Belabored Bonus Edition: Han Dongfang on Shop-Floor Democracy in China

Pro-democracy activism in China takes many forms. For longtime labor activist Han Dongfang, it starts on the shop floor. In this Belabored bonus edition, the veteran of the Tiananmen Square uprising and director of China Labour Bulletin discusses his vision for social change in China, and the promise and the peril of labor organizing in the engine of global capitalism.

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Pro-democracy activism in China takes many forms. For longtime labor activist Han Dongfang, it starts on the shop floor—and the pivotal message isn’t so much about liberty as it is about economic justice.

As a veteran of the Tiananmen Square uprising and a leader of one of China’s first independent trade union movements, Han now resides in Hong Kong and heads China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong–based labor advocacy and research organization group. Since leaving the mainland, he’s been a keen observer of both pro-democracy activist movements and ad-hoc worker organizing that have been roiling Chinese cities and, more recently, the streets of Hong Kong.

In this bonus edition of Belabored, Han discusses his vision for social change in China, and the promise and the peril of labor organizing in the engine of global capitalism. Could trade unionism actually make China more democratic? Or will it only institutionalize and tame the emerging independent labor movement that has risen up in recent years?

This interview originally aired earlier this year on Asia Pacific Forum on WBAI.

Further reading:

China Labour Bulletin

Why Hong Kong shouldn’t forget Tiananmen: advice from a 1989 activist (Quartz)

Chinese Labour Struggles (New Left Review)

Could Stronger Unions Make China More Democratic? (The Nation)