Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Democracy by protest?

Was the unrest at a Chinese factory the result of a system that denies people legitimate ways of reaching their goals?

Oh, and did your students recognize the reference to another cleavage in China?

Riot at Foxconn Factory Underscores Rift in China

The images and video began to appear on Chinese social networking sites... buildings with shattered windows, overturned police cars, huge crowds of young people milling about in the dark and riot police in formation.

The online postings were from a disturbance... that shut down a manufacturing facility in Taiyuan in north China, where 79,000 workers were employed.

State-run news media said 5,000 police officers had to be called in to quell a riot that began as a dispute involving a group of workers and security guards at a factory dormitory…

“At first it was a conflict between the security guards and some workers,” said a man who was reached by telephone after he posted images online. The man said he was a Foxconn employee. “But I think the real reason is they were frustrated with life.” …

Disputes involving large groups of migrant workers are common in China. In some cases, workers protest after believing that they have been promised a certain pay package and traveled a long distance to claim it, only to find on arrival that the details were different from what they expected. In other cases, workers from different provinces with different cultural traditions coming together in a single factory have clashed over social issues or perceived slights…

[Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for the China Labor Bulletin, a nonprofit advocacy group in Hong Kong] said workers in China had become emboldened.

“They’re more willing to stand up for their rights, to stand up to injustice,” he said, adding that damage to factory buildings and equipment still appeared to be unusual, occurring in fewer than 1 in 20 protests.