------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Sept. 14, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- POLICE KEEP HANDS OFF: CHINESE WORKERS SEIZE MANAGERS TO SAVE JOBS By Deirdre Griswold Factory closings, once a rare occurrence, are on the rise in the People's Republic of China as the government attempts to modernize industry and the infrastructure. There are reports in the Western media of angry demonstrations by workers protesting the loss not only of their jobs but of social services connected to their employment. One such incident occurred in Tianjin in August. Workers at the Meite Packaging Factory began protesting at the plant gates when they heard that the company planned to shut down and relocate the plant. Originally a state-owned firm making pipes, it had become a joint venture packaging beverages and then, in a final restructuring, was bought out completely by the Ball Corp. of Broomfield, Ohio. Even after many days of protests, the new managers refused to meet with the workers. Maybe these managers believed the U.S. news media, which have been constantly telling us that workers in China are docile and have no rights. If so, they got a big surprise. According to the Aug. 31 New York Times, the workers--most of them middle-aged--marched into the plant and seized six foreign managers, including one from the United States. They held them hostage for 40 hours, until they had won some improvements in severance pay. "The police did not enter the factory during the ordeal, calling it an 'internal' matter," reported the Times. This incident tells us a lot about the situation in China today. It reconfirms that what the Chinese leaders call "market socialism," to the extent that it allows private ownership and foreign capitalist investment, brings back to the country the evil social effects of capitalism along with the technology that China wants. This is a great danger to the socialist spirit of the people--their solidarity, their willingness to struggle in the interests of China's development and future generations. But it also shows something very important about the Chinese state. Even though the socialist state that arose from China's revolution now allows two competing modes of production--public ownership and private ownership--it is not comfortable in the role of enforcer for bourgeois property rights, especially when the private owners represent foreign interests. So the state did not rush in and end the hostage situation by force, as happens so often in capitalist countries. IS A JOB A RIGHT? In recent decades, many millions of workers in the capitalist world have seen their jobs disappear as companies close down, move away or restructure. The immediate reason given is often the need to incorporate new technologies to improve productivity and efficiency. But for the workers who lose their jobs, there's no gain in either area. It's the bosses' profits that are being protected and enhanced, not the workers' ability to earn a living. In the United States, the more conscious workers have fought to have their jobs considered a legal property right that cannot just be taken away unilaterally by management. The courts, however, have sided with the bosses. It's not that the courts better understand what is "right." It's that the courts are bourgeois courts, and rarely if ever rule in a way that threatens capitalist property. To them, jobs belong to the owners of the companies to dispose of as they see fit. The only right the workers have is to sell their labor power to the bosses. That is, if the bosses are in the market to buy. Workers in China have had a very different history ever since the Communist Party, at the head of a huge army of peasants and workers, defeated the rule of the landlords and imperialist-backed capitalists in 1949. China was in the throes of a social transformation. The goal was a society where the land and the factories would belong to the people. It was assumed that everyone had not only the duty but the right to work and to share equitably in the fruits of their common labor. Hundreds of millions of Chinese belonged to work units--in agriculture, industry and the services--that not only guaranteed them a job but also provided access to food, shelter, education and medical care. As the Times article admits, "Until a decade ago, nearly all urban Chinese workers received housing, health care and pensions through state jobs." These are benefits that workers in the most advanced capitalist countries have not been able to win. All this was a monumental task, not only because of China's vast population, but because of its extreme underdevelopment compared to the imperialist dominators of the planet. The Chinese people made heroic efforts to raise their standard of living. Gains were made, but the hostility of the imperialists made it nearly impossible to get the scientific and technological expertise, much less the plant and equipment, that were propelling forward the capitalist countries in a second industrial revolution. In the 1970s, after a sharp internal struggle, China's leaders embarked on a new course that allowed aspects of capitalism to grow as a way of developing the country. Now the "iron rice bowl" of social guarantees has been broken as enterprises deemed "inefficient" by the government are shut down. But along with the growth of capitalist forces in China comes a rising class struggle by the workers. Their anguish can be seen in this incident at the Meite enterprise. Also discernible, however, is the possibility that this new unfolding struggle by the masses, so clearly directed against capitalist norms, can eventually push forward China's socialist revolution to a new level. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
