Background
Su came from a poor peasant family and early in his youth became a seaman, a career which lasted more than 20 years.
labor leader politician politburo member
Su came from a poor peasant family and early in his youth became a seaman, a career which lasted more than 20 years.
In an interview with American authoress Anna Louise Strong in 1927, Su said he had “never had any schooling” but “bought books andlearned by myself.” In 1908 he joined Sun Yat-sen’s T’ung-meng hui and worked for his cause in Kwangtung about the time of the 1911 Revolution.
About 1914-15, Sun Yat-sen had made an attempt to cultivate the support of the seamen, many of whom became members of the KMT, he had organized them into the Seamen's Mutual Benefit Society (Hai-yuan kung-i she), led by his proteges Ch'en Ping-sheng and Lin Wei-min. The association rendered valuable assistance in purchasing and. shipping arms for his military operations in south China. Su Chao-cheng was a member of the committee running the association. By the end of the second decade of the century, a new type of organization able to agitate for better working conditions for the seamen was felt to be needed, and together with Lin Wei-min, Su organized in March 1921 the Chinese Seamen's Union (Chung-hua hai-yuan kung-yeh lien-ho tsung-hui), with its headquarters in Hong Kong. Toward the end of the year, the union made its debut by putting forward to the shipowners a series of demands for improved working conditions. Failing to receive a reply on three occasions, the union issued an ultimatum, threatening to strike if no response was forthcoming within 24 hours. Ch’en Ping-sheng was chairman of the union, and Su Chao-cheng was in charge of general affairs at the Strike Headquarters. Shortly afterwards, Ch'en vacated his post because of a law suit, and Su succeeded him as chairman of the Seamen's Union. Initially involving the 10,000 members of the union, the strike began on January 13, 1922, and quickly gained momentum.
The dockers, fuel-men and warehousemen joined in a sympathy strike, followed by the Porters’ Guild and the Hotel Workers’ Union. The 150-odd labor unions in Canton organized relief work for those striking workers who fled to the freer atmosphere in Canton, and Sun Yat-sen government openly expressed its sympathy (and thus earned the hatred of the British). The strike wave spread to other urban centers, the Postal Employees Union and workers of the British Tobacco Company in Shanghai, workers in Hankow, on the Peking-Hankow Railway, and in Tientsin and Macao, by one means or another expressed their solidarity with the Hong Kong seamen. By February 1, ocean steamers with a tonnage of over 280,000 lay idle in the Hong Kong harbor. At its height, the strike involved some 100,000 workers and ended after two months in complete victory for the seamen. In the words of Communist historian Ho Kan- chih, it was the “Chinese people’s first victory in a century of anti-imperialist struggle. Su Chao-cheng's role in the strike marked his rise to prominence as a labor leader.
In early May 1925 he attended the Second National Labor Congress in Canton, which was sponsored by four large labor unions: the National Railroad Workers’ Union (Ch’iian-kuo t’ieh-lu tsung-kung hui), the Canton Workers’ Delegates’ Association (Kuang-chou kung-jen tai-piao hui), the Han-yeh-p’ing Workers’ Union (Han-yeh-p’ing tsung-kung hui), and the Chinese Seamen's Union. The Congress established the All-China Federation of Labor (Chung-hua ch’iian-kuo tsung-kung hui), affiliated it to the Profintern, and set up as one of its principal tasks the unification of the workers' movement in Canton and Hong Kong. Su was elected to the ACFL Executive Committee, and Lin Wei-min was elected chairman.
The next high point in Su’s career was his role in the Hong Kong-Canton strike and boycott that began on June 19, 1925, in response to the May 30th Incident in Shanghai. Working with other Communist leaders like Teng Chung-hsia and Yang Yin, Su rallied the workers' unions in Hong Kong and Canton to declare a strike simultaneously on June 19. A strike committee was organized; Su was elected chairman and concurrently headed its Finance Section. The strike committee, fast becoming a mainstay of the Canton government, had under it some 800 men, who met in conference periodically, and an armed detachment of about 2,300 with the special task of isolating Hong Kong from the mainland. It also ran law courts, jails, a legal bureau to punish traitors, community mess halls, community dormitories, schools for workers, a bureau for searching out contraband goods, and a bureau for issuing sailing permits to Chinese and foreign vessels.
In early May 1925 he attended the Second National Labor Congress in Canton, which was sponsored by four large labor unions: the National Railroad Workers’ Union (Ch’iian-kuo t’ieh-lu tsung-kung hui), the Canton Workers’ Delegates’ Association (Kuang-chou kung-jen tai-piao hui) the Han-yeh-p’ing Workers’ Union (Han-yeh-p’ing tsung-kung hui) and the Chinese Seamen's Union. The Congress established the All-China Federation of Labor (Chung-hua ch’iian-kuo tsung-kung hui) affiliated it to the Profintern, and set up as one of its principal tasks the unification of the workers' movement in Canton and Hong Kong. Su was elected to the ACFL Executive Committee, and Lin Wei-min was elected chairman.
The next high point in Su’s career was his role in the Hong Kong-Canton strike and boycott that began on June 19, 1925 in response to the May 30th Incident in Shanghai. Working with other Communist leaders like Teng Chung-hsia and Yang Yin, Su rallied the workers' unions in Hong Kong and Canton to declare a strike simultaneously on June 19. A strike committee was organized, Su was elected chairman and concurrently headed its Finance Section. The strike committee, fast becoming a mainstay of the Canton government, had under it some 800 men, who met in conference periodically, and an armed detachment of about 2,300 with the special task of isolating Hong Kong from the mainland. It also ran law courts, jails, a legal bureau to punish traitors, community mess halls, community dormitories, schools for workers, a bureau for searching out contraband goods, and a bureau for issuing sailing permits to Chinese and foreign vessels.
The Chinese seamen held their First National Congress in Canton in January 1926 while the strike was still in progress. Su was elected chairman of the union. The Congress also organized the Hong Kong Transport Workers’ General Union, with Su again named as chairman. Moreover, at the Third Congress of the ACFL, convened in Canton in May 1926, he was elected chairman (replacing Lin Wci-min), thus being elevated to the leading role in trade union activities in south China among leftist-oriented unions.
The Canton-Hong Kong strike ended in the fall of 1926, but Su appears to have remained in south China until the spring of 1927, engaged in ACFL work. In March 1927 Communists began to enter the National Government in Wuhan, and Su was made minister of Labor. He arrived in Wuhan in April, moving the headquarters of the ACFL with him. He attended the Fifth CCP Congress in April-May 1927, at which time he was elected an alternate member of the Politburo.
In the spring of 1928 Su went to Moscow where he attended the Fourth Profintern Congress held in April and the Sixth Comintern Congress in July-September, at both Congresses he was a presidium (steering committee) member and he was elected to their Executive Committees. He also attended the Sixth CCP Congress in June-July 1928, which re-elected him to the Politburo. More honors came: he was elected vice-chairman of the Red International of Peasant Unions (Krestintern) and he attended the Eighth Congress of the All-Russia Trade Union Congress, where he delivered a report on the Chinese labor movement.
Su's health broke down while he was in Moscow, and he nearly died of an acute case of appendicitis. After some rest in southern Russia he was still not well enough to undergo an operation. In January 1929 he departed for home, but the arduous journey was more than he could stand, and he died soon after reaching Shanghai.
In July 1924 Su attended the Pacific Transport Workers' Conference in Canton, convened under Profintern sponsorship. Some 25 delegates from north and south China, from Indonesia and the Philippines met for six days. Gregory Voitinsky was present as the Comintern representative. One of the controversial issues debated at the conference was whether or not to support Sun Yat-sen's KMT. Su Chao-cheng’s seamen delegation joined with the delegates from the Philippines in supporting the alliance with the KMT, and the railroad union delegates from China and Indonesia criticized the KMT for not being revolutionary enough.
In the spring of 1925 Su was in Peking representing the workers' organizations in Hong Kong and Kwangtung at a conference engineered by the CCP to voice support for Sun Yat-sen’s call for a national assembly with broad representation from public bodies. While in Peking, Su joined the CCP, and for several months carried on trade union work in the northern railroad network and industrial centers.
Following the break with the Wuhan government, Su went to Kiukiang (Chiu-chiang) to take part in the preparations for the Nanchang Uprising (see under Yeh T'ing). Later, he attended the August 7 Emergency Conference, at which Ch’U Ch’iu-pai replaced feh’en Tu-hsiu as Party chief and Su became a full member of the Politburo. He drafted the resolutions on the workers’ movement which were passed by the conference. Because of his distinction as a labor leader, Su was accorded the honor of being made the chairman of the Canton Commune during the Canton Uprising in December 1927. In fact, however, Chang Tai-lei acted on his behalf during his absence. In addition to Party work, he continued to work for the ACFL, and in February 1928 convened a secret conference, at which he is said to have introduced a new system of factory committees more suited
