Chapter Seven: The Tremendous Transformation of the Dock Workers' Condition

Abstract

After the liberation, the Shanghai dock workers shook off the feudal yoke. They all made tremendous changes politically, economically, and culturally. Among these many changes, the most significant was the basic transformation in the dock workers' political position. Before the liberation, dock workers were kept down at the very lowest rung of society and had neither the slightest bit of political influence nor any personal protection. They were severely oppressed and exploited by the imperialists, compradors, feudal bosses, and capitalists and had been no better than slaves for generations. After the liberation, under the leadership of the Party, the power of the state was established under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Laboring people took control of their own lives and became the rulers of the nation. The dock workers took part in the political activities of the nation, putting forward their own representatives and exercising their own political power. After more than a decade, quite a few Shanghai Harbor dock workers had been elected to be people's representatives on the Shanghai People's Joint Representative Council. In fact, a majority of the representatives are people who were dock workers before the liberation. Dock workers not only take part in managing affairs of state, but they also actively take part in the management of the production affairs of the harbor's docks. Every loading and unloading area on the docks periodically holds a workers' congress. At each congress, the responsible comrades brief all the workers on the achievements in production and the situation in every facet of the work. They receive the supervision of the broad masses of the workers. Moreover, over the past several years, a large group of dock workers have been selected as cadres to directly lead production. Not only are there basic-level cadres in every dock loading and unloading crew in the whole harbor, but the majority of them have been selected from the ranks of the dock workers themselves. In addition, quite a few worker cadres have been promoted to become administrators of the joint unloading and loading areas themselves.