Strike wave in China

[butchersapron]

*Free event, Wednesday 6th April 19.00-21.00

80 Stokes Croft, Hamilton House, 5th floor Meeting room*

In mid-2010 a strike wave rolled through China's factories, the most widespread and militant expression of China's internal migrant workers so far. Their struggle shook the Chinese regime and provoked a world-wide debate about the end of the low-wage-model that stands behind China's rise to the "factory of the world" and provides Europe and other regions with cheap consumer products.

We will look at the social conditions that stand behind the militant outbreak -- the situation and struggles of different groups of migrant workers, such as construction, factory, domestic and sex workers, before examining the strike wave and its implications and discussing the formation of a new working class movement in China.

The discussion will also focus on new forms of reference, exchange and support that take into account the current phase of crisis and the increasing number of social struggles in different parts of the world.

The presentation with a short video from actual struggles will be led by someone who has lived in China and worked on publications on China's migrant workers, including 'Dagongmei -- Women workers From China's World Market-Factories Tell Their Story' and 'The Take-off of the Second Generation -- Migrant Work, Gender and Class Composition in China' (see www.gongchao.org).

 

[JimW]

New edition of China Left Review, on the theme 'Historical Legacies, Global Financial Crisis, and China’s Working Class Movement': http://chinaleftreview.org/
General tenor of the collective who produce the CLR is one of seeing something worth salvaging in the legacy of the pre-reform economy: http://chinaleftreview.org/?p=464

Instead, they take seriously the role Chinese socialist development played in enabling the kind of economic growth China has experienced in recent decades. That does not require denying the pitfalls of this model during the Maoist period. Instead they look at how experiences of Chinese socialism, prior to the turn to markets under Deng, provide today’s workers in China with the tools to think about solutions to their variegated crises that do not necessitate surrendering to the logic of capitalist (‘free’ wage-labor) based social relations of production.

But should have plenty of food for thought in a substantial edition (not even started reading myself, was sent link today)

 

[butchersapron]

They keep putting in abstracts to stuff i cannot access.

 

[JimW]

New CLB report on the workers movement in China 2009-2011: http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/101134

 

[butchersapron]

Noticed this earlier, surge in non-work related protests:

 

[JimW]

Those figures for the doubled estimated numbers of "mass incidents" year-on-year are telling; even given the caveats about recording biases.
"Rioting gets results. Quickly."

 

[JimW]

Pics of workers on strike at a Singaporean-owned electronics factory in Shanghai: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...nese-factory/article2263512/?utm_medium=Feeds
Been another recent upsurge of militancy.

 

[frogwoman]

I read a while back about the shopkeepers who had been rioting, setting fire to peoples cars etc. What was that all about?

 

[JimW]

I read a while back about the shopkeepers who had been rioting, setting fire to peoples cars etc. What was that all about?

Been so many major incidents recently can't be sure which one you have in mind! Enjoyed recent story about some officials driving a military-number-plated car (gets you privileges) assaulting a street stall holder in an argument over where they wanted to park, so passers-by over-turned their fancy 4X4.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

Brilliant!

 

[JimW]

At its best, the Chinese sense of justice is just the right mix of communism and kung-fu novels

 

[Captain Hurrah]

The passers by have probably felt and resented the haughty power of those kind of pricks before. Things aren't all like that poor little girl run over and left to die.

 

[JimW]

The passers by have probably felt and resented the haughty power of those kind of pricks before. Things aren't all like that poor little girl run over and left to die.

Exactly - there's a big willingness to get stuck in when the chance presents itself, and it really has been to a great extent the potential consequences landing on the individual for being a good Samaritan (health costs, possible legal liability etc) that have led to the cases like Yue Yue.

 

[ska invita]

At its best, the Chinese sense of justice is just the right mix of communism and kung-fu novels

Anyone know what state retribution is like? Id imagine lots of people going missing over things like this - what's the reality?

 

[JimW]

Anyone know what state retribution is like? Id imagine lots of people going missing over things like this - what's the reality?

That's one of the key dynamics that plays into the incidents IMO - there's a point where something has enough critical mass where the consequences will quite possibly be worse for the officials who've allowed the 'mass incident' to occur on their watch, and aggrieved ordinary people end up with a better outcome - say compensation in unlawful death of a family member. That was very clear in the steel strike in the north-east a couple of years ago when they beat the manager of the privatisers to death - result was privatisation got stopped.
There is a follow-up against perceived key activists if it gets clearly political or is ongoing and you can get fifteen years no problem, but you're actually more at risk in isolation in a smaller dispute, where local powers can pick you off. Plenty of petitioners (people using the official system of registering complaints) end up in psych wards or 'black prisons', some end up dead. But there's a point where if it's spontaneous and of a scale where it can actually be the best choice by far.

ETA: There's a really good book by Yu Jianrong on rural protests against illegal taxes and fees in Hunan province that looked at how people adapted to the realities by making sure never to have identifiable leaders etc. It was the area that produced a lot of the militants of the revolutionary period and he traces cross-generational traditions of underground working.
ETA: Translated by me http://www.newint.org/features/2004/09/01/rural-resistance/

 

[ska invita]

ETA: There's a really good book by Yu Jianrong on rural protests against illegal taxes and fees in Hunan province that looked at how people adapted to the realities by making sure never to have identifiable leaders etc. It was the area that produced a lot of the militants of the revolutionary period and he traces cross-generational traditions of underground working.
ETA: Translated by me http://www.newint.org/features/2004/09/01/rural-resistance/

Thanks Jim. I can well imagine the importance of not signing a petition, or being an identifiable leader, but I would also fear that if there's a photo of an incident that would be enough, especially for a well practiced state security machine like that in China.

In a pre-digital age it would tend to be visible ringleaders that get rounded up, but in this day and age, with so many photos and videos in the public domain (lets not even get into biometric ID cards and facial scanning CCTV) , people can be singled out so much more easily. I've always been in awe of brazen dissent in the face of terrible personal repercussions, but it strikes me the odds facing average dissenters gets worse all the time (might be wrong, but that's how it seems).

Reaching that critical mass point is such a hazardous thing, and even once its been reached and concession made, things can happen down the line. All power to them.

(I guess all this is tempered somewhat by the points made by Dave earlier in the thread here: http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/strike-wave-in-china.172488/#post-5845471 )

 

[JimW]

Thanks Jim. I can well imagine the importance of not signing a petition, or being an identifiable leader, but I would also fear that if there's a photo of an incident that would be enough, especially for a well practiced state security machine like that in China.

In a pre-digital age it would tend to be visible ringleaders that get rounded up, but in this day and age, with so many photos and videos in the public domain (lets not even get into biometric ID cards and facial scanning CCTV) , people can be singled out so much more easily. I've always been in awe of brazen dissent in the face of terrible personal repercussions, but it strikes me the odds facing average dissenters gets worse all the time (might be wrong, but that's how it seems).

Reaching that critical mass point is such a hazardous thing, and even once its been reached and concession made, things can happen down the line. All power to them.

(I guess all this is tempered somewhat by the points made by Dave earlier in the thread here: http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/strike-wave-in-china.172488/#post-5845471 )

Those are good points in Dave's post - there is this dynamic where the Party is trapped by its legacy, the actual genuine goals of some at the centre to somehow do right by 'the people' and the obvious reality that their rule is conducted by a corrupt new class of officials and entrepreneurs in cahoots. So again that makes you more vulnerable to being picked off if you're doing something outside of what could be seen as legitimate popular demands, and they do use the new tech there - online posters favouring liberal dissidents etc (remember hearing about mobile phone tracking of rights lawyers many years back too - one guy nicked minutes after turning his on while on the run). Also does mean if the nature of a 'mass incident' is such that it accords with the professed goals of the state and Party, they don't want to be seen to be victimising people for demanding it, often even when it's been pretty violent. In that older rural stuff Yu notes peasant activists were careful to read up on central policy before framing demands. Of course, the centre knows that there's a farcical gap between paper policy and reality, but people are able to exploit it and I feel have a pretty good sense of where those lines are drawn,

 

[ska invita]

really interesting... thanks Jim

 

[dennisr]

There\s a good article here on the new wave of strikes: China: Strikes spread amid economic slowdown
http://www.chinaworker.info/en/content/news/1673
The current labour unrest is set against a very different global economic backdrop to last year’s strikes, with a slowing economy in China and credit squeeze beginning to bite on company profits. Factory output is actually falling, with the November purchasing manager index (PMI) reading 49 (a reading below 50 points signifies a contraction).

 

[JimW]

Big strike at furniture factory in Zhejiang, riot cops in.

Der Spiegel bit on the latest wave of unrest: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,802308,00.html#ref=rss Not particularly good but looks at the consequences for one young worker who took a lead in a strike/protest - jobless and homeless, which speaks to what ska invita was asking.

 

[dennisr]

Big strike at furniture factory in Zhejiang, riot cops in.

Der Spiegel bit on the latest wave of unrest: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,802308,00.html#ref=rss Not particularly good but looks at the consequences for one young worker who took a lead in a strike/protest - jobless and homeless, which speaks to what ska invita was asking.

and yet more - strike and sit in by Hitachi workers in Shenzhen

"Over 2,000 workers at a Japanese hard-disk factory in Shenzhen, southern China, have been on strike since Sunday over severance pay. The strikers have staged a sit-in to block the entrance of Hailiang Storage Products Co, a subsidiary of Hitachi, accusing Japanese bosses of bullying Chinese workers."

"In many cases, the new wave of Chinese strikers are no longer ‘beginners’ but have taken part in earlier strikes. Workers’ tactics are evolving – with sit-in strikes and attempts to block the removal of equipment by bosses. Informal organisation, discussions over tactics, and election of representatives, is undoubtedly playing a much bigger role today than in earlier labour disputes. This is a nightmare for the ruling one-party dictatorship, which fears the emergence of an independent workers’ movement and genuine trade unions more than anything else.

http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/1676

 

[JimW]

Some pics from the Hailiang strike (videos have been censored): http://www.mshw.org/review/national/2011-12-15/7107.html
Cops protecting the factory and making arrests:

 

[elfman]

Lots been said about the Wukan village occupation (not strictly related to the title of the thread, but thought it should be mentioned somewhere).

More about it here
http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com/2011/12/wukan-uprising.html

It's not too far from where I live (although I wouldn't know how to get there), but how I'd be able to help in any form is beyond me...

 

[ska invita]

Another piece on Wukan here - mainly with details on whats been happening: http://infantile-disorder.blogspot.com/2011/12/anarchy-in-china-as-officials-and-cops.html

Quite a good wiki on it in fact, including back story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wukan

 

[ska invita]

From the wiki:

In an apparent attempt to ease tensions, authorities allowed villagers to select 13 representatives to engage in negotiations. Following their selection, however, security agents abducted the representatives and took them into custody. In mid-December, one of the 13, Xue Jinbo, died in custody.

Pardon my language, but what a bunch of fucking cunts

 

[JimW]

It's the place where the first Chinese Soviet was declared back in the 1920s, good piece about the current uprising in Chinese here: http://www.reviewing.cn/2011/1209/16113.html
Some supposedly independent autopsy claimed no obvious injuries on Xue Jinbo's body, but even if that's true as many have pointed out, the filth are well practised at hanging you up by your thumbs with your toes barely touching the ground etc., which would fit with what the family said.
On a slightly lighter note, watched a couple of long videos of village meetings b the new committee and on the second one the speaker came out to The Internationale followed by the theme from Star Wars Tunes of victory!

 

[JimW]

Today it's been announced that Guangdong provincial government accept that "villagers main demands are reasonable" and they're sending a high-level work team in to sort out the problems with the land sales, village budget and elections to the village committee. Also said they won't pursue people for any "excessive" behaviour during the protests (reading between the lines there will be an attempt to pick off a few key activists as they're saying most didn't damage any police cars or public property but those that did sound like they'll be picked up).
Pretty solid victory for the villagers, and it's escaped no commenters notice that while authorities say you should pursue things through "the proper channels", it's only when you don't that anything happens.

 

[Yu_Gi_Oh]

Well done Wukan, what a result!

 

[JimW]

Well done Wukan, what a result!

Looks good, but obv we'll have to see how it all shakes out in the end - it might mean that this takes things off the boil then a few months down the line a fairly shabby fit-up gets cobbled together, plus a few villagers go to prison, but would imagine there's a fair chance that any obviously criminal land deals will be cancelled. As you see in web comments here, keep watching.
Heard there's an environmental protest in Hailiang also in Guangdong, and the strikes in Shenzhen are still ongoing. Feisty start to the new year in prospect.

ETA: There's an amusing clip of the district party secretary doing the rounds, making a speech moaning about how people ask too much of their government and how he has less powers but more responsibilities than ever before. Few too many baijius at lunch before he made that one, but a fairly naked expose of the prevailing attitude. Will post it up if I find the link again.

ETA: Nope, link down to a copyright claim from a cable news channel. Boo.

 

[JimW]

Hailiang strike ongoing; company arranges for a bunch of managers and no-one quite knows who (not workers from the plant) to hold a 'back to work' demo: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzM0MTQ5OTg0.html (usually an advert for twenty-odd seconds before the video plays - lot behind security guard line with the small blue placards with two characters in white [复工 = 'back to work'] are the scabs and hirelings).

Some scuffling breaks out - not too clear what's going on, apparently scabs tried to attack a few of the strikers, got fucked off. Strikers speaking nearer camera sound in good spirits: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzM0MTY0NTky.html (will start with ad again).

Couple more vids embedded on this Chinese forum thread - last two show manager coming out to offer crappy deal, retreating to a loud chorus of 'fuck off', then workers outside offices demanding an explanation for the scab attack: http://2011.gr71.com/thread-11452-1-1.html