Labour Non-governmental Organizations Research Articles

The Deepening of Legal Preemption in China: Using Government Legal Aid to Demobilize Workers and their Advocates

Abstract For over two decades, China has implemented a “legal preemption” strategy of encouraging workers to enforce their legal rights through litigation in order to preempt their tendency toward collective action. During most of this period, there was some space for unlicensed “barefoot lawyers” and labor nongovernmental organizations (ngo s) to provide meaningful assistance to workers by representing them in this litigation process. This article argues that even those limited openings for civil society participation in this area have narrowed as China’s legal preemption strategy has deepened: the government has sought not only to steer workers into the litigation process but also to control who represents them in that process and which tactics they may use. Specifically, the government ramped up its own legal aid programs, in which licensed lawyers beholden to the state represent workers, in order to squeeze out unregulated barefoot lawyers and labor ngo s. The article describes how and why this was done. The article then considers the implications of this transition for workers seeking legal representation and the future of China’s labor ngo s.

Movement-oriented labor organizations in an authoritarian regime: The case of China

How do labor organizations with a movement orientation arise in an authoritarian regime? How do they organize workers collectively in a repressive society? What movement roles do they play? What challenges do they face? To answer these questions, I use synthesized social movement theories to examine movement-oriented labor non-governmental organizations in China. Based on qualitative data collected through triangulated sources, I find that movement-oriented labor non-governmental organizations use political opportunities to promote one type of modular collective labor action, which consists of three tactics, namely the election of worker representatives, collective negotiation, and protest. They guide workers to build mobilizing and connective structures, formulate collective action frames, and amass movement resources. However, the movement roles of this type of labor non-governmental organization have weakened, owing to diminishing political opportunities caused by changes in government administration. This research contributes to our understanding of social movement theories, labor organizations in China, labor non-governmental organizations and worker centers generally, and state–society relations in non-democracies.

From Insurgency to Movement: An Embryonic Labor Movement Undermining Hegemony in South China

This article provides a new analysis of Chinese labor politics. Most scholars suggest that China has no labor movement because Chinese labor protests are apolitical, cellular, and short-lived, and thus inconsistent with the properties of social movements identified in the political process model. By contrast, the author draws on Antonio Gramsci’s ideas regarding movements undermining hegemony and on ethnographic and archival research to demonstrate that the activities of movement-oriented labor nongovernmental organizations (MLNGOs) coupled with associated labor protests since 2011 constitute the embryo of a counterhegemonic labor movement. MLNGOs have reworked the hegemonic labor law system to undermine the regime’s legal fragmentation of workers, nurtured worker leaders who speak for and represent migrant workers to temporarily substitute for impotent workplace unions, and developed alternative organizational networks of labor organizing that challenged the union’s monopoly. This incipient counterhegemonic movement persisted several years after state repression in late 2015 but was curtailed by another wave of repression in January 2019. The very severity of state repression suggests that a movement countering hegemony has been formed.

Labor-related civil society actors in China: a Gramscian analysis

Focusing on labor non-governmental organizations and labor lawyers, this article examines the class roles of China’s labor-related civil society actors (CSAs) in migrant worker resistance. This article calls into question the intuitive sentiment in scholarship that by engaging in collective labor actions, China’s CSAs are axiomatically advancing worker interests. It builds on criticism of the mainstream approach towards civil society and on Gramsci’s insights on civil society and organic intellectuals to construct a typological spectrum to evaluate labor-related CSAs. Based on in-depth interviews, participant observations, and documentary research, this article contends that China’s labor-related CSAs can be classified as unqualified organic, semi-organic, or organic intellectuals of workers, hinging on their commitment and ability to 1) challenge the kind of common sense associated with capitalist economic relations; 2) challenge the kind of juridico-political common sense the state reproduces; 3) construct a kind of good sense and enhance workers’ class consciousness and political consciousness; and 4) build up workers’ collectivity, spur workers to take concerted actions and engage in system-transforming initiatives.

Network fields, cultural identities and labor rights communities: Big data analytics with topic model and community detection

The Weibo platform is a social space for interaction and expression. This requires scholars to examine, in a simultaneous fashion, communication patterns and the communicated content among Weibo users. Based on theories of ‘network and culture’ and relational sociology, this article contends that network fields and the communicated cultural meanings are mutually constituted. A latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model and social network analysis techniques were used to examine 51,288 Weibo posts published by users concerned for workers revealing the relationship between community structures and communities’ focal topics. Specifically, the result of LDA topic modeling shows that the focal topics regarding labor issues could be categorized into four groups: workers’ culture (art and entertainment) and welfare; predicaments and problems; strikes (rights defending actions) and labor organizations; and institutions and labor rights. Analysis of interaction patterns among users resulted in the identification of five major online communities which, based on the primary communicated topics within communities, were labeled as the Labor Homeland Community; Labor Culture Community; Labor Rights Protection Community; Labor Interest Concerned Community; and Labor Institution Concerned Community. The results also showed two new trends in relation to labor issues: first, workers’ culture and their integration into urban life have garnered increasing online attention with the growth of new generation workers; and second, the Weibo platform provides an interaction channel for labor researchers and labor non-governmental organizations, and such interaction facilitates the latter to critically reflect the current conditions or plights of workers from an institutional/structural perspective. This article concludes with a discussion about the significance of utilizing big data analytics to study online culture and social mentality.

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

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.

Discourse, political space and the politics of citizenship

ABSTRACTPolitical space can be defined as opportunities for and restrictions on citizenship struggles. The purpose of the article is to develop a theory of political space that takes into account the role of discourse and meaning in shaping political space. Starting from how political space is conceptualized as a political opportunity structure in social movement theory, the author argues for employing discourse theory to recast political space as discursive space that shapes the opportunities for and restrictions on citizenship struggles. Her argument is supported by an analysis of strategies used by Chinese labour non-governmental organizations to remake their political space. She finds that political space is constituted through discourses that assign meaning to the actors involved in citizenship struggles, the sites of action, and the issues on which actors mobilize in particular ways, which may either enable or constrain action. Concurrently, political space is dynamic, as actors may remake their political space by rearticulating the discourses on actors, issues, activities and interests that constitute the political space. The author concludes that the metaphorical and literal meanings of political space are mutually constitutive. The opportunities for and restrictions on citizenship struggles cannot be analysed independently from where such action takes place.

Fighting for Migrant Labor Rights in the World's Factory: legitimacy, resource constraints and strategies of grassroots migrant labor NGOs in South China

China's dizzying economic achievement is not mirrored in its labor rights protection record. Migrant workers in particular do not enjoy rights commensurate with their contribution to the economy. The pervasive infringement of labor rights and the failure of the official protective system have jointly created a niche for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This article investigates the grassroots migrant labor NGOs in the Pearl River Delta region, an area which has seen unprecedented increases in labor disputes both in terms of quantity and intensity. Making extensive use of in-depth interviews and participatory observations, it examines the strategies and tactics NGOs use for survival and growth in a hostile external environment. This article reveals that administrative illegitimacy and resource shortage have been the two key challenges for grassroots NGOs; in order to survive, they have developed a series of strategies to enhance legitimacy and explore resources. In the meantime, however, antagonistic thinking still drives the government's response to grassroots organizations unless the latter can skillfully balance political ideology and actual operation. Yet, overall, most NGOs still managed to survive despite various difficulties. Reciprocity and mutual trust are of critical importance to peaceful coexistence, if not cooperation, between the state and the grassroots. The building of long-term healthy labor relations in China necessitates more liberal thinking and collaborative governance.

How Chinese labour NGOs legitimize their identity and voice

This article analyses the legitimation strategies of Chinese labour non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Given the relative newness of NGOs as an organizational form in China and the precarious space they operate in, their survival and development are not primarily a question of establishing autonomy and avoiding state control, as emphasized in the literature on Chinese associations, but rather a question of being perceived as legitimate social actors. This article conceptualizes legitimation as a form of communication in which NGOs articulate discursive elements in specific ways in order to legitimize their identity and voice. Drawing on interviews with 15 labour NGOs working with migrant workers, the article identifies three aspects of NGOs’ legitimation work. First, the NGOs construct their identity and work as social and not political in nature, thus underscoring that they are non-governmental and not anti-governmental organizations. Second, the NGOs give voice to, or represent, migrant workers and their interests by engaging in different forms of advocacy. Third, the NGOs legitimize their voice by referring to their proximity to workers at the grass roots and their specialist knowledge about migrant workers’ living and working conditions. In conclusion, the article argues that issues of power and discourse should be brought into the study of NGOs’ legitimation work.

Transnational private regulation and the transformation of labour rights organizations in emerging markets: new markets for labour support work in China

This article explores the emergence of transnational regimes of regulation governing labour standards and how these impact and articulate in China. Specifically, the article addresses how domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China communicate emergent regulatory norms and extend these into domestic domains, redefining how labour codes are developed and instantiated in local policy contexts and throughout the globalized value chains. It does so by adopting a qualitative case study approach to analyse how engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) norms transforms labour-support organizations and their roles in labour negotiations, regulation and oversight. Using a case study approached focused in the Guangdong Province of China, the findings suggest that a transnational private regulation supports the development of local NGO activity and in turn transmits norms, modes of conduct and regulation that has a fundamental impact on how labour NGOs ensconce themselves and help transmit and construct regulatory practices that govern labour practices.

Labor non-governmental organizations in China: Mobilizing rural migrant workers

In China, rural migrant workers are now the biggest labor force in urban and industrial areas. However, these workers lack effective and legitimate ways to organize themselves to counterbalance the power of capital or negotiate for better rights. Since official trade unions are unable to represent or protect migrant workers, and independent unions are prohibited in China, labor non-governmental organizations emerge as an informal way to mobilize and protect workers. This article explores how labor non-governmental organizations mobilize migrant workers in China, and the dilemmas they face. Labor non-governmental organizations use three strategies to organize workers: legal mobilizing, cultural mobilizing and a campaign intervention approach. However, because they face daily surveillance, repression and co-option by the state, these non-governmental organizations have limited political opportunities to organize workers on a large scale or develop a labor movement. While some struggle to resist these attempts to restrict their activity, other non-governmental organizations become domesticated by the state. Overcoming these limitations will require new tactics by non-governmental organizations to carve an independent space to organize migrant workers.

Community-based organizations for migrant workers' rights: the emergence of labour NGOs in China

In 1978, when economic reform began in China, it was the party- state-controlled people's organizations that were most deeply involved in people's work and social life. For example, the official trade union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), was the one and only legal organization representing workers. Although people who worked for state-owned enterprises were mostly unionized under the umbrella of the ACFTU, the new migrant workers in private enterprises were basically unorganized. Since the mid-1990s, labour activists, some of whom are supported by the international civil society, have tried to establish an alternative form of organization, specifically labour non-governmental organizations (NGOs), for migrant workers. The labour NGOs are concentrated in the Pearl River Delta of South China and provide services in migrant workers' settlement communities. This paper evaluates the degree to which the labour NGOs have maintained a relatively autonomous civil society space for the vulnerable migrant workers and nurtured a democratic form of labour organization.

AN EMERGING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE IMPACT OF THE 2008 SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE ON GRASS-ROOTS ASSOCIATIONS IN CHINA

The western China, especially near the Wenchuan region witnessed a terrible earthquake in the year 2008, which led to some severe damage in the country. Several interviews and studies are conducted to explain the impact of this Sichuan earthquake on the development of the various grass-root associations present in the country.

New Directions in Transnational Activism: Non-Governmental Organizations and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

During the last two decades, the literature on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and transnational activism has become voluminous and increasingly sophisticated. Both of these books provide novel insights into transnational activism. In particular, both books offer a fresh perspective on the ways in which economic, social and cultural rights are being promoted by NGOs. The most general of these books, New Rights Advocacy, looks at the growing convergence in the work of leading development and human rights NGOs. In particular, it is the first significant study of what is termed “new rights advocacy.” According to the authors, one a reputed specialist on the World Bank and NGOs, the other chair of the Board of Amnesty International USA, new rights advocacy is “advocacy on social, economic, or development policy, at local, national, or international levels, which makes explicit reference to internationally recognized human rights standards. It features explicit appeals to these standards, it promotes both civil and political human rights and economic and social human rights, and it targets a broad range of actors” (p. 19). At the center of the book's focus are three developments: (i) the increasing promotion of economic, social and cultural rights by NGOs originally primarily concerned with civil and political human rights; (ii) a turn to human rights-based approaches by development, environmental and labor NGOs; and (iii) the growth of new movements, campaigns and networks involving both development and human rights NGOs. The term “new rights advocacy” is also intended to refer to claims to “new” rights such as the right to water.

Migrant Labor NGOs and Trade Unions: A Partnership in Progress?

Over the last two decades, the needs and interests of temporary international labor migrants in Southeast Asia have overwhelmingly been the concern of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) rather than trade unions. However, in recent years unions have increasingly been forced to acknowledge that migrant workers are a potentially important trade union constituency. This introduction provides the theoretical framework for a collection of articles which grew out of a project involving academics, trade unionists and migrant labor NGO activists on the extent of union-NGO cooperation on migrant worker issues. It argues that while unions are now much more engaged with both with temporary migrant workers and the NGOs who advocate on their behalf, unions' approaches towards transnationalism and citizenship (and the concomitant issue of legality) — along with entrenched inter-sectoral divisions and prejudices — continue to limit their preparedness and ability to engage fully with issues concerning temporary labor migration.

Organizing the Unorganizable: Unions, NGOs, and Indonesian Migrant Labour

AbstractThere has been little engagement between the organized labour and labour migration literatures. Studies of organized labour movements in Asia have traditionally focused on trade unions that organize workers in factories, in offices, and on the plantations of the countries in which those unions are based, or on international cooperation between such unions. Studies of migrant labour, on the other hand, have tended to emphasize the demographic features of labour migration flows, or the experiences of migrant workers in either their country of origin or their host society. Yet, with the help of local and international non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), migrant workers from countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia are beginning to organize both at home and abroad. This article examines the emergence and operation of both migrant labour NGOs and migrant labour associations from a labour movement perspective. It focuses on the schism between the literature on labour migration, in which descriptions of migrant labour NGOs most often appear, and the literature on organized labour, which has generally ignored both the increasing significance of temporary overseas labour migration and the role of non‐union bodies in the organization of labour. Examples from Indonesia and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (herinafter Hong Kong) are used to argue that the experiences of migrant labour NGOs and migrant labour associations should be taken more seriously by trade unions and by the scholars who study them.

Prospects for Civil Society in China: A Case Study of Xiaoshan City

'Civil society', 'the market' and 'democracy' are the conceptual 'good guys' that dominate current Western thinking about China's present and future in the social, economic and political realms respectively. Though these ideas are often used in imprecise and tendentious ways, they have considerable analytical and practical power; they reflect real processes and point toward real solutions. This paper sets out to examine how useful the notion of 'civil society' is in describing and explaining social change in contemporary Chinese society. I shall proceed, flrst, by clarifying the specific way in which I intend to use the term 'civil society' and, second, by investigating the empirical utility of the idea through a case-study of one Chinese city.