NationStates Jolt Archive

'Slaves' rescued from China firm

Thirty-one dirty and disorientated workers have been rescued from a brickwork factory in China, where they were being held as virtual slaves.
Eight workers were so traumatised by their experiences that they were only able to remember their names.
The labourers had to work unpaid for 20 hours at a time, and were only given bread and water in return.
The brickworks, in the poor inland province of Shanxi, is owned by the son of the local Communist Party secretary.
Local police told the BBC that the owner, Wang Binbin, had been arrested, and that his father, Wang Dongji, was under investigation.
Several other people have also been arrested, although the foreman is still on the run.

Harsh regime

According to a report in the Beijing News, citing the Shanxi Evening News, the rescued workers had been duped into working at the factory.
Once there, they faced a harsh regime. One man was even reported to have been beaten to death with a hammer, because he did not work fast enough.

When police raided the brickworks they discovered foul-smelling workers who had been wearing the same clothes for a year.
They had no facilities to wash, and they had not had their hair cut or brushed their teeth.
"The grime on their bodies was so thick it could be scraped off with a knife," the Beijing News said.
They had burns over their bodies after being made to carry bricks that had not cooled down properly.

Police are now arranging for the workers to get the wages they should have been paid, and then they will send them home, although the eight disorientated workers cannot remember where that is.

Local people said the brickworks, near Linfen, would have been closed down a long time ago had it not been for the protection of the party secretary.
China has tens of millions of migrant workers.
They leave their rural homes in search of work, but often have to endure harsh conditions, bad treatment and low pay.
There is little they can do about their lot, particularly when, as in this case, factory owners are protected by powerful local officials.
yay for unrestrained capitalism!

wow and they didnt run away? I can see for instance staying in sweat shops, I saw on TV that many are bad with terrible hours by Western standards but do pay somewhat fair by the standards of the nation their in and compared to other work.

But this is just horrendous. Why did they not just run away?

Chinese capitalism is not unrestrained.

China is an extremely regulated economy, with regulations tilted heavily against the small entrepreneur.

If the think tanks are to be believed, China is actually 119th in the list of the world's freest economies according to the Index of Economic Freedom and 86th according to Economic Freedom of the World (which ranks less countries).

Index of Economic Freedom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom)

But this is just horrendous. Why did they not just run away?

Well, we could ask the same question to the slaves of the XIX century USA, to the slaves of the Romans, etc. etc.
Usually, who can afford having slaves, is an influential person and can enact some sort of retaliation against fugitive slaves, via links with criminal organisations or bribing police officers where slavery is illegal, or via legitimate police actions where slavery is legal.

Chinese capitalism is not unrestrained.
China is an extremely regulated economy, with regulations tilted heavily against the small entrepreneur.


Not against the great enterprise, however. Usually the great enterprise is owned by former Party officers - so, there is this nasty link between capital and political power that usually spells the death of freedom in capitalistic societies. To have a somewhat "healthy" capitalism, capital and politics should remain separated, see the questions raised by the Financial Times (not a commie newspaper) against Silvio Berlusconi as PM and great enterpreneur, some 5 years ago.

The brickworks, in the poor inland province of Shanxi, is owned by the son of the local Communist Party secretary.

[...]

Local people said the brickworks, near Linfen, would have been closed down a long time ago had it not been for the protection of the party secretary.

yay for unrestrained capitalism!Reading comprehension. Perhaps you should try it?

Well, we could ask the same question to the slaves of the XIX century USA, to the slaves of the Romans, etc. etc.
Why ask slaves? I'm sure there are still people alive who worked in American factories before all the work laws were passed. But don't tell Myrmidonisia that I insinuated that any American factories have ever been anything but exceedingly safe and benevolently run.

China, unrestrained capitalism?!? You probably should look at the restriction they have, it's quite immense, every company in China has a Communist Party official running it, China would never allow private enterprise if they couldn't tax the hell out of it. I am not saying I agree with Chinese socialism, but it's not capitalism.

Not against the great enterprise, however.



Which was exactly my point.

Heavily-regulated capitalist economies are almost always tilted against the small-time businessman and in favor of huge businesses - both because huge businesses have more money to comply with regulation costs, and because bureaucrats and political officials have more incentive to become corrupt and cater to the people with the most bribes.

Capitalism? I see no capitalism here. The workers were duped into working at the factory, which goes against the capitalist notion that fraud ought to be illegal. The workers were beaten and abused, which goes against the capitalist notion that force should not be exercised against an innocent person. To cap it off, the factory was owned by the son of the local Communist Party secretary, and was only able to stay open due to the protection offered by said secretary, which goes against the capitalist notion that government should play only a limited roll in the business world.

Now, admittedly there is no such thing as a perfectly capitalist economy, but surely you could have found a better example of capitalism than this!

The brickworks, in the poor inland province of Shanxi, is owned by the son of the local Communist Party secretary.

This has nothing to do with capitalism. This is blatant exploitation at the hands of a complicit government in a non-market economy; there is no capitalism here, only the badly distorted system of state manipulation and corruption that allows these kinds of abuses to occur. Anyone who even remotely considers China a free-market or capitalist country is badly misinformed. It is a mercantilist nation through and through; to its credit, it has made strides towards a market economy, but it is still nowhere near the system in place in the market economies of the world.

In fact, it is government's fault, because this is nothing more than another example of blatant corruption in China. I'd go so far as to say true free-market capitalism will put an end to these kinds of abuses, not encourage them.

yay for unrestrained capitalism!

And here I thought China was a communist country... :rolleyes:
...So much for the PEOPLE'S Revolution...

Obviously we need someone like Comrade Stalin to come in and take over and end these horrible working conditions.

Obviously we need someone like Comrade Stalin to come in and take over and end these horrible working conditions.

He would certainly have ended their suffering...

He would certainly have ended their suffering...
Where is SocialistRevolutions when you most need him? :)

China, unrestrained capitalism?!? You probably should look at the restriction they have, it's quite immense, every company in China has a Communist Party official running it, China would never allow private enterprise if they couldn't tax the hell out of it. I am not saying I agree with Chinese socialism, but it's not capitalism.
Exactly. China seems to be on the road to fascism, not communism, what with its nationalistic vibes.

Reading comprehension. Perhaps you should try it?
Just because it's called communism doesn't mean that it is.

Exactly. China seems to be on the road to fascism, not communism, what with its nationalistic vibes.


Nah. Two reasons:

1) Their songs aren't catchy enough.

2) Lack of spiffy footwear.

Really there is zero chance of fascism there until those two conditions change.

Now this is what unions are for.

Kind of makes going on strike for a 5% pay increase and better benefits seem rather trivial, doesn't it?

Now this is what unions are for.

Kind of makes going on strike for a 5% pay increase and better benefits seem rather trivial, doesn't it?

Obviously the problems were caused by unions.

Obviously the problems were caused by unions.

?

Obviously the problems were caused by unions.
Not really. The communist party might control the unions, but the unions aren't the communist party. For a while the CP kept getting into fights with the unions because they kept asking for higher wages, which would have damaged competitiveness. So the CP told them to bugger off.

Also I somehow doubt that many union officials toured that factory.

Having Labor Unions independent from government is essential, at the moment in my country Howard is trying to restrict and destroy labor unions because he doesn't want a minimum wages or worker freedoms.

its the walmart/Tesco of the future!:eek:

Having Labor Unions independent from government is essential, at the moment in my country Howard is trying to restrict and destroy labor unions because he doesn't want a minimum wages or worker freedoms.
But having government independent of labour unions is also essential. It's no different to seperating church and state.

Both are interest groups which should be welcome to express their grievances and try to get people to vote their way, but they shouldn't have any special control of the government.

That's why Keating is right when he reckoned Labor isn't doing enough to kick out the union people still hanging around in its hallowed halls.

But having government independent of labour unions is also essential. It's no different to seperating church and state.

Both are interest groups which should be welcome to express their grievances and try to get people to vote their way, but they shouldn't have any special control of the government.

That's why Keating is right when he reckoned Labor isn't doing enough to kick out the union people still hanging around in its hallowed halls.

Well there would be no need to have unions if legislation enshrining those rights existed.

Well there would be no need to have unions if legislation enshrining those rights existed.
Like in China!

Ah, the circle closes...

Like in China!

Ah, the circle closes...

No, China has no such rights, and theres a big difference between having such legislation in a democratic country as opposed to an autocracy in which it can be changed arbitrarily.

No, China has no such rights, and theres a big difference between having such legislation in a democratic country as opposed to an autocracy in which it can be changed arbitrarily.
My point was that government cannot be trusted. Unions can stand for the interests of workers more flexibly, government can impose anything. If there are no unions, and some government had made these rules you want law, but then the government changes and reverses the rules...wouldn't you then want unions?

And besides, the most effective way for unions to make a difference to people's lives is to be small, to represent the workers of just one business. Big, industry-wide or even country-wide unions are as removed from workers as the Catholic church is from the spiritual and ethical problems faced by individual people.

yay for unrestrained capitalism!

Forced labor by the communist party...

This is why anti-capitalists and anti-globalization protesters are the most laughable idiots on the planet. The communist party forcing people into slavery is about as far from capitalism as you can get.

yay for unrestrained capitalism!

China has anarcho-capitalism? *raised eyebrow*

yay for unrestrained capitalism!

If the Chinese authorities are arresting the owners/the people responsible for 'enslaving' these workers, then they are hardly condoning it. This is solely the responsibility of individuals, not the Chinese Communist Party and its policies.