Previously, through the political and history classes in school, Wang Qiu knew early on that the working class in the old society was oppressed by the "three mountains" of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism at the same time, and lived in extremely miserable misery -- but this literal "misery" was basically just an empty and ethereal concept in his mind. Since there was no concrete object to compare with, he originally thought that it was similar to a sweatshop in modern China at best. However, seeing these living and horrific examples now makes him speechless......

- I really don't have anything to say! Compared with the harsh exploitation of the working class by these "national capitalist enterprises" in the Republic of China, the vast majority of the so-called "sweatshops" in modern China can probably be called a welfare factory like a paradise on earth!

In fact, Wang Qiu should be blamed for reading books and swallowing dates, and not paying attention to association and analysis -- the textbooks all say that in the early days of British capitalism, "sheep eat people", and the word itself already explains two things: first, the early workers lived much worse than the peasants, and their fields had to be turned into pastures in order to drive them into the factories, and second, after they entered the factories, they did not change their way of life, but were devoured by machines alive!

In short, in the early days of the rise of capitalism and the beginning of industrialization, the living conditions of the working people at the bottom will only deteriorate, not improve.

For example, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, both Sweden and the United Kingdom were engaged in the textile industry, and the Swedish textile mills had a child labor mortality rate of more than 30%. The textile mill of the British. Whoever you are, the workers will be exhausted to death after three years in the factory - because the textile industry in Sweden is not as cost-effective as that of the British, and Zuihou has been crushed by the British...... "The power of British industry is maintained only by the brutal treatment of the workers, by the destruction of their health, by the neglect of the development of whole generations of men in social relations, physically and mentally." (Engels)"

From the perspective of the Hereafter. Many modern Chinese envy Britain's prosperity in the era of the Industrial Revolution and despise the closed-eyed and decaying China of the late Qing Dynasty. But if you really travel back in time to the mid-19th century, the British Empire at the height of the Victorian era...... Then I am afraid it is really difficult to say which one was more painful, the farmers of the late Qing Dynasty or the workers of England.

According to Engels' description, the average life expectancy of the upper class (aristocrats, freelancers, etc.) in Liverpool at that time was thirty-five years, twenty-two years for merchants and craftsmen, and only fifteen years for workers, day laborers, and general wage labourers!! In Manchester. More than 57 per cent of workers' children die before the age of five, but only 20 per cent of the children of the upper classes die before the age of five. On average, less than 32 per cent of all children of all classes in agricultural areas die before the age of five...... The result of the Industrial Revolution is to make people's lives even worse!

――No way, before the invention of antibiotics, a small cold caused by rain could develop into pneumonia. And then let a sturdy adult die. Other than that. Due to poor sanitation, cholera, malaria, parasites, enteritis, dysentery, smallpox, plague and other infectious diseases have claimed the lives of a large number of people. The working class lives in particularly cramped and dirty conditions, and the dense crowd also facilitates the explosive spread of disease, so the probability of contracting the disease is far greater than that of other social classes.

What's worse is that infants and young children have a very high mortality rate due to their low immunity. At that time, if the British working families had fewer children, it was very likely that none of them would survive, so they had to use the method of desperate childbearing. to make sure that at least one or two children survive to carry on the lineage.

As described in the Communist Manifesto: "...... The serfs had struggled to the status of communes under serfdom, and the petty bourgeoisie had struggled to the status of bourgeoisie under the feudal autocracy. The modern worker is the opposite. They did not rise with the progress of industry, but fell more and more below the living conditions of their own class. ”

Therefore, Engels angrily wrote in his writings: "...... British society puts workers in a situation where they can neither stay healthy nor live long; In this way, little by little, it destroys the bodies of the workers and sends them to the grave prematurely. ”

“…… It goes without saying that factory slavery is just as powerful as any other slavery, if not more so. night right] given to the master. In this respect, the owner is also the master of the body and beauty of the female worker. The threat of dismissal, if not ninety-nine times out of a hundred, is enough to destroy any resistance from the girls, if not ninety-nine times out of a hundred, not to mention that they don't value their chastity in the first place. If the owner is despicable enough, then his factory is also his queen. Palace...... They are taking advantage of their 'right-earned' right with ease. ”

He also quipped bitterly: "...... Of course, these English bourgeoisie were also very husbands and fathers, and they all possessed all sorts of so-called private virtues, and in their daily dealings, like all other bourgeoisie, they were some respectable and decent figures; In commercial relations, they are even better than the Germans, they do not bargain and compete like our small merchants, but what is the use of this? ”

-- Working seventeen or eighteen hours a day without food and clothing, unable to raise offspring, with no education and malnutrition, the children had to enter the factory at the age of five or six, and then they were fucked to the point of death after three years in the factory...... The hegemony of the British Empire in the Victorian era was really bought with the lives and flesh of thousands of British workers, and it had to rely on the continuous devouring and extermination of its own citizens to survive!

In addition, it should be noted that just as slave owners in the southern United States at that time could sleep with black female slaves and engage in "breeding shiyan", factory owners in Britain and northern America could do whatever they wanted to their female workers, and society did not regard this matter as a shame at all......

Therefore, on the eve of the American Civil War, when the abolitionist movement intensified, some Southern slave owners were overwhelmed, so they found some poor white men in the North to show the moralists and the black people who were incited and bewitched in society. Tell about what kind of "good" life the "free people" in the capitalist factories of the North lived: "...... The part of the city dwellers engaged in lace production lived in extreme poverty and misery...... Children between the ages of 9 and 10 are pulled out of their dirty beds at 2, 3, or 4 o'clock in the morning to make ends meet. I had to work until 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night. Their limbs were thin, their bodies shrunk, their expressions were stupid, and they were numb like stone men, and they made people shudder at the sight...... This system is unfettered slavery, social, physical, moral and intellectual slavery...... If a city holds a public meeting, it is requested that the working hours of men be limited to 18 hours per day. So how do we feel? …… Someone slammed Virginia's plantation owners. However, their act of buying and selling black slaves and flogging them was more than the atrocities of chronic murder that occurred in the process of making veils for the benefit of the capitalists. Is it even more hateful? ……”

In view of the above tragedy, the slave owners proudly declared that the life of black slaves was a hundred times better than that of this so-called free worker! At the very least, black slaves were the valuable property of their masters. The owner is to consider the preservation and appreciation of the value of the property. Can't them to death!

The slaves were also surprised to find that the freemen in the factories lived shorter than the slaves on the plantations, and lived a harder life - at least they could call it a day after dark on the plantations and go back to sleep (they could not do farm work at night), while the workers had to continue working until midnight; Eating and dressing are also half a catty. When the workers are old, they are almost bound to be kicked out by the capitalists to fend for themselves, and when the black slaves are old, they are often arranged to do some light work in the corners of the manor to live for a long time; Due to the poverty of life, many male workers in their thirties and forties live a single life, and it is no less difficult to find a satisfactory wife than that of black slaves; In addition, the female workers of the "free men" were the same as the black female slaves. You have to be casually by the big guys without any human rights...... My God! In this way, being a freelancer is really not as comfortable as being a slave! Such "freedom" is really not needed!

Therefore. Throughout the Civil War, the black slaves of the American South did not set off a large-scale uprising to welcome the "liberation" of the "royal division" of the Northern army, because the "free life" that Lincoln was willing to give them really lacked the necessary attraction......

In short, if we hadn't seen such a purgatory-like situation, and thought that this kind of society should not and could not have lasted for a long time, Marx and Engels were both high-class gentlemen who had no worries about food and clothing.

On the other hand, the traditional agrarian society of late Qing China was certainly not a paradise, but the Chinese peasants with braided hair were at least able to survive as long as they did not encounter a famine compared to the "canned labor" and "talking livestock" in the West in the 19th century. It was not until the 20th century, when China's traditional agrarian society finally disintegrated under the impact of capitalism, and the Chinese countryside went bankrupt immediately, and the living standards of Chinese peasants began to plummet.

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Many petty bourgeoisie always have the illusion of warmth and affection for shijie, and while laughing at the whimsy of Marx and Engels, they naively feel that through their warmth they can move the ruling class and persuade them to cede some benefits to the laborers, so that shijie can become more harmonious.

But the problem is that this shijie is so cruel and ruthless. Those good capitalists who still have a conscience in their hearts and are willing to treat the laborers well are always competing with the evil capitalists who brutally squeeze every penny of the laborers' blood and sweat. If there are no laws and regulations, under the pure market competition, the capitalists will not be able to maintain their competitiveness with other enterprises if they give up their interests, and they will only go bankrupt and go bankrupt...... There are just too many examples of this......

-- The birth and development of capitalism was so cruel and bloody that there was no room for the slightest warmth and affection.

Under these circumstances, because of the inherent inadequacy of China's national capitalism in the Republic of China era, the Kuomintang government could not receive necessary support such as tariff barriers, tax reductions and exemptions, and special fund injections, but had to bear all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and arbitrary extortions...... As a result, they have to squeeze Chinese workers a hundred times more fiercely than other capitalist countries in order to reduce costs. Maintain the market competitiveness of the products......

Faced with such a cycle of "die of overwork or lose your job", the Chinese workers had nothing but revolution. What else is there to do?

“…… I now understand why the Chinese revolutionary cause in the old society could 'spark a prairie fire' -- it had already tossed the workers to the point that 'if you don't make a revolution, you will wait for death, and if you don't revolutionize, you will find death', and how can people not rebel if they live worse than slaves? ”

While listening to these workers spitting bitterness, Wang Qiu couldn't help but muttered to Professor Yang Wenli, "...... But how did our European and American capitalists at that time become soft-hearted? All kinds of social benefits emerge in such an endless stream that Europeans have been raised with the 'disease of wealth'? ”

“…… Remember to cut. After the defeat of the guerrilla war, Guevara once said: "After we go." They will build you schools and hospitals, and they will raise your wages, not because they have a conscience, nor because they have become good people. It's because we've been here. ”

Professor Yang lifted his reading glasses on the bridge of his nose. "...... If it were not for the centuries-long struggle of the international communist movement, the blood of the workers of all countries, and the storm of the communist movement that swept the world after World War II, the workers of any country would not have thought of taking out an extra copper plate from the pockets of the capitalists. These guys have always eaten people and don't spit out bones, unless someone puts a knife on their necks......

“…… But the Kuomintang did not do this, and after the departure of the Red Army, they did not build schools and hospitals for the common people, let alone raise their salaries. Instead, they chose to use one massacre after another to 'maintain stability', which seemed simpler and easier. Wang Qiu retorted.

“…… Therefore, the Chiang dynasty only collapsed when it reached Zuihou. The capitalist powers, on the other hand, have survived into the twenty-first century. If the European and American powers had been on par with Chiang's level of governance and continued to massacre and abuse their own workers and peasants during the Cold War, instead of implementing the welfare system, it would have been long before the red flag would have been planted all over the world in our time -- of course, there is also the possibility that a copy of the wasteland of nuclear war would be the end of the entire human civilization! ”

Professor Yang Wenli replied calmly, and at the same time stretched out his finger and pointed to the sick and decrepit Shanghai workers in front of him, "...... Seriously, life in the Radiant Wasteland doesn't seem to be that bad compared to the situation they are now in in the factory waiting to be 'overworked'......

"......" Wang Qiu thought about it carefully, and found that it was really difficult to say which one was more painful, radiation sickness or tuberculosis, and he couldn't help but be even more shocked.

-- If the people are oppressed to the point where they would rather destroy the earth than die with the capitalists, then humanity will really come to an end.

“…… In the capitalist society of our time, there was the supervision of trade union organizations and the protection of state laws, so that the capitalists could no longer tear off their faces and be extremely vicious, and there were relatively advanced medical and health conditions and a relatively comfortable material life, so that the physical conditions of the workers could withstand the oppression of the capitalists for a long time, coupled with the relatively relaxed social security policy and population mobility, which to a certain extent eased the class contradictions and created a prosperous and harmonious scene. Moreover, with the declining birthrate and aging population, social contradictions are shifting in a new direction......

At the end of the day, this is the result of increased levels of productivity. The murderous nature of capital has never changed -- the toiling masses have no welfare without a desperate struggle, and from time to time they raise their vigilance and wait for the existing welfare to be gradually deprived...... How to appease the masses and maintain national stability is a matter for the state and the government to consider, and in the internal competition of the capitalists, it is true that whoever has no lower limit will win! Professor Yang said coldly.

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While Wang Qiu and Professor Yang were whispering, the "Tea Party of Grievances" of the underground party workers continued. At the end of the day, an overseas Chinese who had returned from the United States the year before last also told the story of the Great Depression in the United States that he had witnessed.

If we say that there are certain factors of natural disasters and wars in the miserable life of Chinese workers at this time, and there are many people who sincerely believe that as long as peace is restored in the world, everything will be fine...... Then the miserable life of Americans in the Great Depression is completely the work of the capitalists.

- Buckets of milk are poured down the drains, healthy live cattle are thrown into the Mississippi River, cotton, grapes, and wheat rot in the ground, corn on the cob is better fuel than corn for coal, and millions of city dwellers cannot afford the produce that is so cheap that it bankrupts the peasant!

At that time, tens of millions of unemployed people across the United States were evicted by their landlords, wandering around the United States, sleeping in the jungle, parks, streets, and train stations, living by stealing and begging. In New York alone, at least 20,000 people starved to death in 1931! There are countless suicides!

The Chinese American also lost his job during the Great Depression and became a member of the wandering army, and was greatly puzzled by this tragic and tragic swoop—when there were neither natural disasters nor wars, the wind and rain were smooth, and the grains were abundant, but on one side there were crops in the countryside that no one harvested, and on the other side there was starvation in the streets and alleys of the city? It's not scientific!

He couldn't figure this question until he came into contact with Marxism after returning to China...... It was really God's will, and I finally understood the truth of this shijie, and at that moment I burst into tears. So he resolutely threw himself into the revolution and joined the underground party group of General Political Commissar Hu. (To be continued......)