June-July 2016 -
Volume 37, No.
3
Linda Averill
June 2016
June 2016
If
one believes the propaganda
peddled by U.S. politicians
and the media, China’s workers
are unfair competitors and job
stealers. In reality, this
vast working class is fighting
like hell against the very
same forces of world capital
responsible for the fears and
insecurity of their U.S.
sisters and brothers.
Exploited and mad as
hell. Thirty years
into market “reforms” that
gradually restored capitalism,
strikes are at an all-time
high. Many of the targets make
products for companies whose
names are familiar in the
Americas — Honda, Nike, Apple,
Foxconn.
In
2015, China’s workers waged
2,774 strikes and labor
protests. This doubled the
2014 number, which in turn was
a marked increase from the
total of 1,200 actions between
2011 and 2013. Strikes are
illegal in China, which makes
them especially significant.
Today, the unrest continues
apace.
The
Pearl River Delta region is
the heart of the strike wave.
The province of Guangdong,
known as “the world’s
factory,” is China’s export
center and economic engine.
Construction and manufacturing
are the predominant sectors
and are host to more than 70
percent of the protests.
An
estimated 274 million rural
migrant workers are the
backbone of China’s labor
force. The figure includes not
only people who have left
rural homes to earn wages to
send back to their families,
but also city dwellers with
family roots in the
countryside.
Conditions
for migrants are brutal;
workdays of 10 or 12 hours are
common. And migrants pay
another price as well. In
moving to places where there
are factories and jobs, they
leave behind a social benefit
package that the government
ties to their traditional
family place of residence.
Known
as hukou, the
household registration system
provides healthcare, pensions,
insurance against injury on
the job and more. But the
benefits of hukou
don’t follow the individual.
This puts people leaving the
countryside, or who come from
rural families, in a
precarious, super-exploited
position, similar to that of
undocumented workers in the
U.S.
During
China’s years of spectacular
growth, strikes were often
about wage raises. But
stagnation in the global
economy is affecting China;
exports are down. When the
Chinese economy slowed and the
stock market crashed in 2015,
factories shed workers or
closed shop entirely. Now,
disputes most often center on
back pay — millions of workers
are going unpaid — and on
compensation for layoffs.
In
the past, the ability of
migrants to return to the land
provided an important safety
valve to calm the turbulence
generated by China’s return to
capitalism. But the continuing
loss of rural areas to
urbanization is curtailing
this option, and the
government is feeling
increasing heat.
Rising up, cracking
down. Recognizing the
crisis, Communist Party (CP)
government officials are
crafting plans that would
allow migrants to carry
hukou with them to
mid-sized cities. But schools
and services there are vastly
inferior to the services
provided in China’s largest
cities, especially along the
eastern coast. Only the most
elite workers are able to
qualify for status in these
wealthier locations.
To
make matters worse, officials
are planning to shed 1.8
million workers by downsizing
state-owned enterprises in the
coal and steel industries.
With
the need for a fighting labor
organization so clear, the
bankruptcy of the All-China
Federation of Trade Unions
(ACFTU) is being thoroughly
exposed.
Officially,
the federation represents 280
million Chinese workers. In
practice, it represents
instead the same CP government
that is subjecting the working
class to market reforms and
their attendant misery,
pauperization, and
uncertainty. ACFTU officials
who negotiate for the workers
are frequently chosen by the
employers that workers are on
strike against.
In
a major breakthrough, during a
vibrant walkout at Honda
plants in 2010, workers raised
the need for democratically
elected union leaders.
Of
necessity, most strikes are
organized outside the
federation’s official
channels. The consequent lack
of centralization makes it
difficult for the working
class to build on the power,
organization, and lessons
gained from each strike.
Facing
severe government repression,
labor leaders are forced
underground and compelled to
seek new forms of resistance
and organization. Several were
arrested this past winter on
charges of “disturbing social
order.” Nevertheless, the
strikes continue — not only by
factory workers but by
teachers, bus drivers, and
others as well. So do road
blockades, factory
occupations, and other forms
of protest.
The need for
solidarity. This
spring, Chinese labor
activists Mi Tu and Fan Gang
toured the West Coast to
publicize the fightback and
build solidarity. Factory
workers themselves, they
contributed interviews with
fellow workers to the book
China on Strike. In
Seattle on April 11, the two
discussed the current
situation and the challenges
ahead.
The
consciousness of workers is
evolving, Mi Tu said. As their
demands grow more complex,
embracing issues like factory
closures and social welfare
guarantees, the difficulty in
getting these demands met
through one or two strikes is
also growing. Workers are
coming to understand that they
need organizations of their
own, she said.
Government
opposition, however, makes the
organizing of independent
unions a decidedly uphill
battle. So what can be
done?
China
does not exist in a vacuum.
The harsh difficulties
suffered by the people are
products of the international
economy, and the solution must
be international as well.
Chinese workers need the
support of a militant
international labor
movement.
In
the U.S., workers can take a
step toward building such a
movement by challenging the
“America First” mentality
prevailing among politicians
and union officials. Far from
benefiting U.S. workers, this
perspective holds them back.
Because whether big business
operates under the Chinese
flag or the U.S. Stars and
Stripes, it profits most when
the world’s labor forces see
each other as enemies, not
allies.
Send your feedback to the
author at FSnews@mindspring.com.
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