Letter of Support for the Strike of the
Masons and Carpenters of Changsha from
the Hunan Branch of the Secretariat of
Labor Organizations

(October 13, 1922)

Yesterday was the eighth day of the masons' and carpenters' strike. The staff
members of their union held a discussion meeting to take advantage of the
strike period to make preparations for setting up a night school for construction
workers. Now various people are making all kinds of preparations toward the
goal of imparting general knowledge to the completely illiterate masons and
carpenters. The school is about to open. Yesterday also someone was sent to
the union from no. 26 Xinghanmen to ask that the workers return to work soon
because the house at that address had long been in need of repairs, which could
not be further delayed. To words like "cannot wait any longer...," the union
replied yesterday with messages in letters from many different places. There is
a lot of support from places too numerous to list here. We publish below a
letter from the Secretariat of Labor Organizations. It reads as follows:¹

Fellow construction workers, greetings!

Your current strike has been going on for several days. Gentlemen! We believe that you are absolutely justified, and it is truly outrageous that to date the
capitalists have not yet completely agreed to your demands. Now all labor
groups are standing up to support you, and this Secretariat will do everything it
can to back you. It is our sincere hope that you will be well organized, maintain
order, and hold out to the end in order to achieve ultimate victory. We are
sending this especially to encourage you to make further efforts.

This letter, with accompanying commentary, appeared in the Changsha Dagongbao on
October 14, 1922. It is reproduced in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 9, p. 133, and we have
translated it from that source.
1. The message that follows from the Labor Secretariat has been attributed to Mao,
who was, as already noted, head of the Hunan office of this organization. The introductory
paragraph was added by the Dagongbao.