In the past three months, millions of Hong Kong people have turned up on the streets to make their voices heard.
With rallies and protests blossoming everywhere, the five major demands are resounding throughout the city.
However, no positive response has been received from the government.
On the contrary, the violence is increasingly escalating and white terror is beginning to shroud Hong Kong.
As Hong Kong people, it leaves us with no choice but to save our city by going on strike.
The intolerable police brutality
Despite large number of people are taking to the streets every week, they are met with brutality by the police and violent suppression by the government. In ignoring the potential hazardous, the police has already fired more than 2,000 tear gas canisters so far, many of which were shot in residential buildings and communities.
The triads have beaten protestors and the general public indiscriminately, but the police deliberately condoned such violence and did not arrest the perpetrators at the scene.
On the other hand, the police continues to fire rubber bullets at the crowd from close range, causing permanent and serious injuries; the demonstrators are constantly subjected to police abuse and sexual violence during arrests or detentions.
The state is now ruling the city by terror, as it has lost all its credibility in governance.
We must save Hong Kong from institutional collapse
In order to suppress the resistance of the people, those who are in power have taken extreme measures that leads to a gradual institutional collapse.
Government and police officials continue to cover up facts with lies, and the accountability of the cabinet is vanishing.
On the other hand, citizens’ rights to freedom of assembly and procession has been greatly deprived.
Nowadays, even the right to peaceful demonstrations has been repressed;
Hong Kong people’s civil rights and liberty is under seriously threat.
Furthermore, employees are now being politically persecuted by participating in political activities or expressing their views on Facebook during their non-work time, our rights to freedom of expression are being violently trampled.
The core values and systems that Hong Kong held in the past are now gradually falling apart, and the battle to save Hong Kong has reached a critical juncture.
Saving our home is a responsibility for all
Hong Kong is our beloved home; our jobs, livelihoods, family, and friends that we cherish are all here.
We cannot let those who are in power continue to ravage the home that we always hold dear;
we must not fallback when tens of thousands of young people are being beaten and prosecuted while taking to the streets to save Hong Kong’s future.
So regardless of class, profession, and position, as a Hong Konger, we are all responsible to save Hong Kong.
Strike escalation to oppose tyranny
Hong Kong has reached a critical juncture and we have no choice but to escalate the workers strike as this is our last resort.
After the strike on 5 August, the HKCTU will once again respond to the call for a strike and appeal to all employees from all walks of life to go on strike for two days on September 2 and 3.
We must warn those who are in power: when the core values and systems of Hong Kong crumble, the economic order will go down with it, we are determined to lay down our work, and stand in line with all the protestors on the streets who are fighting for our common future!
Strike assembly on 2 & 3 September
Time: 2:30 pm
Venue: Tamar Park, Admiralty
For the latest information, please pay attention to the following HKCTU information channel: https://t.me/unionsforHK
Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU)
‘More than 40,000’ attend second day of strike rally in Tamar Park, Admiralty, as tensions between Hong Kong protesters and police break out again after event
Published: 8:42pm, 3 Sep, 2019 - Kanis Leung (SCMP)
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3025559/more-40000-attend-second-day-strike-rally-tamar-park
Demonstration on first day also drew similar turnout, according to organisers, but police put figure at 4,080.
A crowd near the site shines laser beams on police behind barricades
More than 40,000 people gathered again at Hong Kong’s political centre for a second day of strikes, according to organisers, with tensions rising on Tuesday 3 evening between protesters and police near the government headquarters.
At Tamar Park in Admiralty, crowds started packing the lawn in the afternoon for the movement, organised by representatives from various sectors and supported by the Confederation of Trade Unions.
Easy Kwok, one of the organisers, said more than 40,000 people showed up – a turnout that was similar to that of the previous day. He could not give a figure on how many others citywide had boycotted work.
Police put the attendance at 4,080 at its peak.
Attendees, comprising a mix of office and blue-collar workers, as well as secondary school students, were calling for the full withdrawal of the now- shelved extradition bill and an independent inquiry into police handling of protests.
– Civil Human Rights Front convenor Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit and Rebecca Sy On-na, former chairwoman of the Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Flight Attendants’ Association, were among the speakers at the event.
– Kwan Chun-pong, 48, who works in the manufacturing industry, said he took time off work on both days to attend the rally.
“I worry about Hong Kong more than my job,” he said, adding that young people on the front lines of demonstrations faced more challenges, such as being arrested or coming under excessive force from police.
“We are just sitting on the lawn, our efforts are relatively minimal,” Kwan said.
– Social worker Lam Cheung, 28, another rally-goer, said the five demands by protesters were important.
“Under this situation, we have no way to back down. We can only try our best,” she said.
– Eliza Wong, 20, who works in the food and beverage sector, came to support the movement before her late shift. When asked about potential pressure from employers for attending the protest, she said: “If I’m sacked just for this, which does not affect my company’s operations, then I won’t want to be with such an employer anyway.”
– Form Six students Vicky Lam, 16, and Winnie Cao, 18, came to the rally to show their support after classes. Lam said she believed with a high turnout for the rally, more people would eventually care about the movement even if the government did not listen to protesters’ demands.
With the university entrance exams months away, Lam said: “We enter university for a good career in Hong Kong. But if Hong Kong changes, then this does not work anyway.”
The two-day strike was the second such widespread industrial action since the political crisis erupted in June.
A brief stand-off on Lung Wo Road between protesters and police occurred on Monday evening, near the rally venue, before unrest then crept up in other parts of the city – such as Mong Kok [2] – into the night.
Similar tensions developed near the rally again on Tuesday 3 when around 6.30pm, protesters pointed laser beams at o!cers behind water barricades set up outside the Chief Executive’s O!ce. Police warned the crowd to leave or face possible use of force.
A verbal dispute then broke out between demonstrators in black and a Mandarin-speaking passer-by.
The man had shouted for help metres away from protesters, claiming he was attacked by some people in black. Officers rushed to help him after he claimed he was hurt, and they escorted him to their side.
After the stand-off in Admiralty, protesters emerged again in Prince Edward and Wong Tai Sin. Dozens of black-clad protesters entered Temple Mall in Wong Tai Sin after learning police were around the exits at the MTR station.
In the previous strike movement in August 5 amid weeks of protest chaos in Hong Kong, an estimated 350,000 people citywide boycotted work, with 290,000 attending seven rallies around Hong Kong.
The extradition bill would have allowed the transfer of defendants to jurisdictions with which the city has no such agreement, including mainland China.
Links
[1] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3025440/hong-kong-protests-carrie-lam-insists-she-has-never-offered
[2] https://www.scmp.com/news/hongkong/politics/article/3025364/thousands-gather-tamar-park-rally-hong-kong-protesters