Site of the Secret Office of the Shanghai General Labour Union

Site of the Secret Office of the Shanghai General Labour Union

The Site of the Secret Office of the Shanghai General Labour Union is a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai.

Site of the Secret Office of the Shanghai General Labour Union

It is located at Lane 122, Siping Road (formerly No. 21, Magyali, Lane 965, Lijiang Road). On September 25, 1925, the Shanghai District Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to form a party group of the Shanghai General Labour Union consisting of four members including Wang Shouhua and Xiang Ying, and established a secret office here to lead the labour movement. The upper floor housed the offices and living quarters of Wang Shouhua and Long Dadao, and was frequently visited by Li Lisan, Xiang Ying, Lin Yunan and others to discuss work. Under the leadership of the Shanghai General Labour Union, from June to August, Shanghai saw a labour movement climax, with the number of participants reaching up to 200,000. After September 1926, under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Shanghai District Committee, the Shanghai General Labour Union participated in organizing the leadership of the armed workers' uprisings. On March 21, 1927, Shanghai workers shifted from a general strike to an armed uprising, and the general strike and uprising order was issued here. After the victory of the uprising, the Shanghai General Labour Union moved to the Huzhou Guild Hall in Zhabei to operate publicly. After the “April 12” Incident, the site was destroyed. It was announced as a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai in December 1977. The building was demolished in 1999 due to the construction of a rail transit line.

Magyali was a modern-style residential lane, invested and built by the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China in 1923. Located at Lane 965, Lijiang Road, it consisted of 38 two-storey Western-style brick-and-wood buildings facing south. As for No. 21, where Ba Jin once lived, it also has a glorious history. After the May Thirtieth Movement in 1925, when the office of the Shanghai General Labour Union was sealed off, a secret office was set up here, and Wang Shouhua and others worked here. During the third armed uprising of Shanghai workers in 1927, Zhou Enlai commanded the uprising from this location. It was listed as a municipal-level cultural heritage site in 1977.

The Magyali residence on Dishiwai Road was a two-storey Shikumen-style house. The ground floor had a approximately 20-square-meter living room and a roughly 15-square-meter kitchen. The upper floor included a front room, a garret, and a passageway room. The entire building was arranged as a typical family residence. At that time, leaders of the Shanghai General Labour Union such as Wang Shouhua and Long Dadao often stayed and worked here, and Li Lisan, Lin Yunan, Xiang Ying and others also frequently came to discuss work and lead the Shanghai labour movement.