Express Communiqué from All the
Guangzhou-Hankou Railroad Workers to
Labor Groups Throughout the Country

(September 12, 1922)

Extremely Urgent

Dear fellow workers of the labor groups of the whole country:

After the Guangzhou-Hankou railroad workers all went out on strike, a small
number of workers from Tianjin, because of their ties as fellow provincials,
willingly allowed themselves to be used by the bureau chief as his running dogs.
Sabotaging the actions of the organization, they asked the bureau chief to send
troops as usual to protect them. As a result, the striking workers had no other
recourse but to lie down all together on the railway tracks to obstruct them. The
troops, however, under the direction of the bureau chief, went so far as¹ to
massacre the workers ruthlessly. When the family members of the workers went
to their rescue, the troops used the same measures against them. The wailing of
the children and the crying of the women was unbearable. There were countless
wounded, and several dozen people jumped into the water. Seven or eight people
were mortally wounded, and more than ten people were arrested. Six fellow
workers from Yuezhou are already dead. Anyone with a human heart is saddened and angered! Since the workers have suffered this cruel massacre and are
crying out and writhing under such extreme oppression, they can only continue
firmly with the strike, swearing to die rather than to yield. We most earnestly
entreat fellow workers of all the labor groups to lend us concrete assistance, and
we adamantly demand: (1) withdrawal of the troops that are suppressing the
workers; (2) removal and punishment of Bureau Chief Wang; (3) comfort and
compensation for the wounded workers and their families; (4) complete acceptance of the conditions put forward by the workers. Fellow workers of all the
labor groups! Such dark, tyrannical, and cruel oppression is visited only on our laboring class. How angry should we be? How bitterly must we hate? How forcefully should we rise up? Take revenge! Fellow workers of the whole country! Arise and struggle against the enemy!

All the Workers of the Federation of Guangzhou-Hankou Railroad Workers' Clubs

This document appeared in the Changsha Dagongbao on September 14, 1922. Our source
is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 9, p. 125.

--- Notes

1. The second character of this expression is missing from our source; the sense could
be "actually," "had the effrontery," or "went so far as." We have opted for the last of these,
which lies in the middle of the possible range of meanings.

2. This federation had been formed on September 6. See the account of the strike in Li Jui, Early Mao, pp. 229-39.