E106: [TEASER] Radical Reads – China in Global Capitalism

Working Class History

Society & Culture, Education, History

5.0 • 813 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is a teaser preview of one of our Radical Reads episodes, made exclusively for our supporters on patreon. You can listen to the full 122-minute episode without ads and support our work at https://www.patreon.com/posts/e106-radical-in-129688227

In this episode, we speak to Eli Friedman and Kevin Lin about their new book, China in Global Capitalism: Building International Solidarity Against Imperial Rivalry. The book (co-written with Rosa Liu and Ashley Smith) does an excellent job of looking at the actions of the Chinese state from the perspective of workers and marginalised groups to produce a picture of a capitalist nation that is not simply 'the same' as other nations, but not all that different either.

The full episode is out longest Radical Read yet, and covers a range of topics from the conditions and struggles of China's working class both inside the workplace and out, to women's and LGBT+ rights. We also talk about China's relationship to its "internal peripheries" of Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as its international relationships in Africa, Israel and, of course, with the US. We also discuss what building international solidarity from below might look like in the current context.

Listen to the full episode here:

E106: Radical Reads - China in Global Capitalism

More information

Buy China in Global Capitalism from an independent bookshop
- You can also buy Eli’s previous book, China on Strike: Narratives of Workers’ Refusal
Check out our excellent collection of books about Chinese history and politics in our online store
Listen to a three-part series about Chinese migrant worker poetry by our sister-podcast, Working Class Literature
Full show notes for this episode, including further reading and listening, as well as sources, are available on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e106-radical-reads-china-in-global-capitalism/

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez Ojeda, Nick Williams and Old Norm.
The episode image is of the G.Tech Technology Factory in Zhuhai, China. Credit: Chris (with additional design by WCH). CC BY-SA 2.0.
Edited by Tyler Hill
Our theme tune is Montaigne’s version of the classic labour movement anthem, ‘Bread and Roses’, performed by Montaigne and Nick Harriott, and mixed by Wave Racer. Download the song here, with all proceeds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians. More from Montaigne: website, Instagram, YouTube

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone. As you might know, we don't get any sort of funding from any wealthy benefactors, academic institutions, governments or political parties.
0:09.0	Our work is funded by you, our listeners and readers, on Patreon.
0:13.3	In return, our supporters on Patreon get access to exclusive content and benefits like ad-free episodes, bonus podcast episodes and two exclusive patron-only
0:22.9	podcast series, fireside chats and radical reads. So here's a little preview of our latest
0:29.1	patron-only episode. You can join us, help support our work and listen to the full episode today
0:34.6	at patreon.com slash working class history. Link in the show notes.
0:43.4	As we come marching marching in the beauty of the day. A million darkened in kitchens, a thousand mill
0:53.2	off screys, are brightened by the beauty,
0:56.6	sun, sun discloses.
0:58.9	And the people here are seeing bread and roses, bread and roses.
1:07.1	In 2006, there was a big campaign that got a lot of international attention because the ACFTU, in a very short period of time, set up union branches in every Walmart store in China.
1:17.2	And this was something American unions have been trying to do for a while and had failed.
1:20.4	So people are very excited about this.
1:22.2	And I actually did some research into one of the consequences of this.
1:25.5	And just one example in a store in Nanchong, which is the
1:30.2	capital of Janshi province, they had these elections. They set up a union and they actually had a
1:35.9	reasonably democratic election. They elected a guy who was very interesting and who really wanted
1:41.5	to push management on just some basic workplace stuff.
1:48.7	He wasn't organizing to overthrow the Communist Party or anything. He had a few successes.
1:54.6	And then very quickly, the higher levels of the union got anxious because they saw that he was kind of stirring up trouble and was making them a little bit nervous. He got fired and pushed
1:59.2	out with the consent of the
2:01.7	higher levels of the union. So I think that that's just one example that demonstrates some of the
	...

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