ILPC 2026

This article contends that the predominant sociological frameworks for analysing collective labour actions, such as the typologies of reactive versus proactive actions and defensive versus offensive actions (Franzosi, 1995; Stearns, 1974; Tilly, 1975), are inadequate for understanding labour activism because they do not consider the key domains in which capitalism operates. Drawing upon the insights from labour process theories, this article proposes adding a conceptual distinction between production politics and global politics to the prevalent sociological approach (Burawoy, 1979; Edwards, 1986; Webster, 1985). Capitalist production and reproduction are distinct from each other; thus, struggles associated with production politics and struggles associated with global politics should not be confused at the analytical level. This synthesised framework allows us to conceptualise workers’ concerted actions as pertinent to either the sphere of production (i.e., related to production politics) or the sphere of reproduction (i.e., related to global politics). Within this broader division, labour collective actions can further be categorised as defensive/reactive or offensive/proactive.

Furthermore, taking pension-driven protests in China as an illustration, this paper demonstrates how this synergised analytical framework contributes to a deeper understanding of labour protests. Instead of seeing Chinese worker activism as experiencing a U-turn from defensive actions staged before the mid- and late 2000s (such as demanding legal minimum wages) to offensive actions carried out after the late 2000s (such as calling for fair wages beyond the legal standards) and then back to defensive protests staged in recent years (requesting the legal fulfilment of their pension rights), through this new framework, we can see that worker protests in China have moved from defensive to offensive actions associated with production politics and then shifted to defensive actions associated with global politics (demanding the fulfilment of pension rights).

This article elaborates on two pension-driven protests in Pearl River Delta, China that were widely reported in the media. They reflect the situations in two geographical areas (Shenzhen and Guangzhou) in two important industries in the PRD (the electronics and bicycle industries). They have different sources of investment (Japanese and Taiwanese) and different sizes of workforce (around 100 and 6600 workers). Data were collected from April 2014 to December 2015. In total, 30 migrant workers and 5 labour NGO staff were interviewed for the two cases. In addition, for the first case study, participant observation was conducted at workers’ meetings, protests and gatherings. The two case studies were also backed by archival research analysis of news reports, leaflets and letters produced by the workers, correspondence between the workers and their employers and online materials.