China
Content about workers' struggles and events in China.
The third wave of the Chinese labour movement in the post-Mao era
Article from the China Labour Bulletin on the development of class conflict in China in the post-Mao era with particular focus on the spring 2002 protests.
By Trini Leung, China Labour Bulletin, 2 June 2002
Introduction
Conditions of the working classes in China
Article from Monthly Review on the effects of China's economic transformation on the working class since Mao's death.
by Robert Weil
Introduction
More protests in China
There have been further protests by workers in China as the economic crisis prompts attacks on conditions, jobs and pay.
On December 28th ground crew at Hong Kong's international airport walked out in a three-hour protest against cuts to announced bonus payments, grounding flights. The 1,000 workers were employed by Hong Kong Airport Services Ltd. The economic crisis was cited as the reason for the attampted clawbacks by company bosses.
1,000 workers stage sit-in in Chinese factory
Nearly 1,000 workers staged a rare sit-in protest outside a Shanghai factory Tuesday in the latest sign of strain in China's manufacturing industry, which has been hit hard by the economic crisis.
The workers were protesting because managers at the computer and telecoms equipment factory had failed to fully pay at least six months' worth of overtime, bonuses and benefits, one of the organizers said.
"I know the economy is bad now, but none of us can stand being badly treated by our employers," organizer Ding Xiaohua said.
Chinese factory workers riot
More unrest in China following further layoffs in the industrial heartland.
Over 500 rioted yesterday at a toy factory in Dongguan, on the Pearl River Delta in southern China, over pitiful severance payments handed out to 596 workers laid off this month.
Taxi drivers strike in central China
Thousands of taxi drivers took to the streets in the city of Chongqing earlier this week for improved conditions.
The strike, which began on Monday, saw 9,000 of Chongqing's taxis taken out of service as drivers protested over conditions; including high fees charged by their companies, unfair competition from unlicensed cabs, and a shortage of fuel.
Aufheben #16 (2008)
Aufheben Issue #16. Class conflicts in the transformation of China, The language of retreat: Paolo Virno’s A grammar of the multitude, Value struggle or class struggle?, Review: Forces of labour: Workers’ movements and globalisation since 1870 by Beverly J. Silver.
Available as printer-friendly pdf files listed below.
A battle for life
In 1958 the Communist Party of China had been in power for nearly a decade. This article is an example of the propaganda radicals such as the anarchist Ba Jin had to write in order to remain free, although he did not escape denunciation during the Cultural Revolution launched 8 years later.
Foreword
Nationalism and the road to happiness for the Chinese
This article by the Chinese anarchist writer Ba Jin was originally published in Awakening the People, No. 1, September 1921.
Chinese society is at the darkest stage now. Under such circumstances, young people become impotent and weak without the power to resist corruption. Even the brave ones can only keep quiet and submit to fate. When it is really unbearable, suicide is the only way out. China is paralyzed; where can we find happiness?
Workers riot in China
Migrant workers rioted for three days in a town in eastern China in a fresh sign of rumbling social unrest running up to the Beijing Olympics.
The protests began on 10 July in Kanmen in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Workers - reportedly angered by a beating meted out to a colleague - attacked a police station for three successive nights.
