
A new enemy of the state is rising in China, one that appears to have China’s leadership concerned enough to crack down on a fledgling movement and its leaders. These activists, however, aren’t demanding Western-style democracy, religion, or human rights; rather they are espousing communism.
Video of Jasic workers protest: as workers continue to voice their demands to unionise, the local ACFTU held a meeting with company representatives and announce the efforts to establish enterprise union enter a new stage “after 2 months of working together.” #unionAccountability pic.twitter.com/5CeTQbnE7W
— CLB (@chinalabour) July 24, 2018
After generations of teaching Lenin and Marx in schools, many students have taken the lessons to heart, willing to come to the aid of the proletariat. They had their opportunity after a strike broke out in a Shenzhen factory, a strike which led to an arrest of workers in late August, the largest such arrest since 2015.
Factory workers at Jasic Technology, which exports welding machine parts to U.S. companies, had been demanding the right to form a union but the company rejected their efforts. Learning the news, students from leading universities around the country decide to join the fight and organized rallies, which only really made sense given their education.
5天了,我们的兄弟姐妹——岳昕、梦雨等左翼青年,尚杨雪、唐向伟等被取保候审的工友,小胡、吴大哥等声援团中的工友,冯歌、展振振等进步学生依旧下落不明!腐朽的反动势力进行暴力清场是要一条道走到黑的。我们不再心存幻想,张圣业已发布清场事件亲历书,吹响了重新战斗的号角!黑暗不散,斗争不息! pic.twitter.com/AJYpfpQ7MT
— 岳昕 (@yuexinmutian) August 29, 2018
(In this tweet posted by members of the student movement, they reiterate their “solidarity with the workers,” refer to their arrested “brothers and sisters,” and call the authorities “reactionary forces.”)
In fact, the very symbols of their resistance were ripped from old communist icons: they carried portraits of Mao, sung socialist anthems, and repeated old party slogans such as one in a petition that reads, “Our ancestors’ baton is firmly in our hands. Long live the working class!” Like early party activists, they spoke out against poverty, worker rights and gender equality. They also point to the nation’s constitution which dictates that the country is to be led by the working class.
However, despite this, authorities have been reacting more like it was 1989 and quickly moved to crush their efforts, detaining several dozen of the student activists and working to erase their presence online. However, the students appear to be undaunted, arguing that they are only doing what they were taught was right.
#jasic #北科大黑社会事件 #北京科技大学 #高校打压进步社团 #Beijing #marxism #PKU
【紧急快讯】这是北科现场发来的打人视频这些北科的黑社会推搡,抢夺,谩骂,打人,真是无所不用其极!这难道就是一个211高等院校的风采? pic.twitter.com/CBHFo4gHyE— 佳士声援团 (@jasicworkers) September 27, 2018
“What we are doing is entirely legal and reasonable,” said Chen Kexin, a senior at Renmin University in Beijing who took part in the protests. “We are Marxists. We praise socialism. We stand with workers. The authorities can’t target us.”
Ironically, it was President Xi Jinping who, most recently, implemented a policy to teach more Mao and Marx in schools. It would appear, as is characteristic of students in China, they took their lessons seriously.
施英:一周新闻聚焦:深圳佳士工运维权遭当局镇压,数十名工友和学生被抓https://t.co/htj5tDBCCd
持续数月的深圳佳士科技公司工人维权运动,因毛派势力介入,受到海内外人士关注,也令广东当局高度紧张,在互联网及微信群,相关文字及图片均遭屏蔽。 pic.twitter.com/4GTr7A831v— Cai Chu (@caichu88) August 27, 2018