Chinese Steel Boss Beaten To Death!

[Rod Sleeves]

Good stuff. Sounds like the prick got what he deserved frankly.

 

[CyberRose]

Jesus there's a big difference over loosing your job and being beaten by an abusive husband! My dad's just been made redundant at the steel factory he works at but as far as I'm aware he nor his fellow colleagues doesn't have any willingness to beat the head of Corus to death in a vicious mob attack.

Like I said, I can imagine perfectly well why he was beaten to death, but that in no way justifies it, nor should it mean anyone who does not have psychological issues should be celebrating this act

 

[8ball]

87,000 'mass incidents'!

I wonder how big something has to be to qualify - I know China is big but it sounds like a lot . . .

 

[DotCommunist]

Jesus there's a big difference over loosing your job and being beaten by an abusive husband! My dad's just been made redundant at the steel factory he works at but as far as I'm aware he nor his fellow colleagues doesn't have any willingness to beat the head of Corus to death in a vicious mob attack.

Like I said, I can imagine perfectly well why he was beaten to death, but that in no way justifies it, nor should it mean anyone who does not have psychological issues should be celebrating this act

Your dad will have recourse to a benefit system. He'll not be eating grubs and bark to survive, unless you are particularly hard on him.

 

[JimW]

Jesus there's a big difference over loosing your job and being beaten by an abusive husband!

Yeah grim as it is, at least that's only one victim at a time, plus the kids if any. This bastard was looking to fuck a community of 25,000 for a generation or more.

 

[CyberRose]

Unbelievable

 

[Idris2002]

What about the violence inherent in the system? (NB, this is not a joke).

 

[butchersapron]

Two worthwhile reports from China labour bulletin to put this into some sort of context:
The Workers’ Movement in China, 2007-2008
No Way Out: Worker Activism in China’s State-Owned Enterprise Reforms

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Fucking hell, double thumbs up from me.

For the bosses of this world humanity is merely a vexatious appendage of capital - they kill millions every year in pursuit of profit. Fuck em.

 

[Idris2002]

OK, let's do some blue-skies thinking here. Suppose that this sort of thing carries on, until there's some sort of democratic socialist revolution in China. . . what would be the likely effects of that on world politics?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I always find it interesting the way anything to do with China gets into the press here. Most of the time you'd think there was an all powerful centralised surveillance state crushing freedoms and running a nation of helpless slaves etc, but every now and then you get some report saying "oh yeah there was a dispute in this town and tens of thousands of people were on the streets and burnt out a few police stations, and local officials had to bargain with the people or they'd be lynched". Tomorrow it'll be back to the fait accompli dictatorship though.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

OK, let's do some blue-skies thinking here. Suppose that this sort of thing carries on, until there's some sort of democratic socialist revolution in China. . . what would be the likely effects of that on world politics?

Free chicken chow mein for the international proletariat.

 

[8ball]

OK, let's do some blue-skies thinking here. Suppose that this sort of thing carries on, until there's some sort of democratic socialist revolution in China. . . what would be the likely effects of that on world politics?

The Americans would buy the entire country, ignoring the puzzling fact that so much of their national debt is to China.

 

[Idris2002]

The Americans would buy the entire country, ignoring the puzzling fact that so much of their national debt is to China.

At this point in my timeline, Sarah Palin has renamed herself 'Aunty Entity' and AmeriKKKa has other things on its mind.

But this really requires its own thread.

 

[Spion]

Well it's not murder if it's justified is it? I think you need to get your head around some simple terms before you start accusing others of "talking rubbish"

I didn't mention the word 'murder'. You did. You were making some point about 'the left's support for brutal murder' and I suggested that the British public would not necesarily be put off by an application of lethal force if justified.

Personally I don't believe states should have a monopoly on violence so I can't accept the use of the terms 'murder' at face value.

Murder is a loaded term, like terrorist. The state kills and terrorises but we're generally led to believe it's only murder and terrorism when someone other than the state does it.

It's a dead guy tho, he was killed. But bandying the term murder about is just emotive nonsense

 

[CyberRose]

Murder is a loaded term?! I give up!

 

[DotCommunist]

I always find it interesting the way anything to do with China gets into the press here. Most of the time you'd think there was an all powerful centralised surveillance state crushing freedoms and running a nation of helpless slaves etc, but every now and then you get some report saying "oh yeah there was a dispute in this town and tens of thousands of people were on the streets and burnt out a few police stations, and local officials had to bargain with the people or they'd be lynched". Tomorrow it'll be back to the fait accompli dictatorship though.

They don't have any democracy you know. They are forced to vote for a regime that generally looks after them. If only Obama could save them with the One True Democracy pioneered by the god-blessed US of A

 

[FreddyB]

Murder is a loaded term?! I give up!

I should if I were you.

While it is regrettable that a man had to be beaten to death it seems quite clear that he had to be beaten to death. Why are you so adamant that it can only be seen as a bad thing?

 

[maomao]

I always find it interesting the way anything to do with China gets into the press here. Most of the time you'd think there was an all powerful centralised surveillance state crushing freedoms and running a nation of helpless slaves etc, but every now and then you get some report saying "oh yeah there was a dispute in this town and tens of thousands of people were on the streets and burnt out a few police stations, and local officials had to bargain with the people or they'd be lynched". Tomorrow it'll be back to the fait accompli dictatorship though.

It really depends where you are. In Beijing or Shanghai this sort of behaviour would be highly unlikely. In parts of the North East people are used to demonstrating monthly just to get paid.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

How the bosses treat Chinese workers:

 

[butchersapron]

It really depends where you are. In Beijing or Shanghai this sort of behaviour would be highly unlikely. In parts of the North East people are used to demonstrating monthly just to get paid.

Two other bosses killed last month in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. i remember writing an article years back that mentioned a spate of boss-killing in Hubei province and how the killers were being treated as folk heros in songs and children's nursery rhymes.

 

[CyberRose]

Why are you so adamant that it can only be seen as a bad thing?

Retaliation by the government?

Also because of the delight many on this thread have over seeing a "capitalist" murdered by a savage mob. I sympathise with the plight of those in the third world (or whatever it is we're supposed to refer to China as) but it is extremely disturbing to witness what type of people are actually posting on U75 these days

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Two other bosses killed last month in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. i remember writing an article years back that mentioned a spate of boss-killing in Hubei province and how the killers were being treated as folk heros in songs and children's nursery rhymes.

Got a link to that?

It's hardly suprising. I reckon Western liberals should be sent to go and work in a factor in China and see how long it is untill they want to murder the boss. I reckon on average it'd be about one day.

 

[butchersapron]

Got a link to that?

Sure, it's just a short piece from 2002 - afraid there's no seperate link for the single thing though - just the whole mag.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Sure, it's just a short piece from 2002 - afraid there's no seperate link for the single thing though - just the whole mag.

Cheers, I'll have a read.

 

[CyberRose]

It's hardly suprising. I reckon Western liberals should be sent to go and work in a factor in China and see how long it is untill they want to murder the boss. I reckon on average it'd be about one day.

Not a bad idea come to think of it but I have a few additions...

Anyone who lives in the UK and thinks we live in an authoritarian police state (well suppose that would have been covered by your "Western liberals" above, but no harm hammering home the point), anyone who masturbates whilst thinking of murdering bankers/what it'd be like to actually have lived through the Vietnam protests, anyone who complains about Poles nicking "our" jobs, Steven Gerrard, benefit cheats and anyone who has ever worn one of those Palestinian neckerchiefs before they became fashionable amongst the rest of the student population

 

[DotCommunist]

CR, in places where being unemployed means your family will starve alongside yourself, labour disputes turn ugly pretty fucking quick.

 

[FreddyB]

Not a bad idea come to think of it but I have a few additions...

Anyone who lives in the UK and thinks we live in an authoritarian police state (well suppose that would have been covered by your "Western liberals" above, but no harm hammering home the point), anyone who masturbates whilst thinking of murdering bankers/what it'd be like to actually have lived through the Vietnam protests, anyone who complains about Poles nicking "our" jobs, Steven Gerrard, benefit cheats and anyone who has ever worn one of those Palestinian neckerchiefs before they became fashionable amongst the rest of the student population

blimey

 

[rekil]

Got a link to that?

It's hardly suprising. I reckon Western liberals should be sent to go and work in a factor in China and see how long it is untill they want to murder the boss. I reckon on average it'd be about one day.

Nope, they'd want to be the boss and would shaft 'troublemaking' co-workers at the drop of a hat if it eased their passage up the arse that is the promotional ladder. (And then they'd come on places like here and cry about it probably.)

 

[JimW]

Thing with these privatisation battles as well is that the workers are defending better conditions than in the private sector - social considerations taken into account, more likely to stick to the labour law, chance of some sort of democratic input/union representation even if it's only the one official state ACFTU.
More of a general point that as I saw one article quoting a provincial official saying that a privatisation process had already occurred here so they'll have lost a lot of that already at Tonggang. See workers do have some shares etc. though and as the outcome of their action here shows, easier to influence local bosses with a political interest in not having mass incidents on their hands and being seen to maintain a "harmonious society."
The Jianlong Group are out of Zhejiang, home to the biggest private sector and some of the most notorious bosses. Their track record looks like that of specialist asset strippers, "consolidating" the state steel sector and other manufacturing like ship-building.
Even the mainstream news portals in China get the context:
http://news.sohu.com/20090728/n265526787.shtml

从某种程度来说，建龙的并购模式更是当下“国退民进”中民企收购国企的典型缩影：在民企并购方、国资委达成协议的强势声音之下，作为最直接的利益相关者——企业员工的话语权却逐渐沦丧，企业是否被并购他们从来无缘置喙。当这种损害达到顶点时，话语权严重沦丧、无处诉求的企业员工，只有通过这样声势浩大的群体行为，甚至以围殴高管的惨烈方式，来表达自己被压抑多时的权利诉求

On one level the model used by Jianlong in its acquisitions is the classic private buy-out of a state enterprise under the current national privatisation drive in microcosm: against the powerful voice of the agreement between private buyer and State Assets Management Commission the right of those with the most direct interest [in the sale] - the workers - to have their say on the matter gets lost; the sale of their workplace is treated as if it has nothing they might have words to say about. When this damaging behaviour goes to the extreme, workers at the enterprise with no right to speak and nowhere to take their grievances can only make a long-suppressed claim for their rights through this kind of major mass incident or even by harsh means like the beating of a senior manager.