1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:06,240 Speaker 1: All Zone Media. 2 00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:09,680 Speaker 2: Welcome to it could Happen Here podcasts about things falling 3 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 2: apart and how to put them back together again. I'm 4 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 2: your host, Mia Wong. Over the course of about a month, 5 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:24,480 Speaker 2: the general strike went from a pipe dream that even 6 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 2: the most optimistic organizers didn't think could happen until potentially 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 2: maybe twenty twenty eight to something that happened here. We 8 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 2: saw a one day general strike in Minneapolis, and everything 9 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 2: is different now. People from SEIU are calling for general strikes. 10 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:53,559 Speaker 2: It's become a demand, it's become a tactic, and it's 11 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:56,960 Speaker 2: become a term that is on the tongues of people 12 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 2: who never would dare speak of it before. And on 13 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 2: this show, we are going to talk about the history 14 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 2: of general strikes, how they happen, how they're organized, how 15 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 2: they succeed, how they fail, and what the contemporary history 16 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:19,120 Speaker 2: of the tactic looks like. Now. When I originally planned 17 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 2: this first episode, I was going to do an overview 18 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 2: of about one hundred years of the history of general 19 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 2: strikes to try to get us roughly to the modern era. 20 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:35,240 Speaker 2: And then as soon as I said, well not as 21 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 2: soon as I started writing that deeper into the process 22 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:40,680 Speaker 2: than it should have been. I realized there was absolutely 23 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 2: no way I could cover one hundred years of general 24 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 2: strikes in one episode. What I kept coming back to 25 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 2: was one specific strike, a strike that most of you 26 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 2: have never heard of, So the general strike in Shanghai 27 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty five, what became known as the May 28 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 2: the thirtieth Movement. I want to begin here because intellectually 29 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 2: most of you have never heard of it. Emotionally you 30 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:16,480 Speaker 2: already know everything about it. Now. I have written about 31 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,839 Speaker 2: this strike before. It was, in fact the first thing 32 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 2: I ever wrote about for Behind the Bastards, an episode 33 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 2: about a Chinese warlord named Jong zhong Chong. But about 34 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:32,800 Speaker 2: a quarter of those episodes were about what became the 35 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 2: May the thirtieth Movement. And so I am going to 36 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 2: recap a little bit of what I talked about in 37 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 2: that episode and talk about some different stuff. And yeah, 38 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 2: we're going to get you introduced to how you get 39 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 2: a general strike, and you know how the course of 40 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:58,040 Speaker 2: these things can go with a strike that will look 41 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 2: shockingly familiar to anyone who has lived through this year, 42 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:05,360 Speaker 2: which is to say, this is a strike that starts 43 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 2: when an occupying army has taken over a city and 44 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:15,559 Speaker 2: starts fucking killing people. So a little bit of background 45 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 2: about what is going on in China in the nineteen twenties. 46 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 2: Nineteen twenty five is in the middle of what is 47 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,400 Speaker 2: called the warlord period in China, which is a period 48 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,240 Speaker 2: where I don't go listen to the Bastards episode. The 49 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,320 Speaker 2: short version of this is that after the nineteen eleven 50 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 2: revolution that had overthrown this Chinese imperial system, China became 51 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 2: split between a bunch of warlords composed out of different 52 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 2: sort of parts of the armies. Now also in this period, 53 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 2: large parts of China are under the direct control of 54 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 2: foreign occupiers. These are countries like Japan, the UK, France, Russia. 55 00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 2: I think there's an American concession sort of in there somewhere, 56 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 2: And these countries just own parts of China, and for 57 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 2: our purposes, they also own parts of Shanghai and these 58 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 2: things both the territories they occupy in sometimes literally you know, 59 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,279 Speaker 2: the occupation is they own a rail line. When I 60 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 2: say they own a rail line, it's not just a 61 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 2: company or even the country owning the rail line. They 62 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:26,880 Speaker 2: physically own the territory. So it's theirs, like this rail 63 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,840 Speaker 2: line belongs to Japan, and so the land around the 64 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 2: rail line belongs to Japan and they can enforce their 65 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 2: laws in it. And this is how it works. Also 66 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:40,719 Speaker 2: in Shanghai, inside of these concessions there is an armed occupation, 67 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 2: and in Shanghai there are British or friends or Japanese 68 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 2: police and military personnel there who do law enforcement and 69 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:52,719 Speaker 2: will just kill you. Where my dear listener, have we 70 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 2: seen this before? I leave that as an exercise to 71 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:01,800 Speaker 2: the reader. Listener, Yes, I guess, I guess you're the listener. Now, 72 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 2: this state of affairs came to a head in May 73 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:11,640 Speaker 2: nineteen twenty five when a Japanese foreman was meeting with 74 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 2: Chinese union organizers and what was basically supposed to be 75 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:19,520 Speaker 2: a contract negotiation session. There's a team of Japanese foremen 76 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 2: and business people there and a group of Chinese union organizers, 77 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:29,599 Speaker 2: and the details of what exactly happened are very very sketchy, 78 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 2: but a brawl broke out, and the conclusion of the 79 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:38,800 Speaker 2: brawl was that a Japanese foreman killed a fairly well 80 00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 2: known local union leader. Now, the police had also arrested 81 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:46,679 Speaker 2: several of the workers who have been in the negotiations 82 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:51,599 Speaker 2: and continued to hold them even after a massive demonstration 83 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 2: for the Chinese Union organizer who'd been killed funeral. So 84 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 2: on May the thirtieth, protesters gathered outside of a police 85 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:01,520 Speaker 2: station run by the British to demand the release of 86 00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 2: their comrades. This set off a climac to confrontation that 87 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:12,479 Speaker 2: changed the face of Chinese history forever. The British open 88 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 2: fire on the crowd killed ten people and wounded fifty more. 89 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:22,720 Speaker 2: Now half a decade ago, when I first wrote about 90 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:27,239 Speaker 2: this for a Cool Zone, I read a quote from 91 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 2: the great Chinese author and anarchist bad Jin. This is 92 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:35,479 Speaker 2: quoted from author Waldron's book from Warden Nationalism, China's Turning 93 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:40,000 Speaker 2: Point nineteen forty nineteen twenty five, and I want to 94 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:43,040 Speaker 2: return to it now for reasons that I think will 95 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:47,200 Speaker 2: immediately become a parent. This is about a student who 96 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:52,039 Speaker 2: witnessed the killings at the entrance to Yunon Road. He 97 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 2: saw the child who had been killed a short while before. 98 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 2: He thought about half an hour ago, the crowd was 99 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 2: marching piece towards the police station to ask the police 100 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 2: to set free students who had been unjustly arrested. They 101 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 2: thought the police were human beings endowed with reason and 102 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:14,960 Speaker 2: human sympathy, that human blood flowed in their veins. They 103 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:17,960 Speaker 2: thought that uniforms and weapons could not have destroyed their 104 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:23,560 Speaker 2: human nature, but reality proved they were bloodthirsty beasts. On 105 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,160 Speaker 2: the most crowded street of the city, they deliberately slaughtered 106 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 2: unarmed people. For this, there was no precedent in Chinese history. 107 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 2: The imperialist oppression that had endured for so many years 108 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 2: ached like a deep wound in his heart. He struggled inwardly. 109 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:45,560 Speaker 2: He felt the time for patience was over. He felt 110 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 2: he wanted to spill his blood, to sacrifice his young life, 111 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,760 Speaker 2: that he might show that not all among his people 112 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:56,800 Speaker 2: were lambs that allowed themselves to be led without resistance 113 00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:59,640 Speaker 2: to slaughter. He looked again at the corpse of the 114 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:04,240 Speaker 2: murder child. His eyes shone with fire. His whole body 115 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 2: began to burn, as though on fire, his heart be violently. You, 116 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:17,880 Speaker 2: dear listener, understand this. When I first quoted this passage 117 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, it was about George Floyd. Now 118 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:29,560 Speaker 2: it's about Renee Good and Alex Pretty. You understand the horror, 119 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:35,440 Speaker 2: the suffering, the rage, the overwhelming fire to do something 120 00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:42,600 Speaker 2: you understand that they are like us, and you understand 121 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 2: why they fought. What followed was the largest to that 122 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:04,880 Speaker 2: point general strike in the history of Shanghai. Two hundred 123 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,080 Speaker 2: thousand people walked off the job almost immediately in the 124 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 2: first wave of strikes. The strike spread to almost every 125 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,920 Speaker 2: major city in China in some form or another. Massive 126 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 2: student protests began tire cities Roses one, two hundred and 127 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:27,120 Speaker 2: fifty thousand people went on strike. In Hong Kong, students, workers, 128 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 2: business owners and gangsters stood precariously as one to drive 129 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,960 Speaker 2: out the armed men occupying their cities. In an instant, 130 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:42,280 Speaker 2: the world changed. Things that were impossible the day before 131 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:47,240 Speaker 2: suddenly began commonplace. People flooded the streets, they were attacked 132 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 2: by cops, they fought back, and for three months they 133 00:09:52,800 --> 00:10:01,000 Speaker 2: held on. Now, this was a much rougher time than 134 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:06,640 Speaker 2: even contemporary twenty twenty six America. We are in a 135 00:10:06,679 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 2: little bit going to get to the part where a 136 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:11,480 Speaker 2: bunch of people's heads get put on spikes by the government. 137 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 2: And you know, unlike nineteen twenty five Shanghai, for example, 138 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:21,280 Speaker 2: American cities are not, contrary to the beliefs of a 139 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:26,559 Speaker 2: significant portion of the American conservative population run by networks 140 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 2: of organized crime who control every facet of political life 141 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:36,840 Speaker 2: and also economic life, and also social life. To the 142 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:41,080 Speaker 2: extent that if you're a union organizer in nineteen twenty Shanghai, 143 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 2: you are effectively a mob organizer, both in the sense 144 00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:47,400 Speaker 2: that you probably have to belong to one of the 145 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:50,560 Speaker 2: organizations and to the extent that the people you are 146 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:55,480 Speaker 2: actually organizing this time are like you're organizing the mob 147 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:58,720 Speaker 2: guys who bring in workers to serve as the market 148 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 2: worker population. This is also actually an important aspect of 149 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:04,559 Speaker 2: the strikes nineteen twenty five, which is that much of 150 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 2: the labor population in Shanghai, our mirgrant workers, have been 151 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:10,840 Speaker 2: brought in from other parts of the country by organized crime. 152 00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:17,120 Speaker 2: Now obviously that's not it is not really how migrant 153 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,520 Speaker 2: labor works in the United States. But you know, to 154 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 2: some extent, the pressures of the labor discipline are very 155 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:26,480 Speaker 2: similar in that right, the threat that has held over 156 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:30,800 Speaker 2: the heads of migrant workers is that armed men will 157 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 2: come in the night for you. And right now what 158 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 2: we are witnessing is the armed men coming into the night. 159 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,240 Speaker 2: But you know, as much as I talk about sort 160 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:44,000 Speaker 2: of the differences between these movements. I think the immediate 161 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:49,240 Speaker 2: question for our purposes is are there things that we 162 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:54,640 Speaker 2: can learn from this movement? And I think the answer 163 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:58,920 Speaker 2: is yes. But in order to get to the what 164 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 2: can we learn from this? We have to talk a 165 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:04,440 Speaker 2: bit about how the movement collapsed. So I said that 166 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:06,400 Speaker 2: the movement held on for about three months. That was 167 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 2: in Shanghai. The history of some of the other cities 168 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:12,160 Speaker 2: is different, and we kind of don't have time to. 169 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:16,160 Speaker 2: For example, divert talk about general strike in Hong Kong, 170 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,720 Speaker 2: where the primary method that people used was they simply 171 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 2: left the city and went back home, which solved some 172 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:27,480 Speaker 2: of the problems that we're going to be talking about 173 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:32,640 Speaker 2: in a little bit. But okay, in Shanghai, what happened 174 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:38,640 Speaker 2: to this movement and why did it fall apart? So 175 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:42,199 Speaker 2: I think there are roughly three factors, and I think 176 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:44,920 Speaker 2: the first two are actually more important than the third one, 177 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:47,040 Speaker 2: which might be surprising when we get to them. But 178 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 2: the first two factors were people being able to eat 179 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 2: and the pressure that that put on the unions, and secondarily, 180 00:12:56,920 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 2: betrayal from the business elites that they had allied with 181 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,200 Speaker 2: to get the strikes to work, and the third is 182 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 2: pere repression, and the scale of the peer repression here 183 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:07,600 Speaker 2: is astonishing. I mean some of the like one of 184 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 2: the guys who runs this strike is just executed by 185 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 2: the state. Again, we're going, I'm promising we're gonna get 186 00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:17,520 Speaker 2: to the heads on pikes in a bit. But the 187 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:21,880 Speaker 2: repression isn't what killed the strike. It was the problem 188 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 2: of how do people eat? And it was the pressure 189 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 2: from the business elite. So we're going to talk about 190 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 2: the business elite first. Now, when I say the business 191 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:32,760 Speaker 2: elite here in the early days of the movement, and 192 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 2: this is a tension that's going to sort of haunt 193 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:40,360 Speaker 2: the Chinese Nationalist Party for its entire existence until it 194 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:43,319 Speaker 2: splits from the Communist completely, and even later than that. 195 00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:48,360 Speaker 2: They're in a very very uneasy alliance with left wing 196 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:52,360 Speaker 2: students workers who are rapidly becoming left wing, because this 197 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 2: is also a city that was not enormously politicized until 198 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:00,359 Speaker 2: now and suddenly becomes politicized in ways it seems insible 199 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:04,240 Speaker 2: like a few years before. But there's a tension between 200 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:08,120 Speaker 2: them because initially these sort of patriotic business owners are 201 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:10,760 Speaker 2: really really pissed off that the foreign occupiers are murdering 202 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:14,160 Speaker 2: people in their city and sort of nationalists and communist 203 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:17,000 Speaker 2: leaders are able to sort of broker alliances with them, 204 00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:19,960 Speaker 2: and they're able to broker alliances with organized crime, which 205 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 2: is less important for our purposes. I cannot emphasize enough 206 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:25,920 Speaker 2: how important the organized crime people are in the history, 207 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:28,760 Speaker 2: to the extent that like Chen Kai Shek, who you 208 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:32,480 Speaker 2: may know as like the leader of the Nationalist Party 209 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:34,560 Speaker 2: and the guy who's eventually going to run Taiwan after 210 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 2: losing the civil war, chen Kai Shek was an organized 211 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,280 Speaker 2: crime guy like he was in the Green Gang, So, 212 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:45,960 Speaker 2: like you know, very important to their story, less important 213 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 2: to our story. But they act in a very similar 214 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 2: way to the business owners, which is that in the beginning, 215 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:54,320 Speaker 2: and this is something that we saw in Minneapolis too, 216 00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 2: between their one day general strike, which is that a 217 00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,680 Speaker 2: lot of business owners either out of you know, just 218 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 2: actual genuine rage and grief over just the raw fucking 219 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,120 Speaker 2: horror of these monsters grabbing people from their homes and 220 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:13,840 Speaker 2: shooting people in the streets, cooperated it shut their businesses 221 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:16,400 Speaker 2: down for the day. Now, obviously there are other business 222 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:21,880 Speaker 2: owners who do this because they are producers. Am I 223 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:25,600 Speaker 2: allowed to say that they look that side, and we're like, 224 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:27,400 Speaker 2: it doesn't take a weatherman to see which way the 225 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 2: winds are blowing, right, you know, they saw what was 226 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:34,800 Speaker 2: going on, and we're like, Okay, either my workers aren't 227 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:38,600 Speaker 2: going to show up, or if I don't publicly support this, 228 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 2: it's gonna get real fucked for me, because everyone else 229 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,800 Speaker 2: around does. And that meant that there was a lot 230 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 2: of cooperation from businesses. But we also saw very quickly after, 231 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:53,920 Speaker 2: like a kind of a whole bunch of businesses and 232 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:58,400 Speaker 2: like sports organizations too, like signed a thing that was like, ah, 233 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:02,000 Speaker 2: we need to restore order, do to do maybe and 234 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:18,040 Speaker 2: the occupation, but also please stop causing disruptions protesters. Now, 235 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,000 Speaker 2: in the Chinese case, what we see as the strike 236 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 2: goes on is that the business elites began to see 237 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:28,280 Speaker 2: the strikes themselves, and the marches and the fighting with 238 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,040 Speaker 2: the police, and particularly the fact that they were also 239 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:33,040 Speaker 2: not making money and they were also putting their own 240 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 2: money into keeping the strikes going as a problem because 241 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:40,200 Speaker 2: they are business people and the only thing that they 242 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:43,760 Speaker 2: really care about fundamentally is making money. There's a Marx 243 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:46,640 Speaker 2: line I wish I had here about like what the 244 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 2: national character of Britain was and it turned out that 245 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,800 Speaker 2: his only fundamental principle was land rent, and that that's 246 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:55,200 Speaker 2: like this, right, Like, at some point these people are like, okay, well, 247 00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 2: given the choice between imperialist occupation and me losing money 248 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,760 Speaker 2: when my workers gaining power, I will choose imperialos occupation. 249 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 2: And this is something that in cross class movements like this, specifically, 250 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:09,680 Speaker 2: if you are trying to do a general strike, you're 251 00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:12,280 Speaker 2: eventually going to have to deal with this, which is 252 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:17,639 Speaker 2: that a lot of particularly large businesses and you know, 253 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 2: some small business owners will fall in line with this too, right, 254 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:24,000 Speaker 2: will eventually get to a point where they're like, I 255 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:28,680 Speaker 2: would rather keep making money than you know, not have 256 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:32,080 Speaker 2: my neighbors taken away. And that is unbelievably fucking bleak, 257 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 2: but that's you know, like that's one of the things 258 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:42,919 Speaker 2: that killed this general strike in China. And eventually, in 259 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,400 Speaker 2: the face of this, right, we come to the second problem, 260 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,840 Speaker 2: which that people needed to eat. So the union federation 261 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,680 Speaker 2: that's set up had been just sort of giving people 262 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,880 Speaker 2: money so that they could eat, but they eventually start 263 00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:58,560 Speaker 2: to run out of money and they don't really have 264 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 2: a way to organize the sort of production movement and 265 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:05,520 Speaker 2: logistics of providing ifone with food without relying on the 266 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 2: bank rolling of those business owners. You know, this becomes 267 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,399 Speaker 2: a problem because it means that they're suddenly getting attacked 268 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,720 Speaker 2: by portions of the workers who aren't supposed to be 269 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:17,560 Speaker 2: their base because they don't have food. And those people 270 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,400 Speaker 2: also just start like walking up the Chamber of Commerce 271 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:22,439 Speaker 2: meetings and walking in and beating up the Chamber of 272 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 2: Commerce people for not paying them, and then like eating 273 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,200 Speaker 2: the banquet food the chaper of Commerce. Is a great 274 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:32,800 Speaker 2: story in the book called Shanghai on Strike. Why Elizabeth Ferry, 275 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:36,159 Speaker 2: who's a renowned scholar of Chinese labor history, about this 276 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:40,560 Speaker 2: very funny. There's lots of absolutely wild stories from this strike. 277 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 2: What are the sort of recurring themes of this period 278 00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:46,400 Speaker 2: of union organizing it? Again, this is a really rough time, 279 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:50,520 Speaker 2: right Imagine like gangster movies nineteen like twenties New York 280 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:56,040 Speaker 2: and like that's Shanghai, but like the gangs are way, way, way, 281 00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 2: way stronger. So like the way politics works to a 282 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:02,440 Speaker 2: lot large extent is that people beat the share out 283 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:04,440 Speaker 2: of each other and like hall hits on each other, 284 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:08,840 Speaker 2: and the city is technically speaking it's run by like 285 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:11,880 Speaker 2: what is a warlord army, and then beneath the world 286 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,800 Speaker 2: army there are all of these organized criminal organizations. But like, 287 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:18,960 Speaker 2: you know, the unions have this thing called dog beating 288 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:25,960 Speaker 2: brigades where the dog beating brigades, like if you like 289 00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:29,600 Speaker 2: publicly started scabbing or you very publicly were standing against 290 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:31,919 Speaker 2: the strike, like the dog beating brigade would show up 291 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:33,359 Speaker 2: in the middle of the night and it was just 292 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:35,720 Speaker 2: like a bunch of guys with hatchets and it would 293 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:37,560 Speaker 2: just like beat the shit out of you. And this 294 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:39,680 Speaker 2: was just like a normal thing that was happening between 295 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,520 Speaker 2: these strikes. So this whole period of Chinese history is nuts. 296 00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:47,240 Speaker 2: It's wild. There was so much shit going on. That's 297 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:52,480 Speaker 2: just I don't know. They had the dog beating brigades. 298 00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:55,040 Speaker 2: I guess in the American context we'd call them like 299 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:59,520 Speaker 2: the like the scabby beating brigades or whatever. But you know, 300 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,960 Speaker 2: it's a rough time for everyone. But what they kind 301 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:06,840 Speaker 2: of don't have Without sort of business owners, they're never 302 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 2: really able to sort of seize control of production and 303 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:16,119 Speaker 2: repurpose it towards you know, keeping everyone fed. And I 304 00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:18,360 Speaker 2: will say this is something that actually, I think we 305 00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:21,439 Speaker 2: are better at than they were in the sense of 306 00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:25,359 Speaker 2: we are better at running the logistics of getting a 307 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:27,439 Speaker 2: bunch of people's food and the stuff that they need 308 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,200 Speaker 2: to survive, and that's something we can look at in Minneapolis, 309 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 2: where this is obviously coming from people's money, but a 310 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,120 Speaker 2: lot of the organizing in Minneapolis is about getting people 311 00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:40,160 Speaker 2: who can't leave for their homes food. We've also seen 312 00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:44,639 Speaker 2: in the last day or so tenant and labor union 313 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,440 Speaker 2: leaders are talking about a rent strike in Minneapolis, which 314 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:50,959 Speaker 2: can help people, you know, not get evicted because they 315 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:53,119 Speaker 2: can't go to work. But it's also something that if 316 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:54,919 Speaker 2: you're going to do a general strike, yeah, you probably 317 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 2: also have to do a rent strike, But if you 318 00:20:57,760 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 2: want to keep a general strike going, and this is 319 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:01,680 Speaker 2: something that we're going to get to a lot more 320 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:06,280 Speaker 2: in later episodes, the Seattle general strike is a very 321 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 2: large example of this. If you want to keep this 322 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:10,359 Speaker 2: thing going, you have to take control of the places 323 00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:16,040 Speaker 2: where you're working and you know, have them provide the 324 00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:18,919 Speaker 2: food for people and have them provide the resources that 325 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 2: people need. But in this sort of context, almost everyone 326 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:25,399 Speaker 2: who's involved in this this is their first general strike. 327 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,520 Speaker 2: What really happens here, right, is that the unions are 328 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 2: forced to call off the strike. They get minor concessions 329 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:34,320 Speaker 2: in exchange from the foreign bosses. But what it does 330 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:37,320 Speaker 2: is politicize the entire city, and it politicizes all of 331 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:39,920 Speaker 2: China in a way that is going to shape all 332 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 2: of the politics in the country forever. I guess, like 333 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,440 Speaker 2: it's the thing that creates modern China is the politicization 334 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:49,240 Speaker 2: that comes out of this period. You know, it's what 335 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,879 Speaker 2: sort of transforms Chinese politics or something that was purely 336 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,359 Speaker 2: the almost purely the domain of worldlords and do something 337 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,600 Speaker 2: that's now the domain of the nationalists and the communists. 338 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 2: And obviously, you know, the military compon like just a 339 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:02,720 Speaker 2: large thing in this that we don't really have time 340 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:07,600 Speaker 2: to get into. But you know, this period transforms the 341 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 2: entire politics of China. Right, People who had never thought 342 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:15,080 Speaker 2: about politics before, People who had never you know, who 343 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 2: had never like heard the words imperialism or like heard 344 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:21,920 Speaker 2: the words like militarism, right, are suddenly in the streets 345 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 2: talking about it, and they're talking about general strikes, and 346 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:27,280 Speaker 2: they're talking about how how can we run these occupying 347 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:31,399 Speaker 2: armies out? And I want to sort of mention how 348 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:34,240 Speaker 2: this whole thing ends, right, which that people keep organizing 349 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 2: and they keep fighting. And one year later, in nineteen 350 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:41,679 Speaker 2: twenty six, the first of the uprisings begins, now the 351 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 2: first uprising, and these three uprisings are all sort of 352 00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 2: like called by the Chinese Communist Party and their unions. 353 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:51,800 Speaker 2: The first one fails horribly, and the warlords put the 354 00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,800 Speaker 2: heads of workers they'd killed on pikes. They have these 355 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,560 Speaker 2: squads where there's two guys a broadswords and a guy 356 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,639 Speaker 2: with like a sheriff's badge effectively, who go door to 357 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:03,720 Speaker 2: door and if they find someone who they think had 358 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:07,159 Speaker 2: like handed out leaflets, they would execute them on the spot. 359 00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:09,400 Speaker 2: This is the kind of refreshion that they're dealing with. 360 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,119 Speaker 2: And they did it again. They tried again in nineteen 361 00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:15,960 Speaker 2: twenty seven, and that one failed. And the second time, 362 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,679 Speaker 2: by the way it's worth mentioning, was supposed to be 363 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,760 Speaker 2: a general strike coordinated with an uprising, and they fucked 364 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:24,320 Speaker 2: up the coordination of it, but it did also. The 365 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:26,600 Speaker 2: second one was a three hundred thousand strong general strike, 366 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:31,479 Speaker 2: and the third stry was an eight hundred thousand strong 367 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,840 Speaker 2: general strike. And they stays the intraction and they run 368 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 2: the warlord armies out of the city and for a 369 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 2: sort of brief glorious moment, Shanghai is in the hands 370 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:47,679 Speaker 2: of its workers and their subsequent betrayal and slaughter by 371 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:52,280 Speaker 2: the USSR and Shang Kai Shek, mostly Shan Kai Shak. 372 00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:55,360 Speaker 2: The USSR is also at fault here for telling them 373 00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:57,800 Speaker 2: to keep allying with Shang Kai Shek and the nationalists. 374 00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:02,920 Speaker 2: That's the story for another time, But I think to close. 375 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,840 Speaker 2: We are used to thinking that the times that we 376 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:11,120 Speaker 2: live in our unprecedented, and in some ways they are. 377 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:18,480 Speaker 2: But people have fought our struggles before. People have fought 378 00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:23,800 Speaker 2: and died and won to stop the brain of men 379 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,639 Speaker 2: with guns over our cities. And if we learn the 380 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 2: lessons of both their time and ours, if we use 381 00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,280 Speaker 2: that knowledge to act in the moment of crisis, we 382 00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:38,960 Speaker 2: can win Conscience, history, and the cries of the suffering 383 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:43,439 Speaker 2: demand it. So let's go win the war. We have 384 00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:47,080 Speaker 2: a world to win and nothing to lose but our chains. 385 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:51,280 Speaker 2: It could happen. 386 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,720 Speaker 1: Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more 387 00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:57,920 Speaker 1: podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonemedia dot com, 388 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: or check us out on the iHeartRadio app. 389 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. 390 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,760 Speaker 1: Listen to podcasts, you can now find sources for it 391 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,400 Speaker 1: could happen here, listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.