#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #AUSTRALIA #CHINA #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) anarkismo.net: The Anvil Vol. 11/ No 6 - Chinese Workers Fight Back by MACG (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The working class of Australia has no interest in a war against Chinese workers

and Chinese workers have no interest in a war with us. Militarization and war is
a ruling class game. We have far more in common with each other than either of us
do with the ruling classes of our countries. And just as so many Chinese workers
(under much harsher conditions than our own) have had the bravery to fight the
bosses and politicians who exploit and oppress them, rather than embrace a
nationalist fight against ‘foreign forces', we should also recognise that our
main enemy is here at home. They manage our workplaces and make our laws. The
only war worth fighting is the class war against them. ---- What is the
significance of the recent protests in China and what should we take from them
here in Australia?
The capitalist press have mostly stuck to a simplistic explanation based purely
on opposition to Covid lockdowns. Clearly, the draconian policing of an
unrealistic ‘Zero Covid' policy (implemented as a substitute for a poorly
executed vaccination effort and significantly privatised health system) has been
a major source of anger. An important event in building popular support for the
protests was a deadly fire in a Xinjiang apartment building, which resulted in at
least ten people dying. Many locals blamed the inadequate response time by
firefighters on Covid restrictions.

But there is much more to these protests than just anger over Covid restrictions.
Furthermore, we can easily debunk conspiratorial narratives that this is some
kind of right-wing or Western controlled movement. Instead, it is a manifestation
of class war, which many Chinese workers continue to frame in socialist terms.

The Foxconn Strike

Particularly neglected in Western coverage of China is the component of labour
struggle. A major development in the build up to the protests was the militant
confrontation between workers and police at the Foxconn mega-factory in the city
of Zhengzhou.

Foxconn is a Taiwanese company best known for producing iPhones for Apple, as
well as working conditions so brutal that ‘suicide nets' have been built outside
of factory windows, to prevent workers leaping to their deaths. To comply with
government Covid restrictions, Foxconn had forced workers to live in the factory
from October through to November in appalling conditions. Eventually, many
workers escaped and quit, forcing the State to work with the company to offer pay
raises and bonuses to attract new workers.

When the workers arrived they found that the promises of higher pay didn't
materialise. On top of this, they became furious about the handling of Covid - in
this case because workers who tested positive for Covid were not being separated
from others. In other words, when Foxconn workers once again stormed out of the
factory and confronted police, they did so on the basis of pay and workplace safety.

 From Social Media to the Street

News of the strike spread across Chinese social media and messenger apps.
Whatsonweibo, which monitors these platforms, reported that

a clear majority of the people speak out in support of the Foxconn workers. They
post old propaganda posters that emphasize how the Chinese working class will
lead the revolution, and recommend other Weibo users to read Karl Marx. "Is the
working class still leading?", they ask."

Despite what many people think, protest is not rare in China. There is intense
working class militancy, frequent struggles in rural areas over land and social
services, and also student protest. What is rare is dissent against the political
system as a whole, the rapid spread of protest across the country, and the
intermingling of different struggles.

In the case of the recent protests, we saw both uncommon examples of political
dissent and its rapid spread across various regions. There was widespread
mourning of those who died in the Xinjiang fire, with some making open reference
to the repression of the Uygurs. Workers took to the streets singing the
Internationale. Slogans calling for the fall of Xi Jinping and the Chinese
Communist Party dictatorship could be heard in multiple cities. University
students began calling for freedom of speech and democracy. Others held up sheets
of blank A4 paper - a defiant symbol conveying the same message.

In one video, a person opposed to the protests echoes the narrative that the West
is behind the unrest. The man asks the crowd if they know that "foreign forces"
are manipulating them. Someone with a megaphone responds: "The foreign forces you
are talking about, are they Marx and Engels?" In another video, a student comes
amazingly close to a famous phrase from Bakunin: "No socialism without freedom!
No freedom without socialism!"

Certain Covid restrictions have now been eased, particularly in cities where the
rebellion was strongest.

Protest has waned, but now the Party's incompetent management of the pandemic
threatens to overwhelm the healthcare system, which could easily lead people back
to striking and hitting the streets.

No War Between Nations, No Peace Between Classes

In Australia, the major political parties are increasingly militaristic in their
attitudes towards China, and the capitalist media repeatedly warns us about the
supposed ‘Chinese threat'. Incredibly, even when the people of China rise up
against their own ruling class, the framing of the coverage barely changes at
all. When Chinese workers show that they also oppose their government, it is seen
as just another opportunity to encourage Australians to embrace militarisation
and a readiness for the possibility of war.

The working class of Australia has no interest in a war against Chinese workers
and Chinese workers have no interest in a war with us. Militarization and war is
a ruling class game. We have far more in common with each other than either of us
do with the ruling classes of our countries. And just as so many Chinese workers
(under much harsher conditions than our own) have had the bravery to fight the
bosses and politicians who exploit and oppress them, rather than embrace a
nationalist fight against ‘foreign forces', we should also recognise that our
main enemy is here at home. They manage our workplaces and make our laws. The
only war worth fighting is the class war against them.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR!

*This article is from "The Anvil", newsletter of the Melbourne Anarchist
Communist Group (MACG), Vol. 11/ No 6, November-December 2020.

* Go to: https://melbacg.wordpress.com/

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32715
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