On 2012-03-16, at 3:11 PM, Tony Rolfe wrote:
> Where do we find evidence of a confident assertive working class in
> China?
There's lots of stuff online. Try googling. English-language sources for ongoing coverage of labour protest in China are the China Labor Bulletin and China Labor Watch.
www.clb.org.hk/ http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/
The Western media's interest was awakened by the big strike wave in 2010.
"Power Grows for Striking Chinese Workers By DAVID BARBOZA and HIROKO TABUCHI June 8, 2010" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/business/global/09labor.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Here's another report of more recent working class activity:
"China Workers Strike at Lingerie, IBM Parts Factories Demanding More Pay Nov 24, 2011" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-24/china-workers-strike-over-pay-at-companies-that-make-ibm-parts-lingerie.html
A couple of informative articles from the Economist, which may be behind a pay barrier, but which I can copy:
"The rising power of the Chinese worker In China’s factories, pay and protest are on the rise. That is good for China, and for the world economy Jul 29th 2010" http://www.economist.com/node/16693333
"Welcome home After three decades of migrating to the coast, the inland population is increasingly working closer to its roots Feb 25th 2012" http://www.economist.com/node/21548273
If you don't trust the bourgeois press, here's an account from a left-wing source:
"Strikes spreading in China By John Chan 17 January 2012" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/work-j17.shtml
And this from just a quick scan...