Hong Kong
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Time for the Hong Kong democracy protests to have its own thread as it looks like they will persist until something dramatic occurs.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/hongkong-protests-protesters/
The protests started as a peaceful rebuke of the Hong Kong government back in April, have evolved into a direct challenge to Communist Party rule over this former British colony. With slogans such as “Free Hong Kong” and “Hong Kong is not China.” Protesters are provocatively calling the demonstrations an “era of revolution,” a formulation that has infuriated a ruling Chinese Communist Party determined to crush any challenge to its monopoly on power.
“…It is a movement without clearly discernible leaders or structure, making it difficult for the authorities to effectively target— and increasingly hard for the protestors themselves to manage. While it has the support of established pro-democracy groups, the amorphous movement is fueled by activists like Ah Lung – young Hong Kongers who operate independently or in small groups and adapt their tactics on the run.
“We’re not so organized,” Ah Lung said. “Every day changes, and we see what the police and the government do, then we take action.”
“My dream is to revive Hong Kong, to bring a revolution in our time,” Ah Lung said. “This is the meaning of my life now.”It’s not an issue of having “no leader, it simply means that everyone is a leader,” said one 22-year-old Hong Kong student
“…The protesters’ mantra – “Be water!” – epitomizes the movement’s tactics. A phrase borrowed from the Hong Kong movie star Bruce Lee, who used it to describe his kung fu philosophy, it is a call for flexibility and creativity, moving forward to press an advantage and pulling back when a strategic retreat is needed.
Its latest manifestation is the series of wildcat protests that have spread across the city in recent weeks. When police turn up in numbers at one protest, the activists often engage them, tying down officers before melting away and reappearing to stage a fresh protest in another area.“…Protesters say their movement is leaderless. In some ways, that’s a reaction to the 2014 demonstrations in which many of the leaders were arrested and given prison terms. Unlike those protests, when leaders like Joshua Wong became globally recognized names, frontline activists like Ah Lung are deliberately staying under the radar, using pseudonyms and appearing at protests with their faces obscured by masks and sunglasses.
The leaderless nature of the protest movement is made possible, to a large extent, by social media.
Protesters take their cues from more than 100 groups on the instant messaging app Telegram, dozens of Instagram sites and online forums like LIHKG. The groups are used to post everything from news on upcoming protests to tips on dousing tear gas canisters fired by the police to the identities of suspected undercover police and the access codes to buildings in Hong Kong where protesters can hide….”What is happening in Hong Kong and what seems very effective may well be the model for future XR protests. If it does it will offer a challenge for ourselves to observe and engage with eco-activist
1.7 million, nearly a quarter of Hong Kong’s population, took to the streets on a very rainy day.
But what is a worry is that the protests are not resonating with the mainland population.
Another big protest that is taking place is in Brasil and Honduras
The blog has posted about the media black-out on Brasil’s protests
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/08/brazil-and-media.html
It may well do one on Honduras, now you have raised the issue
On the point about the protests not resonating with mainlanders, that’s unsurprising in a way. HK wasn’t reported on at first, and the level of propaganda flowing through mainstream news and social media in China is staggering. When I refused to condemn the protests, the Chinese people I know in China and the UK have all informed me that I am a dupe of Western media, that the protestors are paid stooges, that most demonstrations are actually on the streets in support of the police, that the protestors are violent and attacking police, etc. But there are regular, absolutely massive demonstrations in China itself – there was a huge anti-pollution protest recently in Wuhan, for example, and riots by workers are quite common. Mainstream media generally doesn’t report these events, though, and social media is increasingly tightly managed and monitored.
To be expected, there are those on the Left who take China’s side and accuse the protesters of being American pawns.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/08/we-are-not-fooled-by-the-hong-kong-protests
“Protesters carry US and UK flags, and sing the Stars and Stripes Forever and the US national anthem, displaying their connection to western nations….The only way not to see US involvement in the Hong Kong protests is to close your eyes, ears, and mind and pretend it does not exist….Hong Kongers have also been manipulated pawns in the US Great Power Conflict with China. They are advocating against their own interests by seeking what will essentially be re-colonization by the West. If the US is successful, it will not be good for the people of Hong Kong, Asia or the world…”
The article does highlight that it is a political protest and not a one for working class rights but who ever said it ever was.
I thought that the main aim was political democracy ie that all the members of the Legislative Council should be directly elected instead of just some. Which I suppose would be a legitimate demand in itself, wouldn’t it?
To be expected, there are those on the Left who take China’s side and accuse the protesters of being American pawns.
Nothing new, many groups in the left are still living in the time of the Cold War, they think that the Chinese rulers are socialists and when the workers protest against hem it is because they are pro-capitalists, it indicates that the workers in China are not going to be supported by the left if the create a popular uprising against the Chinese capitalist rulers. The left is also glorifying Putin as a leader of the peoples, and he is one of the richest man of Europe. Some western governments might support the protest in Hong Kong to promote their own interests, but it doesn’t mean that the whole movement is promoted by them, if it become a real peoples movement against capitalism they will stop supporting them. During the war in Kuwait peoples in Iraq had an uprising against Hussein and the western power wanted him to wipe it out
Yet another critique of the Hong Kong protests and once more guilt by association.
Why is anti-Americanism and anti-imperialism more important than the Chinese State bureaucracy and oligarchy?
Western “Progressives” Support Yet Another Color Revolution in Hong Kong
Another angle on the protests, more an analysis of the motivations of the participants
Denying US manipulation
An interview on Libcom which is very illuminating and very much worth a read to counter those who consider it all a Western imperialist anti-Chinese plot.
https://libcom.org/news/protests-hk-talk-workers-group-12092019
“BKW: Is the movement connected to foreign powers like the U.S.A.?
WG: It is not at all controlled/led/funded by foreign powers in any sense. I would say this movement is not even controlled by any masterminds at all, neither local nor foreign. Yes, the U.S.A. has a long history of funding opposition politicians, media and union in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong opposition politicians often lobby in Washington or Geneva. But I don’t see these people playing important roles in mass protests over the past years, from 2003 till now. Actually their influence is declining because the majority of pro-democratic people in Hong Kong no longer trust political leaders…… The motivation of going to the US Consulate is to persuade the US Congress to pass the ‘Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act’. If passed, key person in HK government who are responsible for repression may be sanctioned by the US government. Many protesters believe it is a good idea as an revenge towards the HK government, align with the spirit of ‘if we burn, you burn with us’… It shows that Hong Kong people has no national identity and no one care Chinese government’s accusation of cooperating with foreign conspiracy…”
Looks as if the pro-democracy demonstrators have blown it by resorting to violence. They can’t win against the armed might of the state and will be crushed. The only chance of winning they had was mass demonstrations backed by public opinion. In abandoning that they are doomed.
A comrade in WSPUS sent this useful link for Hong Kong perspectives.
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