{"id":452,"date":"2011-04-06T09:40:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T08:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/?p=452"},"modified":"2011-04-26T09:42:21","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T08:42:21","slug":"new-website-maps-strikes-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/new-website-maps-strikes-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"New website maps strikes in China"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following article appeared in Solidarity<\/a> on 6 April 2011.<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Manfred Elfstrom, a PhD student at Cornell University in the United States, has produced an extraordinary resource for the trade union movement.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It\u2019s a website called China Strikes<\/a> and is essentially a map of China with red dots representing strikes.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Elfstrom is taking this quite seriously and is producing some interesting results. For example, he\u2019s categorised the strikes not only by region, but also by sector.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Some of this will not be surprising \u2014 for example, he finds 15 strikes at electronics factories, such as the infamous Foxconn.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There are another dozen strikes reported in auto factories.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But click on \u201csex workers\u201d and you\u2019ll read about a surprising protest by prostitutes in Wuhan in August 2010.<\/div>\n
\u201cOnly actions by workers over workplace issues are included,\u201d writes Elfstrom. \u201cThus, land disputes or environmental protest, for example, are excluded.\u201d<\/div>\n
Accuracy is, of course, essential if the site is to be useful to anyone.<\/div>\n
Elfstrom writes that \u201cReports are \u2018verified\u2019 when they a) come from a reliable source, such as an NGO that has produced many accurate reports or a major Chinese or foreign news outlet or b) when I can find more than one report of an incident.\u201d<\/div>\n
The site is much more than just a static map to look at.<\/div>\n
It includes, for example, a sophisticated system of email alerts.<\/div>\n
If you\u2019re a trade union activist in, say, the food sector, you tell it to email you when a strike breaks out in that sector anywhere in China.<\/div>\n
You can do the same by region, by clicking on the map. You\u2019ll get an email alert any time a strike happens within 20 kilometres of where you clicked.<\/div>\n
Elfstrom encourages readers to submit strike news and has an online form to do so \u2014 which once again involves clicking on a map to show where the strike is taking place.<\/div>\n
Readers can submit photos and detailed descriptions of strikes as well.<\/div>\n
Though the site is largely in English, there\u2019s a page in Chinese that invites workers to submit their strike reports directly.<\/div>\n
Some of the reports are in Chinese only.<\/div>\n
So far, the site lists 69 strike reports, three of them from March of this year. The most recent one describes a kindergarten teachers\u2019 strike in Shenzhen.<\/div>\n
This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more strikes taking place in China.<\/div>\n
Nevertheless, it\u2019s an extraordinary use of cutting-edge technology by an individual which could prove very useful for trade unionists who are interested in China \u2014 as we all should be.<\/div>\n

Manfred Elfstrom, a PhD student at Cornell University in the United States, has produced an extraordinary resource for the trade union movement.It\u2019s a website called China Strikes and is essentially a map of China with red dots representing strikes.Elfstrom is taking this quite seriously and is producing some interesting results. For example, he\u2019s categorised the strikes not only by region, but also by sector.Some of this will not be surprising \u2014 for example, he finds 15 strikes at electronics factories, such as the infamous Foxconn.There are another dozen strikes reported in auto factories.But click on \u201csex workers\u201d and you\u2019ll read about a surprising protest by prostitutes in Wuhan in August 2010.\u201cOnly actions by workers over workplace issues are included,\u201d writes Elfstrom. \u201cThus, land disputes or environmental protest, for example, are excluded.\u201dAccuracy is, of course, essential if the site is to be useful to anyone.Elfstrom writes that \u201cReports are \u2018verified\u2019 when they a) come from a reliable source, such as an NGO that has produced many accurate reports or a major Chinese or foreign news outlet or b) when I can find more than one report of an incident.\u201dThe site is much more than just a static map to look at.It includes, for example, a sophisticated system of email alerts.If you\u2019re a trade union activist in, say, the food sector, you tell it to email you when a strike breaks out in that sector anywhere in China.You can do the same by region, by clicking on the map. You\u2019ll get an email alert any time a strike happens within 20 kilometres of where you clicked.Elfstrom encourages readers to submit strike news and has an online form to do so \u2014 which once again involves clicking on a map to show where the strike is taking place.Readers can submit photos and detailed descriptions of strikes as well.Though the site is largely in English, there\u2019s a page in Chinese that invites workers to submit their strike reports directly.Some of the reports are in Chinese only.So far, the site lists 69 strike reports, three of them from March of this year. The most recent one describes a kindergarten teachers\u2019 strike in Shenzhen.This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more strikes taking place in China.Nevertheless, it\u2019s an extraordinary use of cutting-edge technology by an individual which could prove very useful for trade unionists who are interested in China \u2014 as we all should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following article appeared in Solidarity on 6 April 2011. Manfred Elfstrom, a PhD student at Cornell University in the United States, has produced an extraordinary resource for the trade union movement. It\u2019s a website…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solidarity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}