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government in Taiwan. In the textile industry, there were the left-wing Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Trade Workers General Union and the right-wing Cotton Industry Workers General Union. Together they had unionized just 18 percent of the textile workers in 1971 (England and Rear 1975: 89-90). The numerical weakness and political affiliations of the unions permitted the spinners to dismiss them as a nuisance. A12 did not hide his annoyance:
'Unions are not bad. There should be real unions so that workers' opinions can be expressed. But they should be separated from politics. In Hong Kong, it is difficult. Unions are not fighting for the welfare of their members. Some years ago, several union representatives came to talk to me. They were not making any demands, but just stating principles. They made several suggestions about welfare provisions. I told them these were already instituted in the mill. They said this was not proper and that the suggestions should come from the unions. At present, there are two unions in our mill, and I absolutely refuse to talk to them.'
The second rationalization was that the workers were uneducated, with the implication that they could not look after their own interests. Thus A19 asserted:
'There are unions in Hong Kong, but workers' educational levels are not high enough. There should be consultations, but the workers cannot come before management, because they do not have sufficient education.'
By this the spinners seemed to be maintaining that their authority was legitimized by superior knowledge and cultivation, an age-old Chinese assumption traceable to Mencius' dictum that those who worked with their mind ruled others while those who worked with their hands were to be ruled by others.
From the actual practice of joint consultation in the mills, it is clear that there is a more fundamental albeit unstated reason for their resistance to the idea of trade unionism. This is that they did not welcome the idea of workers' representatives. This might provide the clue to understand their rejection of organizational conflict in favour of harmony. Richard Solomon has suggested