Part of the working class? The cost of depoliticization for union legitimacy among migrant workers in China

Why, just as the Chinese state was becoming increasingly preoccupied with class conflict in 2003, did the state-run All China Federation of Trade Unions proclaim that migrant workers were now part of the working class? Why do migrant workers fail to recognize the legitimacy of this claim? And what are the consequences of this for class formation and politics more broadly? I argue that the state and union’s attempts at depoliticization of labor conflict has primarily focused on individualization; and yet, it has become increasingly clear that this strategy has failed to reduce the volume of unrest. As a result, the ACFTU has continued to invoke the language of class in what has so far been a process of failed incorporation and cooptation. The ACFTU’s inability to win recognition from migrant workers indicates the weakness of the organization’s symbolic power. Through an analysis of current activities of ACFTU-subordinate unions, I provide empirical evidence which demonstrates that the state recognizes the legitimacy of such unions even if migrant workers do not. By precluding “traditional” modes of class formation that emerge through the process of representation, Chinese state policy is producing a mode of labor politics markedly distinct from that of other countries undergoing capitalist industrialization.