Socialist Club of Shanghai - Jiang Kanghu

Jiang Kanghu
Native name	江亢虎
Born	July 18, 1883 Yiyang, Jiangxi, China
Died	December 7, 1954 (aged 71) Shanghai, China
Nationality	Chinese

Jiang Kanghu (Chinese: 江亢虎; pinyin: Jiāng Kànghú; Wade–Giles: Chiang K'ang-hu; Hepburn: Kō Kōko), who preferred to be known in English as Kiang Kang-hu, (July 18, 1883 – December 7, 1954)



 Socialistic Confucian



It was also the beginning of the Socialist movement. On July 10, 1911, I organized a Socialist Club in Shanghai, and on the same day the Socialist Star, the first Socialist paper in China, made its appearance.

This Socialist Club of Shanghai was originally organized more to sturdy Socialism than to propagate it. About fifty men and women were members of the group, and earnestly they studied the Socialist classics.

But meanwhile, the First Revolution had started in the South, at Hankow. On November 3, 1911, Shanghai fell into the hands of the revolutionists. Then the club changed its name to the Socialist Party of China, and organizers were sent out into the Southern provinces, where many new branches were organized: 

The Socialist Star became a,daily, and had a wide circulation. The party membership increased with enormous rapidity. The Shi Hui Tong, or Socialist Party, was the first political party as such in China. On November 5, 1911, it met in its first annual convention at Shanghai and adopted a platform.


The Daily Socialist Star, the Weekly Socialist Bulletin, and the Monthly Offcial Bulletin. Among the pamphlets and leaflets which were printed at this plant and sent out in great quantities, one of the most popular was * The Communist Manifesto.' In addition, many branches printed their own local papers, and at one time there were over 50 of these in existence. Then, too, there were between 10 and 15 privately owned papers which supported the Socialist Party. The most important of the free public schools established by the party was situated at Nanking. This school had an attendance of over eight hundred. Free public kindergartens were also established by the party. 

A very curious part of the party organization was the Socialist Opera and Orchestra Company. The woman's organization had for its main work the furthering of the agitation for woman suffrage.

Sino-British Solidarity 1925-1926

Banner from the Chinese trade unionists in Canton-Hong Kong to British miners

Tom Mann (Right)  William Paul (Left)

The strike in China lasted 16 months from June 1925 - October 1926

LRC and The Chinese Labour Question

The Chinese Labour Question

This issue of the use of Chinese Labour in South Africa was a major issue for progressives in the early 1900's.

Sir Alfred Milner, Governor of the Cape Colony, South Africa, who along with Cecil Rhodes was one of the main architects in provoking the land grab in Southern Africa which led to the Boer war.




Milner's plan for encouraging British migration to South Africa (to counter the Boer influence) necessitated huge amounts of subsidise to companies and potential migrants. To fund this Milner needed to exploit the numerous gold mines of South Africa.

Given a shortage of cheap native African workers to work in the gold mines, Milner persuaded the British government to sign a treaty with China for the importation of 60,000 indentured Chinese labourers on three year, so called "licences", between 1903 and 1907 .

These indentured Chinese labourers were kept in almost slave conditions and treated brutally, with corporal punishment being handed out at will.

Ironically, Milner started out on the left, in 1885 even standing as the Liberal parliamentary candidate for Harrow. He ended up as Chairman of Rio Tinto Zinic Mining Company and calling himself a "British Race Patriot".

It was around the issue of the Chinese labour question that the early Labour Representation Committee in Ealing mobilised. On 7th May 1904 the Ealing & District Labour Representation Committee Sunday afternoon demonstration against indentured Chinese labour on Ealing Common . William Piggott - Secretary.


NOTES


West Ham and Poplar were the first Councils to fall to Labour in London at the turn of the century and in 1907-1908 at Camberwell and Bethnal Green

The Fulham and Hammersmith Labour Part developed from the South West London Labour Representation Committee, The Secretary and candidate was George Belt a member of the Social Democratic Federation. (circa 1903)

Hammersmith Social Democratic Federation was affiliated to Hammersmith Labour Party (Circa 1903)

By 1914 The British Socialist Party had 55 branches in London with 2,500 members and was the largest socialist organisation in London