http://ouleft.sp-mesolite.tilted.net/?p=1649 Changing Our Thinking, Changing Opinion, Changing the World Mon, 05 Dec 2022 21:47:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://ouleft.sp-mesolite.tilted.net/?p=1649#comment-4102 Carl Davidson Sat, 04 Jan 2014 18:37:44 +0000 http://ouleft.sp-mesolite.tilted.net/?p=1649#comment-4102 Very little in China is truly 'autonomous' in any European sense of the word. I doubt we'll see anything like that. Workers do have unauthorized organizations, however, and they wage strikes that they sometimes win as well. And their official unions are playing an important role these days in the fight to deconstruct old regional fiefdoms--that's something that doesn't matter much to us, but then, we're not China. I do know that the Chinese official unions approached the AFL-CIO to see if they could organize a joint approach to organizing Wal-Mart. The US unions turned them down because they were lead by the CCP. Which makes no sense, because everything in China, one way or another, operates under the CCP's hegemony. Even the Catholic church, much to the dismay of the Vatican. Very little in China is truly ‘autonomous’ in any European sense of the word. I doubt we’ll see anything like that. Workers do have unauthorized organizations, however, and they wage strikes that they sometimes win as well. And their official unions are playing an important role these days in the fight to deconstruct old regional fiefdoms–that’s something that doesn’t matter much to us, but then, we’re not China. I do know that the Chinese official unions approached the AFL-CIO to see if they could organize a joint approach to organizing Wal-Mart. The US unions turned them down because they were lead by the CCP. Which makes no sense, because everything in China, one way or another, operates under the CCP’s hegemony. Even the Catholic church, much to the dismay of the Vatican.

]]> http://ouleft.sp-mesolite.tilted.net/?p=1649#comment-4100 Paul Garver Sat, 04 Jan 2014 16:54:48 +0000 http://ouleft.sp-mesolite.tilted.net/?p=1649#comment-4100 I would like to entirely share the columnist's optimism about the positive future prospects for socialist transformation in China. However we must remember that even the modest social democratic advances cited in Western European countries required a long process of political and economic struggle for democratization and workers' rights to organize. Economic developments even while increasing the social weight of the working-class majority do not automatically lead to democratization of society. They must be accompanied by greater advances in democratic participation and the functioning of autonomous labor unions than have yet been permitted by the hegemonic Communist Party of China. I would like to entirely share the columnist’s optimism about the positive future prospects for socialist transformation in China. However we must remember that even the modest social democratic advances cited in Western European countries required a long process of political and economic struggle for democratization and workers’ rights to organize. Economic developments even while increasing the social weight of the working-class majority do not automatically lead to democratization of society. They must be accompanied by greater advances in democratic participation and the functioning of autonomous labor unions than have yet been permitted by the hegemonic Communist Party of China.

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