The working class (also known as the working class, labor class, etc.; English: working class) is usually used to indicate the social status and social hierarchy, whenever the class accounts for the highest proportion of the society, but with the development of the economy, the proportion decreases, generally for the industrial workers class is dominant.
According to Marxism, the working class (i.e., the proletariat) is the class of those who sell their labor (both physical and mental), do not own the means and instruments of production, and whose fruits of labor are mostly exploited by the bourgeoisie, and who create the main wealth for the society, including most of the physical and mental laborers.
In this way, peasants are naturally excluded from the working class, because, while peasants possess a little of the means of production (with the exception of farm peasants), private owners, and self-employed owners can certainly not be included in the ranks of the working class. Even the peasant laborer who lives in the food market cannot be included in the working class. Thus divided, the rich and poor in socialist society, and is outside the working class and the working class, but, very muddy, confused, unclear. It can be seen that, mechanically according to Marxism, to define the working class, then, we can not go to explore the socialist *** with the problem of affluence.
In view of the above reasons, we take "the working class is the laboring class, the laboring class, etc.; so defined, there are two major classes in socialist society: the laboring class and the non-laboring class. Anyone who participates in socialist labor is a member of the working class, and anyone who does not participate in socialist labor is not a member of the working class (excluding, of course, the legally retired, the sick, and children and young people under the legal working age).
Three Extensions of the Connotation of the Working Class in China
The First Extension: Cadres and employees belong to the working class After the completion of the socialist transformation of private ownership, China entered a socialist society, and the socio-economic structure gradually tended to become homogeneous, with only a nationally owned economy and a collectively owned one, and the relative and absolute numbers of the working class were further enlarged. At the same time, the social class hierarchy also underwent significant changes, with the gradual disappearance of the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, leaving only the two major classes, the working class and the peasantry, as well as the intellectuals, forming a social structure of "two classes - one class".
The internal composition of the working class became richer and richer, and the managerial class was no longer independent but became an integral part of the working class. Accordingly, the internal stratification of the working class in this period was divided into two political identities: cadres and workers. The identity of "staff" disappeared, the boundary between staff and workers was broken down, and the "staff councils" of commerce and institutions were renamed labor unions.
The second outreach: the positioning of the intellectual class has gone through a rather tortuous process in recognizing the class attributes of intellectuals.
In March 1949, Mao Zedong analyzed the position and role of intellectuals in his report to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party, arguing that "the people's democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat and based on the alliance of the workers and peasants requires that the Party earnestly unite with the entire working class, the entire peasantry, and the vast number of revolutionary intellectuals, who are the leading and fundamental forces of this dictatorship. These are the leading and fundamental forces of this dictatorship. Without this unity, this dictatorship cannot be consolidated." During the same period, Liu Shaoqi was even more explicit, arguing that cultural and educational workers such as teachers, journalists and actors "are all wage laborers" and should be included in the working class; engineers, technicians and other employees are "wage laborers" engaged in "mental labor". "In January 1956, Zhou Enlai, on behalf of the Central Committee of the People's Republic of China, put forward the idea that "the vast majority of intellectuals are already serving socialism and are already part of the working class" at a conference on intellectuals. In January 1956, Zhou Enlai, on behalf of the Central Committee, made the assertion that "the vast majority of intellectuals have already served socialism and are already part of the working class.
But as China's political and ideological sphere gradually entered the orbit of "class struggle as a program," the "left" error on the question of the class attributes of intellectuals continued to develop. In particular, the National Education Work Conference in 1971 put forward the "two basic estimates": the education front was a "black line dictatorship", and the majority of intellectuals were "bourgeois intellectuals". and the majority of intellectuals were "bourgeois intellectuals", which extended to the whole class of intellectuals. During this period, the policy of educating and reforming the intellectuals was carried out on a national scale, and the intellectuals were not treated as part of the working class.
It was not until 1978, when Deng Xiaoping emphasized in his speech at the opening ceremony of the National Science Congress that the intellectuals in China, "the vast majority of whom are already the intellectuals of the working class and of the working people themselves, can therefore be said to be a part of the working class," that the intellectuals were really theoretically included in the working class It is only then that intellectuals are really theoretically included in the working class and the connotation of the working class is further enlarged.
The third extension: the rise of the migrant laborer class Migrant laborers refer to the group of employed people who have not yet been able to change their status of peasant household registration and who are engaged in the production and operation of non-agricultural industries all year round or most of the time. After the reform and opening up, with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization in China, a large number of migrant workers began to emerge. At the 14th National Congress of the Chinese Trade Union held in 2003, it was first proposed that "a large number of urban migrant workers have become new members of the working class". Migrant workers can be broadly divided into two categories: those who have left their hometowns to work in urban factories, mines, institutions, businesses, and service industries; and those who have not left their hometowns to work in township enterprises in their own townships and villages, or in factories, stores, and institutions in nearby towns. In terms of labor relations, both kinds of migrant workers should belong to the working class.
It can be said that migrant workers have become the "main force" of China's industrial workers. According to recently released data, the total number of migrant workers in China is about 230 million. Among them, 120 million are migrant workers. Among them, in the secondary industry, rural migrant workers account for 58% of all employees, including 68% in the processing manufacturing industry and nearly 80% in the construction industry; in the tertiary industry, rural migrant workers account for more than 52% of the wholesale, retail and catering industry. Together, there are already as many as 83 million rural migrant workers in the secondary and tertiary industries.
Contemporary rural migrant workers are very different from workers from peasants in the past: firstly, it has a considerable scale, which is not only a large number of additions to the ranks of the working class, but also a powerful impact on the existing industrial workers; secondly, unlike the process of peasants' entry into the workers' ranks after the founding of New China, this time it is basically spontaneous, and its main flow is to the joint-venture, foreign-funded, and private enterprises, which have become the Once again, migrant workers do not enjoy the political, economic and social welfare benefits of workers in state-owned enterprises in cities and towns, and are at the bottom of the social ladder in the cities.
The generalization and differentiation in the past 30 years has been based on the monolithic class division criterion of whether or not one owns the means of production, which theoretically provides the basis for the generalization of the connotation of the working class. In the later years of the classic Marxist writers, there has been a trend of increasing complexity of the social structure, the division of labor is expanding, the collaboration is strengthening, so "the concept of production workers will inevitably be expanded", and put forward the concept of "total workers". Accordingly, the working class includes not only manual laborers, but also mental laborers; not only factory workers, but also people engaged in "collaborative nature" of "*** with labor" in other fields outside the factory; not only ordinary workers, but also scientific and technological personnel and managers. It includes not only ordinary workers, but also scientific and technological personnel and managers. In short, all workers engaged in or participating in socialized mass production belong to the working class.
Therefore, it is not difficult to interpret the generalization of the working class theoretically. For example, Mahler's theory of the "new working class" argues that in advanced industrial societies, with increasing automation, there will be fewer and fewer production workers and more and more non-production workers, i.e., skilled workers and researchers and managers. In addition to the direct production of tangible goods, the working class will also produce intangible "conditions of production", i.e., provide technology, management and services for production. In this way, the working class includes not only the traditional blue-collar workers, but also those who produce the "conditions of production" of researchers and organizers, called the "new working class".
This generalized understanding of the working class also applies to the many new social structures that have emerged in the 30 years of reform and opening up. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, China's society has stepped into a period of historic transformation towards the establishment of a socialist market economic system. With the advancement of the strategic adjustment of China's economic structure and the acceleration of the process of industrialization and urbanization, China's working class, including the majority of intellectuals, has been growing, and a large number of employees of township and village enterprises, rural migrant workers moving into the cities, employees of non-publicly owned enterprises, and employees of newly emerging industries have been joining the ranks of the working class in an unceasing stream.
According to the 2008 National Statistical Yearbook, in 2007, 293.5 million people were employed in cities and towns, of whom 64.24 million were in state-owned units and 7.18 million were in urban collective units, accounting for less than a quarter of the total number of employed people in cities and towns, while the remaining more than three quarters of the employment was in joint-stock cooperatives, joint-venture units, limited liability companies, joint-stock limited companies, private enterprises, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan investment units, and private enterprises. The remaining more than 3/4 of the employment is distributed in joint-stock cooperative units, joint venture units, limited liability companies, joint-stock limited companies, private enterprises, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan investment units, and foreign-invested units. At the same time, the number of people employed in township and village enterprises and rural private enterprises reached 150.9 million and 26.72 million respectively. The vast majority of these employed persons fall within the scope of the generalized working class.
Meanwhile, the generalization of the connotation of the working class cannot hide the stratification within the working class and is truly reflected in every corner of the transitional society. Some scholars have adopted the most classic Western theory of social stratification, using wealth, power and prestige as comprehensive criteria, to further subdivide the generalized working class into four levels: managers as the upper stratum, consisting of party and government cadres, top-level business executives, and high-level professionals; professionals and technicians as the upper-middle stratum, consisting of those with high and new technologies, and workers in state monopoly industries; and industrial workers as the middle stratum, consisting of state-owned enterprises, collective enterprises and other ownership enterprises; some special workers for the lower layer, composed of unemployed laid-off workers, unemployed workers and urban migrant workers.
The current generalization and differentiation of the working class also creates a gap in consciousness between traditional ideas and people's direct feelings in social life. For the reform and opening up of the emerging classes and groups, including professional and technical personnel, business managers, institutions, etc., it is obviously difficult to make them to the traditional image of industrial workers to produce ****, and even more difficult for them to recognize and migrant workers group belongs to the same social components. Therefore, the division of the working class is not only reflected in the occupational structure and economic status, but also in the division of consciousness, and it is difficult to form a sense of identity with each other, making the current working class an "uncertain" class. Therefore, it is necessary to study how to integrate the values of the working class and rebuild its "****same consciousness".
Concern for the Difficult Groups in the Working ClassThe evolution of the working class in China over the past 60 years has been accompanied by constant adjustments and changes in the pattern of value distribution in society, and pains are inevitable, so it is necessary to pay special attention to some of the difficult groups in the working class.
Concerns 1: Protection of the rights and interests of rural migrant workers and social security issues in other countries in the process of urbanization, there is a large number of farmers into the city of a particular stage of development. But China's large group of "migrant workers" is unique in the world. In fact, when the Chinese working class was first formed, most of its members came from bankrupt peasants. It was only after the 1960s that the relationship between workers and peasants was artificially severed by the establishment of China's unique urban-rural dual household registration system. In the planned economy, the transformation of peasants into workers was mainly realized through administrative means and "recruitment". This was a relatively thorough approach, and the phenomenon of the so-called "migrant workers" did not occur.
In the period of social transformation after the reform and opening up, a large number of rural migrant workers who went to the city entered the industrial workforce and became an important part of the industrial working class. At this time, the transformation of peasants into the working class was mainly realized through market means and methods, but at the same time, they were engraved with a deep imprint of institutional arrangements. Their household registration status is still that of peasants, and they are struggling in the existing household registration management system, becoming a marginalized group in urban life and leading a migratory bird-like life.
Because of their status, migrant workers often cannot enjoy the social security of normal urban workers. Migrant workers are mainly concentrated in low-skilled, labor-intensive "hard, dirty, tired, dangerous" industries, their working conditions, low income level, poor living environment, not included in the urban social security system, can not share the fruits of economic and social development on an equal footing with urban workers.
According to statistics, of the 140 million rural migrant workers currently employed in cities, only 70 million have labor relations with employers. By the end of 2008, only more than 24 million rural migrant workers nationwide had participated in basic pension insurance for urban enterprise employees, more than 42 million in basic urban medical insurance, more than 49 million in work-related injury insurance, and more than 15 million in unemployment insurance. At the same time, they also pay a huge price in terms of housing, living and schooling for their children. In addition, they are often regarded as a dissident force in urban society and an important factor in the deterioration of law and order. How to further break down the institutional barriers to migrant labor in the cities and integrate migrant workers into the normal working class is a difficult problem that cannot be avoided and must be solved.
Concerns two: the state-owned enterprises laid-off workers living problems of this part of the workers are mainly engaged in the secondary industry, manual, semi-manual industrial workers, they are the product of China's economic and social development since modern times, especially the socialization of mass production, as the main body of the traditional working class in our country, once known as the "big brother". They used to have a privileged political status and created huge material wealth for the country, accumulating trillions of dollars of state assets.
Because of the demographic problems inherited from the past, there was a surplus of labor in China, making it possible for hidden unemployment to exist even before the reform. However, before the reform, the state adopted the guaranteed employment measures of "low wages, high employment" and "three for five" to transform the visible surplus labor force into a hidden surplus labor force. In the early 1990s, with the reform of the three systems in state-owned enterprises, the labor relations between workers in state-owned and collective enterprises within the planned system and the enterprises gradually broke away from the constraints of the planned economy and transformed into market-oriented labor relations, making this hidden unemployment gradually become visible. At that time, it was not called "layoff", but called "leave without pay" in some places, "stay in the factory" in others, and "take a long vacation", "two or three years" in others. "In the middle and late 1990s, the problem of laid-off workers began to come to the fore as a socio-economic phenomenon, and attracted widespread attention from all aspects of society. The fact that the problem of laid-off workers concentrated in this period is a comprehensive reflection of the deep-rooted contradictions accumulated over the years of China's economic development. Fundamentally, this is the problem of moving forward, the reform of state-owned enterprises will be conducive to economic development and overall social progress.
Meanwhile, in the process of re-adjustment of interests in the reform, a large number of laid-off, unemployed, for the benefit of the enterprise early retirement of workers become the most seriously damaged group of difficulties. Some of the workers in the restructuring of successful and monopolized enterprises to get benefits, but some of the eliminated sunset industry workers, laid off and unemployment benefits or retirement pay level is very low, this part of the workers themselves are also lower level of science and technology and culture, and older, their re-employment and increase their income capacity is very limited. With low levels of income and a lack of the necessary social security for their basic lives, these workers are in a clearly disadvantaged position in economic and social life, and their plight has gradually become entrenched, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty has begun to take shape. This part of the workers' employment interests and labor remuneration interests are not guaranteed, and the country's "debt" to the workers related to the need to bear the historical responsibility of the attitude of attention to their living difficulties.