Dialectics of Chinese Labor

Immanuel Ness, PhD, is Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York and Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg. His books, academic articles and edited volumes focus on workers, trade unions and labor movements, migration, and economic imperialism. He is the author of eight books, including Migration as Economic Imperialism (Polity, 2023). Ness is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Labor and Society, a peer-reviewed academic journal of global labour and social movements.

List of Figures and Tables

1 Introduction: Chinese Workers under Market Socialism
 1 Labor and Trade Unions on the Periphery
 2 Trade Unions and the Transitional State in the People’s Republic of China
 3 Trade Unions in the Transitional State
 4 Party–Trade Union Alliance
 5 Research and Evidence: Applying Utopian Ideas to Historical Materialism
 6 Capitalist and Socialist Markets and the Reserve Army of Labor
 7 Chapter Outlines

2 Workers and Labor under Capitalism and Socialism
 1 The Decline and Fall of Western Trade Unionism
 2 Marginal Gains for a Minority of Workers
 3 Socialist and Communist Contexts for Worker Empowerment
 4 Workers’ Rights and Power under Actually Existing Socialism
 5 How and Why State/Party Unions Protect the Rights of Workers
 6 Globalism, the State and Workers’ Power
 7 Uncovering Misrepresentation of Trade Unions in Socialist States
 8 Neoliberalism and the Decline of Trade Union Membership

3 Global Trade Union Decline, 1975–2025
 1 Organizational Regression and Membership Loss
 2 The Rise of Precarious Work in the Global Core and Periphery
 3 Chinese Global Labor Exceptionalism: All-China Federation of Trade Unions
 4 Global Trade Unions in Decline
 5 Actually Existing Capitalism and Actually Existing Socialism
 6 The Western Model of Unionism
 7 Capitalism, the Decline of Labor in the West and the Rise of Unions under Socialism
 8 Western and Non-Western Models of Trade Unionism
  8.1 World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)
  8.2 International Confederation of Trade Unions (ITUC)
 9 Decline of Unions in Core Capitalist States, 1975–2025
 10 Perspectives on the Decline and Possible Resurgence of Union Membership
 11 Factors in the International Decline of Trade Union Membership
 12 Unequal Exchange and Inexpensive Commodities
 13 Workers in the Capitalist Core and the Aristocracy of Labor
  13.1 Labor Aristocracy in the Global Core Today
 14 The Growth and Expansion of Trade Union Representation in China
 15 Conclusion

4 Migration, Floating Labor and Urbanization
 1 Introduction: Anti-Imperialist Revolution and the Struggle for a Socialist Path to Development
 2 Internal Migration, the ACFTU and the Chinese Labor Movement
 3 The ACFTU, Floating Migrants and Worker Representation
 4 Primitive Accumulation to Socialist Construction: Labor and Urban Migration
 5 Evolution of the Chinese “Floating Population”
 6 Market Socialism, Urban Migration and the Rise of a Floating Population
 7 Urbanization: Planning, Workers and Sustainability (2013–Present)
 8 Systemic Western Aversion to the CPC and the ACFTU
 9 International Labour Organization and Chinese Internal Migration
 10 Conclusion

5 Digital and New Economy Workers in China: from Precarity to Job Stability
 1 Primitive Accumulation and the Transition to Capitalism
 2 Technological Change and Responsive Representation of Workers’ Interests
 3 ACFTU Organizing New Employment Forms and the Digital Economy
 4 Representing Workers in the Digital Economy
 5 Distortion of the ACFTU Achievements
 6 Precarity and Disorganization
 7 Advent of the Digital Logistics Economy
 8 Proletarianization of Informal Labor
 9 The Digital Economy under Neoliberal Capitalism and Chinese Market Socialism
 10 Precarious Independent Contractors
 11 Organizing Digital and Platform Workers into Trade Unions
 12 Case Study: Organizing New Economy Workers in Shanghai
  12.1 Essential Role of Shanghai’s Digital Ride Hailing and Delivery Workers
  12.2 ACFTU Mobilization and Membership in Shanghai
  12.3 China’s First Digital Food Delivery Worker Trade Union
  12.4 Wuhu City Federation of Trade Unions Officials’ Experiential Research
  12.5 Trade Union Density Generates Worker Mobilization
 13 Trade Union Organization of Logistics and Trucking Workers
 14 Conclusion: Anti-China Propaganda and ACFTU Exceptionalism

6 Workers, Subjectivity and Holistic Trade Unions
 1 Trade Unions and the Principal Contradiction
 2 Holistic Trade Unions and Top-Down and Bottom-Up Organizations
 3 Chinese Trade Unions
 4 China’s Holistic Trade Unionism
 5 The Chinese Working Class Today
  5.1 Social Insurance and Pension Expansion
  5.2 Labor Disputes
  5.3 Shift from Manufacturing for Export to Domestic Production and Services
  5.4 Implications of the Expansive Growth of Labor Flexibilization
 6 Working Class Subjectivity and the ACFTU’s Significance to Labor
  6.1 Labor Perspectives and Outlooks in China’s Socialist Market Economy
  6.2 Worker Engagement with Unions
  6.3 National Union Density Signifies Working Class Capacity
  6.4 ACFTU: Catching up with the Private Sector to Expand Formal Labor Contracts
  6.5 Footloose Labor and ACFTU Representations
  6.6 China’s Precarious Workers and ACFTU Trade Unions
  6.7 State-Owned Companies
 7 Trade Unions under Chinese Market Socialism
 8 How Do Trade Unions Form in Capitalist Countries?

7 The ACFTU and the Consolidation of China’s Socialist Economy
 1 Why a Book on the Chinese Labor Movement?
 2 The CPC and ACFTU Guide Economic Development and Shield the Working Class
 3 Socialism, Trade Unionism and Industrial Policy
 4 Western Labor Studies and Social Imperialism
 5 Actual Labor Disputes in China
 6 Towards an Accurate and Reliable Evaluation of the Chinese Labor Movement
 7 Party Affiliated Trade Unions Are the Norm

8 Conclusion: All-China Federation of Trade Unions—the Transitional State and the Chinese Working Class
 1 The Chinese Transitional State
 2 Western Critiques of the Chinese Labor Movement
 3 Occupational Safety: United States and China
 4 Measuring the ACFTU by Western Metrics
 5 Labor Unions and Political Parties: a Comparative Global Analysis
 6 Strenghening Unions through Party Affiliation
 7 Too Little Unrest or Too Much Unrest
 8 Challenging China’s Labor Critics
 9 Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

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