A new sledgehammer blow

On 21 May, the Beijing authorities suddenly announced that a draft law on “national security” would be presented a week later to the National Assembly of the People’s Republic of China. Its aim is to suppress most of the democratic freedoms that currently exist in Hong Kong.

On the 28^th, a resolution was passed mandating the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to draft as soon as possible a text to be automatically inserted into the text serving as Hong Kong’s Constitution. Wanting to implement these provisions as quickly as possible, the Beijing regime even bypassed the Hong Kong puppet parliament (LegCo).

It’s time to strike back

On Thursday 4 June, thousands of people attended the annual vigil commemorating the 1989 “Tiananmen Massacre”, despite its firm ban under the pretext of Covid 19 (even though this epidemic has been officially declared over!).

On Saturday 6 June, two convergent proposals for a strike were launched. The first came from trade union organisations created in the wake of the formidable mobilisations of 2019 and from the HKCTU trade union centre created 30 years ago. Their will is that this strike be based on the decision of the employees themselves, especially since the recourse to strike is historically very rare in Hong Kong. To this end, these unions are organising a week of massive consultation of the employees starting on Monday 8^th. The quorum is 60,000 voters (in a territory with 9 times more inhabitants than in France!). If 60% of the participants agree to go on strike, a three-day warning strike will be called.

The second strike proposal was launched by a high school organisation linked to the political group Demosisto, created by some of the leaders of the “umbrella movement” of 2014. The quorum set is 10,000 students.

As far as they are concerned, local elected representatives from the electoral tidal wave of last November 24 where the opposition had won 81% of the seats, called for the withdrawal of the bill that would “push Hong Kong into an irreversible abyss”.

The International Trade Union Solidarity and Struggle Network expresses its full solidarity with the mobilized Hong Kong women and men and will remain vigilant against any form of repression by the Chinese Freedom Power, including the repression of strike action.