Chuang

🗣️ 𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐖 ✍️ (from @chuangcn) #OpEd Keeping Each Other Afloat in a Difficult World: 2024 Review of Labor Issues in China “Since 2020, an anonymous group of netizens has been coming together to prepare an annual review of labor struggles (or, in their terminology, “labor rights incidents”) and related social trends in China. The effort is led by Wechat User “Chiapas Eastern Wind TV” (恰帕斯东风电视机), who releases a call for contributions within self-described “pan-leftist” (泛左翼) circles. An ad hoc collective then forms, adopting a different tongue-in-cheek name each year to better avoid censorship: for the 2024 report they were named “Straw Mushroom Stewed Chicken” (草菇炖鸡); for 2023, “Iron Pot Braised Yellow Catfish” (铁锅炖嘎鱼), for 2022, “Three Fresh Ingredient Menzi Stall” (三鲜焖子大排档). Sometimes names are listed for editors. Sometimes no names are listed. Though there appear to be regular contributors who participate most years, the anonymous and collective nature of the project makes it difficult to determine. The collective is therefore an essentially crowdsourced team composed each year of members from vastly different backgrounds unified by a shared concern over the situation of ordinary workers. This team then distributes work, edits the ensuing material into a coherent report, and promotes it on social media. Aimed at a broad audience including Chinese liberals and progressives whose understanding is often framed in a language of identity politics and “labor rights,” the final report balances a number of viewpoints. As explained by the lead organizer, however, the authors share a broad consensus around several key goals: First, it hopes to convince liberals and progressives who have little concern for labor issues of the invariant importance of class struggle to social change. Second, it encourages those in the traditional labor left to more accurately grasp the intersectional complexity of working-class experience. Third, in response to a largely online left prone to overly philosophical speculation and doctrinal debate, it argues that aspirations for radical change must be grounded in a detailed understanding and analysis of the existing system. Finally, the authors have intentionally incorporated certain theories and practices related to “labor system reform” (工作体制变革) as a rejoinder to various mainstream ideologies that idealize nothing but work ethic. Although the resulting document is somewhat inconsistent in terms of writing style and political analysis, given its crowdsourced nature, these annual reports have nonetheless served as the most comprehensive reviews of labor issues in China since the pandemic. To our knowledge, none have yet been translated into English. We therefore offer here the first installment in a full English-language translation of the most recent year in review, released at the end of 2024: “Keeping Each Other Afloat in a Difficult World: Taking Stock of Labor Struggles in 2024”. The original Chinese version, including the hyperlinks to each cited case, can be found here. Given that the report is roughly 100 pages, requiring many hours of translation work, we will be serializing the release. Individual sections will be launched on our blog every few weeks, likely until the end of the year (when the 2025 edition will be released in Chinese). If readers find the review useful, we hope to be able to mobilize resources to translate next year’s report more quickly.” 🛠️⬇️ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ⬇️🛠️