Socializing Labour Protest: New Forms of Coalition Building in South China

Abstract

ABSTRACTOver the course of the last decade, China has experienced growing labour unrest in many economic sectors including electronics, textiles and services. One reason for this is that the All‐China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is not engaged at the shop floor level; it does not represent workers and has failed to organize strikes. Instead, labour non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) have stepped in to fill the representation gap and to support striking workers. This article analyses the networks between labour NGOs, other civil society actors such as student activists, and protesting workers in China's Pearl River Delta. The authors show that a new informal network of activists and transnational linkages has emerged in Guangdong Province. They argue that civil society organizations can play a crucial role in supporting workers’ demands in strike actions, presenting a case of successful coalition building in the service sector during a strike by sanitation workers in the University Town Campus of Sun Yat‐sen University in Guangzhou. Drawing on a power resource approach and in‐depth field research, the authors conclude that the engagement of labour NGOs and other civil society actors in strike actions has the potential to shape labour relations at the level of the firm. However, due to growing state repression, there are limits for emerging civil society actions.