Abstract
This essay delineates salient tendencies of Chinese labor politics since the 2008 financial crisis when China entered a new normal of slow growth and enhanced authoritarianism. It argues that the strikes that garnered the most international attention were not as transformational as observers suggest. Instead, real innovations in labor activism had emerged away from the media limelight, among semi-underground labor NGOs. Yet taking into account the post-2008 political-economic conditions, the prospect for these pockets of resistance to grow into a strengthened labor movement are faint, even as the rise of the platform economy may shift the terrains of labor struggles and bring new volatility.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 92-115 |
| Journal | Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy |
| Volume | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |