中国青年行动者
中国青年行动者

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Part 2 Young labour rights activists

Author: Anonymous

2020 was an exceptionally difficult year. Covid-19 outbreak in China caused large-scale production shutdowns across industries and widespread unemployment, which exacerbated the pressure on grassroots workers. The shutdown of production and unemployment also accelerated the breakdown of labour protection system and the informalization of labour relations. Unfortunately, the State took advantage of the pandemic to tighten social control. It restricted the activism space, and intervention of labour NGOs and other self-organised groups. In the past few years, political control had been increasing. This report attempts to comb through the activism of young labour activist in 2020 and the political control faced by this community. It also seeks to reflect on the existing activism models and explores new ways of implementation.

1. Landscape of the activist communities

Young labour activists have diverse family background. Although labour issues mostly focus on the oppression of grassroots and social injustice, some youth communities working on these issues are actually from urban middle-class families while others are from rural village families. Reports in the previous years have discussed in great detail the background of these activists. Most of them were receiving or had received higher education. They started to be aware of the fate and resistance of worker communities in China through reflecting on the situation of their own class or formed their own critique of the wealth gap in capitalist societies upon receiving theoretical education. Apart from that, the marginalisation of other primary identities of the activists, such as sexual minorities, rural background, or other identities that were marginalised by the mainstream, were all essential triggers for them to become labour activists. 

In terms of development, labour activism in the South and the North had very different activism approach. For a long period of time, activists in the South, the most prominent ones being in Guangzhou, intervened in labour issues through the interaction between labour NGOs and other civil society groups. The specific ways of participation included building the relevant capacities of volunteers and interns. Through targeted labour activism, activists continuously build up their own awareness and knowledge of the situation of workers, social injustices and capitalist exploitation, which in turn inspired these activists to identify with labour activism. In terms of labour activism, these activists followed the traditional labour NGO model. They were based in specific worker communities to provide corresponding support, such as community services, capacity building, legal consultation, and the essential intervention in cases.

Activists in the North, with Beijing as the core, mostly developed themselves in associations on campus. Their first enlightenment as labour activists was through association activities such as reading clubs, screening clubs, work site outreach, and activism on campus such as starting classes for and conducting research on workers. Their support for and association with workers movement stemmed from studying theories. As a result, the activism model of these young activists mostly included research or working in factories. A minority of them would also join labour NGOs.

The interactions between young labour activists in the South and the North were sporadic. They also did not adequately understand each other. Activists from the South focused on directly intervening in the plights of frontline workers and lacked reflection of theories and ideological critique. The activists were relatively dispersed and diverse. Activists in the North started their work from theories. There were tight organisational order and differentiation of approaches among organisations. They lacked openness to other ways of activism. To sum up, the growth of activists in the South and the North was impacted by local culture and activism. However, amid the current political oppression, both still lacked the openness to communicate with and learn from each other.

2. Models of activism and organising

This section preliminarily summarises the activism model of young activists. Existing activism showed that the organising model of young activists was diverse but lacked substantial impact on worker communities.

(1)  Temporary intervention in the plights of workers during the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic broke out during Lunar New Year. The subsequent chaos caused by pandemic control and market shutdown caused colossal social crisis. These triggered the motivation among citizens to initiate help for each other. During lockdown, young labour activists across the country also initiated online groups to respond to the immediate needs of the workers.

In response to the problem of workers returning to work after Lunar New Year, activists formed an online coordination group for launching the “postpone work resumption for pandemic control” movement. The activist built a WeChat group with over 500 people and started to mobilise on the internet. They requested the State Council to extend the holiday and postpone resumption of work. The heating up of public discussions indirectly prompted the government to swiftly responded on the next day, declaring a three-day extension of the holiday, which slowed down the spread of Covid-19 among people returning to work.

Apart from that, high school students, university students and white-collar workers also formed more than a dozen of voluntary groups that started a wave of actions raising awareness on the health of sanitary workers. Sanitary workers were at the frontline of pandemic control, yet during the pandemic there was a serious shortage of protective equipment among these workers. The young activists, using the codename “masks+city”, spread rapidly like a butterfly effect across more than a dozen cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Zhuhai, Chengdu and Xi’an. Some groups even had more than a hundred volunteers. Through the model of research and fundraise, they increased the visibility of the predicament faced by the sanitary workers. The workers had low welfare and protection. Donations and protective equipment like masks filled the gaps of the worker protection system. They actions exposed the states’ disregard for frontline workers and marginalised groups during the pandemic. At the same time, the activists also inspired the public to pay attention to worker communities. Following their actions, many citizens and NGOs like Oxfam initiated masks donation for sanitary workers.

Some young activist groups also worked on problems surrounding the impact of the pandemic on the education received by children of migrant workers. The pandemic forced schools to switch to an online curriculum. However, children of migrant workers lacked electronic devices and internet connections. This became a blind spot in governments’ policy. Some self-organised university student online groups emerged, such as “8 Fang Charity Free Homework Tutoring”, which helped with the schoolwork of workers children living in poverty. Groups like “Guang Yuan Project” and “7,8 Dian Project” looked for donations of electronic devices for children of migrant workers and wrote research reports that showed the education inequality underlying online education.

(2)  The usual self-organising of pan-leftist youth associations

The young labour activist network in the North relied mostly on the usual self-organising of pan-leftist associations on campus. Unfortunately, since the 2018 Jasic incident, universities extensively purged leftist associations. These associations were forced to restructure, sidelined, banned, or removed. A lot of associations that had operated for years could not start any work. For example, the Marxist Association of Peking University was forced to restructure because of its participation in the Jasic Movement. “Xin Xinqingnian”, an association at the Beijing Language and Culture University that focuses on workers issues, was removed by the university.

Despite that, very few of the leftist youth associations persisted with initiating self-learning and labour activism among student communities. The existing activities developed by leftist youth groups were predominantly theory-based learning in forms of reading club, screening club, and talks. Some activists started regular services for workers in schools, such as classes for workers and workers outreach. Apart from that, some groups also had intersectional collaborations with groups that work on other issues, such as LGBT and gender issues. Together they campaigned on campus. The activism of existing leftist youth groups tended to be moderate. There was gradually less direct participation in social issues.

(3)  Participating in labour NGO activism

Over the years, some young activists chose to volunteer for, intern at, or work full-time for labour NGOs. After accumulating certain level of work experience, they became the core personnel or led projects. However, since 2015 the government had been exerting targeted political control over labour NGOs. For example, the government restricted the fundraising channels of labour organisations and pressed criminal charges against people working on labour issues. This repression forced some labour organisations to shut down or shift their direction from directly supporting labour rights to providing communal recreational activities and serving the migrant population. The increase of risks and decrease in operational space indirectly diminished the opportunities for young activists to join labour NGOs. This in turn limited activists’ sustained intervention in labour issues.

(4)  New attempts of using new media

Due to the shrinking space for offline activism, labour organisations and self-initiated young activists tried to establish new media platforms that focus on workers issues. These platforms included WeChat public accounts, TikTok, and podcasts. The new media platforms attempted to raise public awareness of labour issues and increase the rights awareness of workers. These platforms did so through reporting incidents related to labour rights, interpreting specific labour rights issues, and educating the public.

The impact of these attempts was obviously limited. On one hand, it was difficult for young activists to establish direct community connections with frontline workers on these new media platforms. The communications usually stopped at reporting incidents and theoretical analysis of social affairs. It was not possible to cover the building of worker communities and organisations. On the other hand, the existing attempts on new media could hardly reach frontline worker communities and therefore could not effectively inspire workers’ action. Therefore, these attempts were only at an infant stage.

(5)  Cultural organising targeting white-collar communities

In the past one to two years, scandals of leading corporations like Huawei, Alibaba and JD exploiting their employees continued to emerge. The existing exploitation in white collar industries persistently triggered discussions. “Corporate slaves” became the keyword for the cultural identity of white-collar workers building up resistance against capitalist exploitation. Young activists started rigorous campaigns, established cooperatives among white-collar groups, and organised cultural discussions on issues such as “corporate slaves” and “wage earners”. The activists also had long been organising group discussions targeting exploitative corporations. Although the impact was limited, white collar workers’ consciousness of workplace exploitation was awakened by these public discussions. Right now, workplace exploitation like “graduates 985, work 996, departure 251 and rights defense 404” continued to increase white collar workers awareness of their own situation as victims of exploitation. This may lead to more activism similar to 996.icu in the future.

3. Political control and repression

In the past 5 years, labour organisations and young activists both experienced the coexisting of the space for and risks of activism. To a certain extent, this coexistence decreased the activeness of civil society intervening in labour issues. Over the years political control had been strengthening.

(1)  Control of young activists during the pandemic

Although the mutual assistance efforts initiated by citizens during the pandemic were mostly moderate, apolitical, and focusing on social welfare, they inevitably could not avoid the attention and intervention from government departments that maintain stability. The aforementioned groups that worked on getting masks for sanitary workers faced strong restrictions and political control when they fundraised. In 2016, the National People’s Congress passed the Charity Law, banning public fundraising from ineligible groups or individuals. Public fundraising is only legal when executed with charities eligible for public fundraising. Self-organising young activists must use a lot of effort to find an eligible partner organisation. These activists even needed to bear the legal risks of initiating fundraising drives. Public security department questioned and harassed some groups multiple times because of fundraising issues. They asked the groups to disclose the source of funding and demanded them to stop the projects.

Apart from that, security departments questioned some mask donation groups because they published videos and research showing the situation of pandemic control among sanitary workers. The propaganda department requested some mainstream media outlets to take down reports of these research studies. In Beijing, volunteers Chen Mei and Cai Wei were first put under residential surveillance at a designated location and later prosecuted for picking quarrels and provoking troubles for running the Project Terminus on the open-source platform GitHub. The project archived all pandemic-related articles and reports censored on platforms like WeChat and Weibo. It is evident that the government saw self-initiated youth activism as serious destabilizing factors and even used pocket charges to define it as illegal. These political repressions stopped self-organised activism from further supporting labour rights.

(2)  Normalised repression after Jasic

The 2018 Jasic incident was a historical repression of leftist youth in China. It had devastated the youth activism network. The extent of repression targeting Jasic labour activists varied. The tactics included compulsory suspension or termination of study, short-term detention, education and reform, compulsory employment, residential surveillance at a designated location, prosecution, sentencing, and imprisonment. After being subjected to a series of intense control, some activists regained very limited freedom in 2020, such as bail, compulsory employment or compulsory living arrangements. However, these activists still could not re-join the work of supporting worker communities. Their lives were still under heavy surveillance. They also hardly had any autonomy in employment or education. The associations or NGOs to which they belong were also in hiatus after being disbanded. In the foreseeable future, this type of normalized intense control over Jasic activists may continue.

(3)  Double control over labour NGOs

In terms of political control over labour NGOs, the government had completely transformed its tactics from regular political harassment to criminalization. The government also restricted the organisational finances and fundraising. Before 2015, local governments managed labour NGOs through regular questioning and visits. Occasionally the government contained the impact of labour organisations by pressuring property owners to evict these organisations. The “123 labour case” in 2015 was the first organised arrest and sentencing of civil society labour organisations. It marked the beginning of the repressive strategy of criminalizing work on labour issues.

Since then, the labour sector had experienced the 2017 mass arrest related to the Guangdong University of Technology Reading Club, the 2018 mass repression related to the Jasic incident, the early 2019 repression of the five people related to a Shenzhen NGO (Wu Guijun, Zhang Zhiyu, Jian Hui, He Yuancheng, Song Jiahui), the 2019 arrest of three people related to iLabour (微工汇), the 2019 arrest of four social workers (Tong Feifei, Li Changjiang, Liang Zicun, Li Dajun) and late 2019 arrest of three people related to Heart Sanitation (心环卫).

In 2020, there were not many labour organisations left. Many surviving organisations were forced to transform. The Charity Law and the Law on the Administration of Activities of Overseas Non-governmental Organisation in the Territories of China passed in 2016 imposed double control on labour organisations. Moreover, labour organisations had little fundraising capacities, therefore many of them were on the verge of closing down because of financial crisis. They also could not receive timely support from overseas foundations. On top of that, this year, some local governments also stopped local foundations from funding labour organisations. There were instances in which the government stopped and confiscated public donations, pushing the remaining labour organisations into deeper survival struggles.

4. Reflection of the challenges and future facing the movement

To summarise the above, despite multiple challenges, young labour activists were still tirelessly exploring new ways to intervene in worker issues and social crisis. However, it is undeniable that the space and impact of the work on labour issues were gradually diminishing. In response to the difficulties faced by the movement and in order to find new paths, activists need to reflect on and critique the existing models of activism.

Self-organised young activists rapidly connected during the pandemic. They effectively responded to the pandemic prevention crisis facing frontline sanitation workers and inspired the public and the government to be aware of the protection for workers during the pandemic. However, short-term activism could not response to the core rights demands of the workers. At the same time, activists could not establish long term connection with frontline workers. Perhaps the activists had no plan to or had difficulties with establishing such connection. The actions were not transformed into empowerment of workers. The same problem also existed in leftist youth associations. Activists lacked actual and safe opportunities for activism that could help them form realistic understanding of the working-class situation. Therefore, it was difficult to establish sustained and effective connection with frontline workers.

The organising model of labour NGOs over the years also has its problems. Conventionally, labour NGOs were divided into service-oriented, legal aid-oriented and movement (collective negotiation)-oriented. After experiencing political repression, labour NGOs in China had narrowed down their focus on the lives of worker communities, cultural services, employment legal consultation and psychosocial support. These NGOs carefully positioned themselves as just service-providers. The common problem of the three types of NGOs is that they had long been focusing on immediate intervention in labour crisis. However, they did not have adequate understanding and activism intervention in the day-to-day rights repression experienced by workers. This inadequacy therefore weakened the long-term training and empowerment of workers.

Based on the above analysis, this report attempts to suggest two key directions that young labour activists can attempt and explore: establish knowledge in direct activism facing worker communities, and, with the aim of empowerment, explore the day-to-day organising activism of workers in different industries.

1) Establish knowledge in direct activism facing worker communities. Understanding and getting to know the worker communities are the beginning of all activism. Right now, the landscape of worker communities in China is changing rapidly. The manufacturing industry is transforming into service industries. Gig economy developed expeditiously. These developments are reshaping the mode of survival and rights awareness of the working class. Only when activists possess enough understanding about the diverse change of industries, and the workplace repression and exploitation faced by workers in workplace on a daily basis, can they find an effective activism approach that is suitable for workers’ autonomy and empowerment. In the future, the movement needs more activism-oriented field research and direct interaction.

2) Explore empowerment-oriented day-to-day organising activism of workers in different industries. Let workers grow in everyday resistance. The current political environment to a very large extent has restricted large-scale collective actions of workers. It would be unwise if activists continue to pursue the activism approach of collective resistance. This approach also cannot effectively bring class consciousness to workers. The rights awareness of workers comes from the everyday resistance against workplace repression. In future activism, young activists urgently need to explore new activism for day-to-day workplace resistance (such as nurturing workers of specific industries). Alternatively, activists can adopt new organising methods in workers’ education (such as new media).

Lastly, young labour activists in the South and the North still lacked open interaction, learning and cooperation. This affected the unity and coordination of promoting progressive workers issues. This problem also very much restricted the imagination of activists when exploring new activism approach. This calls for labour activists from the South and the North to gradually form new mutual support networks.

After repeated large-scale repression, the restrictions against labour organisations and young activists gradually increased. The organising of workers is now in a crisis of lack of imagination. Young activists need to bid their time and devote themselves back into exploring the understanding of workers’ power and creating new attempts regularly. Organising of workers is lower-profile and long-term. However, the workers’ awareness accumulated through training will not be lost. Young people should jump out of the ivory tower and embrace workers’ activism.

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