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From East to West and West to East: Ties of Solidarity in the Pan-Pacific Revolutionary Trade Union Movement, 1923–1934

In this article, I examine the contours of pan-Pacific revolutionary trade union internationalism from 1923 up through 1934, with special attention to the years 1928 to 1934, which years are commonly understood in Communist International (Comintern) historiography as the Third Period. The Third Period is typically viewed as being characterized by “a loss of influence” on the part of the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU or Profintern) as a result of the Comintern's “left” turn. My research shows that in spite of high levels of repression across Asia during the late 1920s and early 1930s and the continued existence of restrictive immigration and shipping laws in North America, the pan-Pacific revolutionary trade union movement retained a visible presence across the Pacific. Sustaining this movement were two groups of actors. First, were Chinese and Japanese seamen who, subject as they were to severe repression, understood that the strength of their unions at the local scale depended at least in part upon support from overseas and their ability to command space at the regional and international scales. Therefore, at great risk, through face to face contact and the medium of print, they sought to forge pan-Pacific ties of international solidarity. Second, were the Chinese and Japanese immigrant Communists who, also at great personal risk and with their efforts also always subject to repression and failure, sought to “jump” scales by boarding ships that came into North American ports and on which Chinese or Japanese seamen worked. Together these immigrant workers and seamen were the “conductors of the [pan-Pacific] revolutionary movement” linking up one side of the Pacific with the other.