| Shanghai was one of the key areas which were governed by the Nationalist Party (KMT) in 1930s. After the violent recombination of the labor-capital relationship in 1927, the occurrences of the labor movements became less frequent to some extent. In order to consolidate the governance of the city, the KMT tried to control the labor movements by means of carrying out laws and regulations relatively friendly to workers, such as the "Factory Act" and the "Labor Dispute Processing Law". In other words, the KMT wanted to bring labor movements into the legal system. Meanwhile, the Communist Party (CCP) was not willing to quit labor movements. As a result, the CCP tried to compete with the KMT over the leadership in labor movements by organizing the union strike. Besides, the existence of the Shanghai Concession pushed the KMT to recover the concession rights, which could also help the KMT prove it a powerful party. However, this attempt of the KMT would definitely arouse frictions with the local power (including the power of the underworld gang) in the French Concession.The main focus of this thesis is the strike movement of labors from the French Business Electric Traction Company in the French Concession of Shanghai in 1930. This strike movement began with the sabotage, then soon developed into a real strike and eventually led to the well-known "Malang Road Tragedy" which shocked the world. After the tragedy, the strike came into an end due to the diplomatic pressure from the national government and the mediation of the underworld gang, thus fully demonstrating the complicated relationships between the power of the capitalists in the French Concession, the labors in the French Business Electric Traction Company, the Nationalist Party (KMT), the Communist Party (CCP) and the underworld gang at that time. The deep connotation of the ending of this strike movement will be discussed in this thesis.Every event happened with certain reasons and this strike movement occurred with the following reasons. For one thing, the immanent labor-capital contradiction in the French Business Electric Traction Company was an important factor. Many promises were broken by the capitalists after the strike in 1928. For another thing, the Rice Price Disturbance also contributed to the occurrence of this strike. At the beginning of the strike, the battles in the dark between the KMT and the Concession power and the competitions between the KMT and the CCP over the leadership of the strike could both be seen. The power of the laborers became insignificant in the labor movement and the laborers were always led by others rather than by themselves.The repeated entanglements of the KMT, the laborers, the French Concession and the CCP happened from the beginning of the strike on June 18th,1930. In terms of the KMT, it tried to reconcile the relationship of the laborers and the capitalists. The aim of this reconciliation was to maintain the stability of the society. The KMT was willing to help the laborers get more benefits in the company. Meanwhile, it also wanted to bring the capitalists into the legal system which was established by the KMT government. As to the laborers, they were restrained and law-abiding in the beginning but became radical soon after their disappointment toward the KMT. Ironically, the laborers’disobedience led to good consequences. And the capitalists in the Concession refused to mediate due to the existence of extraterritoriality. It was a method for the capitalists to maintain their own extraterritoriality through the noncooperation with the KMT government. When it came to the CCP, the key leader of the laborers Xu Amei was the only one who could have the chance to control the strike. However, the identity of Xu Amei was quite embarrassing since he was both the member of the CCP and the leader of the "Yellow Unions". Actually, Xu Amei was even once expelled from the CCP.The strike movement finally came to an end with the help of Du Yuesheng and at the expense of the compromise of the laborers. Du Yuesheng played a very important role in this strike movement. As the leader of the underworld gang, Du Yuesheng successfully solved the labor movement which had been lasted for two months and the KMT could do nothing to end it. Could this fact reveal that the power of the underworld gang grew stronger than the authority of the KMT government or that the power of the underworld gang was only a supplement of the national laws?From observing this strike movement, the attempt of legislation of the KMT government and the responses of the laborers in front of the control of the KMT could be seen. Actually, the laborers were not purely the led. As to the CCP, they were not competent enough to lead a political strike movement through violent methods though they were outside the legal system, thus proving the success of the KMT in the field of labor policy from another angle. Nevertheless, it was also worth thinking that the final solution was made by the underworld gang which was another power outside the legal system by means of signing a valid agreement under the governance of the KMT. |
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