This discussion series aims to give DSA members and the left an outlet for informed, substantive, comradely discussions on the complexities of the PRC to create greater coherence within the org and continue to evaluate our positions amidst changing circumstances.
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIodOitpzsiGdBh4FEgJECa8aXG2XhSkz1P
China has become an important issues for socialists today. At the most recent DSA national convention, the org updated its platform to, among other things, oppose US nationalism and all forms of US imperialism, “turn away from a new Cold War with China,” and encourage peaceful relations with the PRC to end climate change and COVID-19.
Following a 20-25 minute talk from Eli Friedman, a Cornell professor who has done extensive research on migrant worker in China and writes regularly for leftist publications like Jacobin and Spectre, attendees are invited to participate in an interactive discussion on the PRC.
While Eli Friedman does not speak for any DSA body, we hope his talk will make for a substantive jumping off point for discussion. Below is a description of Friedman’s talk. For more from Friedman, we recommend checking out this Spectre article.
The Exploitation and Resistance of China’s New Working Class by Eli Friedman
“Over the past forty years, an entirely new working class has emerged in China in tandem with the country’s transition to capitalism. Socially and politically distinct from the Mao-era proletarians, these migrant workers have left the countryside in search of wage labor in the cities, and they now constitute an absolute majority of the country’s working class. But while the state has gone about institutionalizing a national labor market over the past several decades, citizenship is structured at the level of the city. This means that these migrants are welcomed into the city as a source of cheap labor but denied access to quality public services such as health care and education. This readily exploitable population of nearly 300 million people is the social basis of China’s astonishing success at attracting foreign investment, developing profitable enterprises (both private and state-owned), and challenging the US for supremacy of the world capitalism system. Nonetheless, these workers have hardly been complacent in the face of such exploitation as they have quickly learned how to organize and mobilize against capital, even amid the increasingly authoritarian political environment of today’s China.”
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIodOitpzsiGdBh4FEgJECa8aXG2XhSkz1P
Solidarity,
