So remember that yesterday I wrote that the item was posed very differently on
Loud and Clear. Loud and Clear is a program on Sputnik Radio and its hosts are
Brian Becker, a longtime socialist organizer, and John Kariakou, the former CIA
agent who was imprisoned for blowing the whistle on CIA torture. They get their
information from a variety of sources, most of them left and very left of
center, but a few who are right of center. The item on Hong Kong came from a
woman in London, whom they often turn to for news about China. I can't remember
her name. It's unfamiliar to me. She has a British accent, but I've always
wondered what her credentials are. Given the slant of her reporting on the Hong
Kong demonstrations, I suspect she's a Chinese government official.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2019 10:30 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Massive protests in Hong Kong push back hated
extradition bill
https://themilitant.com/2019/06/29/massive-protests-in-hong-kong-push-back-hated-extradition-bill/
Massive protests in Hong Kong push back hated extradition bill
??By Roy Landersen
Vol. 83/No. 24
July 8, 2019
June 16 demonstration in Hong Kong drew some 2 million people, largest
mobilization in history of former British colony. Beijing fears its impact on
working people inside China.
Reuters/Thomas Peter
June 16 demonstration in Hong Kong drew some 2 million people, largest
mobilization in history of former British colony. Beijing fears its impact on
working people inside China.
In a victory for democratic and political rights, the biggest mobilizations in
Hong Kong???s history forced the city???s chief executive, Carrie Lam ??? after
a meeting with top Chinese officials ??? to suspend moves to pass a hated bill
authorizing extradition June 15. Some 2 million people out of a population of
7.4 million jammed city streets the next day calling for the bill to be
permanently withdrawn. Many demanded Lam resign.
Lam claimed the move was necessary because the former British colony???s laws
don???t allow extraditions to mainland China or Taiwan. But working people and
youth saw this as a pretext to allow the regime in Beijing legal cover to go
after its political opponents in the semi-autonomous region. The people of Hong
Kong continue to defend broad democratic and political rights they first
wrested from the British rulers, rights which have been suppressed in mainland
China.
Beijing has a history of secretly abducting people from Hong Kong for detention
and ???trial??? on the mainland, as with five booksellers in 2015 who sold
literature critical of top Beijing officials.
Even some major capitalists with close ties to the Chinese rulers opposed the
law, worried?? they could be in danger if Chinese officials decided to go after
them in one of their periodic crackdowns on ???corruption.???
The British imperialists made Hong Kong a colony in 1841 after defeating
China???s rulers in the First Opium War. Even after the victory of the Chinese
Revolution in 1949, Hong Kong remained under British rule. It was not until
1997 that the capitalist island was returned to China under a ???one country,
two systems??? arrangement. It has special administrative region status meant
to last for at least 50 years. Under the deal, Beijing controls Hong Kong???s
military and foreign affairs.
Hong Kong, a deep-water port and tied to the world capitalist banking and
financial markets, was especially important to the Stalinist regime in Beijing
as it opened up China to foreign capitalist investment and promoted Chinese
capital.
Working people and youth in Hong Kong have stood up to numerous attempts to
close down democratic rights. In 2014, students, trade unions and other
supporters of political rights took to the streets in what became known as the
???umbrella revolution,??? demanding the right to directly elect government
officials and in opposition to Beijing???s intervention in Hong Kong affairs.
The year before, dockworkers went on strike demanding better pay and working
conditions at what was then the world???s third busiest container port.
And unlike mainland China ??? where the regime bans commemorations of the
massive 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing that China???s military
drowned in blood ??? in Hong Kong nearly 200,000 demonstrated on the June
4 anniversary.
Frances Hui, a student from Hong Kong at Emerson College in Boston, helped
organize a June 9 Boston action in solidarity with the Hong Kong protests and
spoke at a June 16 action in New York. She told the Militant?? June 21 that
thousands attended solidarity events in ???29 cities in 12 countries.???
The protests were large, Hui said, because of Beijing???s encroachment on
???human rights and freedoms.??? The bill would have meant ???people who fled
to Hong Kong after the [Tiananmen] massacre wouldn???t be safe.??? The city,
she said, ???would become much closer to how the rest of China is operated.???
Unions join Hong Kong protests
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions encouraged its members to join the
protests. ???The extradition bill is very dangerous for Hong Kong people,
especially workers,??? Confederation Education Secretary Stanley Ho told
Reuters June 12.
As opposition to the extradition bill mounted, Lam at first kept pushing to
adopt it. But anger mounted after cops clashed with some protesters who had
surrounded the Legislative Council Building, firing rubber bullets and tear gas
and making arrests.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed ???Western forces??? for trying ???to
sabotage Hong Kong???s stability.??? The China Daily condemned ???foreign
entities??? for misleading youth.
As the protests mushroomed, Lam ??? and top Beijing officials ??? were forced
to backpedal. This was the first major climbdown in Chinese President Xi
Jinping???s career. The Chinese rulers acted to derail any impact on workers on
the mainland and in Taiwan and any effect?? on Beijing???s trade dispute and
longer-term rivalry with Washington.
In 1997 Hong Kong represented a fifth of total Chinese economic output, but
after rapid capitalist expansion in China, it is less than 3% today.
Shanghai is now the busiest port in the world.
But the island city still channels about two-thirds of overseas investment to
the mainland. It is still a hub for southern China including the major cities
of Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
The rulers in Beijing worried that the protests in Hong Kong could spur actions
by workers in China resisting speedup, low wages and government repression. All
the news in the capitalist press about developments in China and Beijing???s
competition with Washington for economic supremacy avoid this, the real factor
that will affect the future ??? the rise of the class struggle.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???US hands off Iran! End US economic war!
???US sanctions hit hardest against working people ???Speak out against bans on
???Militant??? in prisons!
???Vote to erase Calif. mural is blow to art, political rights ???Massive
protests in Hong Kong push back hated extradition bill ??????We demand: End US
colonial rule over people of Puerto Rico???
Feature Articles ???Victory in bakery???s lawsuit against ???racism??? smear by
Oberlin College
Also In This Issue ???Former ???wives,??? children of IS fighters held in
Mideast camps ???Workers at Gate Gourmet, Sky Chefs fight for contract
???Undocumented workers in NY win right to driver???s licenses ???Sudan
military attacks protests demanding civilian government ???Celebrating 100
years ???on right side of history???
???Joyce Meissenheimer: Communist fighter
Books of the Month ???Building a party capable of leading workers to power
25, 50 and 75 years ago
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxx
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Voltaire
??? Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
???
??? Voltaire,
