[Marxism] Forwarded from Walter Cliff

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I believe this discussion, focused on Walmart 
> and the Chinese government. has ignored a very 
> significant question: what role have the Walmart 
> workers played in this?  The attached article by 
> a well-qualified academic, although a bit lengthy, is well worth reading,
>
> Walter Cliff

Walter, Marxmail does not permit attachments to 
be sent to the list because of the danger of 
worms being spread. Since the article is online, 
I am posting the first few paragraphs.


Japan Focus
Organizing Wal-Mart: The Chinese Trade Union at a Crossroads

By Anita Chan

Surprise, surprise, it is the All-China 
Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the trade 
union notorious throughout the world for being 
?useless?, that has taken on Wal-Mart and 
succeeded in setting up workplace union branches 
at twenty-two Wal-Mart supercenters in China 
within four weeks. This has attracted the 
attention of the Chinese media, all major US 
newspapers, and the China Labor Bulletin (CLB). 
CLB is the Hong Kong-based labor NGO headed by 
Han Dongfang, the worker who emerged for a few 
weeks during the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement 
as a labor leader of the Beijing Workers 
Autonomous Federation. I was invited by Japan 
Focus to comment on the significance of the union?s action and the CLB report.

It is necessary to contextualize CLB?s 
perspective. Along with many others, Han Dongfang 
was imprisoned and then was allowed to go to the 
States as a result of an intense international 
campaign. He ended up founding CLB in Hong Kong 
more than a decade ago, flying the flag of 
China?s only autonomous trade union. In this 
capacity Han goes to Geneva every year to attend 
the International Labor Organization convention 
for labor. There and elsewhere, he dismisses the 
ACFTU as an arm of the Communist Party, and 
attacks it for its impotence, monopolistic 
position, and suppression of China?s labor 
movement, calling on the international trade 
union movement to isolate the ACFTU. Although the 
Cold War is over, and engagement with the Chinese 
government is no longer an issue for the ?free? 
world, in international trade-union circles any 
engagement with the ACFTU remains a major issue. 
International trade unions are split into two 
camps: those who support CLB and refuse to 
recognize the ACFTU, and those that are willing 
to engage, in the hope that this can gradually 
help to transform the ACFTU. It is in this 
context that we should read the CLB posting on 
the Wal-Mart trade union phenomenon in China.

Han Dongfang

Holding high the banner of China?s autonomous 
trade union in exile, CLB?s unchanging position 
has always been that the ACFTU is unchanging. 
This is CLB?s implicit message in its report on 
the attempt of the ACFTU to set up unions inside 
Wal-Mart. I beg to differ. Has nothing positive 
emerged out of this Wal-Mart trade union 
incident? Is the ACFTU a dinosaur that never 
changes? Alternatively, could there be reformists 
from within the ACFTU pushing for changes?

After piecing together and analyzing some thirty 
newspaper reports from various Chinese 
newspapers, some of which are more sympathetic to 
the ACFTU, some skeptical, some pro-capital and 
therefore pro-Wal-Mart, I conclude that there is 
scope for a more far-reaching discussion of what 
occurred than is contained in the CLB report. It 
becomes obvious from the Chinese newspaper 
articles that in taking on Wal-Mart, the ACFTU 
has attempted to do something it has not 
endeavored since the early 1950s, i.e. grassroots 
union organizing. How the first few union 
branches came to be formed within such a short 
period provides intriguing insights into this new 
phenomenon. The interesting details covered by 
the Chinese press show signs that the ACFTU, or 
at least some local unions, are attempting to 
change. As to how far this change can progress, we will have to wait and see.

Before all else, it is necessary for us to 
understand that the Chinese press today is no 
longer totally under state control. Newspapers on 
their own initiative cover stories they consider 
newsworthy. Investigative reporting has improved 
by leaps and bounds. For more than three years, 
the media has followed closely the jostling 
between the ACFTU and Wal-Mart, shaping public 
opinion. At least some reporters have adopted the 
tone?why should we Chinese give in to this giant 
corporation, which comes to China, throws its 
weight around, and openly defies the law of the land.

full: http://www.japanfocus.org/products/topdf/2217 


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