Synopses & Reviews
China recently surpassed the United States to become the largest economy in the world. It is also home to some of the largest, most incendiary, and most under-reported labor struggles of our time. China on Strike, the first English language book of its kind, provides an intimate and revealing window into the lives of workers organizing in some of China's most profitable factories, which supply Apple, Nike, Hewlett-Packard, and other multinational companies. Drawing on dozens of interviews with Chinese workers, this book documents the processes of migration, changing employment relations, worker culture, and other issues related to China's explosive growth.
Zhongjin Li is a PhD candidate in the department of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Eli Friedman is the author of Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China.
Review
Praise for Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China by Eli Friedman:
Eli Friedman has had excellent access to the Chinese trade union, and this eminently readable book is full of new inside information, interesting anecdotes, and new conceptualizations. This is a must-read for anyone curious about the relationships among Chinese labor, the official trade union, and the Chinese state.”
Anita Chan, University of Technology, Sydney
As the dynamics of worker-state interactions and the politics of labor representation are key for the future of the Chinese labor movement, Friedmans book is a must-read for anyone with interest in Chinas labor.”
Mingwei Liu, ILRReview
Synopsis
Through first person accounts, this book details the growing unrest, destabilization and strikes in factories that are gripping China.
Synopsis
China has been the fastest growing major economy in the world for three decades. It is also home to some of the largest, most incendiary, and most underreported labor struggles of our time. China on Strike, the first English-language book of its kind, provides an intimate and revealing window into the lives of workers organizing in some of Chinas most profitable factories, which supply Apple, Nike, Hewlett Packard, and other multinational companies. Drawing on dozens of interviews with Chinese workers, this book documents the processes of migration, changing employment relations, worker culture, and other issues related to Chinas explosive growth.
About the Author
Hao Ren became interested in Chinese labor rights while she was in university, and after graduating went to work for a labor NGO in the Pearl River Delta. After leaving the organization in 2010, she supported herself by taking a variety of jobs in factories throughout coastal China. Continuing with her interest in labor issues, she spent her free time interviewing workers in order to complete this book.
Eli Friedman is Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Labor at Cornell University. His primary areas of interest are China, development, globalization, social movements, theory, urbanization, and work and labor. He is the author of "Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China", published by Cornell University Press (2014). His peer reviewed articles have appeared in ILR Review, Theory and Society, British Journal of Industrial Relations, and Mobilization, among others. He is also a regular contributor to Jacobin.
Zhongjin Li is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her bachelor's degree in International Relations from Renmin University of China and a master's degree in Economics from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her main research focus is political economy of development, economic crises, and labor politics in Asia.