A Precarious Worker-Student Alliance in Xi’s China

Summary & key words

"How did workers and students defend trade union rights at Jasic Tech- nology based in Shenzhen beginning from summer 2018? When worker leaders faced managerial retaliation and police brutality, a group of young Maoists and Marxists composed primarily of Chinese univer- sity students and recent graduates, formed the Jasic Workers Support Group. As it evolved, the widening crackdown on left-wing student associations, labor rights groups, and social service organizations exem- plified deepening state repression through 2019. The worker-student alliance as illustrated by the case of Jasic, while precarious and short- lived, reignited a century-long Chinese revolutionary legacy. It also offers a rare glimpse of a contemporary transnational labor and student network."