China: Solidarity with the General Strike in Hong Kong!
For an international solidarity movement as the Stalinist-Capitalist regime in Beijing prepares a brutal crackdown!
Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 01 August 2019, www.thecommunists.net
1. The democratic mass struggle in Hong Kong is moving towards a denouement. The organizers of the mass movement and several trade unions – the Confederation of Trade Unions; unions of teachers, civil servants, airline and banking workers, etc. – are calling for a general strike on Monday, 5 August with parallel rallies at seven different points throughout the city. This will be the highpoint in the more than two-month wave of actions of Hong Kong’s workers and youth against the extradition bill and the authoritarian Lam Administration.
2. These actions are in response to the accelerating state repression against the, mostly young, activists. Forty-three of them have been formally charged with rioting, an offence punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment. However, given the massive support for the protests by the vast majority of the population, the Lam Administration has increasingly lost control. The brutal attack on demonstrators by an armed mob of Triad gangsters on 21 July, undoubtedly instigated and bankrolled by the regime in Beijing, reflects the inability of the Hong Kong police to bring the situation under control. In fact, dual power is fast emerging.
3. The Stalinist-capitalist regime in Beijing increasingly fears the consequences of these developments. This is not only due to the political and economic importance of Hong Kong but also because they fear that “the virus of unrest” could inspire dissatisfied Chinese workers, students, and peasants throughout the mainland. Hence, the regime has begun to denounce the mass protests as “instigated by Taiwan and the US”. Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, urged the US on 24 July to “retract its black hand from Hong Kong”. General Chen Daoxiang, the commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Hong Kong garrison, warned that the army is “determined to protect national sovereignty, security, stability and the prosperity of Hong Kong.” (South China Morning Post: Chinese army’s Hong Kong chief says troops are ready to protect nation’s sovereignty, 01.08.2019) In fact, there exists a plan for the seven-step implementation of a PLA military intervention that would formally take place under the command of the region’s police commanders (Asia Times: PLA’s Hong Kong deployment plan revealed, 31.07.2019) Hong Kong’s PLA garrison, currently 6,000 soldiers stationed in barracks, released a video on 31 July on its Sina Weibo account showing footage of “anti-riot” exercises. The martial propaganda video presenting trigger-happy soldiers preparing for the massacre of their own people can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/onLNtu-FxSc. (Global Times: Violence in HK touches bottom line, 'intolerable': PLA commander, 31.07.2019; Reuters: China's Hong Kong PLA garrison releases video with scenes of 'anti-riot' operations, 01.08.2019)
4. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) strongly welcomes the decision of the organizers to call a general strike. Only the most reactionary lackeys of the Beijing regime can deny the heroic idealism of the tens of thousands of young activists who courageously combat the attacks on democratic rights. There can be no doubt that the movement has made important advances in its level of consciousness. This is expressed in the increasingly popular slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times!” This popular uprising has become a focal point of the world situation as it takes place in a key city of one of the two most important Great Powers. If the spark were to jump to the Chinese mainland and instigate a mass revolt of the workers and youth, this would transform the world situation with a single stroke!
5. However, it would be foolish to ignore the challenges and dangers. Tempus fugit. The regime in Beijing is strongly pushing for a prompt and violent suppression of the mass protests (preferably by the Hong Kong forces alone, but with PLA forces if necessary). Memories of the bloody massacre on Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 with several thousand killed reverberate! (This event was a decisive stroke in the counterrevolution that opened the road to capitalist restoration in the immediate following years!) It is urgent that the mass movement overcomes any local centeredness and actively raises the banner of democracy, not only for Hong Kong, but for the whole of China! This could easily be expressed in a companion slogan, “Liberate China, the revolution of our times!” Such an orientation must also include solidarity with the brutally oppressed national minority of the Muslim Uyghurs.
6. Hopes for any serious support from rival Great Powers are completely misplaced. In fact, the raisings the British or the U.S. flag by a few isolated activists are nothing but stupid provocations that are grist for the mill of Beijing’s chauvinist propaganda. This is compounded by the fact that positive references towards these two states are entirely misplaced when their inept, reactionary, and hair brained leaders provoke only feelings of cultural superiority among ordinary Chinese people!
7. The general strike will be an important first step. Since the regime, however, must escalate repression in response, the movement must anticipate this and deepen the rhythm of its activities. It will be necessary to organize an indefinite general strike to countermand the extradition law and boot the Lam Administration. Furthermore, it is crucial to organize mass democratic assemblies in the workplaces, neighborhoods, and universities to broaden a discussion of the demands and tactics of the struggle and to elect delegates for a coordinating body of the entire movement. Likewise, workers and youth need an independent political body, i.e. a Workers Party, that is independent of the native as well as any foreign capitalist class.
8. It is extremely urgent to build an international movement in solidaity with the people’s rebellion in Hong Kong! The RCIT calls on workers and popular mass organizations around the world to rally in support of their brothers and sisters! We strongly denounce the Stalinists that slander the protests in Hong Kong as “CIA plots”. Naturally, any international solidarity movement must oppose the anti-Chinese chauvinism of Western rivals. Likewise, it must denounce any imperialist sanctions against China as these do not serve the democratic struggle but only the chauvinist agenda of Great Power rivalry. Such sanctions will also help the Beijing regime to rally expressions of Chinese chauvinism and portray the suppression of the Hong Kong protests as flag waving “patriotic duty.”
9. The RCIT calls on activists to join us in building a revolutionary party, both in China and globally, based on an international and socialist perspective!
* Kill the extradition bill! Defeat the Administration of Carrie Lam!
* Down with the Pseudo-“Communist“ Capitalist Dictatorship in Beijing!
* For a Workers and Poor Peasants Republic in China! For a Socialist Federation in East Asia as a first step to a socialist world!
International Bureau of the RCIT
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The RCIT has published a number of booklets, statements, and articles on China that can be accessed on our website at https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/ as well as at https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/china-russia-as-imperialist-powers/.
In particular we refer to:
RCIT: China: Long Live the Popular Uprising in Hong Kong! After protestors storm the parliament: general strike against the extradition bill and the Lam Administration! 03 July 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/long-live-the-popular-uprising-in-hong-kong/
RCIT: China: Mass Protests against Reactionary “Extradition Law” in Hong Kong. For an indefinite general strike to kill the bill and to bring down the Administration of Carrie Lam! 18 June 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/china-mass-protests-against-reactionary-extradition-law-in-hong-kong/
RCIT: China: Down with the Pseudo-“Communist“ Capitalist Dictatorship! No to any imperialist Great Power – U.S., China, Japan, Russia or the European Union! For a Workers and Poor Peasants Republic! https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/call-to-revolutionary-activists-in-china/
Michael Pröbsting: China: Defend the Muslim Uyghurs against Oppression! 18.10.2018, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/china-defend-the-muslim-uyghurs-against-oppression/
RCIT: Hong Kong/China: Long Live the Anti-Government Protests! For a General Strike against Police Repression and for Democratic Rights! Down with the Reactionary CCP Dictatorship! 2.10.2014, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/hong-kong-protests/
Michael Pröbsting: Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Great Power Rivalry. The Factors behind the Accelerating Rivalry between the U.S., China, Russia, EU and Japan. A Critique of the Left’s Analysis and an Outline of the Marxist Perspective, RCIT Books, January 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/anti-imperialism-in-the-age-of-great-power-rivalry/
Michael Pröbsting: China‘s transformation into an imperialist power. A study of the economic, political and military aspects of China as a Great Power, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 4, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/why-china-is-imperialist/