Comments on: Wildcat Strikes in China

By: Arthur Borges

Arthur Borges — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:50:59 +0000

So far, most encouragement of wildcat strikes has come indirectly from the state media simply by giving lots of air time and front page space to the strikes: this is consistent with the government’s aim of lessening dependence on export markets by giving domestic consumers more spending power.

Most factory workers however do not use the Internet and surfing is primarily restricted to office employees with at least a secondary school diploma. That said, lawyers are a rising force in Chinese society and government is still figuring out how to adjust to this, particularly at provincial, county and city level.

By: Ken Hammond

Ken Hammond — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:22:59 +0000

Labor militancy in China is in some ways fragmented and atomistic, lacking an integrative organization to coordinate actions across the country. This can to some extent be overcome through use of the internet, cellphones, and other forms of instant communications technology. On the other hand, strikes and other kinds of labor actions seem to share basic features wherever they occur. Some of this may be due to the legal environment, which shapes both the kinds of issues which workers can raise, and the ways in which they can raise them.
Worker protests and strike actions at this time remain largely focused on immediate economic issues, but the rising tide of militancy may indicate an emerging momentum. The irony of worker organization and action in the context of a formally worker controlled system, the shell of state socialism which remains in China, is that the laws which have broadened the field for working class activity have been passed by the state which has largely endorsed market mechanisms as the main force to be relied on in building the national economy. There is a deep structural contradiction in the contemporary Chinese state and party system, which is more subtle and nuanced than the total embrace of capitalism. This gives Chinese workers some extra levers to manipulate in their struggles.
It may be that the dialectical development of China, through the initial era of socialist construction and into the era of market driven reform, has created a hybrid form.
This is clearly not the deformed socialism of the Soviet model, but nor is it simple state capitalism. The remants of a socialist political structure, especially in conjunction with the increasing emphasis on the development of the legal system, may give workers some of the tools they need to try to make the system return to a more truly socialist orientation.
Very much a work in progress.

By: Weekly dose « New Politics Review

Weekly dose « New Politics Review — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:36:02 +0000

[...] Wildcat strikes in China [...]

By: Arthur Borges

Arthur Borges — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:49:08 +0000

Taiwanese employers have a firmly established reputation for abusing and mistreating their Mainland employees.