Joshua Kurlantzick writes:

The riot started, last December, in the wake of a simple pay dispute at a small Chinese factory that manufactured cheap suitcases. Orders had been dropping, and the factory closed down without warning, leaving wages unpaid. The workers started to smash up the factory, and looked for managers to attack. The police arrived on the scene, and attempted to restrain the workers by locking them inside the factory compound while the managers offered them a deal - part of their back wages would be paid if they left town. This strategy failed; according to an account in the Washington Post, more than a hundred workers fought their way past the police, scuffling with the security forces and chanting: 'There are no human rights here!'

(LRB 26 March 2009)

Picador | paperback 432 pp. |ISBN: 9780330506700