Urgent Telegram from Changsha Masons and Carpenters to the County Magistrate of Changsha
(October 21, 1922)
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To the Extremely Urgent Attention of Magistrate Zhou of Changsha County:

We workers have been on strike for nearly twenty days and have lost close to one hundred thousand yuan. All we are fighting for is a daily wage of 0.34 yuan, barely enough to cover food and clothing. Yet you, the honorable magistrate, deliberately suppress the laborers and keep delaying by all means. The General Headquarters and the various government offices, schools, and private residences below it have repeatedly written to acknowledge this wage rate and begged us to resume work. But the public notice you promised to issue has been withheld and not released. Thus you, a single person, stand against society and defy the people. We workers absolutely refuse to accept any evasive excuses that go against reason, and we will not stop until the goal of 0.34 yuan is achieved. The strike has already lasted a long time; we have no means to obtain food or clothing. Driven by both hunger and cold, our will is as solid as a fortress. We hereby make an appointment with you, the honorable magistrate: within twenty-four hours, from 10 p.m. today to 9 p.m. tomorrow, you must clearly acknowledge in writing our demand for a daily wage of 0.34 yuan, one that can provide us with food and clothing. Otherwise, on the 23rd we will definitely dispatch a thousand representatives to your office to confront you face to face with our reasons. If there is still no decision, then on the 24th all our more than four thousand workers will go together to your office to demand the issuance of food and clothing to relieve our hunger and cold. We hereby telegraph this statement to you and earnestly request a decisive reply.

Furthermore, when the representatives arrive at your office on the 23rd and when the entire body of workers arrives on the 24th, they shall all conduct themselves in a civilized manner. They will strictly observe the principles of workers’ self-discipline and the sanctity of labor, with all matters placed under the responsibility of our pickets. There will be no need for you, the honorable magistrate, to invoke the Peace Preservation Police Law issued by Emperor Yuan. Nor do you need to fret so diligently about disorder; we make all this clear beforehand.

All the more than four thousand workers of the masons’ and carpenters’ trades in the provincial capital jointly bow,
4 p.m., October 21

Record of Conversation between Representatives of Changsha Masons and Carpenters and Director of Government Affairs Wu, and a Petition to the Provincial Governor
(October 24, 1922)

Record of Conversation

The masons and carpenters demanded that wages be increased to 0.34 yuan and refused to recognize the proclamation issued by the County Magistrate of Changsha on the 14th day of the 8th lunar month, which concerned the strike dispute. According to the trade representatives, this matter is fundamentally a free contractual relationship between labor and employer and should be mutually agreed upon by both sides. Unless there is coercive action (this sentence was added by Director Wu), the government need not interfere. I, the Director, representing the Provincial Governor, grant permission to handle this matter in accordance with the above proposition, and I hope that this intention will be communicated to all workers.

The above statement was recorded at the Government Affairs Department of the Provincial Governor’s Office, with Director Wu Jinghong present.

Petition to the Provincial Governor

This petition concerns freedom of business, earnestly requesting a clear written instruction to reassure the people. We workers have requested that wages

[1] On October 6, 1922, over 6,000 masons and carpenters in Changsha went on strike to demand higher wages and freedom of business. Mao Zedong led the workers’ representatives in negotiations with Zhou Yinggan, the County Magistrate of Changsha; Wu Jinghong, Director of the Government Affairs Department of Hunan Province; and Provincial Governor Zhao Hengti, and they achieved victory. According to the recollection of Yi Lirong on June 7, 1987—then a member of the CPC Hunan District Executive Committee and one of the Changsha masons’ and carpenters’ negotiation representatives—Mao Zedong was clearest about the entire process of the Changsha masons’ and carpenters’ strike, and he drafted the petition.