ABSTRACT
China’s embeddedness in the global capitalism of the 21st century has meant the simultaneous production and reproduction of a new working class, whose struggles as a class in itself and for itself are reshaping the future of class relations not only in China, but throughout the world. This chapter analyses how this new working class has been formed in the postsocialist period in China and how different generations of factory workers have reacted to workplace alienation in varying ways, with the new generation of peasant workers taking more outward actions and launching collective struggles. The chapter shows how the increasing spontaneous and direct actions of workers are contributing to an emerging class solidarity.
