Industrial Workers of the World

Last Sunday, November 1), Utopia (the broad-left bookstore/ “salon” in Beijing) hosted a screening of the Japanese documentary film “Freeters’ Revolt” (《素人之乱》, translated elsewhere as “Amateur’s Revolt”), and a discussion with the filmmaker, freeter activist and second-hand shop owner Hajime Matsumoto (松本 哉), along with Higuchi Takuro (樋口拓朗), billed as the main organizer of the 2008 anti-G8 protests in Japan and researcher at Tokyo University’s Global COE [Centers of Excellence] Program. Call Utopia at (010) 6276.0856+11/0. http://chinastudygroup.net/2009/10/freeters-revolt-screening/

http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/coe/english/greeting/index.html

http://www.wyzxsx.com/Article/Class1/200910/110902.html

http://www.douban.com/event/11136827/

“Freeter” (Japanese フリーター, furita), possibly derived from the German freie Arbeiter (free workers), is similar to the European concept “precariat” and should be understood as part of the global neoliberal trend of the precarization (or in the US, casualization) of labor. A difference is the freeter refers specifically to young people (according to Wikipedia, between the ages of 15 and 34), and they don’t have to be employed at all, although generally they move among temporary and part-time jobs and so should be understood as a particular form of what Marx called the “industrial reserve army.” http://www.rhizomes.net/issue10/arai.htm ttp://chinastudygroup.net/2009/08/chuizinet-workers-news-discussion-mutual-aid/

A round-up of links to reports about struggles in China. http://libcom.org/blog/63

September 30th: China Worker on 60th anniversary of Chinese Revolution.

http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/849/?ls-art0=15

October 16th: Swedish socialist banned from China.

http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/860/

and three days later the same happened to a Chinese activist who was involved in the events of 1989.

http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/865/

October 18th: In Hong Kong Indonesian workers celebrated 10 years of their trade union with a festival to highlight the situation of migrant workers there.

http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/862/

October 18th: 8 sentenced over Shishou incident.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/18/content_12259981.htm

October 21st: Tonghua activist sentences to 18 months re-education through labour - apparently workers had been organising there since 2005. http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/node/100582

October 22nd: Chinese workers in Trinidad and Tobago protested against their working conditions, demanding to be returned to China. http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/node/100582

October 22nd: villagers in Hebei blocked a national highway to stop an attempted land grab by a construction company. http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/business-in-china/100188352-1-village-highway-protest-blocks-builder%2527s.html

October 22nd: Villagers in Guangdong protest against the arrest of local anti-pollution activists. http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_china/2009-10-27/491367325860.html

October 22nd: In Jiangsu ten of thousands of villagers protest against a new incinerator. http://www.tibetanreview.net/news.php?cat=2&&id=4727

October 22nd: Armed thugs paid by a local coal boss atacked villages protesting against the privatisation of a collectively own mine in Shanxi Province, killing 4 and hospitalising 14. http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/865/

October 26th: Photos of slogans against complaining about corruption. http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/10/wang-keqin-%E2%80%9Cattack-those-who-seek-audience-with-higher-ups%E2%80%9D/

October 28th: Strike at Shenzhen electronics factory. http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20091028PD210.html

October 28th: In Beijing former bank employees held a protest to highlight their claims to having been dismissed illegally. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/24485/

October 28th: Migrant construction workers demand unpaid wages in Chengdu. http://libcom.org/news/regal-struggle-chengdu-china-28102009

October 29th: Authorities in major Chinese industrial city Dongguan crackdown on independent labour advocates. http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/100587