A Chinese factory employee set fire to a textile plant in China’s southwestern Sichuan province in his frustration over unpaid wages of just 800 yuan (or US$111), according to videos posted on social media and eyewitness accounts shared with Radio Free Asia.

    • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      19 days ago

      We (the west) often look at the chinese with some amount of arrogance about them being “peasants”.
      Truth is, Winnie Pooh has to take some care, because they will fuck things up if their situation gets worse instead of better.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        19 days ago

        I mean, people who think the Chinese people are just ‘peasants’ tend to be pretty goddamn ignorant.

        Systems are difficult to oppose in every society. We’re all just trying to get by.

        • Omega@discuss.online
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          19 days ago

          ignorant is too light, I say racism, say whatever you want about china, if you see Chinese people as peasants you’re a racist POS

          • PugJesus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            19 days ago

            The vast majority of people saying Chinese people are ‘peasants’ are racist, but if someone told me that they met someone in Fuckknowswhereville, USA, who genuinely thought that mainland China was still struggling under a feudal regime, living hand-to-mouth with villages of illiterates who lacked the educational tools to organize against their overlords, and was genuinely overjoyed to hear the contrary, that the Qing Dynasty had fallen and that China entered the modern world, rather than disbelieving or dismissive… well, I’ve heard too many innocently stupid opinions from my fellow Americans about international issues to reject that out of hand.

            Admittedly, being from Fuckknowswhereville, USA, also greatly increases the chance of them being horrifically racist pieces of shit.

        • neons@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          19 days ago

          But that was absolutely the same for peasants? Which then would make it accurate again to call them oppressed peasants?

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    19 days ago

    “just 800 yuan (or US$111)”

    “just”

    Fuck man, I’d go ballistic over $111 of unpaid wages, and that’s probably a bigger chunk of that employee’s monthly wages than mine.

    • False@lemmy.world
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      19 days ago

      My first reaction was “That’s not very much - guess they should have paid him!”

      • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        19 days ago

        I doubt they actually owe ¥800 in total, because they could have just pay 99 other workers ¥8 less and can still pay this person ¥792, this way, the factory owner only owes ¥8 to 100 different individuals rather than oweing ¥800 to one individual. I doubt someone is gonna do arson for ¥8 delayed payment.

        So I assume they probably owe other employees as well. Just to illustrate:

        If they owe ¥800 to 100 employees, each.

        That’s ¥80 000 Yuan/RMB ≈ $11 140 USD

        A lot of debt.

    • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      19 days ago

      Most payments in China are monthy, not weekly/bi-weekly as with in the west.

      You’d be mad too if you find out you’re not gonna be paid for work done for the past month*.

      Edit: *Or if its only partial payment

      • neons@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        19 days ago

        Most payments in China are monthy, not weekly/bi-weekly as with in the west.

        Where in “the west” do you live? My paychecks (Switzerland) are definitely monthly.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          18 days ago

          I only ever heard of North Americans getting paid weekly/bi-weekly as standard.

          • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            16 days ago

            A bunch of Europeans in this comment section forgetting there are more “western” countries than just western Europe and the USA/north America.

            Fortnightly is the most common in Australia, with some people paid monthly also (depends on the company).

            And thankful for this. Monthly sounds terrible

            • Obi@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              16 days ago

              Notice how I specifically talked about places I heard of, never claimed I knew of every country. And I don’t really care one way or another myself tbh, I guess monthly mostly serves to reduce paperwork. More frequent sounds like it might better as the employee.

  • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    19 days ago

    If the CCP’s all about championing the humble worker then surely they’ll approve of this guy’s actions, right?

    • Omega@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      18 days ago

      CCP shuts down alternative unions and prevents any left wing demonstrations, it’s ironic, you don’t have to fall into a party line when you’re not a party member yet they’re being hunted down as if they just broke the rules of centralised democracy democratic centralism

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        19 days ago

        centralised democracy

        I think you mean democratic centralism.

        “Centralised democracy” I think would make sense when contrasting parliamentarian vs. direct democracy. None of the ML parties ever implemented democratic centralism but bureaucratic centralism (ie. party leaders decide, base follows). It was never intended to be an organisation principle for a whole country, just a party, OTOH it’s a neat way to dress up autocracy as democracy so of course it’s been done plenty of times.

        Lenin described the SPD as democratically centralist and well, yes, maybe back then. The structures are still in place but the whole party is paralysed when it comes to making decisions so in the end the Seeheimer rule, i.e. the neoliberal wing. It’s a rather perverse situation: An actually still lefty base, or at least union people, following a neoliberal vanguard with red paintjob.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      19 days ago

      Surely they’d prefer workers to go through official channels so the owner of the factory can be prosecuted, not act alone and go on adventurist rampages. They’re not anarchists lol

      • rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        19 days ago

        From the article:

        Police, however, said the claim that “800 yuan in wages were owed” was false, and that the company was in the process of approving payment of 5,370 yuan in wages. It blamed the factory fire on the arsonist’s suicidal thoughts, and said police would deal strictly with those spreading rumors.

        So the “official channels” would just tell him unpaid wages don’t exist

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          19 days ago

          What about the ACFTU? Or one of the labour inspectorates? Going to police is the first step, but it’s hardly the only official channel.

          The education system clearly failed to prepare this worker for what they should do if their boss steals their wages, but there were definitely other options besides going all propaganda of the deed on the factory. I certainly sympathize with them though!

      • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        19 days ago

        Official Channels

        So same as an US-American petitioning trump? 🤣

        so the owner of the factory can be prosecuted, not act alone and go on adventurist rampages

        I guess you oppose burning teslas? Bootlick much?

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          19 days ago

          So same as an US-American petitioning trump? 🤣

          What if I told you that the US and China are different countries and that they have different governments?

          I guess you oppose burning teslas? Bootlick much?

          I oppose adventurism.

          People should be organized and follow democratic centralism, parties and unions and organizations and such. They shouldn’t just go off on whatever adventure pops in their head because they’re mad at some rich guy for being a piece of shit.

          Again, that shit is for anarchists, and in case you haven’t noticed they haven’t been very historically successful.