“Recurrence” and “Reconstitution”: The Rise of “New Workers” and the Transition of China's Social Structure—Marxist Class Theory and the New Changes in the Contemporary Working Class

Abstract

Marxism claims that since the emergence of capitalism, the working class has always been the representative of the advanced productive forces, forces of promoting the development of advanced productivity, and the most progressive, promising class. However, with the adjustment of the world's industrial structure and the development of technologies such as the Internet, the Internet of things, the most developed countries have experienced the social phenomenon of the emergence of a “new middle class,” the new strata changes within the working class, and “white collar” labor outnumbering “blue collar” labor, etc. This has resulted in proclamations of the “extinction” of the working class, the decentralization of the working class, and the middle stratum theory, etc. These claims seem to have posed a question and challenge to Marxist class theory. Meanwhile, the massive emergence of China's “knowledge workers,” “migrant workers” and “private employees” has changed the traditional internal structure of the working class that mainly consisted of “manual workers,” “urban workers,” and “state-owned enterprise (SOE) workers” before. Therefore, how to view the rise of “new workers” in the world and China, and understand the “recurrence” and “reconstruction” of the working class in both China and the world in the new era have become important issues for Marxist class theory to address.

Keywords:

• Marx
• Engels
• class theory
• new workers
• China's social structure

Acknowledgements

This article is translated by Dr. Peng Chengyi at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Notes on Contributor

Sun Yingshuai (following Chinese practice, the surname, Sun, is placed first) is an associate researcher and the director of the International Communist Movement Unit at the Academy of Marxism of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His main area of research is Marxism and party politics. He has published The Inner Democracy of the Communist Party of China and To Establish the Correct Concept of Equality, and dozens of articles in Marxist Studies, and People's Daily, etc.

Notes

¹NBSC (2014b) lacks 1980s statistics, which are cited from Zhong (2012, 6).

²During 2007–2010, scaled industrial enterprises annual income was above 5 million yuan, and the standard changed to 20 million yuan since 2011. Due to the website's lack of 1980s statistics, the statistics are cited from Zhong (2012, 6).