Colours of Money, Shades of Pride: Historicities and Moral Politics in Industrial Conflicts in Hong Kong

8. Opening up, by Way of an Epilogue

Opening up, by Way of an Epilogue In concluding this ethnographic project and in initiating detailed analyse s which lea d beyon d th e scop e o f this monograph , som e observation s an d provisional formulation s ar e i n order , t o indicat e th e natur e o f th e problematique. The Non-Existenc e o f 'Industria l Solidarity ' an d th e Reproduction of Everyday Livelihood Throughout the JWM case what was conspicuous, at least to this student of industria l sociology , wa s th e absenc e o f anythin g calle d 'industria l solidarity' amon g th e strugglin g workers . Hidde n layer s o f socia l connectedness outsid e th e industria l contex t wer e th e adhesiv e bindin g together th e 300-plu s young women. The form s o f these linkages , whic h represented complicate d relationships , were extremely dynamic and fluid . A number of attempts to pinpoint their existence failed . Before the dispute, workers were divided and confined to their respective shop-floors and those from different floors had at most no more than nodding acquaintances. They wer e by no mean s 'friends' . I t was the factory-wid e dispute, le d b y th e daily-rate d workers , whic h transforme d thei r self - 360 Colours of Money, Shades of Pride identification from tha t of individual workers on such-and-such a floor t o operatives who were paid daily wages and who faced the same humiliating denial o f rewards . I t wa s th e ver y suppression , throug h whic h JW M management volunteered itself as a necessary and critical 'other', that built an aren a wher e th e operative s coul d fight . Ever y contes t contribute d t o further shaping the profile of an incipient, conscious collectivity Previousl y existing tie s were rediscovered , redefine d an d transforme d int o element s contributing t o th e struggle , an d ne w tie s wer e formed wher e ther e ha d formerly been none. Yet if one conceives of this as a kind of 'solidarity', i t was one which had virtually nothing to do with 'things industrial' as such. I knew tha t th e workers' core leadership — represented b y Chu Chi hn an d he r clos e associate s — consiste d mainl y o f second-floo r Hakka speakmg operative s fro m th e rura l are a o f Pa t Heung . Traine d i n anthropology and subject to its essentiahstic predispositions, I tried to relate their 'pristine existence' to their present life, to use their 'primordial stat e of being ' t o accoun t fo r th e peculia r give-and-tak e amon g them . I wa s exhilarated whe n I found tha t ther e had bee n a frctive 'extende d family ' centred around Hsiao Chia, which, at its highest point, involved more than thirty JWM female workers. Thanks to my interviewees' insistence and stubbornness, this attemp t was defeated. 'It was a joke,' I was repeatedly told Finall y I had to learn to take a joke as a joke — a joke which helped transform the harsh shop-floor environment into a jocular liveable environment, which served to reproduce elements of an everyday lifeworld of the underdog in the presence of an environment provider wh o reproduce d a profit-extractin g mechanism , wit h it s powe r structure and chains of command. 'The "family " wa s never mean t t o "function" , an d nobod y ha d eve r thought it to be useful for advancing our cause. It did not occur to us in the struggle. And only God knows that we never had an idea there would be a struggle like the on e i n which we were involved. ' Thi s was Hsiao Chia' s and her 'little wife', Chu Chi-hn's, final verdict on their 'extended family' . Opening up, by Way of anEpilogue 361 Having said this, what about the rural area of Pat Heung? Can we say something regardin g th e plac e wher e th e JW M workers ' leadershi p wa s nurtured? If we are talking about lifeworld...