Good day comrades and welcome to my first Hexbear post.

Like many others here, I have participated with delight in the Western invasion/migration to 小红书. Hearing from the Chinese people directly has truly restored some of my faith in humanity.

Also like many others I am grateful every day for their revolution and steadfast and peaceful development over the decades, especially lately with climate change looming and no other nations rising to the challenge.

Thirdly, after understanding CIA media operations and anticommunist agitprop I now don't personally object to what we call "censorship" over here. It seems legitimate to me for the dictatorship of the proletariat to manage the "Overton Window", (lest it be managed instead by capital and its convenient alliance with jingoism).

Now for the hard questions.

I spoke with a Chinese citizen and acquaintance about all this. Aside from their reluctance to discuss politics I was also troubled by their assessment of the labor situation in China.

According to them, there are unions but they are state controlled and useless. They say the work culture is brutal and unsustainable and that doing true organizing will result in imprisonment.

I am coming to this question from a place of wanting to learn from the premier Marxist country and government, but I can't make it reconcile in my head. I would perhaps ask this question on 小红书 but I don't think this discourse would be welcome in that community.

Were unions weaponized by foreign powers in China's past? Is my acquaintance biased/unrepresentative? Is the connection between organized labor and Marxism less ironclad than I always assumed? What do you think comrades?

  • Lemmygradwontallowme [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 hours ago

    For a statistical overview.

    https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Essay:Why_China_is_not_Capitalist#Improved_Working_Conditions

    According to them, there are unions but they are state controlled and useless.

    Rlly?

    They say the work culture is brutal and unsustainable

    Maybe, in tech jobs, or electric car companies like BYD so to speak, the conditions are such.

    and that doing true organizing will result in imprisonment.

    Define true organizing, according to them. If they mean anti-state efforts, OOF, nope.

    Nowadays, in a socialist economy, labor strikes shouldn't be resorted to, unless as a last resort. Negiotiations with the socialist gov't is more ideal.

    Were unions weaponized by foreign powers in China's past? Is my acquaintance biased/unrepresentative? Is the connection between organized labor and Marxism less ironclad than I always assumed? What do you think comrades?

    Uh yes, even up to our modern times.

    I may wanna ask from what perspective and material context. Your friend may not be wrong, but otherwise, without it, it seems they may be talking from either a pro-western reactionary viewpoint or a ultra-left viewpoint.

    After all, we don't want another Solidarity-style anti-communist or anti-gov't labor union funded by the West to subvert socialist systems again

    • Opsec_Organizing [none/use name]
      ·
      2 hours ago

      Hey, thanks for the response!

      I'm going to read those resources you linked real quick but I just wanted to respond to a few things.

      In the main I think you helped me see the path "between the horns" of the dilemma I had set up for myself.

      I think it goes like:

      • A state monopoly union isn't inherently anti-Marxist any more than state monopoly healthcare
      • Just because 996 gets a lot of press doesn't mean it's representative of the whole labor market, probably the opposite
      • Imperialists gonna imperial and subvert whatever institution they can buy off with dirty money

      Finally regarding my friend I don't have a good read because of the language and culture barrier but they have earned some trust with me. They don't strike me as reactionary but I could see them being a petite bourgeoisie type.