On Saturday 31 July, the local education authority announced that it was cutting all ties with the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU), which represents over 90% of Hong Kong teachers.
The HKPTU has now been stripped of its right to defend teachers individually and collectively.
In particular, the union is being removed from consultative bodies, and the union training courses organised by HKPTU will no longer be recognised.
This attack is part of a frontal offensive against Hong Kong trade unionism. Legal proceedings are underway that could result in sentences up to life imprisonment against, among others:
– the chairwoman and the general secretary of the HKCTU,
– the president of the public health union HAEA,
– five members of the speech therapists’ union who had produced a children’s book deemed seditious by the authorities.
Following the scale of the current attack on the HKPTU teachers’ union, the latter announced its disaffiliation from the HKCTU, which thus lost more than 65% of its members.
The aim of the government in Beijing is clear: to destroy all forms of organisation independent of the state in order to bring the entire population of Hong Kong into line with mainland standards.
This is a global policy affecting freedom of expression, organisation, demonstration, travel, etc.
In this context, education is a decisive sector:
– It has played a central role in Hong Kong’s trade unionism, in the movement for democracy, as well as in solidarity with the oppressed and exploited of the Chinese mainland;
– It is in charge of the training of the new generations that the Beijing government wants to formulate on the continental model, by inculcating in them from the age of 6 the submission to the rules relating to “national security” and “patriotism”.
Stifling independent organisation and critical thinking within the education system is a priority for the government.
In the face of this, Hong Kong teachers need our support more than ever.
Paris, 5 August 2021