Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A1138-W768

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1138-W768

Release Date: September 8, 2018

发布日：2018年9月8日

Topic: Workers' Rights and Social Stability -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：工人权利和社会稳定 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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Workers' Rights and Social Stability

-- Wei Jingsheng

The workers in Shenzhen went on strike, and the solidarity and support throughout the country continued, with both the left and right sides arriving the scene to express their support regardless of their indifference. This shows that people of insight from all walks of life in China have had an essential leap in understanding workers' rights. This is an important symbol of the continuing awakening of Chinese society.

In the last century, an important aspect of the ideology of Chinese society was that the attitude toward the workers' movement and various rights-defending activities was basically maintained at the level of the Soviet Communist Party and Western capitalists. Although there are various differences between the Communist Party and the capitalists, the attitude toward the workers' movement is the same. This attitude regards the workers' movement as a breach of social stability.

Some people say that it is wrong, the socialist movement started from the workers' movement. That is true, but due to different understandings in Western Europe and Russia, they lead to different results.

European socialism believes that workers have the right to form groups to fight for their own interests. Viewing from a human rights stand, this is a way for weak groups to effectively conduct collective bargaining related to the class of power and money. Viewing from society, this is a means to balance social distribution and a supplement for what a market economy lacks. So it is called socialism. This translation name (into Chinese) is quite accurate.

The Soviet Bolsheviks only regarded the workers' movement as a tool to undermine social stability. Of course, this was foremost the thoughts of Marx and Engels. Because the Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union successfully seized the political power in Russia, so the Bolsheviks of the world regarded it as the socialist Bible and the standard to follow. Because the Chinese Communist Party succeeded in seizing political power, the Chinese also believe the workers' movement is a destructive force. This force was used when the Communist Party was the underdog, but severely suppressed when it seized the political power in China.

I do not know if everyone has noticed that after World War II, developed countries were all open to the workers' movement. As the trade unions were booming, the society and its economy also were developing rapidly, while the society remained relatively stable. Not so in the so-called socialist countries; their economies are backward and social unrest continues. Why so?

In addition to continuously developing the market economy for hundreds of years, the most important yet neglected reason for Western democracy is the implementation of the socialist systems. The result is that it not only guarantees the rapid economic development of a market economy, but also restricts the shortcomings of uneven distribution caused by the market economy. This restriction is the other side of the success of developed countries. If there is only one side of the market economy, the result is that the gap between the rich and the poor would widen, and the society becomes more and more unstable, even to causing a world war. This is the lesson of early capitalism.

Once there was an important senior US lawmaker who said to me: Don't go to Europe, there is socialism, there are the Communist Parties. I said that I feel that there is more socialism in the United States than the Communist Party. The United States is more like Europe, but not like the Communist regime in China. He said yes, because both Europe and the USA have democracy. I said that you also have a huge middle class. He said yes, because we have unions, the boss must share profits with the workers.

I said, in addition to sharing profits, it has created a huge middle class and created a huge consumer market. This is the basic driving force for your economic development. He said; this is the place where modern countries are different from capitalism. It is wrong to say that we are capitalist countries. Our governments are not for making money for capitalists, but serve the whole society.

I think that the recent public opinion that criticizes the United States and the West as declining, is mostly about the widening gap between the rich and the poor while the middle class is shrinking; yet the voice of large multinational groups is increasing, which is eroding democracy. Thus it can be seen that the wealth of a few people is not a blessing to the country. The egalitarianism of Mao Zedong and Stalin is not a blessing to the country either. As Confucius said, going too far is as bad as not going far enough.

For many years now, the Chinese Communist regime has used a low standard for human rights as an advantage to rapidly develop the economy. However, many people did not see that this also eroded the US market and exported a low human rights standard to the United States. No workers movement in China is an important reason. This is the root cause of the inevitable trade war between the USA and China.

Without China developing its own market, its economic development is impossible to sustain. Without workers' rights in China, it is impossible to create a large middle class nor a modern market economy in China. Can a country with only slaves and rich people be called a modern state?

Original link of the RFA commentary:

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-09112018160558.html

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2018/WeiJS180904onWorkersRights.mp3

(Written and recorded on September 4, 2018. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia.)

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A1138-W768

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1138-W768

Release Date: September 8, 2018

发布日：2018年9月8日

Topic: Workers' Rights and Social Stability -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：工人权利和社会稳定 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问：

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2018/report2018-09/WeiJS180908onWorkersRightsA1138-W768.htm

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工人权利和社会稳定

-- 魏京生

深圳工人罢工，全国各地声援不断，左右派不分地顶着镇压到现场声援。这说明国内各界有识之士对工人权利的认识，有了本质的飞跃。这是中国社会不断觉醒的一个重要的标志。

上个世纪，中国社会的意识形态中的一个重要的方面，就是对工人运动和各种维权活动的态度，基本维持在苏俄共产党和西方资本家的态度上。虽然共产党和资本家有各种不同之处，但在对待工人运动的态度上，却是一样的。这就是把工人运动看作是对社会稳定的破坏。

有人说不对呀，社会主义运动就是从工人运动开始的呀。不错，但是在西欧和俄国的理解不同，导致了不同的结果。

欧洲社会主义认为，工人有权利结成团体来争取自己的利益。从人权出发，这是弱势群体相对于强势的权钱阶级，有效进行集体谈判的途径。从社会出发，这是平衡社会分配，补充市场经济不足的手段。所以被叫做社会主义。这个翻译名称相当准确。

苏俄的布尔什维克主义，则仅仅把工人运动当作了破坏社会稳定的工具。当然，这首先是马克思和恩格斯的思想。由于苏联成功夺取了政权，被全球的布尔什维克当作了社会主义的圣经，奉为圭臬。中国人则由于共产党成功夺取了政权，也认为工人运动就是一股破坏力量。在台下时加以利用，在台上时严厉打击。

不知道大家注意到没有，二次大战以后发达国家都在开放工人运动。其工会组织蓬勃发展的同时，社会经济也在快速发展，而且社会相对稳定。不像所谓的社会主义国家，经济落后，社会动荡不停。这是为什么呢？

西方民主除了继续发展了几百年的市场经济之外，最重要而被忽略的原因，就是推行了社会主义制度。结果是既保障了快速发展经济的市场制度，又制约了它造成分配不平均的缺点。这是发达国家成功的另一面。若只有市场经济的一面，结果就是贫富差距拉大，社会越来越不稳定，造成世界大战。这是早期资本主义的教训。

有一次一位重量级的美国议员对我说：不要老去欧洲，那里都是社会主义，是共产党。我说我觉得美国的社会主义比共产党多，美国更像欧洲，都不像共产党。他说是的，因为我们都有民主。我说你们还有庞大的中产阶级。他说没错，因为我们有工会，老板必须和工人分享利润。

我说：除了分享利润，造成了庞大的中产阶级，也创造了庞大的消费市场，这是你们经济发展的基本动力。他说：这就是现代国家不同于资本主义的地方，说我们是资本主义国家那是错误的，我们的政府不是为资本家赚钱的，是为全社会服务的。

我想，近些年来批评美国和西方正在衰落的舆论，最多的不正是批评贫富差距在拉大，中产阶级在缩小，大的跨国集团话语权增加，民主被侵蚀吗。可见，少数人富裕不是国家之福，毛泽东、斯大林的平均主义也不是国家之福。正如孔夫子所说：过犹不及。

很多年来，中共用低人权优势快速发展了经济。但很多人却没看到，这同时也侵蚀了美国的市场，向美国输出了低人权优势，其中没有工会运动是重要的原因。这是必然发生贸易战的根本原因。

中国不发展自己的市场，经济发展就不可能持续。中国没有工人权利，就不可能产生庞大的中产阶级，也就没有现代化的市场经济。只有奴隶和富翁的国家，能叫做现代化国家吗？

魏京生在自由亚洲电台评论的原始链接：

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-09112018160558.html