Pragmatic Solidarity: An analysis on the case of new workers' collective action in Pearl River Delta

本研究重新审视了对新工人团结文化的两种判断:“守法抗争”抑或“阶级团结”。基于笔者在珠三角的田野调查,本研究提出,在新工人各种类型的集体行动中,盛行着“实用主义”的团结文化。工人能够灵活地运用并界定官方提供的各种意识形态,尤其是充分地利用国家法律所赋予的空间,但又不被法律话语和司法途径所束缚。工人日常生活的资源为工人形成更广泛的团结提供了可能。对工人行动“守法主义”、“蜂窝式”的判断显得过于谨慎。但新工人维权行动的升级并不一定意味着“阶级团结”的出现。基于工人自身的利益、关系、议价能力、维权风险、生活压力,工人审慎地选择自己的行动策略。工人的集体行动本身作为市场博弈的一种手段,体现了市场逻辑并确认了其合法性。其经济诉求的提出也是基于各种市场因素的综合考虑,而制度诉求的广泛出现也体现着一种将市场议价机制常规化的愿景。“实用主义”的团结文化有其生活的基础和系统性根源。

This research reexamines two kinds of views on the new worker's solidarity culture, namely, legalism protest and class solidarity. Based on field work in Pearl River Delta, the author finds that there is a kind of pragmatic solidarity culture in various types of collective protests. Workers are able to protest by flexibly using the state's ideologies, especially in the legal space given and endowed by the law of the state, and at the same time they are not fettered by legal discourses and the judicial system. The resources from daily life provide more possibilities for the workers' solidarity. Both "strike legalism" and "cellular protest" seem overcautious, however, the escalated politics of new workers' protest does not necessarily mean workers' "class solidarity". Workers choose the proper protest strategies very carefully according to their interests, relationship, bargaining capacity, protest risk and life pressure. Workers protest, which reflects the market logic and confirms its legacy, is a kind of means in the market game. The workers' demands are not only based on various economic considerations, but also based on the vision for a more normalized and institutionalized bargaining system. In conclusion, the culture of pragmatic solidarity has its own life foundation and institutional roots.

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