ABSTRACT
Two decades of market reform have brought on their heels waves of labour insurgency. By the early 2000s, incidents of worker unrest by the massive unemployed population had become so routine that government and party leaders identified labour problems as one of the biggest threats to social stability, alongside tax revolts and land disputes by peasants. Indeed, state-led economic reforms have paradoxically undercut a major social base of regime support. As a result of largescale planned layoffs of workers in the state industrial sector, many state workers have had to confront a drastic reversal of fortune within the past decade, from being ‘masters’ of their enterprises to becoming destitute unemployed. By documenting various forms of labour insurgency-ranging from everyday workplace resistance, petitions, work stoppages and strikes to public protests, violence, independent unionism and political movements-this chapter assesses the consequences of reform on labour and its relation with the state. The overall argument is that deepened reforms have triggered both a proliferation and an intensification of labour strife. The relation between reform and resistance is due, on the one hand, to heightened labour antagonism towards state officials, managers and capitalists; and on the other hand, to an opening up of new political and institutional spaces for interest and grievance articulation.
