A Study Of The Labors In Wuhan’s Cotton Mills In1920S-1930S

This thesis bases its arguments upon the class-formation theory initiated by E.P. Thompson. It seeks to probe into the class-consciousness via the complicated life-fact the labors in Wuhan cotton mills had went through during1920-1930s. After the process of tightened squeeze of life, the discipline of mills" regulation, the modification by different partisan and the bitterness of economic depression, the labors in Wuhan cotton mills gradually developed an appeal for survival and opposition, a fracture and confrontation (based on the chasm of genders, types of work, ties of territories and factions)from within, as well as the "gap" between them and the labors in other trades and localities, which highlights the point that the labors were able to take a stand for their lives without self-identification and class-consciousness. By revealing this, this thesis to some extent "falsifies" the long-held justification for the studies of the labors movements from the approach of Chinese Marxism. The arguments and reflections in this thesis try to lend a second thought on how to the "rephrase" the formation of the working class in china.