- cross-posted to:
- chat
These gig economy bs is cancer(and has arised again and again-with or without the states regulation or overseeing- in socialist and /or revisionist socialist projects) and delivery workers seem to get the worse of it everywhere. Even Cuba had similar exploitative gig economy stuff and issues and its overall system is much "purer" left-wing than chinas. The food delivery industry is one of the most hellishly exploitative ones everywhere and any non insignificant degree of private economy or regulatory breathing room and power for capital will lead to it ballooning into such issues
Tho some of the sources you were using on the last post on the subject were sus this is indeed an existing problem for delivery and other workers in china and one thatwe should be critisizing (while being sure of knowing exactly its scale and details and how it connects with local and or national chinese policies in order to not say bs). Even people, like me, who are overall positive of China in general shouldnt reflectively dismiss such issues even if they require a more carefull look. Even if labour conditions and pay is constanly improving in china that doesnt mean that many workers or ereas of the economy arent left behind or unprotected
For this specific case it appears, like some other user said in an other thread, that the Rider’s League was basically acting like an independent union and independent unions have historically been in conflict with Marxist-Leninist governments,many for good reasons many for reactionary ones. (Solidarity in the Polish People’s Republic being one of the rare examples of an independent union within a ML state and its unfortunate outcome likely hasn’t helped improve the reputation of independent union activity in the minds of many ML government officials. Cuba also discourages independent labor union activity). The ACFTU is the official party-affiliated union in China and is still undergoing a process of reform. It can still be pretty inefficient with only recently beginning to recruit large numbers of delivery workers and has secured only fairly minor gains so far for delivery workers, hence the presence of some independent labor organizing. Of course local officials or party members in various levels probably have used that window to try and not let this result into bigger news but the only way for them not to be bigger news it to speed up the improvement of conditions for these workers
As capitalism matures in China and profitability becomes harder, you will see more and more overt examples of class struggle like this. Hopefully it will remove delusions of China being on the "path to socialism" (whatever that means)