【原文】The Road Blocked: Political Labor Organizations After the Tiananmen Crackdown

introduction

Labour activists were hit hard by the crackdown that followed the end of the pro-democracy movement in 1989. While the ensuing years are often considered the low point for the Chinese labor movement — at least until the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, marking a thaw for Chinese civil society — even in such challenging times, some activists Still trying to organize workers. These people, with the ideals formed in the democratic movements of the 1970s and 1980s, engaged in explicitly political labor activities, often trying to reunite opposition forces from the "rubble" of 1989. Although most of the leaders of these groups are of intellectual origin, the possibility of forming proto-trade unions with the state sector and migrant workers is enough to threaten the party-state and lead to repression. This article explores some of these groups, what each of them worked for, and what their eventual demise would mean for the Chinese labor movement.

On May 21, 1995, after submitting a set of petitions to the National People's Congress (NPC), Liu Nianchun was suddenly arrested without arrest warrant and disappeared from the sight of his family and friends. Police searched his home and confiscated letters, newspapers, magazines and photographs. Liu Nianchun's petition is part of a campaign by Chinese political dissidents to call for democratic reforms and for the authorities to stop human rights abuses. More than 100 other dissidents have also been arrested for the campaign. This shows that the authorities are determined to stifle any organized dissent.

Liu Nianchun is neither naive nor unfamiliar with the repression of the party and the state. A veteran democracy activist, he has been deeply rooted in the dissent environment since the late 1970s. At that time, as a student at Beijing Normal University, he participated in the Democracy Wall Movement, and was later expelled from the school for these political activities. In 1978, he joined poets Bei Dao and Munk as editor of the pro-democracy literary journal Today. Liu Nianchun's persistent activities landed him in prison for three years for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement" - he supported his comrade-in-arms, another veteran democracy activist, Liu Qing, in international social organizations. Liu Qing ended up spending 15 years in prison. Undaunted, Liu Nianchun continued to participate in the 1989 protests after his release. Despite worse circumstances, he continued his political activities in the early 1990s, including joining the Peace Charter movement with other political dissidents, calling for a revival of the 1989 pro-democracy movement and the release of political prisoners.

In all of these activities, Liu Nianchun was no different from many political dissidents across China who had participated in earlier movements and continued to engage in political organizing. However, Liu Nianchun differs in one respect: He includes Chinese workers in his political vision.

In 1994, among his other activity plans, Liu Nianchun and another activist named Wang Zhongqiu began to prepare for the establishment of the "Workers' Rights Protection Alliance" (LPRWP). This is a civil society organization whose mission is to protect workers' rights. In order to operate within the scope permitted by law, Liu Nianchun applied to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for institutional registration. However, the authorities did not respond in kind and put him under "home surveillance" before acquitting him five months later. Liu Nianchun did not stop because of this, but soon returned to prison" - this time because of the 1995 petition. His main "crime" was petitioning the National People's Congress and Communist Party leadership in an attempt to establish an illegal organization known as the "Workers' Rights Protection Alliance," according to Beijing government criminal case documents. After more than a year of detention, in June 1996, he was sentenced to three years of labor education and sent to a labor camp in Heilongjiang Province. He was allegedly tortured there and suffered a marked deterioration in his health.

Liu Nianchun's name and his short-lived organization, the Alliance for the Protection of Workers' Rights, were not widely known at the time, or even among labor activists today. But his actions — a mix of democratic opposition and sympathy for labor organizations — demonstrated a new political paradigm: one that acknowledged the power of workers in social change and democratization.

Emerging political labor organizations

The crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in 1989 did not extinguish hopes for political reform. Hundreds of students, workers and intellectuals who supported the movement were imprisoned, executed or exiled, but that didn't stop some from participating in dissent in the 1990s. Among them, people from many different backgrounds - many college graduates, educated professionals and some workers, like Liu Nianchun, usually have a background in participating in the pro-democracy movements of the 1970s and 1980s, and became the emerging labor force in the 1990s. Oriented group organizer.

This development can be seen as a political form of labor organization. These organizers are aware of the plight of workers in China's market transition and the importance of workers' political power in challenging state power. Their activities represent a conscious and strategic plan to organize workers around economic interests and clear political aspirations. In many respects, this is a continuation of the "Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation" that existed for a short time during the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

The development of these groups was not a solo attempt, but was part of an overall network of dissident groups. In December 1991, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that Deng Xiaoping believed that the birth of "Polish Solidarity" was "the most important factor leading to the total disintegration of communist regimes in Eastern Europe". Deng Xiaoping said this when China's state security services were targeting 14 underground labor organizations in Beijing. The membership of these groups ranges from 20 to 300, and at least two of them are modeled after the operation of Solidarity.

Compare three groups

Many similarities aside, labor-oriented groups have different political positions and approaches.

One of the more radical groups, considered the closest to a political opposition movement, is the Free Trade Union of China (FLUC). The "China Free Trade Union" was established in 1991 to focus on the damage to the welfare of state-owned enterprise workers caused by market reforms and the continued deterioration of workers' conditions. The organization envisions itself as "a mass organization formed by the conscious efforts of Chinese workers" with the stated goal of "fighting for economic rights and political freedom for workers".

Liu Jingsheng is one of the main founding members of the "China Free Trade Union". He was a worker in a state-owned factory on the outskirts of Beijing; despite his working-class background, he has been a pro-democracy activist for more than a decade. He was also involved in the pro-democracy movement in the late 1970s, and served as editor of the movement publication Discovery together with Wei Jingsheng, a prominent pro-democracy activist in the Democracy Wall movement. In 1979, Liu Jingsheng was briefly arrested and released a few months later. He was already being targeted by the authorities at the time. In addition to the "China Free Trade Union", he was also involved in the formation of an underground opposition group headquartered in Beijing in early 1991. Another founder of the group, Hu Shigen, is a scholar at the Beijing Foreign Studies University who co-founded the China Liberal Democratic Party (CLDP) in 1992. Therefore, the "China Free Trade Union" is closely related to the political opposition movement it has spawned, and its leadership overlaps with each other.

After the establishment of the "China Free Trade Union", in the three months from December 1991 to February 1992, Liu Jingsheng and other activists worked hard to publicize their ideas and distributed pamphlets advocating union autonomy among Beijing workers. In their 1992 pamphlet criticizing China's economic reforms, they commented that although the economic reforms improved the living standards of some people, the majority of the working class did not benefit, but lost the s right. The author gives some examples: SOE workers now have to pay huge medical expenses out of their own pockets, which should have been borne by their “units” before the market-oriented reform of the economy. Their main point of criticism is that the workers' "iron rice bowl" has been broken - that is, the erosion of the rights of workers in the state sector and the decline in living standards. The article in the pamphlet even said that the Communist Party was no longer the party of the working class. The Communist Party itself has become the "true master of society", and the workers are now only its "servants".

In June of the same year, activists of the "China Free Trade Union" were detained for distributing leaflets about the 1989 pro-democracy movement. In these documents they express their belief that if a fair and just society is to be fought, there must be "a democratic and sound legislative structure in order to improve the rights and welfare of workers". For them, workers are "the 'main force' in promoting democracy in China". Although these activists were detained, at the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June 1992, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) helped them disseminate the documents.

From this context, Liu Nianchun's "Labor Rights Protection Alliance" belongs to one of the more moderate groups. It states in its "statutes" that its intention is only to act as an interest group to protect the interests of workers, peasants, intellectuals and entrepreneurs; it is not a political party, nor an independent trade union, and its purpose is not to challenge the rule of the Communist Party (which is facts expressly stated in its charter). Because of this positioning, Liu Nianchun decided to register with the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Beijing as an independent labor rights group. Before the Beijing Public Security Bureau arrested key activists, including Liu Nianchun, in March 1993, the "Labor Rights Protection Alliance" claimed to have about 120 members nationwide.

Some proposals submitted by the "Labor Rights Protection Alliance" to the National People's Congress in March of that year help us understand the organization's thinking, analysis and agenda. The document begins by emphasizing the two main goals of the Alliance for the Protection of Workers' Rights: "protecting the rights and interests of working people" and "eradicating corruption." The first proposal advocates restoring the right to strike. The 1982 version of China's Constitution has removed the "right to strike". The authors of the proposal write that because China is going through a "difficult process of developing from a planned economy to a market economy," "workers and employees, in the face of capitalist owners and their managers, can only by invoking the law bestowed upon their citizens specific rights to protect one’s own interests.” They go on to write that “absolute power leads to absolute corruption” and that “unchecked wealth also deteriorates into a source of social injustice.” For these reasons, they believe that the right to strike is essential to prevent the "abuse of wealth".

Several other proposals in the document would require government officials and Communist Party leaders to disclose personal assets and advocate for the creation of migrant labor unions. It then dealt with the rights of "peasant workers", which were often overlooked at the time, as attention was largely focused on state workers. Recognizing the contribution of migrant workers to China's economic development and the difficult labor conditions, they called on the National People's Congress to investigate labor conditions and legislate to protect the rights and interests of migrant workers. Finally, the author argues that as more foreign, private and joint ventures set up shop in China, unions are either absent or not functioning as they should. So they suggested that the National People's Congress enact laws that would allow workers to unionize in these new businesses. While these proposals do not call for independent trade unions like the Free Trade Union of China, the Alliance for the Protection of Workers' Rights provides a more informed analysis and practical direction for workers' struggles.

The most modest in name, but arguably the closest to a serious labor organization, is the "Federation of Migrant Workers." Although it was mentioned at the time that the organization translated its name as "hired hand workers", the Chinese text refers to the group of people we simply call "migrant workers". The choice of the word is not accidental, as it reflects their particular focus on migrant workers in southern China.

One of the organizers is Li Wenming. After graduating from a technical school in Hunan Province, he moved to Shenzhen in 1991. He was in his 20s at the time. After taking a few odd jobs, Li Wenming and colleagues at the Shenzhen Youth newspaper, some of whom participated in the 1989 pro-democracy movement, were appalled by the plight of migrant workers. Faced with such a situation, they believe, the only solution is political education and the formation of independent trade unions. To this end, Li Wenming and his colleagues established the "Migrant Workers Night School" and the "Migrant Workers Federation". They also released a newsletter called "Working Square" to distribute to workers. Initially, with the support of local municipal party leaders and the city's trade union, Li Wenming was in charge of a Shenzhen government project to disseminate knowledge of the Labor Law to migrant workers. Migrant Workers Square pays special attention to migrant workers in Shenzhen.

Migrant Square discusses some of the issues we now consider basic, such as working conditions, wages, overtime and safety, but also touches on more sensitive issues such as unionism and worker struggle. This is an important step in understanding migrant workers and their potential for self-empowerment. The first issue of the newsletter criticized the government for allowing the Zhili toy factory, which later suffered a fatal fire, to continue operating without meeting safety standards. The communication believes that the rights and security of workers can be best protected through struggle and solidarity.

A particularly compelling article on the Workers Forum raised a poignant question: Why are we united? The article portrays Shenzhen as a city with two worlds: a world where "skyscrapers are tall, commerce is developed, and businessmen are busy making money" and "the true masters of Shenzhen, millions of workers" who "work in harsh conditions, Work overtime and pay meager wages.” The article adopts a radical tone, arguing that "rights are never given to us on our own initiative, but depend on our own struggles" and that "if rights are given to us by others, they can be easily taken away". The discussion concluded that "only those [rights] acquired through our struggle can be firmly in our hands". But the previous struggles were all alone, and what we need is unity. For those who fear repression, the author argues that there is strength in solidarity, so that instead of losing their jobs, workers feel safer and have more job opportunities. Finally, in order to avoid tragedies like the Chili toy factory fire in 1993, they felt it was crucial to have "our own strong unions."

From the perspective of the party-state, the language of Workers’ Square about workers’ struggle and working-class solidarity can be just as threatening; moreover, the organizers’ personal connections and the political opposition movements that spawned them have dislodged them from the authorities. In 1994, the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau detained Li Wenming and Guo Baosheng for "attempting to form an independent trade union". It was not until 1997 that the authorities sentenced them to three and a half years in prison for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement".

blocked road

All of the above groups can be seen as a continuation of the democratic political movements that the organizers of workers' groups have participated in over the past few decades. Their thinking and demands reflect their concern for democracy. Some are more directly linked to attempts to form independent political groups and parties to challenge the government during the same period. Not surprisingly, many of these groups were founded and operated in Beijing—a sign of the political nature of these groups and the fact that they target other dissident supporters and target the state. Regardless of the wishes of some groups, most of them remain underground or semi-underground, with no prospect of an open, legitimate operation.

These groups are largely led by intellectual dissidents and have no solid working-class base—a situation that runs counter to their ambitions to build strong state organizations and movements. During their brief existence, the three groups discussed in this article have not organized or specifically supported any labor action, and there is no evidence that these groups have taken root in workplace labor organization. However, this has gone a step further than the 1989 democracy movement. At that time, despite their widespread participation, workers were excluded from the center and leadership of the movement. But despite having no members from the working class, these groups spoke in the name of the workers, rather than forming mass working-class organizations or trade unions. It also easily exposes the risk of these organisations instrumentalising the working class and subjecting workers to the organisers' political plans.

However, a few of these groups did attempt to address workers' problems directly and raise grievances that workers would point out. The erosion of workers' living standards, welfare, and rights in the 1990s, as well as the large-scale rural labor migration during the same period, provided fertile soil for these groups' rights protection information. Although the 1980s and early 1990s did not see many large-scale worker mobilizations, including a series of labor movements in 1993 and 1994, were the dawn of a new era of worker mobilization. Unfortunately, all of these attempts "died prematurely" before they actually developed. The organizers and key players of these groups were rounded up within a year or two, and many received heavy sentences. The potential for intellectual-turned-dissidents and groups to join forces with the state sector or migrant workers to form primitive unions poses enough of a threat to the authorities to trigger a severe crackdown.

By remembering this now largely forgotten event, we get a glimpse of a different kind of labor organization attempt than later. By the mid-to-late 1990s, with any hope of a clear political program dashed, migrant workers' demand for social security gave rise to apolitical programs such as mutual aid, legal protection, and bargaining with economic interests. Unionism remains an absolute taboo, but it has opened a new door for legal rights-based civil society organisations to support migrant workers. Due to near-ubiquitous repression, these early attempts at political labor organizations were almost completely disconnected from the labor NGOs that emerged later in the 2000s and 2010s.

If given time to develop, would these labor-oriented groups assist workers in building large-scale labor and union organizations? They may have found a support group willing to accept. The next two decades saw first the resistance of SOE workers to privatization and layoffs, and then the larger mobilization of migrant workers for better wages and conditions. The labor-oriented groups of the early 1990s could have served as the organizational basis and political platform for these movements to develop into more organized national movements. However, workers are equally likely to find dissidents of intellectual origin untrustworthy and too risky to engage with. To be sure, the prospect of this path—that is, the political organization of Chinese workers in independent trade unions, as part of or in alliance with democratic movements—is so threatening to the party-state that it will not be allowed exist. Thus, in the next two decades, even with the increasing trend of workers' struggle, it will become increasingly difficult for an organized labor movement to emerge in China and take the form of political or mass organizations.