At a macro level the Chinese and Vietnamese industrial economies are developingin quite similar ways ，with dramatic changes in their labour markets，employmentsystems and labour regimes.But it will be argued in this paper that they are alsobeginning to diverge along separate routes with regard to labour issues.It willbe seen that the Vietnamese government has been more willing to grant trade unionssome space to defend workers‘interests ，whereas the Chinese government has chosento keep the unions under a tight rein. Trade Unions Under Pre-Reform Socialism China‘s workers are ？represented ìby the All-China Federation of Trade Unions（ACFTU ），and Vietnamese workers by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour（VGCL）。Known as ？transmission beltsì，these bodies served for several decadesbefore the economic reforms as state bureaucracies assigned the contradictory functionof representing the interests of both the workers and the Party-state.But in asystem where all sectoral interests have been subordinate to the interests of theParty-state ，in reality the ？belts ìcould only transmit top-down informationand directives.Although they grandly claimed to protect the rights of workers，they were prevented from having a chance to act out this bottom-up function. When the collective ethos was dominant in Vietnam and China ，法语毕业论文，the trade unions‘role as transmission belts was not much called into question or challenged by theworkers.[1]After all ，socialist enterprises belonged to the state，were paternalisticproviders ，and functioned as residential communities.The trade unions‘primarytask was to act on behalf of the enterprise in distributing goods to workers，organizingsocial activities for the community ，allocating workers‘housing，and lookingafter other material needs.Their other major task was to mobilize workers to fulfiland over-fulfil production quotas set by the command economy，by periodically whippingup frenzied production campaigns.In Vietnam，the unions had the additional taskof supporting the war effort. Yet another function assigned to the trade union cadres was to serve as ombudsmenand counsellors for employees‘work-related and personal family problems.They providedthe human touch for bureaucratic institutions.Trade union cadres helped to arrangehospital visits and funerals，facilitated potential marriages，mediated marriagebreakdowns，distributed relief funds ，and so on.In Vietnam，during the warthe trade unions also helped to evacuate the young and old from the war zonesand to arrange family visits to the rear.During a time of protracted war，andin a society where people ordinarily live on the margin ，this human face of theparty-state as represented by the unions was appreciated by the workers more thanmost critics of Communist trade unions recognize.Parallels can be found in today‘spost-communist Russia.With Russian workers‘livelihoods threatened ，the formerofficial trade union has successfully withstood competition from newly formed unions.Among other reasons ，the former official unions have the experience and organizationalcapacity to help provide a？safety netì：？In conditions of acute economic crisis，these functions of the traditional unions were valued more and more highlyì。 All in all，while the functions of the Chinese and Vietnamese trade unionswere very similar in the pre-reform period，there were also differences.Beforethe reform period the ACFTU was weaker than its Vietnamese counterpart vis-à-vistheir respective party-states.In China ，two attempts by the ACFTU to wrest greaterfreedom from Party domination failed in 1956-57and in 1966，法语论文，inviting harsh retaliationfrom the Party：beginning in the early 1970s the Chinese Communist Party went sofar as to disband the ACFTU.In the early 1980s the Party revived the ACFTU butgranted it only limited leeway.At every level of the bureaucratic hierarchy，thetrade unions were placed under the grip of the corresponding Party hierarchy. The situation in Vietnam was quite different，in part because the unions atone time came under two governmental systems.In the north，in spite of the strictdiscipline demanded of north Vietnamese society during the war，Vietnam‘s CommunistParty was not able to impose an authoritarian bureaucratic structure to the samedegree as in China.As Gabriel Kolko has written，？All wars more or less transcendthe control of those leading them ……The logic of mass movement inevitably conflictswith all elitist，self-perpetuating partiesì。Because of the war，the unionhad stronger ties with its constituency.In Vietnamese workplaces solidarity againsta real common national enemy dwarfed management-worker differences.In contrast ，China under Mao‘s rule was short of real enemies，and the authorities had to create ？class enemies ìand to launch periodical？struggle campaignsì。The Chinese workplacewas infused with mistrust and animosity which exploded into internecine violencein the mid-1960s during the Cultural Revolution ，and degenerated into cynicismand lethargy in the 1970s. |
