Strike Declaration by the Masons and
Carpenters of Changsha
(October 6, 1922)¹

We, the masons and carpenters, wish to inform you that for the sake of earning
our livelihood, we demand a modest pay increase. Since June 1, we have been
paid thirty-four cents for grade A work, and twenty-six cents for grade B work.
Then recently there suddenly emerged an association of a few people, which
held a meeting in opposition to this, and requested the administrative offices of
the [xian] government to make a public proclamation about changes in the pay
rate. But the fact is that workers like us engaged in painful toil exchange a day of
our lives and of our energy for only a few coppers to feed our families. We really
do not sit idle and live on undeserved income, as is the case with other illegitimate occupations. Just look at the merchants, who may simply raise the price in
a matter of a few days. Why isn't there anyone to oppose that? Why do we,
workers who only earn the little money from a whole day's "sweat" and "toil,"
have to go through such an ordeal of being trampled on?

Right now we do not have any means to deal with this. All we know is that
the price of a day's bitter toil must be this much, or it just won't do. Although we
cannot enjoy other rights, we deserve freedom in our occupation and our work.
We are resolved to die rather than be deprived by anyone of this right. Now the
only measure we adopt is to insist on the payment of thirty-four and twenty-six
cents per day. All of us have joined together and decided not to work any more.
We hereby make the above proclamation to this effect.

Announced by all masons and carpenters of Hunan on the sixteenth day of the
eighth month.

This document was published in the Changsha Dagongbao on October 6, 1922. Our
source is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 2, p. 89.

--- Notes

1. The text of this document published in the Bujuan, Vol. 2, is dated at the end, "the
sixteenth day of the eighth month," but as pointed out in the index to the Bujuan, this
refers in fact to the lunar calendar and corresponded in 1922 to October 6.

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