China faces growing labor unrest

"They've been raised to eat from the iron rice bowl," says a Western diplomat. "Now you are hearing the shattering of the last vestiges of that rice bowl."

In Liaoyang, where four xiagang were arrested for organizing workers, a center of the protest is found in a tiny alley lined with by dormitories of the now defunct Ferro Alloy plant. There, on March 5, behind a stand of apples and mandarin oranges, workers posted four tabloid-sized white sheets.

The first is a letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, signed by "The workers of the bankrupt Ferro Alloy plant." The second is a letter to the provincial government of the Province of Liaoyang. The third is an open letter to city residents that begins sarcastically, "People of Liaoyang, did you have a good lunar new year?" (China's new year is in February.) The fourth is a lengthy and detailed list of the violations by Ferro Alloy leaders of their responsibility to the workers, including buyouts that were far too low. (Twenty years in the Ferro Alloy plant yielded just over $2,000.)

In colorful language, the workers describe the "infestations of decay of factory leaders.... They are corrupt worms."

The sheets are still there, indicating for whatever reason – sympathy or fear of more unrest – that police have not yet decided to remove them. Next to the sheets is a large pink poster calling on the workers to gather at the factory gate.

The leader of the Liaoyang Ferro Alloy workers, Yao Fuxin, disappeared into a police van last week. Police nabbed three other organizers from the middle of a crowd two days later. Mr. Yao's wife says that the Ferro Alloy workers have decided not to protest today but that they would return to the streets tomorrow if the four men are not released.

Worker protests in China often coincide with the meeting of the relatively toothless "People's Congress" in Beijing – where party-appointed representatives of China's districts meet for a national discussion. They also tend to rise at the end of the winter, often bitter in the northeast – a time when workers pay their heating bills.

In Liaoyang, the xiagang protests were also sparked by a former city leader's televised comments during the People's Congress that in Liaoyang there were "no unemployed."

Protests in Daqing are significant because, under Mao, the city was China's top model of heroic industrialization. "In industry, learn from Daqing," was a famous slogan. Amid harsh conditions, workers carved out China's first oil field, which kept the country heated and self-sufficient until the 1980s. During the Cultural Revolution, movies extolled Daqing, a name that was given to the city in 1969, meaning "big celebration."

But many observers doubt that the workers' restiveness will lead to an organized or independent movement. Party political officials have proven adept, as in Fushun, at quieting passions with a variety of monetary compensations. Party security officials show that they can easily nab any grass-roots leader who stands out by taking an independent course of action.

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