The centenary of the Communist Party of China is a chance to see the status and role of the working class
In the multitude of comments that appear on Centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), analyzing its strengths, skills and longevity, an important missing component is the status and role of the working class, which the party claims to represent historically. In its 100-year journey from revolutionary party to ruling party, the CPC has maintained its identity as the ‘leader of the Chinese working class’. The century provides an opportunity to look at the reality of such claims, the actual conditions of the working class, and its political situation in contemporary China.
an identification with labor
While China’s labor history predates the formation of the CPC, the party’s formation in the late 19th century, in 1921, provided the ideological impetus and organizational basis for the labor movement. Prior to the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, the CPC’s effort was to involve itself in the labor movement, in line with its ideological-political basis of being the leader of the working class in the long struggle. After 1949, after Mao Zedong’s emphasis on proletarian work ethic and socialist construction, priority was given to the modern industrial sector, especially heavy industry. The party-state attaches importance to raising wage levels, ensuring labor security and providing permanent employment.
Party organizations were created in the enterprises, as the cadres built solid relations with the industrial workers. Through a series of large-scale political campaigns, the party-state consolidated its control over industrial enterprises. In the process, the status and relations of workers changed, as they took part in factory management and politics. In addition, a cradle-to-grave welfare system was created for workers and their dependents, through a wide range of workplace-based welfare provisions and services. Under the control and protection of the CPC, this political empowerment of workers as stakeholders created an ‘industrial citizenship’ (to quote sociologist Joel Andreas).
an alignment
The unrest and chaos resulting from the Cultural Revolution that shook China’s political and social order played a large part in charting the course of realignment and re-prioritization in the post-Mao period by Deng Xiaoping after 1978. Marketization – although state-directed – was adopted as an economic strategy, though state-directed, and conscious efforts were made to integrate China with the world economy. As economic reforms gained momentum, they largely reorganized workplace relations and labor politics by gradually depriving workers of the franchise. As profit maximization, efficiency and economic competitiveness became a topic of discussion in pro-reform advocacy, the permanent employment system was replaced by a labor contract system. Similarly, vast powers and responsibilities were given to the factory directors/enterprise managers, reducing the power and influence of the workers. Increasingly, appointments to middle and high-level leadership positions in enterprises were also given preference to technocrats, and management and business graduates, rather than workers coming through the ranks. Hundreds of workers deemed unnecessary were fired in exchange for monetary compensation through compulsory retirement programs.
In parallel with this reorganization of public enterprises, private enterprises were actively promoted, involving both domestic and foreign capital. Taking advantage of the availability of an uninterrupted supply of rural migrant workers and low labor costs, international corporations moved their manufacturing operations to offshore China. Encouraged by the preferential treatment provided by local governments, growing export-oriented manufacturing with active supply chains established its own model of employment relations, built on the acquisition of labour. Autocratic management, exploitative work conditions, coercive discipline and monitoring are some of the distinguishing features of the work ecosystem. Violations of labor standards and rights are endemic.
resistance as a challenge
With no concrete worker-centred avenues for a collective voice, workers have resorted to radical autonomous actions to address their grievances. For years, workers’ protests in China have remained stagnant. The expansion of workers’ resistance remains a political challenge for the party-state. Since maintaining stability and industrial peace is considered essential for smooth economic production, the CPC has devised responsive measures that can be seen as crisis mitigation.
A series of pro-labor laws have been enacted, encouraging workers to use them to address conflicts and grievances. In enforcing this ‘rule by law’ (also required because of the need for a legal framework on China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001), the party-state is able to differentiate labor conflicts, thus creating possibilities and avenues. continues to fail for autonomous, coordinated and sustainable collective mobilization. Equally, it dualistically uses its responsive and repressive capabilities – welfare concessions on the one hand and strengthening of the public safety apparatus, as well as the active use of force on the other – to meet labor unrest. Top-down concessions from the central party-state also strategically protect it from workers’ discontent, which in turn is directed towards employers and local governments.
Reform vs Social Basis
The rapid pace of economic reforms has affected the membership and cadre recruitment strategies of the CPC. The party’s traditional social base – the peasantry and the industrial proletariat – is gradually shrinking. New classes of entrepreneurs, urban professionals and university graduates are constantly being added. Despite becoming an increasingly important engine of China’s economic growth, rural migrant workers are largely left out of the party. The continued erosion of ‘industrial citizenship’, the increasing uncertainty of employment and the growing circumvention of workers is not an isolated phenomenon with respect to China, as it coincides with the global neoliberal turning point since the 1980s, which significantly strained employment relations around the world. has changed. The declining status of workers is a grim reality and, despite the growing repetition of President Xi Jinping’s ideology, it is rooted in status quoism, far from any emancipation promises or politics for the working class.
Anand P. Krishnan is a Visiting Associate Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi
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