From the horse's mouth

[Stephen E Philion]

I am reminded of an article from Workers' World a few weeks back
citing for the umteenth time statistics on the high rates of
unioinization in China.  There are reasons to be wary of Workers' Weekly
Articles that frequently cite statistics from China uncritically, as we
now hear from the horse's mouth:

 
>From South China Morning Post:

While China's leadership is worried that the scandals are weakening its
hold on power, Premier Zhu Rongji has also acknowledged the rising popular
anger at the government's failure to stop the epidemic. "Bureaucracy,
formalism, falsification, and exaggeration are rampant," Mr. Zhu said
during a speech last month before the legislature, the National People's
Congress. "Certain types of corruption and undesirable practices have not
been brought under control."

***So one wonders why Workers' World doesn't know what most Chinese labor
union scholars would gladly volunteer to me when I was in China,
regardless of which wing of the CCP they belonged to, know,
namely that statistics cited from China on rates of unionization tend to
not only be very exxagarated, but also to tell us
little about the significance of representation in their lives. 

       

Stephen Philion
Lecturer/PhD Candidate
Department of Sociology
2424 Maile Way
Social Sciences Bldg. # 247
Honolulu, HI 96822