There are plenty of symptoms that the working class of this country is awakening to the consciousness that it has for some time been moving in the wrong groove ; that the present movements for higher wages and shorter hours exclusively, keep it in a vicious circle out of which there is no issue; that [...]
The capitalist class had also become unable to manage the immense productive system of this country; that they on the one hand expanded production so as to periodically flood all the markets with produce, and on the other became more and more incapable of holding their own against foreign competition. Thus we find that, not [...]
Remember postindustrialism? Not long ago, this catchphrase was supposed to define America’s future: no more grubby hard industries, just a clean bright world of services and high technology. Its most succinct formulation is as follows: Manufacturing is old hat and America is moving on to better things. By Ian Fletcher | Online Journal | July [...]
A flurry of strikes in Honda parts plants in China has produced the longest and most significant work stoppages and wage gains for workers there in recent years. Is this the opening wave in a tide of resistance that will lead to a transformation of work and labor in China? The beginning of the end [...]
In China’s factories, pay and protest are on the rise. That is good for China, and for the world economy The Economist, Jul 29th 2010 CHEAP labour has built China’s economic miracle. Its manufacturing workers toil for a small fraction of the cost of their American or German competitors. At the bottom of the heap, [...]
Foreign direct investment coming to China created a laboratory for the reform of labor practices, and the politically sensitive reforms to China’s domestic or state-owned enterprise sector could commence as this sector adopted the labor contracts and workplace norms found in the foreign-invested sector. Not that the process went smoothly, but the Chinese Communist Party [...]
Egypt’s State-Controlled Unions Under Pressure With the authoritarian state excerting such efforts to manipulate and control the unions – by suspending all resemblance of internal democracy – the line between economic and political demands grows very thin. Any worker raising his or her voice against bad working conditions of low salaries is also engaging in [...]
WILL CHINESE WORKERS CHALLENGE GLOBAL CAPITALISM? – PT.3 MINQI LI INTERVIEW The Structural Crisis of Capitalism and the Fate of Humanity.” Here’s a little excerpt from the article. “The global capitalist economy is now in its deepest crisis since the Great Depression. Even the world’s ruling elites no longer have any doubt that a significant [...]