exist in China:

‘to strengthen the unity of the working class, to consolidate the alliance of workers and peasants, to educate workers to observe consciously the laws and decrees of the State, and labour discipline, to strive for the development of production, for the constant increase in labour productivity, for the fulfillment and overfulfillment of the production plans of the State’
(in Labour Laws and Regulations of the People’s Republic of China, Peking, 1956, p.17).

6. Wen Hui Pao (Shanghai, 3 May 1967) warned the Red Rebels supporting Chairman Mao not to

‘regard all workers as conservatives and to fight civil wars against them. We must be aware that, except for a few diehards, most of the workers misled by conservative groups are our class brothers.’

7. Harbin radio (4 August 1967) accuses the ex-Governor of Heilungkiang province of subverting the trade unions by promoting the idea that:

‘Trade unions should be an independent structure and an economic organisation established for the sole purposes of solving the personal interests and struggling for the livelihood of workers and peasants.’

8. Minister Po I-po:

‘The democracy which we practise in enterprises is democracy under the control of central direction, diametrically opposed to the false words of order (?) and the erroneous practice of "workers self-government",’
(cited Bettelheim and Charriere, p.34)

9. Chou En-lai (18 January 1967, highpoint of the Cultural Revolution): orders the restoration of all property, private or public, seized; furthermore:

‘every indiscriminate increase in wages should be considered null and void ... From now on, the subversive elements who incite the masses to attack the banks to take money with violence will be treated as counter-revolutionaries ...

‘All rebels have the duty to help the police and protect the national banks.’
(Report on Trade and Finance, 1967)

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