Workers' rights Archives - Friends of Socialist China

On the eve of May Day, Chinese President Xi Jinping extended festive greetings and best wishes to the country’s working people. He called on workers across the country to work hard, deliver solid results, and play a leading role in driving high-quality economic and social development. Party committees and governments at all levels, he added, should safeguard workers’ lawful rights and interests, address their most pressing concerns, and encourage them to strive unremittingly for the country’s grand goals.

A feature article published by the Xinhua News Agency explored these themes in greater depth.

Noting that Xi Jinping has said that “model workers and exemplary individuals are the moral exemplars of the people and the pillars of the nation,” it added that in the week leading up to May Day, 3,024 individuals and organisations were honoured for their contributions to major national strategies, projects and priority industries. Recipients ranged from engineers, technicians, teachers and doctors, to delivery workers.

The article added: “Xi has built a reputation for hard work since his early years as a village official in a poor rural area of northwest China more than half a century ago. As the country’s top leader, he has called on the society as a whole to respect model workers and promote the spirit they embody and has backed the commitment with a range of policy and institutional measures.

“He has called for building a large, highly skilled industrial workforce with strong ideals, technical expertise, a capacity for innovation, and a sense of responsibility and dedication, while also emphasising workers’ welfare and protections.

“In recent years, China has continued to expand legal protections and social security coverage for workers, with growing attention to those in new forms of employment such as food delivery couriers and ride-hailing drivers, as well as older workers beyond the standard retirement age…

“Beyond policy measures, Xi has also conducted on-site inspections to ensure their needs are being met. In 2023, he went to a migrant worker housing complex in Shanghai, entering homes, inspecting shared facilities such as communal kitchens and laundries, and speaking with residents about their daily lives.

The following is the text of the speech delivered by Alex Gordon to the opening session of our conference held on September 28 to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, “a moment of pride and achievement for the people of China, but also a moment of hope and inspiration for peoples around the world.”

Alex refers to President Xi Jinping’s May Day message this year to the Chinese working class as well as his letter to Serbian steel workers and contrasts this to the looming job cuts at the at the Port Talbot steel plant in South Wales.

He goes on to compare the fiasco of Britain’s HS2 high-speed rail project with the relevant experience in China:

“In the decade it took to turn HS2 from a rail infrastructure project into luxury homes opportunities for billionaires, China developed a 40,000 km publicly owned, high-speed rail network, the largest in world history.”

He also outlines the work of the Chinese trade union movement, noting that Xi Jinping had emphasised that the unions should earnestly safeguard the rights of workers and strive to solve practical problems concerning their vital interests, in particular for workers in new forms of employment.

Alex Gordon is the President of the rail workers and seafarers’ trade union RMT, the Chair of the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School and a member of the Political and Executive Committees of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB).

Chair, Minister, Your Excellencies, Comrades and Friends,

On behalf of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), please allow me first to pay tribute to the great work and militant life of our late comrade Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI[M]). CPB General Secretary, Robert Griffiths has paid tribute to Comrade Sitaram in a eulogy published in the Morning Star. Comrade Sitaram was a friend of China, but also a friend of the CPB and did so much to strengthen and deepen the links between our two parties. We mourn his loss and send our condolences to all his comrades. Vale comrade.

The 75^th anniversary of the founding of People’s China is a moment of pride and achievement for the people of China, but also a moment of hope and inspiration for peoples around the world.

On behalf of the CPB, I want to recognise also the significance of this achievement for the working class in our country. But my remarks apply to workers more widely across the developed G7 economies and beyond.

In his May Day greeting to China’s working people this year, President Xi Jinping called on them to “actively participate in advancing Chinese modernisation with high-quality development and work tirelessly to promote the building of a strong country and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts.” He asked party committees and government bodies at all levels to “realise, safeguard and develop the legitimate rights and interests of workers.”

President Xi also replied to a letter from Serbian workers at the HBIS Smederevo Steel Plant who he met on a state visit to Serbia in 2016.

Category: Workers’ rights

Alex Gordon: PRC’s 75th anniversary a moment of hope and inspiration for peoples around the world