Exciting Developments in China as Chinese Working Class Begins to Find its Feet

It is so exciting and inspiring. The Chinese workers, the biggest and newest working class in the world are on the move. In a series of strikes, which involved many women workers , they have forced huge corporations such as Toyota and Honda to increase wages and cut hours and reduce harassment. This is great. It looks like the center of gravity of the international working class is moving. All activists internationally should seek to link with the Chinese workers. Elected shop floor committees in Honda, Toyota, all the big corporations with a base in China, and link these together internationally, this is the way to go.

Not only did these workers actions change the policies of the big corporations but they are changing the policies of the Chinese government which up to now has been bootlicking the international corporations with low wages and bad conditions and controlling the workers through the bureaucracy's own so-called unions. Now we have the government advocating to the corporations that they make some improvement in workers lives in order to reduce class pressures and buy off the workers struggles.

But the expectations of the workers are growing by what they have won and are winning. This is especially the case with the itinerant workers. The New York times again: " young factory workers raised in a country with rapidly rising expectations, are less willing to toil for long hours for appallingly low wages like dutiful automatons." And:" In Zhongshan, many factories are operating with vacancies of 15 to 20 per cent, compelling some bosses to cruise the streets in their BMW's and Mercedes in a desperate hiring quest during crunch time." And this is due to get worse: "The supply of workers 16 to 24 year old has peaked and will drop by a third in the next 12 years." Imagine how angry workers are getting being picked up in BMW's and Mercedes and how this anger will explode when they see that the bosses do not have enough labor.

I am having a good time here thinking about the great struggles that the Chinese workers will put up. And how they will inspire the workers of the world. We need to build links and work with our chinese sisters and brothers and prepare to take on the worlds profit addicted corporations.

Look again at what the New York Times had to say about workers expectations and actions there. Tuesday July 13th. 2010. "The shortage (of labor) has emboldened workers and inspired a spate of strikes in and around Zhongshan that paralyzed Honda's Chinese operations earlier this month. The unrest then spread to the Northern city of Tianjin, where workers briefly paralyzed production at a toyota car plant and a Japanese-owned electronics factory."

Many of these workers are originally from the countryside. This was a feature in the Russian revolution. many of the factory workers there were from the countryside and uprooted from their background not so bound by tradition. They played a key role in the russian revolution. the Chinese workers will play a major role in the world revolution.

Sean.