The Labor Relations Theory of the French Regulation School and a Perspective on the "Yellow Vest" Movement through Its Lens

I. Introduction

一、引言

Labor relations are a very important domain in the construction of a socialist economy. The more developed the market economy, the more crucial the harmony of labor relations becomes. This paper intends to study the French Regulation School of foreign Marxism, outline the core doctrine of this school, namely its theory of labor relations, track its latest achievements in this field, and use it to analyze the "Yellow Vest" movement that has recently appeared in France and other European countries.

劳动关系是社会主义经济建设中一个非常重要的领域，市场经济愈发展，劳动关系的和谐就愈发重要。本文拟对国外马克思主义的法国调节学派进行研究，概述这一学派核心学说即它的劳动关系理论，追踪其在此领域的最新成果并运用它来分析日前法国及欧洲其他国家出现的“黄马甲”运动。

Against the backdrop of the developed capitalist countries falling into a "stagflation" crisis in the 1970s, young left-wing scholars in France used Marxian economics to analyze real-world social problems, forming the French Regulation School. This school drew on Marx's method of historical materialism, summarizing the economic operation model of the developed capitalist countries of the time as the Fordist accumulation regime, and revealing the inevitability of its decline. After the financial crisis erupted in the capitalist world in 2008, the Regulation School used the finance-led accumulation regime to explain the economic forms of the developed capitalist countries. They pointed out that it was precisely the excessive expansion of the financial sector in developed countries since the 1990s that led to the distortion of capital accumulation and allocation, thereby triggering the economic crisis. These two regime summaries come from the Regulation School's so-called mode of regulation analysis method. This is an important feature of the Regulation School: starting from the meso-level to bridge the traditional division between micro and macro research. They point out that conflicts exist between people, or between social subjects, and between people and social subjects. The continuous operation of society requires the constant resolution of conflicts, hence the mode of regulation emerges. The mode of regulation includes five aspects: monetary and credit relations, capital-labor relations, forms of competition, the role of the state, and the international system. Among these, labor relations are the core proposition within the mode of regulation, thus forming the French Regulation School's theory of labor relations.

在20世纪70年代发达资本主义国家陷入“滞胀”危机的背景下，法国左翼青年学者运用马克思经济学分析社会现实问题，形成了法国调节学派。该学派借鉴马克思的历史唯物主义方法，将当时的发达资本主义国家经济运行模式概括为福特主义积累体制，并揭示出其走向失败的必然。2008年资本主义世界爆发金融危机后，调节学派以金融主导性积累体制来解释发达资本主义国家的经济形态。他们指出，正是由于20世纪90年代以来，发达国家金融部门的过度扩张导致资本积累与配置扭曲，从而引发经济危机。以上这两种体制概括来自于调节学派的所谓调节模式分析方法。这是调节学派的重要特色，即以中观层次入手来沟通传统的微观和宏观研究划分。他们指出，人与人之间或社会主体与社会主体之间、人和社会主体之间都存在着冲突，社会的持续运转需要不断地解决冲突，调节模式因此产生。调节模式包括五方面：货币信贷关系、资本与劳动关系、竞争形式、国家的作用和国际体系。其中，劳动关系是调解模式中的核心命题，这就形成了法国调节学派的劳动关系理论。

Currently, domestic academic research on the Regulation School's theory of labor relations can be divided into three categories: First, comparative analysis of the Regulation School and Marxian economics on the issue of labor relations (Tang Zhengdong, 2010[2]; Zhang Jiaxin, 2011[3]). Second, subdividing the Regulation School's mode of regulation, with a focus on the content related to labor relations (Hu Haifeng, 2005[4]; Xia Ming, 2006[5]; Yang Hutao, 2009[6]). Third, classifying the Regulation School's theory of labor relations, i.e., the issue of labor relations under two accumulation regimes (Lyu Shoujun, 2015[7]; Zhang Jiaxin, 2018[8]). It can be seen that domestic academia has not yet produced a dedicated treatise on the Regulation School's theory of labor relations. Especially since the "Yellow Vest Movement" that recently occurred in France has brought the issue of labor relations into sharp focus, it is also necessary to systematically sort out this theory.

目前，国内学术界关于调节学派的劳动关系理论研究可分为三类：其一，对调节学派与马克思经济学在劳动关系问题上的论述进行对比分析（唐正东，20102；张嘉昕，20113）。其二，对调节学派的调节模式进行细分，并重点关注劳动关系方面的内容（胡海峰，20054；夏明，20065；杨虎涛，20096）。其三，对调节学派劳动关系理论分类，即两种积累体制下的劳动关系问题（吕守军，20157；张嘉昕，20188）。可见，国内学术界还没有对调节学派的劳动关系理论进行专论，尤其是日前发生于法国的“黄马甲运动”使劳动关系问题备受关注，因此，也有必要对这一理论进行系统梳理。

II. The Logical Composition of the Regulation School's Theory of Labor Relations

二、调节学派劳动关系理论的逻辑构成

Marxism and various socialist currents of thought have a broad social base in France. The struggle actions of the vast number of young students and the working class during the "May 1968" movement[1]1 The “May 1968” protests (often called “May ’68” or the “May Events”) were a series of massive student and worker strikes and occupations in France that nearly toppled the government, representing a watershed moment in post-war French social and political history. promoted the revival of Marxism. The French Regulation School was founded precisely in this context. It was deeply influenced by Marxian economics and directly inherited the core propositions of Marxist doctrine: productive forces and relations of production, laws of social reproduction, surplus value, the law of the average rate of profit, class analysis, etc. For example: productive forces correspond to the technological paradigm, while relations of production correspond to the mode of regulation and accumulation. At the inception of the school, these thinkers had already begun their research around the issue of labor relations. With the development of capitalism, starting from the meso-level, i.e., the mode of regulation, and drawing on historical materialism, they divided the evolution of capitalist labor relations into the following four forms: competitive labor relations, Taylorist labor relations, Fordist labor relations, and finance-led labor relations.

马克思主义和各种社会主义思潮在法国具有广泛的社会基础，1968年“五月风暴”中广大青年学生和工人阶级的斗争行动促进了马克思主义的复兴。法国调节学派就是在这一背景下创立的，它深受马克思经济学的影响并直接继承了马克思主义学说的核心命题：生产力和生产关系、社会再生产规律、剩余价值、平均利润率规律、阶级分析等。例如：生产力所对应着技术范式，而生产关系对应着调节和积累模式。在学派创立之初，这些思想家就围绕劳动关系问题展开研究，随着资本主义的发展，他们从中观层次即调节模式入手，借鉴唯物史观将资本主义的劳动关系沿革划分为以下四种形态：竞争性劳动关系、泰勒主义劳动关系、福特主义劳动关系和金融主导性劳动关系。

(1) Competitive Labor Relations

（一）竞争性劳动关系

Starting from the European Renaissance in the 14th century, factory owners began to hire skilled handicraft workers, and the seeds of capitalism emerged. After a period of initial slow development, by the 1760s, machine production began to replace manual labor, and the First Industrial Revolution occurred in France. The Regulation School points out that in the era when mechanized production was not yet fully developed and widespread, capitalist production was mainly based on manual labor. The complete production process was led by the workers, who had autonomy and controlled the pace of production. Tools were merely "appendages" in the workers' labor and production process. Workers possessed different labor skills, and in different types of labor, each worker played a different role. At this time, the capitalists were highly dependent on the workers. At the same time, workers had strong class struggle capabilities and consciousness, a high degree of self-awareness, and a strong sense of resistance. This is what is called competitive labor relations. In this state, capital and labor constrained each other, and the overall situation between the two sides was balanced. Capitalists and workers shared a common goal: to proceed smoothly with production in order to obtain profits and wages respectively. Subsequently, with the development of science and technology, a large number of machines were introduced into production, and competitive labor relations gradually disintegrated, being replaced by new forms of labor relations.

自14世纪欧洲文艺复兴开始，工厂主开始雇佣具有劳动技能的手工业者，资本主义萌芽产生。在经历了初期的缓慢发展后，至18世纪60年代，机器生产开始替代手工劳动，法国发生第一次工业革命。调节学派指出，在机器化生产尚不充分和普及的年代，资本主义生产主要以手工劳动为主，完整的生产过程由工人主导，工人拥有自主权并控制着生产节奏。工具只是工人劳作和生产过程中的“附属品”。工人具有不同的劳动技能，在不同的劳动中，每个工人都发挥着不同的作用，此时资本家对于工人的依赖程度很大；与此同时，工人具有较强的阶级斗争能力和意识，工人自我认知程度高、反抗意识强。这就是所谓竞争性劳动关系，在这种状态下，资本和劳动之间互相制约，双方总体态势均衡。资本家和工人有着共同的目标，即顺利地进行生产从而各自获得利润和工资。尔后，伴随着科学技术的发展，大量机器运用到生产中，竞争性劳动关系逐渐瓦解并被新型劳动关系所替代。

(2) Taylorist Labor Relations

（二）泰勒主义劳动关系

The Second Industrial Revolution in the capitalist world began in the late 1860s. By the end of the 19th century, capitalist production methods had undergone earth-shaking changes. Mechanized large-scale production replaced manual labor. Workers were no longer the masters of tools under the handicraft factory model, but rather appendages or even cogs in the large machine factory. The content of workers' work lost its autonomy; they were placed under strict supervision and control, performing repetitive labor according to predetermined plans. Under this trend, the large machine production method integrated the worker collective, forming a complete assembly line operation mode and new capitalist labor relations. This is the Taylorist labor relations model.

资本主义世界的第二次工业革兴起于19世纪60年代末，至19世纪末，资本主义生产方式已发生翻天覆地的变化，机械化大生产代替手工劳作，工人不再是手工工厂模式下使用工具的主人，而是大机器工厂的附属物乃至一颗螺丝钉。工人的工作内容丧失了自主性，他们被置于严密监督和控制之下，在既定方案中重复劳作。在这一趋势下，大机器生产方式对工人群体进行整合，从而形成完整的流水线作业模式和新的资本主义劳动关系，这就是泰勒主义劳动关系模式。

The Taylorist labor model was presented in the form of work team organization. To reduce the wear and tear caused by starting and stopping machines, capitalists stipulated that production would only cease on weekends. Management specified detailed labor times, and workers were in a subordinate position within mechanized large-scale production. The essential purpose of this labor model was to serve the rapid capital accumulation of the bourgeoisie, i.e., to promote large-scale production without raising workers' wages, which would ultimately lead to the contradiction between insufficient total social consumption and absolute overproduction. In short, under the Taylorist form of labor relations, the income and living standards of the working class did not improve; that is, relative to the suddenly enriched bourgeoisie, workers were moving towards universal impoverishment. The imbalance between total social supply and demand led to severe economic crises. After the end of World War I, Taylorist labor relations increasingly declined and were eventually replaced by Fordist labor relations. This was mainly manifested in the bourgeoisie, in order to achieve long-term stability in obtaining profits, beginning to comprehensively regulate production and wages, while the working class united to resist, giving rise to the system of collective bargaining between labor and capital.

泰勒主义的劳动模式以工作团队的组织形式呈现，为了降低机器开启和关闭所产生的耗损，资本家规定只在周末才停止生产，管理层规定了详细的劳动时间，工人在机械化大生产中处于从属地位。这种劳动模式的本质目的是为了资产阶级迅速的资本积累而服务，即推动大生产运行又不提高工人工资，最终会导致社会消费总量不足和生产绝对过剩的矛盾。总之，在泰勒主义劳动关系形态下，工人阶级的收入和生活水平没有提高，即相对于暴富的资产阶级来说工人正走向普遍贫苦。社会总供求的失衡导致了严重的经济危机，在一战结束后，泰勒主义劳动关系日益衰败，最终被福特主义劳动关系取代。这主要表现为资产阶级为实现获取利润的长治久安，着手对生产和工资进行全面管制，而工人阶层则团结起来进行抗争，这催生出劳资双方的集体谈判制。

(3) Fordist Labor Relations

（三）福特主义劳动关系

After World War II, capitalism entered a golden age. Industrial output capacity further increased, and capitalist labor relations underwent new changes. After studying this, the Regulation School summarized it as Fordist labor relations. This new model of labor relations exhibited the following characteristics: the decision-making power over production and distribution became separated. This was because the strength of trade unions increased, enabling them to speak for workers in labor-capital negotiations. Meanwhile, the employer side, in order to continue maintaining stable large-scale production to obtain high profits, also chose to accept the system of collective bargaining between labor and capital, thereby increasing workers' income and promoting social consumption. The Regulation School calls this state the "mass production, mass consumption" model. Against this backdrop, the proportion of long-term employment contracts across society rose, which was conducive to alleviating labor-capital contradictions and promoting the stability of labor relations. At the same time, the trend of international cooperation and division of labor within the capitalist world became more pronounced.

二战后，资本主义进入黄金时期，工业产出能力进一步提升，资本主义劳动关系发生了新的变化。调节学派对此进行研究后，将其概括为福特主义劳动关系。这一新型劳动关系模式呈现出以下特征：生产和分配的决定权发生分离，这是因为工会的实力增强，能够在劳资谈判当中为劳动者发声，而雇主方为了继续保持稳定的大规模生产以获得高利润也选择接受劳资双方的集体谈判制，从而增加工人收入和促进社会消费。调节学派将这种状态称为“大量生产，大量消费”模式。在这一背景下，全社会范围内的长期雇佣合同比例上升，有利于缓解劳资矛盾和促进劳动关系稳定。与此同时，资本主义世界的国际合作与分工趋势也更加明显。

Although workers’ circumstances in the sphere of distribution have improved, their situation in the sphere of production has further deteriorated. The labor process under the Fordist labor relations model is embodied in assembly-line work, which first appeared in the production of consumer goods and later extended to all manufacturing industries and even to the production of specific machine parts. Mechanized large-scale production increased work intensity, promoted the separation of mental and physical labor, and further suppressed or even abstracted away workers’ individuality, with all production operations proceeding according to established rules. This is also referred to in management studies as Taylorism or the principles of scientific management. Workers are pinned down in specific positions, and labor power is strictly allocated and controlled by the principles of scientific management; the individual worker has already lost control over their own work rhythm. Work autonomy has completely disappeared, and workers are unable to resist the employer’s ever-increasing production requirements. When Fordism or Taylorism develops to its extreme, actual work becomes increasingly arduous and monotonous. Many newly recruited workers no longer have the opportunity to obtain long-term contracts; instead, after training, they immediately begin work and receive piece-rate wages. This widens the income gap between labor and capital. At the same time, the production cycle of mechanized production is long and not easily adjusted, causing products to become increasingly fixed and uniform, unable to meet consumers’ growing demand for differentiation. This leads to a decline in aggregate demand, triggering economic crises. Go-slow strikes, strikes, and protest movements rise; labor-capital contradictions become difficult to reconcile. The Fordist labor relations model collapsed in the “stagflation” crisis of the 1970s.

尽管工人在分配领域的境遇有所改善，但他们在生产领域的处境却进一步恶化。福特主义劳动关系模式下的劳动过程体现为流水线作业，最早是在消费品的生产环节尔后延伸到全部制造业乃至具体机器零件生产。机械化大生产提高了工作强度，促进了脑力和体力劳动的分离，工人的个性被进一步压制甚至抽象掉，一切生产运作都按既定规则进行，也在管理学上被称为泰勒主义或科学管理原理。工人被钉死在具体岗位，劳动力由科学管理原理严格配置和控制，个体工人已经失去了对自己工作节奏的控制权。工作自治已完全消失，工人无法对雇主不断加码的生产规定进行抵制。当福特主义或泰勒主义发展到极致时，实际工作愈发艰苦和枯燥，被招聘的工人很多不再有机会获得长期合同，而是经过培训后即上岗劳动，获得计件工资。这使得劳资双方的收入差距加大，与此同时，机械化生产的周期长且不易调整，导致产品愈发固定和单一，无法满足消费者日益追求的差异化需求，这导致总需求下降，引发经济危机。消极怠工、罢工和对抗运动攀升，劳资矛盾难以调剂，福特主义劳动关系在20世纪70年代的“滞胀”危机中崩溃。

(4) Finance-Dominated Labor Relations

（四）金融主导性劳动关系

Starting in the 1980s, in order to cope with the “stagflation” crisis and to accelerate capital accumulation, the mode of regulation in capitalism changed. Because stocks and bonds generated substantial returns, the role and status of shareholders rose, and the economic operation of capitalism shifted from a Fordist accumulation regime to a finance-dominated accumulation regime. Under the new accumulation regime, the socio-economy became increasingly held hostage by financial markets; competitive pressure among enterprises from financial markets intensified; financial globalization led to the frequent occurrence of inflation or deflation; and the United States became the financial center of the world economy. The Regulation School refers to the state of labor-capital relations under this accumulation regime as finance-dominated labor relations. Its main characteristics are: a reduction in long-term stable employment contracts; enterprises’ preference for more flexible, elastic, and fragmented forms of employment such as contract workers, short-term temporary workers, and part-time workers; an increase in workers’ freedom, but also the loss of the many welfare benefits that came with long-term contract systems. In the context of economic globalization, enterprises began to abandon compromises with the domestic market and turn to the international market. Walmartism emerged, meaning that employers oppose the formation of trade unions or contact with unions, and no longer choose labor-capital negotiations. At the same time, the excessive development of financial markets also impacted trade union organizations. Many workers chose to increase their income by holding stocks and real estate, and also became less enthusiastic about participating in collective labor-capital bargaining.

20世纪80年代起，为了应对“滞胀”危机和追求资本积累速度的提升，资本主义的调节模式发生变化。由于股票、债券产生了很大收益，股东的作用和地位上升，资本主义的经济运行由福特主义积累体制转变为金融主导性积累体制。在新的积累体制下，社会经济越发受到金融市场的绑架，企业之间来自金融市场的竞争压力加大，金融全球化导致通货膨胀或通货紧缩时有发生，美国成为世界经济的金融中心。调节学派将这种积累体制下的劳资状态称为金融主导性劳动关系，它的主要特征为：长期的稳定雇佣合同减少，企业更倾向于劳动合同工、短期临时工、兼职等更为灵活、弹性和碎片化的就业形式，工人的自由度提高，当然也失去了长期合同制所带来的诸多福利保障。在经济全球化背景下，企业开始放弃对国内市场的妥协而转向国际市场，沃尔玛主义兴起，即雇主方反对组建工会或与工会接触，不再选择劳资谈判。同时，金融市场的过度发展也冲击了工会组织，很多工人选择通过持有股票和不动产来提高收入水平，也不再热衷于参与劳资集体谈判。

Developed capitalist countries harbor not only enormous crises in the field of labor relations but also numerous contradictions in socio-economic operation. With the excessive expansion of the financial sector, real estate prices became inflated; workers held stocks while their actual monetary amount decreased. This caused finance to decouple from the real economy, and the economic bubble grew larger and larger. In 2008, the ratio of total U.S. stock trading volume to GDP reached 320.99%, an all-time high. At the same time, the rules of the financial market were imperfect, lacking effective regulatory mechanisms. The subprime mortgage crisis that occurred in the United States in 2007 quickly evolved into a global capitalist financial crisis, leading to the collapse of the finance-dominated accumulation regime.

发达资本主义国家不仅在劳动关系领域潜藏巨大危机，在社会经济运行方面也矛盾重重。随着金融部门的过度扩张，房地产价格虚高，工人持有股票而实际货币量减少，这使得金融与实体经济脱钩，经济泡沫越来越大，2008年美国股票交易总额与GDP之比达到320.99%，为历史之最。同时，金融市场规则不健全，缺乏有效的调控机制。2007年发生于美国的次贷危机很快演变为全球资本主义的金融危机，导致金融主导性积累体制走向崩溃。

In summary, along with the changes in the capitalist mode of regulation, labor relations in capitalist society have also undergone corresponding changes. Labor-capital contradictions have evolved from the initial simple issue of wages into a complex overlay of multiple contradictions involving the employment system, production methods, the labor process, trade union organizations, product demand, and other aspects. According to the logic of the Regulation School, the evolution of the capitalist social formation has produced different conflicts and contradictions, requiring corresponding labor relations to regulate and improve social operation. This has successively produced competitive labor relations, Taylorist labor relations, Fordist labor relations, and finance-dominated labor relations. Due to new changes in capitalism and the deepening of social contradictions, the speed of replacement of specific labor relations regulation models has also accelerated.

总之，伴随着资本主义调节模式的变迁，资本主义社会的劳动关系也发生了相应变化。劳资矛盾也从最初的单纯工资问题演变为雇佣制、生产方式、劳动过程、工会组织、产品需求等多方面复杂矛盾叠加。按照调节学派的逻辑，资本主义社会形态的演进产生了不同的冲突和矛盾，需要相应的劳动关系进行调节以改善社会运行。这就先后产生了竞争性劳动关系、泰勒主义劳动关系、福特主义劳动关系和金融主导性劳动关系，由于资本主义的新变化和社会矛盾日益加深，具体劳动关系调节模式的更替速度也愈发加快。

III. A Comparison of the Regulation School’s and Marxian Economics’ Theories of Labor Relations

三、调节学派与马克思经济学的劳动关系理论比较

Since its inception, the French Regulation School has been deeply influenced by Marxist doctrine, drawing on the research methods of Marxian economics. Representative figures such as Michel Aglietta and Alain Lipietz have clearly stated that their theoretical foundations originate from Marxian economics, and their theory of labor relations is closely linked to Marx’s theory of labor relations.

法国调节学派自产生伊始就深受马克思主义学说的影响，借鉴了马克思经济学的研究方法，代表人物米歇尔·阿格里埃塔（Michel Aglietta）和阿兰·利比兹（Alain Lipietz）等均明确指出自己的理论基础来源于马克思经济学，其劳动关系理论与马克思的劳动关系理论具有紧密联系。

(1) Labor Relations Are the Most Fundamental Social and Production Relations

（一）劳动关系是最基本的社会和生产关系

Both the French Regulation School and Marx regard labor relations, as an important component of relations of production, as one of the most important social relations. Both proceed from the interests of the working class, taking workers as the main subject to study the operation and evolution of capitalist society, and put forward theoretical doctrines concerning the laws of capitalist development by analyzing the labor-capital struggles and contradictions of capitalism. The Regulation School’s theory of labor relations originates from Marxian economics; this is a consensus within the school. However, in the view of some scholars within the Regulation School, Marx’s theory of reproduction is too abstract. On the basis of Marx’s exposition of capitalist relations of production and the mode of production, they proposed the concepts of the mode of regulation and the wage relation, aiming to deepen the study of contemporary capitalist employment systems and labor-capital opposition, and to propose different forms of capitalist labor relations for different periods.

法国调节学派和马克思都认为劳动关系作为生产关系的重要组成部分，是最重要的社会关系之一。两者从工人阶级的利益出发，以工人为主体对象对资本主义社会的运转和演进展开研究，通过剖析资本主义的劳资斗争与矛盾来提出有关资本主义发展规律的理论学说。调节学派的劳动关系理论来源于马克思经济学，这是该学派内部的共识。不过，在调节学派的部分学者看来，马克思的再生产理论过于抽象，他们在马克思关于资本主义生产关系和生产方式论述的基础上，提出了调节模式和工资关系的概念，旨在深化对当代资本主义雇佣制度和劳资对立的研究，并提出不同时期的资本主义劳动关系形态。

(2) Differences in the Understanding of the Essence of Capitalist Labor Relations

（二）对资本主义劳动关系的本质认识存在差异

Marx clearly pointed out that in capitalist society, labor-capital relations are fundamentally antagonistic, and their conflicts and contradictions are simply irreconcilable. This is because, once labor becomes a commodity, due to the existence of competition between capitalists and workers and competition among workers themselves, the continuous decline of the price of labor power is an inevitable trend. No matter how the capitalist mode of production is adjusted, it cannot escape the fate of heading toward extinction. Marx systematically expounded the fact that in the evolution of capitalist labor relations, labor has always been subordinate to capital. In early capitalism, labor’s subordination to capital was formal; when capitalism matured, labor increasingly manifested as real subordination to capital. This shows that the more capitalism develops, the more tense the interest relationship between labor and capital becomes. Labor-capital conflict originates in the workplace, then expands to the entire socio-economic operation system, triggering workers’ movements and even proletarian revolution.

马克思明确指出，在资本主义社会劳资关系是根本对立的，其劳资冲突与矛盾根本无法调解，这是因为在劳动成为商品后，由于存在资本家与劳动者之间的竞争以及劳动者之间的竞争，劳动力价格不断降低是必然趋势，资本主义的生产方式无论如何调整也摆脱不了走向灭亡的命运。马克思系统阐述了在资本主义劳动关系演进中，劳动始终从属于资本的事实。在早期资本主义劳动对资本表现为形式上的从属，当资本主义走向成熟时劳动日益体现为对资本实际上的从属。这说明资本主义愈发展，劳资双方的利益关系就愈紧张。劳资冲突发轫于工作场所，随之将扩展至整个社会经济运行体系，引发工人运动乃至无产阶级革命。

The Regulation School, on the other hand, points out that labor-capital contradictions in capitalist society are merely an empirical, objective existence, a simple political struggle with a clear purpose, that is, the working class’s struggle for power to obtain higher wages and other welfare benefits. It can be seen that the root of capitalist labor-capital contradictions does not lie in the issue of private ownership of the means of production; consequently, there is no need for a focused analysis of the ownership issue. This leads the Regulation School toward historical empiricism. They believe that workers’ interests and social production activities occur within the overall social structure, and that capitalist labor-capital contradictions can be alleviated by adopting different labor relations regulation models, thereby mitigating class opposition and ensuring the smooth progress of production. In short, the Regulation School’s theory of labor relations does not reveal the essential issues of capitalist labor relations. However, they have conducted considerable discussion on specific regulatory methods such as trade union organizations, tripartite coordination, and labor rights protection in relation to the coordination of modern capitalist labor relations.

调节学派则指出，资本主义社会的劳资矛盾仅是一种经验性的客观存在，是一种目的明确的简单政治斗争，即工人阶级为了争取更高的工资等福利待遇而进行的权力争取活动。可见，资本主义劳资矛盾的根源不在于生产资料私有制问题，因而没有必要针对所有制问题展开集中分析，这使得调节学派走向了历史经验论。他们认为，劳动者利益和社会生产行为是在整个社会结构中发生的，资本主义的劳资矛盾可以通过采取不同的劳动关系调节模式来缓和，从而缓和阶级对立和保证生产的顺利进行。总之，调节学派的劳动关系理论没有揭示出资本主义劳动关系的本质问题。不过，他们在关于工会组织、三方协调、劳动维权等具体调节方法上对现代资本主义劳动关系协调问题进行了诸多探讨。

IV. A Perspective on the “Yellow Vest” Movement through the Lens of the Regulation School’s Theory of Labor Relations

四、调节学派劳动关系理论视角下的“黄马甲”运动

France, as an old-line capitalist country, not only has an important foreign Marxist school such as the Regulation School, but also experiences frequent hotspots in the real-world domain of labor-capital relations. For example, the “Yellow Vest” movement, which recently occurred in France and swept across Europe, has attracted much attention. In recent years, various social problems caused by imbalances in labor-relations interests in developed countries have become common, casting a shadow over economic recovery. As far as Europe is concerned, the “Yellow Vest” movement, which began in France on November 17, 2018, and quickly spread, has become the largest and most influential social upheaval in France and even Western Europe in the half-century since the “May 1968” protests [1]1 The “May 1968” protests (often called “May ’68” or the “May Events”) were a series of massive student and worker strikes and occupations in France that nearly toppled the government, representing a watershed moment in post-war French social and political history.. The Macron government’s announcement of a fuel tax increase in 2019 immediately aroused dissatisfaction among the French people, and large numbers of citizens wearing yellow vests took to the streets of Paris to protest. The authorities’ response was cold, even contemptuous, which caused the protests to spread rapidly throughout France, giving rise to the so-called “Yellow Vest” movement. Faced with the grim reality, the authorities announced the cancellation of this policy on December 5, yet the public seemed unappeased; on the contrary, more mass organizations joined in. They protested the declining income levels and living standards of recent years and put forward various reform demands. From the third week of the protests onward, the broad working masses directly targeted the Macron government, which flaunts financial-elite color, and their goal was no longer just a single tax policy but a transformation of social labor relations. At present, this movement has lasted for more than 30 weeks; its large number of participants and long duration are very rare (Table 1 omitted).

法国作为老牌资本主义国家，不仅有调节学派这样重要的国外马克思主义学派，在劳资关系的现实领域也是热点频发。例如，日前发生于法国并席卷欧洲的“黄马甲”运动备受关注。近年来，发达国家由于劳动关系利益失衡所引发的各种社会问题屡见不鲜，给经济复苏带来阴霾。就欧洲而言，自2018年11月17日起在法国出现并很快蔓延开来的“黄马甲”运动，已成为法国乃至西欧地区自1968年“五月风暴”之后半个世纪以来规模最大、影响广泛的社会动荡事件。马克龙政府宣布将于2019年上调燃油税的消息马上引起了法国民众的不满，大量民众身穿黄马甲走上巴黎街头抗议。当局对此的反映是冷淡甚至是轻蔑的，这使得抗议活动迅速蔓延到法国全境，即所谓“黄马甲”运动。面对严峻的现实，当局于12月5日宣布取消此政策，然而，民众似乎对此并不买账，相反更多的群众团体加入进来。他们抗议近年来持续降低的收入水平和生活保障水平，提出各项改革要求。自抗议活动的第三周起，广大劳动人民将斗争的焦点直接指向了标榜金融家精英主义色彩的马克龙政府，他们的目标已不仅仅是一项税收政策而是要求社会劳动关系的变革。目前，这次运动已历时30多周，其参与人数之多、历时时间之长非常罕见（表1略）。

As early as 1981, when the left-wing alliance won the general election, the Regulation School published articles calling on the government to adopt the Regulation School’s economic theory and to promote collective bargaining through active government action in order to facilitate labor-capital reconciliation. However, the authorities chose the neoliberal laissez-faire policy, which caused problems in the national economy. From 1981 to 2018, France’s average annual GDP growth rate was almost always below the global average (Figure 1 omitted), and in recent years France’s Gini coefficient has reached 0.33. After Macron took office, he advocated reforming the labor law and alleviating the increasingly sharp opposition of labor-capital interests, but the deteriorating national economic situation further reduced the welfare level of the working people. An important measure of the labor law reform was the merger of the three representative bodies for workers within enterprises—the Works Council (CE), the Staff Representatives (DP), and the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee (CHSCT)—aimed at improving communication efficiency through institutional streamlining, but trade unions believed this actually restricted their power and room for maneuver. The new labor law granted enterprises more power, such as strengthening the right to dismiss workers and allowing small-scale legal extensions of working hours. In addition, the new labor law capped economic compensation in the “labor court”; enterprises no longer had to worry about dismissing senior employees, and compensation amounts were calculated based on the employee’s years of service, with workers of 20 years or more receiving a maximum of 15 months’ pay. The implementation of the new law led to a “wave of layoffs” in many enterprises, seriously harming the vital interests of workers. The outbreak of the “Yellow Vest” movement is precisely a concentrated manifestation of the current severe labor-capital contradictions in France. According to 2015 data from the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, the poorest 10% of the population had an annual income of less than 7,319 euros, with an average monthly income of 601 euros. Meanwhile, the richest 10% had an annual income of at least 45,223 euros, with an average monthly income of 3,768 euros. Seven percent of total national income was concentrated in the hands of the richest 1%, and 28% of total income was concentrated in the hands of the richest 10%.

早在1981年，当左翼联盟在大选中获胜后，调节学派撰文发声，希望政府能够采纳调节学派的经济理论，通过政府积极作为来推动集体协商以促进劳资调和。然而，当局却选择了新自由主义的自由放任政策，这使国民经济出现问题，1981年至2018年的法国GDP年均增长率几乎都低于全球平均水平（图1略），近年来法国基尼指数已达0.33。马克龙执政后，力主改革劳工法和缓解日益尖锐的劳资利益对立局面，但恶化的国民经济形势使得劳动人民的福利水平进一步下降。劳动法改革的一个重要措施是将劳动者在企业内的三个代表机构企业委员会（CE）、员工代表（DP）、卫生、安全及劳动条件委员会（CHSCT）合并，旨在通过机构精简来提升沟通效率，但工会认为这实际上限制了工会的权力以及活动空间。新的劳动法赋予企业更多权力，如强化了企业的解雇权，小范围的合法延长工作时间等。此外，新的劳动法给“劳资法庭”经济赔偿进行封顶，企业解雇老员工不再顾虑重重，赔偿金额按照员工在企业的年限计算经济赔偿，20年以上的职工获得的经济赔偿最多不得超过15个月。新法案的实施使得大批企业出现“解聘潮”，严重损害了劳动者的切身利益。“黄马甲”运动的爆发正是法国当前严峻劳资矛盾的一种集中体现。据法国国家统计与经济研究所2015年数据显示，占总人口10%的穷人阶层的年收入不到7319欧元，平均月收入601欧元。而10%的富裕阶层年收入至少45 223欧元，平均月收入3768欧元。全国总收入的7%集中在1%的富豪手中，总收入的28%集中于10%的富裕阶层。

The Regulation School points out that the authorities’ implementation of neoliberal labor market opening policies in the 1980s subjected the French working class to direct competition from cheap foreign labor, while the manufacturing sector was also hit by global integration. France’s manufacturing sector accounted for 18% of GDP in 1981, but currently only 10%. The compounding effect of the 2008 financial crisis in developed countries caused a sharp rise in France’s unemployment rate. As the Regulation School states, the global nature of capital brought false prosperity, further widening the gap between rich and poor in developed countries, while financial capital gained unprecedented freedom. However, unlike the United States, France did not become a global financial center profiting by attracting capital from various countries. On the contrary, the French working class became the sacrificial victim, especially in third- and fourth-tier cities and rural areas, which could neither effectively develop the tertiary sector nor maintain manufacturing jobs, leading to socioeconomic decline. The initial main force of the “Yellow Vest” movement came precisely from these areas, where public transportation facilities are underdeveloped and travel depends mainly on cars; raising fuel taxes would inevitably and directly increase their cost of living, making an already tight situation even worse.

调节学派指出，当局在20世纪80年代推行新自由主义的劳动力市场开放政策使法国工人阶级遭到了外来低廉劳动力的直接竞争，同时，制造业也在全球一体化进程中遭受打击。法国制造业在1981年占GDP比重为18%，而目前仅有10%。2008年发达国家金融危机的叠加效应使法国失业率大幅上升。正如调节学派所说，资本的全球性带来了虚假繁荣，发达国家的社会贫富差距进一步拉大，金融资本则获得了前所未有的自由度。然而，法国没有像美国那样成为全球金融中心，通过吸引各国资本获利。相反，法国工人阶级成为牺牲品，尤其是三四线城市和乡村地区既无法有效开展第三产业，制造业就业岗位也不断缩减，出现社会经济衰败。“黄马甲”运动最初的主力军正来自上述区域，那里公共交通设施不发达，出行主要依赖于汽车，提高燃油税必然直接提高其生活成本，使本就捉襟见肘的生活雪上加霜。

In summary, as various social groups and organizations successively joined the “Yellow Vest” movement, it has escalated from a protest march into a mass political movement, with the imbalance in labor relations being the fundamental cause of this movement. The broad masses of workers in all industries across the country generally feel a lack of security and unfair treatment. For example: on December 18, 2018, the police force demanded compensation from the government for past overtime work; on March 9, 2019, demonstrators called for the protection of female workers’ rights, etc. The Regulation School points out, first, that under the financial-led accumulation regime, modern capitalist wage labor has undergone profound changes, with the working class further becoming an appendage of financial capitalism. Flexible and variable forms of work lead to uncontrolled wage flexibility, and income instability makes the working class feel insecure; any new policy that increases the cost of living may trigger public panic. Second, the “Yellow Vest” movement reflects the inadequacy of the coordination mechanism for financial-led labor relations. Since the start of the “Yellow Vest” movement, the participating groups have continuously increased, and their demands are complex and even lack focus, while the French government lacks effective communication and resolution measures for labor-capital contradictions. The ensuing large-scale demonstrations, strikes, and go-slows increasingly exhibit characteristics of disorganization and indiscipline, leaving the government at a loss as to how to solve the problems, triggering widespread social issues. The number of working people participating in the “Yellow Vest” movement has shown a gradual decreasing trend, and the “Yellow Vests” are increasingly associated with violent terms such as “looting,” “smashing,” and “arson.” According to a report in France’s *Le Figaro* on February 14, 2019, a poll showed that 56% of respondents wanted the “Yellow Vest” movement to stop, an increase of 11 percentage points year-on-year; at the same time, support had dropped by 5 percentage points year-on-year. This has caused the “Yellow Vest” movement, which aimed to change the participants’ own situation and reverse the imbalance of labor-capital interests, to degenerate, making it difficult to achieve its original goals.

总之，随着社会各界群众团体先后加入“黄马甲”运动，它已经由一场游行抗议升级为群众政治运动，劳动关系失衡是这次运动的基本原因。全国各行业的广大劳动者普遍感觉缺乏安全感和受到不公平待遇。例如：2018年12月18日，警察队伍向政府提出了对以往加班时间进行补偿的诉求；2019年3月9日，示威者呼吁维护女性劳动者权益等。调节学派指出，首先，在金融主导性积累体制下的现代资本主义雇佣劳动发生了深刻变革，工人阶级进一步成为金融资本主义的附庸，灵活多变的工作形式导致工资弹性无节制，收入不稳使工人阶级缺乏安全感，任何增加生活成本的新政策都可能引发民众恐慌。其次，“黄马甲”运动反映出金融主导性劳动关系的协调机制不健全。“黄马甲”运动至今，参与团体不断增加且诉求纷繁复杂甚至没有重点，而法国政府则缺乏有效的劳资矛盾沟通和化解措施。随之而来的大规模游行示威和罢工怠工愈发表现出无组织、无纪律的特征，政府对于解决问题无所适从，引发了广泛的社会问题。参与“黄马甲”运动的劳动人民群体有逐渐减少的趋势，“黄马甲”更多的是与“打砸抢”“纵火焚烧”等暴力词语联系一起。据法国《费加罗报》2019年2月14日报道，一项民意调查显示，有56%的受访者希望“黄马甲”运动停止，同比上升11个百分点；同时，支持率同比下降5个百分点。这使得旨在改变自身处境和扭转劳资利益失衡的“黄马甲”运动发生变质，难以实现初衷。

In summary, according to the logic of the Regulation School, once social labor-capital contradictions erupt into intense conflict, a new mode of labor-relations regulation must be introduced to ease the contradictions and thereby maintain capitalist production. The “Yellow Vest” movement reflects that the labor-capital antagonism in France has spread to all aspects of society, leading to social unrest and causing participating citizens, even bypassing the employer class, to direct their anger directly at the ruling authorities. This indicates the predicament of the labor-relations regulation model under the current financial-led accumulation regime, which may trigger more intense socioeconomic crises.

总之，按照调节学派的逻辑体系一旦社会劳资矛盾发生激烈冲突，就要以推出新的劳动关系调节模式来缓和矛盾从而维持资本主义生产进行。“黄马甲”运动折射出法国劳资对立已经蔓延至社会的方方面面，由此导致了社会动荡和参与民众甚至越过了雇主集团将怒火直接对准执政当局，这说明了当前金融主导性积累体制下劳动关系调节模式的所处窘境，可能会引发更激烈的社会经济危机。

V. Conclusion

五、结论

The French Regulation School employs historical research methods to explain capitalist crises in specific periods and countries and regions. Taking different modes of capital accumulation as its entry point, it analyzes the evolution of capitalism from the perspective of the labor conditions and life circumstances of ordinary workers. The Regulation School expands the temporal horizon of Marx's theory of labor relations, enriching and developing foreign Marxist theory. Of course, the labor relations theory of the Regulation School primarily focuses on the regulatory functions at the meso-level of capitalist society. Its specific coordination of labor relations adapts to different regimes of capital accumulation; once the two become mismatched, economic crises are triggered. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously adjust the coordination model of labor relations to stabilize the functioning of capitalist society. Compared with Marx, the Regulation School's understanding of the relationship between labor and capital does not grasp the essence of the matter. The Regulation School's proposition is how the working class should compromise with the bourgeoisie in order to continue maintaining the bourgeoisie's mode of capital accumulation, without recognizing the essence of capitalist exploitation of workers. With the changes of the times, the development of science and technology, and the expansion of finance, the inherent contradictions of capitalism have become increasingly severe, triggering frequent and intensifying conflicts in labor-capital relations. After the financial crisis in developed countries in 2008, when the finance-dominated labor relations lost their efficacy in regulating labor-capital contradictions, strikes, demonstrations, and even violent activities in the capitalist world became frequent. The "Yellow Vests" movement is merely a concentrated microcosm of the overall contradictions.

法国调节学派运用历史的研究方法对特定的时期国家和地区的资本主义危机问题进行解释，以不同的资本积累方式为切入点，从普通工人的劳动状态和生活境遇剖析资本主义的演进。调节学派拓展了马克思劳动关系理论的时代视野，丰富和发展了国外马克思主义理论。当然，调节学派劳动关系理论主要着眼于资本主义社会中观层面的调节功能，其具体的劳动关系协调适应于不同的资本积累体制，一旦二者不相匹配就会引发经济危机，因此，要不断调整劳动关系协调模式来稳定资本主义社会运转。与马克思相比，调节学派对劳资双方关系的认知没有抓住事物的本质。调节学派的主张是工人阶级如何与资产阶级进行妥协，以继续维护资产阶级的资本积累方式，而没有认识到资本主义剥削工人的实质。随着时代变迁、科技发展和金融扩张，资本主义固有的矛盾愈发严重，引发劳资关系冲突频发和愈演愈烈。随着金融主导性劳动关系在2008年发达国家的金融危机爆发后失去调节劳资矛盾的功效，资本主义世界的罢工、游行甚至暴力活动频发，“黄马甲”运动只是总体矛盾的一个集中缩影。

As a currently active foreign Marxist school, the labor relations theory of the French Regulation School is worthy of study. Analyzing the French "Yellow Vests" movement from the perspective of foreign Marxism is conducive to broadening our research horizons and gaining beneficial insights. At the same time, we should focus on recognizing the defects and deficiencies of the Regulation School's labor relations theory through comparative research. We must consider how to construct a labor relations coordination model that matches the current socio-economic situation, enhancing the working class's status as masters of the country. This is conducive to promoting harmonious labor relations, thereby providing a stable social foundation and guarantee for high-quality economic development in the New Era. (Notes omitted.)

法国调节学派作为当前活跃的国外马克思主义学派，它的劳动关系理论值得研究。从国外马克思主义的视角来分析法国“黄马甲”运动，有利于开拓我们的研究视野和获取有益启示，同时，注重通过比较研究来认识到调节学派劳动关系理论的缺陷和不足。我们要思考如果构建与当前社会经济形势相匹配的劳动关系协调模式，提升工人阶级的主人翁地位，这有利于促进劳动关系和谐，从而为新时代经济高质量发展提供稳定的社会基础和保障。（注释略）

Online Editor: Zhang Jian

网络编辑：张剑