Reviewed by Stephen Jolly, Socialist Party
The new book, “China, Sweatshop of the World – The Coming Revolt”, is a vital resource for all socialists and trade unionists.

It is co-authored by Vincent Kolo and Chen Lizhi who are lead writers for the ‘China Worker’ website (chinaworker.info), a site run by supporters of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The Socialist Party is the Australian affiliate of the CWI. The book covers economic, political and social events in China.

The book (like the website) is jam-packed full of facts and figures that every activist should know about a country that is central to the future of Australia and the world.

The first chapter concentrates on the 260 million strong Chinese working class. It has been the cheap labour of the Chinese working class that has been a key driver in the international economic boom that has just ended.

Apart from the usual examples of horrendous conditions these workers face, Kolo and Lizhi clearly explain the apartheid-style ‘hukou’ system that restricts the flow and the rights of migrant workers to the benefit of business. The importance of this system to big business in China is possibly not appreciated or understood by many workers outside the country.

The chapters ‘China at a Crossroads’, ‘The Rural Time bomb’ and ‘5th generation leaders unveiled’ offer a Marxist perspective on the political challenges facing both the ‘Communist Party’ leadership and the embryonic independent working class movement in China.

There are also single issue chapters on the Beijing Olympics, the Tibet and Xinjiang national questions and on Hong Kong.

The final chapter concentrates on the impacts of a slowdown in China on the world economy and the possibilities of a future explosion in internal working class struggle. The books’ central point is the importance of building a socialist voice inside China to pull together and organise the coming revolt.

China, Sweatshop of the World – The Coming Revolt
By Vincent Kolo and Chen Lizhi, 2008
Published by chinaworker.org, Hong Kong
$16 available from the Socialist Party National Office