ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author shares his experience in tannery. His study of the southern Taiwanese tanning industry covers a manufacturing process that touches the lives of 4,300 tannery workers but only 72 tannery owners. As tannery workers have a different relation to the mode of production than the bosses, they constitute a class. Classical Marxist approaches to labour relations assumed a polar opposition between workers and capitalists, with capitalists exploiting the surplus value created by the labouring masses. One of the central problems in Marxist anthropology is when and under what circumstances workers will unite as a class opposed to capitalist exploitation. The Taiwanese labour movement is small, but it has been growing since martial law was lifted in 1987. Workers have little trust in either their bosses or the state and would likely support stronger labour unions. Taiwan's economic picture changed, however, when in 1990 the Taiwanese government legalized Taiwanese investment in China.
