What are the causes of mass incidents?

Characteristics and causes of current mass incidents

The current mass incidents are a comprehensive reflection of various contradictions and problems in the process of China's economic and social transformation, and some new features have emerged, which has become a prominent problem affecting the construction of a harmonious socialist society.

[Keywords:] mass incidents; Characteristics; cause

In recent years, with the deepening of reform and opening up, the transformation of market economy and the adjustment of social interest pattern, new problems and contradictions are increasing day by day, and mass incidents are on the rise, which has become a prominent problem affecting the construction of a harmonious socialist society and an important topic that party and government organs at all levels urgently need to study and solve.

First, the characteristics of mass incidents

1. Increase in quantity and scale. In recent years, mass incidents such as petitions, assemblies, petitions, marches, demonstrations and strikes have occurred from time to time. Disputes caused by contradictions among the people occur from time to time in our country, with a large number and scale. From 1993 to 2003, the number of mass incidents in China increased from 1000 to 60,000, and the number of participants also increased from about 730,000 to about 3.07 million. In recent years, mass incidents have increased year by year, with thousands of people accounting for a large proportion. For example, the conflict caused by brutal demolition in Jiahe County, Hunan Province, and the conflict caused by land acquisition in Dingzhou City, Hebei Province shocked the central government and the whole country.

2. There are many departments and industries involved, and the main components are diversified. Participants are complex, including people from various occupations and different social identities: laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises, workers whose rights and interests have been damaged by private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, landless peasants, migrant workers, residents whose houses have been demolished, immigrants from reservoir areas, laid-off cadres, taxi drivers, victims of environmental pollution and so on.

3. The objects of mass incidents in urban and rural areas are different, and the content of rights protection is also different. Farmers mainly fight against grass-roots governments and officials; Workers mainly resist enterprise managers. The main content of farmers' struggle is to demand compensation for the damaged interests and realize villagers' autonomy. It has become a central topic for farmers who have lost their land or been polluted by the environment to demand protection of their rights and interests. The main content of workers' struggle is to safeguard economic rights and demand the management of enterprise affairs. Employees in private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises demand to pay full wages and improve working conditions, migrant workers demand to pay arrears of wages, laid-off workers demand employment, and workers in state-owned enterprises demand to protect state property from losses.

4. The expression is fierce, and the internal contradictions are gradually antagonistic. Mass incidents are mostly expressed in a relatively peaceful way, which is essentially a contradiction between the people on the basis of the same fundamental interests. However, the number of violent and destructive mass incidents has gradually increased, and there has been an intensification phenomenon, and the degree of confrontation has intensified. Organizers and participants of mass incidents, out of the psychology of "making a mountain out of a molehill, making small troubles and solving small problems", are increasingly taking all kinds of extreme or illegal actions to vent their dissatisfaction, besieging and attacking grass-roots party and government organs, blocking traffic, taking hostages, causing local riots in some places, destroying public facilities, smashing and looting township governments. Some even take excessive actions such as self-immolation and suicide.

5. The degree of organization is high, and economic contradictions are easy to politicize. A considerable number of mass incidents are organized and tend to unite in series across regions and industries. In particular, those mass incidents with a large number of participants, long duration, large scale and strong repeatability are carefully planned in advance, with clear goals and unified actions. Although most mass incidents are caused by the contradiction of economic interests, some mass incidents are becoming more and more politicized and some have political purposes.

6. All kinds of contradictions are intertwined, which makes it more difficult to deal with them. The demands made by most participants in mass incidents are reasonable to some extent, but they often take illegal measures. Reasonable demands are intertwined with illegal acts, unreasonable demands are intertwined with illegal acts, and contradictions among the people of most people are mixed with serious illegal acts of a few people. Hostile forces and hostile elements also intervened in mass incidents to create trouble. If not handled properly, local problems may affect the overall situation, and non-confrontational contradictions may turn into antagonistic contradictions.

Second, the causes of mass incidents

The frequent occurrence of mass incidents is a comprehensive reflection of various contradictions and problems in the process of China's economic and social changes, and its causes are various.

From the direct causes, the main inducements of urban mass incidents are as follows: First, some state-owned enterprises did not seek the opinions of employees and did not follow the prescribed procedures in the process of restructuring and transformation, resulting in the loss of a large number of state-owned assets and infringing on the democratic rights of employees and national interests; Second, in the operation of some enterprises, factory affairs are not open, major business activities are not approved by the workers' congress, and employees are emotionally antagonistic; Third, enterprises are in arrears with employees' wages, medical expenses and pensions, and employees' basic living security is not implemented; Fourth, after enterprise restructuring, merger or bankruptcy, laid-off workers, employee placement, pension insurance and other issues have not been properly handled; Fifth, the operators and managers of the enterprise are dishonest, which has brought down the enterprise, enriched themselves and impoverished employees; Sixth, some private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of employees; Seventh, the demolition of municipal construction is controversial; Eighth, some enterprises or construction units arbitrarily owe wages to migrant workers. The main reasons for mass incidents in rural areas are: first, village affairs are not open, financial management is chaotic, and some grassroots cadres violate the law and discipline; Second, unreasonable charges make farmers overburdened; Third, individual grass-roots political organizations are weak and lax, and some rural grass-roots cadres are seriously bureaucratic and formalistic; Fourth, the fund-raising has been delayed for a long time, and the shares absorbed by non-financial institutions such as foundations cannot be paid on time; Fifth, some local policies are opaque, the compensation standard is low, or the compensation fee is not paid on schedule or not paid in full to the households, which harms the interests of landless farmers; Sixth, due to historical reasons, the ownership of forests and land in some places is unclear and disputes are fierce; Seventh, ethnic and religious contradictions in minority areas; Eighth, environmental pollution in some places has seriously affected people's health and production and life; Ninth, there are bribery and strikes in grassroots elections. There are also social management reasons, such as some specific policies and measures introduced by local governments are not prudent and coherent, or the policy implementation is biased; Some unit staff violate the law and discipline and do things unfairly; Some industries are not standardized in management, major mine accidents and other safety accidents occur frequently, and so on.

From the deep-seated social reasons, there are mainly the following aspects:

1. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened. The gap between the rich and the poor is not only manifested in the income gap, but also in the possession of wealth and unfair education. Strong dissatisfaction with unfair distribution, improper wealth, social psychology and public opinion. The gap between the rich and the poor is too large, which damages the principle of social justice, causes social friction and leads to increased contradictions. When the interests of vulnerable groups are damaged or neglected, they will feel relatively deprived, and their dissatisfaction and opposition are often manifested in the form of group events.

2. Workers' economic interests and democratic rights have been violated. In the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, some localities, departments and enterprises ignored the democratic rights of employees, decided on major issues directly related to the survival of enterprises, the fate of employees and national interests without authorization, and even sold state-owned assets at a low price, which triggered a large number of employee group incidents. In some non-public enterprises, the income gap between the owners of means of production, capital owners, business operators and managers and employees is getting bigger and bigger; Depress, default or deduct the wages of workers; Generally, production is more important than safety, which damages the safety and health rights of employees; Working hours are extended at will, and employees work overtime seriously; The signing rate of employee labor contract and social insurance is low. As a result, labor relations in many non-public enterprises are tense, leading to a large number of employees collectively petitioning and striking.

Bureaucracy and corruption cause tension between cadres and masses. Leading cadres in some localities and departments do not listen to the voices of the masses and do not care about their sufferings. The problems and difficulties encountered by the masses have not been effectively solved for a long time, leading to minor contradictions and eventually mass incidents. Some regions and some cadres, for the sake of so-called political achievements, violate Scientific Outlook on Development, divorced from reality, and disregard public opinion, forcibly implement "political achievements project" and "image project" that waste people and money; Some cadres are corrupt, corrupt, and violate the law and discipline, which has seriously damaged the just image of the * * * production party and aroused people's dissatisfaction.

4. People's ideology and values are increasingly diversified and complicated. Since the reform and opening up, people's working methods, lifestyles, ways of thinking, social interests and values have all changed from single to diversified. The market economy has brought vitality and vigor to the society, but it has also had a negative impact. Some people have economization of political ideas, egoism of purpose ideas, liberalization of discipline ideas, and distrust of the party and the government. Some people have a weak legal concept. When encountering contradictions and disputes, they are not good at safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests through legal means, and often take some extreme measures. Others lack the socialist concept of honor and disgrace. As long as they are unwilling to fulfill their obligations, they will make trouble to meet excessive demands.

This kind of social management is not suitable for the socialist market economy and the people's growing democratic consciousness. China's economic system, economic operation mode, social organization form and people's production and life style have all undergone profound changes. The "unit person" has changed to "social person" and "community person", and the people's awareness of democracy and participation in politics has also increased day by day. However, many party and government departments and cadres are still using the management methods and working methods under the planned economy system for social control and management, and they are more accustomed to using administrative orders to promote their work, and sometimes even forcibly ordering and participating in the discussion of state affairs. Some local grass-roots organizations are weak and lax, and ideological and political work is weak. They take simple and blunt measures to delay or suppress the contradictions that arise. The actions taken by the masses at first were petitions and complaints, but after a long period of fruitless petitions and complaints could not be resolved, mass incidents were finally taken.

The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as the general secretary put forward Scientific Outlook on Development and the construction of a harmonious socialist society, which provided theoretical guidance for correctly handling the current mass incidents. Party committees and governments at all levels should attach great importance to the prevention and resolution of mass incidents in the spirit of being highly responsible to the party and the people and building a harmonious socialist society, and treat both the symptoms and root causes comprehensively.