The Roots and Contours of Worker Rebellion in a Changing China
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- Published on Thursday, 07 April 2016 23:15
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1244 .... April 8, 2016
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The Roots and Contours of Worker Rebellion in a Changing China
Herman Rosenfeld
It is impossible to ignore the large and growing wave of worker strikes and protests now rocking China. Just last year there were over 2700 actions, double the numbers of 2014 and more than 500 during this past January alone. They are in response to the Chinese government's restructuring program of wage cuts, worker layoffs, and workplace closures during an economic slowdown and plans to move away from the export-oriented strategy followed in this stage of the reform period.
The protests often include appeals and references by participants to the traditionally stated values and promises of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) about liberation and the interests of the working class, which... are now being trampled by the actions of the capitalist regime.
In addition to arresting activists and closing key autonomous worker centres, the authorities are carefully attempting to balance their responses to worker militancy with a combination of concessions in a number of local demands for severance, pension payments and wages, and strategic efforts to limit the protests to local and economic issues.
Explaining the ongoing working class resistance, its forms, expressions, potentials and limits, along with the particular approach of the CCP and state is a complex and challenging exercise.
