For the first time in long years, the May Day will be a subdued affair in China, which swears by the rights of the workers and toiling masses. In the run up to the day, the authorities in Guangzhou, Shanghai and even Beijing caved in faced with public anger and workers’ protests, which all had their genesis in the runaway inflation. More than anything else, the strike by truck drivers in Shanghai has had an unnerving effect since it exposed the vulnerability of export driven economy. Summing up the situation, a headline in the New York Times says ‘China’s Exports Perch on Uncertain Truck System’.
Street demonstrations, silent strolls and internet campaigns are not new in the post-Tiananmen Square period. But none had the effect of truck strike which lasted for just three days from Wednesday last week.
About 2,000 truck drivers stuck work. They are amongst the hardest hit by the 5-5.5 percent diesel price hike announced by the government ignoring the fact that inflation was showing no signs of moderation from the 32-month high of 5.4 per cent it touched in March. The drivers had no leadership and yet they were able to mobilise public support by using text messages. This unnerved the Communist party leaders, who knew that efficient transport system is a Chinese USP besides cheap labour and industrial peace.
A wave of strikes is sweeping through China over the soaring costs of food, fuel and shelter since last year undermining social stability in the country. People from the hinterland who had migrated to work in China’s showpiece ‘Special Economic Zones’ forced halt to the production cycle affecting amongst others auto giant Honda and managed wage hikes. What an absurdity it is? It shattered many a myth about Communism in the Communist mainland.
Across China, an estimated 10 million trucks are engaged in transportation of goods from factories in SEZs to ports. Most of them are owned by small family owned companies. Operating on low margins but promising low-cost delivery the lorry transport trade has emerged as the backbone of the $1.5 trillion export economy. Any disruption to the lorry transport will threaten the exports since neither rail nor river transport is efficient. Three years ago, in 2008, also fuel price hike led to taxi drivers’ strike in Chongqing (Southwest China). Partial roll back of the prices ended the strike.
The Shanghai truckers’ strike is symptomatic of the extreme social tensions in the Chinese society. Rising prices for food and fuel are impacting on working people throughout the country. They are also being hit hard by rising housing costs—the product of rampant speculation in the real estate market. The emerging challenge cannot be addressed by police crackdown.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao knows dissent fuelled by economic discontent is difficult to control. Hence he has likened inflation to a tiger that’s hard to cage after it has been released. Surprisingly, his government is grappling with inflation using the monetary and media controls which have a limited reach. The need is better supply side management. There is as of now no move in that direction. Also to curb corruption that has become endemic.
Old time trade unionists and communists see the tensions in China as the fight for basic democratic rights and decent living standards. Put differently it is a call for political struggle against the regime and the neo-capitalist system it has created. ‘Such a struggle necessitates the building of a political party based on the historical experiences of the working class—above all, the lessons of the political fight waged by the Trotskyist movement against Stalinism. That means the construction of a section of the International Committee of Fourth International in China’, says John Chan, an analyst writing in a socialist web site.
—by M RAMA RAO
