Workers of China (and of the world) survive!

摘要

Striking to Survive follows Haymarket's previous volume on labour struggles in China, China on Strike (2016). Focussed on two strikes launched between 2012 and 2015 at Walmart and Uniqlo suppliers in China's Pearl River Delta, the book depicts the latest stage of worker activism in China. Earlier waves of industrial strikes in the 2000s were aimed at improving wages and working conditions. This current wave takes place against a different backdrop: the relocation of factories to China's interior and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. Changed too are the faces of the strikers. Unlike the unmarried migrant workers who had led earlier strikes, here the workers are largely middle aged, married or parents. While the book concludes with an appendix written by Fan on the strike at the Uniqlo supplier in 2014-15, it is the earlier strike at the Walmart supplier that is the focus of the book.