 Workers demonstrate outside the Honda factory in Zhongshan, China. |
Since mid-May, Japanese automaker
Honda has faced a series of strikes in its Chinese operations. These
high-profile strikes have started a discussion in the capitalist financial
press as to the future of the Chinese economy, the rights of workers, and the
attitude of the Chinese Communist Party to both of these.
The initial strike, which was
resolved June 4, saw workers at a transmission manufacturing plant in Guangdong
Province go off the job demanding higher wages and improved working conditions.
After two weeks on strike, the workers received wage increases of between 24
and 34 percent.
The strike was essentially a
wildcat action. The workers elected their own representatives and negotiated
directly with Zeng Qinghong, the general manager of Guangdong Motors, Honda’s
state-owned partner.
The trade union that nominally
represented the Honda workers played a negative role, attempting to undermine
the workers’ struggle. In an open letter, representatives of the Honda workers
stated their desire to re-organize the union, with direct elections of their representatives.
Rising workers’ wages
The strike is indicative of a
trend of increasing wages for workers across China, both in response to and in
fear of widespread labor unrest. Foxconn,
one of China’s largest electronics manufacturers, which made news when a number
of its workers committed suicide, announced wage increases of 33 percent.
In a recent survey of Hong Kong manufacturers by the Hong Kong Trade
Development Council, 70 percent of those responding reported wage increases of
17 percent on average over the past six months.
Additionally, while in the past
the media have been reluctant to report on worker unrest, major media outlets
like Xinhua and the People’s Daily carried reports on the strike, and published
articles calling for improvement in wages and working conditions.
It has been widely publicized that
the Chinese government is pursuing a “re-balancing” of its economy, to rely
more on domestic consumption and less on exports. Higher wages across the board
could help that process along, as it will enable China’s huge working class to
buy more consumer goods.
Moreover, China’s rebound from the
2008-2009 recession as well as new industrial construction in formerly
undeveloped areas of the country have resulted in serious labor shortages,
strengthening workers’ bargaining power.
Higher wages across the board is
not an immediate harbinger of a decline in foreign investment inside China. The
same HK TDC report notes that 46.2 percent of Hong Kong manufacturers will
continue to open factories in the Pearl River Delta, and 12.7 percent in the
Yangtze River Delta. Only 6.2 percent preferred Vietnam, and only 3.1 percent
favored Indonesia.
Imperialist policymakers in the
United States and Europe, concerned about the weakness of the global economy
and increasing competition from Chinese industry, continue to demand the
revaluation of the yuan to reduce China’s trade-balance advantage over the
United States. In May, China’s trade surplus was $20 billion. They also want to
see higher domestic consumption inside China, to promote more imports from
foreign companies. At the most recent G20 meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner noted that higher consumption in China will be a prime mover in a full
economic “recovery.”
Massive capitalist development
Since 1978, capitalism has
developed on a massive scale inside China. Advocates of the policies of the
Mao-era have been sidelined, imprisoned and sometimes killed. The dominant
elements in the bureaucracy who control the CCP and the government, however,
did not dismantle the socialist system in the same way as occurred in the former
USSR.
They have sought to maintain the
shell of the socialist state, to maintain their own privileges and control over
the rising capitalist class, with which they have increasingly co-mingled.
If the Honda strike is a sign of
broader action by the working class, this precarious unity inside the Chinese
state could shatter.
The CCP is a mammoth organization
and widespread worker protests and strikes will elicit different responses from
different elements. In a country where the rhetoric and knowledge of socialism
is widespread, massive protests could move very quickly past questions of wages
to questions of ownership and collective property rights.
In 2003, scholar Feng Chen studied
worker protests against industrial restructuring from state-owned to privately
owned enterprises. He points out that workers showed a sophisticated knowledge
of property rights. He writes in part:
“Workers challenge managerial
decisions to change the form of property ownership without their consent,
claiming that SOEs are public property and that they have legitimate rights to
it.”
Opportunity and challenge
Current labor disputes seem to
have not gone beyond the basic issues of wages and working conditions. This
provides the CCP with an important opportunity and a complicated challenge.
If the party embraces the workers’
just demands, it will win their support and allegiance. Workers will see the
CCP as their organization. If the party opposes the workers demands, it throws
the door wide open to the CIA and counter-revolutionary organizations to
demagogically posture as the true leaders of the Chinese workers in their
struggle for higher wages and better working conditions. This makes the country
vulnerable to real counter-revolutionary initiatives.
Because the economic development
strategy of the CCP, as a ruling party, has been to open the country to direct
investment by foreign capitalists, new contradictions are inescapable. The CCP
invited the foreign capitalists into the country. The goal was to accelerate
development and acquire technology. In return, the foreign capitalists could
exploit Chinese labor and make mega-profits by paying low wages.
But now Chinese workers are
feeling more confident, and they are standing up and striking for better wages
against these foreign capitalists. This is a fork in the road for the CCP. Its
orientation toward the working class will be ultimately decisive.
Also, the prospect of a mass
struggle against capitalist exploitation can help shift China’s policy and
orientation. The CCP has the capability to alter its course by slowing or
reversing the concessions made to foreign capitalist corporations. There is no
way to know in advance how this struggle will play out, but one thing is
certain: The class struggle will intensify in China as it will everywhere.
The CCP still has a deep reservoir
of support, and the most important thing will be for the party to reorient its
policy toward winning the allegiance of its historic base of support: the
workers and peasants of China.
