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Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2002 20:15:29 -0700
To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
From: OWC <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Join us July 10 in SF for Noon Protest to
Demand Freedom of Liaoyang 5!
OWC CAMPAIGN NEWS - distributed by the Open World Conference
in Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights,
c/o S.F. Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San
Francisco, CA 94109.
to SUBSCRIBE, contact the OWC at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
To UNSUBSCRIBE, contact the OWC at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
Phone: (415) 641-8616 Fax: (415) 440-9297.
Visit our website at www.owcinfo.org - Notify if any change
in email address. (Please excuse duplicate postings, and
please feel free to re-post.)
-------------------
IN THIS MESSAGE
1) Introduction: A Revealing Conversation with Chinese
Consulate PR Head in SF
2) Notes on Phone Call with Mr. Hong Li, Head of Public
Relations at the Chinese Consulate
3) Urgent Appeal: July 10 -- International Day of Action
to Free the Liaoyang 5!
4) Support Coupon for International Campaign to Free the
Liaoyang 5!
********************
1) Introduction: A Revealing Conversation with Chinese
Consulate PR Head in SF
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
On Friday, June 28th, I asked Krista Husar, a volunteer with
the OWC Continuations Committee, if she would call the Chinese
Consulate in San Francisco on behalf of the San Francisco
Labor Council (AFL-CIO) and the OWC Continuations Committee to
set up an appointment with the Consulate on Wednesday, July
10.
On that date we will be sending a representative labor & com-
munity delegation to the Chinese Consulate -- as part of the
July 10 International Day of Action to Free the Liaoyang 5 --
to demand the immediate and unconditional release from prison
of the five unionists in Liaoyang, northeast China, and to
express our strong-felt concern that China should ratify and
implement ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which call for the right
to strike and to form independent trade unions.
[Note: See below the Appeal for the July 10 International Day
of Action to Free the Liaoyang 5. Also visit our web site at
owcinfo.org to read more about the struggle of the Liaoyang
workers and the recent international labor delegation to
Liaoyang organized by the International Liaison Committee for
a Workers' International (ILC).]
Krista, who will be coordinating our July 10 delegation and
rally here in San Francisco, called the Chinese Consulate to
make this appointment and spoke briefly with Mr. Hong Li,
head of Public Relations at the Consulate. I am sending you
below the notes Krista took from this call, which -- as you
will see -- reveal a hardline stance by the Chinese authori-
ties against the Liaoyang 5 and their supporters.
Despite the Consulate's initial refusal to receive our dele-
gation, we will keep calling them to insist that they receive
us. In coordination with the San Francisco Labor Council we
will also organize a noon-time rally and press conference on
July 10 in front of the Chinese Consulate in SF to report on
the outcome of our delegation, to reiterate our demands, and
to provide an update on the struggle of the Liaoyang workers
for their basic rights.
We urge all unionists and supporters of labor rights in the
San Francisco Bay Area to sign the Urgent Appeal below, which
we will submit to the Chinese Consulate on July 10. Our goal
is to submit thousands of signatures on this appeal. (Please
forward this appeal to your contacts and friends.)
We also urge you to join us during your lunch break at 12
noon on July 10 in front of the Chinese Consulate at 1450
Laguna St. (corner of Geary Blvd), near Japantown. We espe-
cially call on union locals, community organizations, and
labor rights groups to contact Krista Husar at 415-626-1175
to help us coordinate this protest action and to have
speakers and banners at the event on July 10.
One final yet important political note: Contrary to what Mr.
Hong Li, head of Public Relations at the Chinese Consulate,
implied in his response to Krista Husar, our campaign is not
marked by any hostility whatsoever towards the People's Re-
public of China and the Chinese people. Its aim is to convey
our solidarity with the Chinese workers who are struggling
for their rights. To defend the right of the Chinese workers
to organize independently is not an attack against China. On
the contrary, it is a condition to allow those who create the
wealth of the country to defend themselves.
The multinational corporations are requesting from those in
power in China the unlimited right to exploit the Chinese
workers. They do not hide the fact that their plans and their
needs require the destructive privatization of State enter-
prises and the dismantling of all systems of social protec-
tion in China. The international financial institutions of
Global Capitalism clearly say that tens of millions of lay-
offs will be the result of the agreement through which China
became part of the WTO.
As one Chinese worker told the China Labour Bulletin, which
is published by Han Dongfang in Hong Kong: "By defending
ourselves and our rights, we are defending our fatherland.
This type of patriotism means that we are deeply involved in
the welfare of the Chinese nation and of the Chinese people."
Thanks in advance for your support, and hoping you to see you
July 10th!
In Solidarity,
Alan Benjamin and Ed Rosario
Co-coordinators,
OWC Continuations Committee
*******************
2) Notes on Phone Call with Mr. Hong Li, Head of Public
Relations at the Chinese Consulate
(Friday, June 28, 2002)
Krista Husar: I am contacting you on behalf of the San Fran-
cisco Labor Council. We would like to send a labor delegation
to the Consulate on July 10 in response to the five Liaoyang
unionists who were jailed in March of this year.
Hong Li: Which men are you talking about? Where are they
from?"
Krista Husar: They are Pang Qingxiang, Xiao Yunliang, Wang
Zhaoming, and Gu Baoshu. They are from ....
Hong Li: We do not believe in the violent actions taken by
these men against China.
Krista Husar: This is regarding their attempt to express
their own voice in China and to form a union of their choice.
Hong Li: The existing union, the ACFTU [All China Federation
of Trade Unions -- the government-sponsored union], is doing
the right thing for the workers. There is no reason for these
men to organize separately. We are not interested, therefore,
in pursuing any discussion with you about the activity of
these men.
Krista Husar: I will report this discussion to the SF Labor
Council. We will be getting back to you. Thank you.
********************
3) URGENT APPEAL: JULY 10 -- INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION TO
FREE THE LIAOYANG 5!
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Throughout China, the number of strikes, demonstrations and
protests by the workers is growing. The workers are fighting
against massive layoffs, the non-payment of wages and unem-
ployment benefits, and the terrible social consequences of
both the economic reforms carried out by the Chinese govern-
ment and China's agreement with the WTO, in a situation where
the workers cannot express themselves because they do not
have available to them independent organisations.
Since March, in Daqin and Liaoyang in the northeast of the
country -- a region where more than 540,000 layoffs are
planned officially over the next few months -- the workers
have been demonstrating, holding mass sit-ins, organising,
electing their delegates.
Their strike is legitimate. They have the right to organise
as they wish.
Around mid-March, in Liaoyang, the delegates who had been
elected by the workers to negotiate with the legal authori-
ties sought to open negotiations for the satisfaction of the
following demands: payment of wage arrears, compensation for
layoffs and unemployment benefits. That is when they were
arrested. Since then, they have been charged with "orga-
nising illegal demonstrations", and are awaiting trial. Those
arrested are:
- Yao Fuxin, arrested on 17 March
- Pang Qingxiang, arrested on 20 March
- Xiao Yunliang, arrested on 20 March
- Wang Zhaoming, arrested on 20 March
- Gu Baoshu, arrested on 16 April, since released but still
under charge
The workers' representatives currently imprisoned are being
held in the detention centre in the town of Tieling. Since
then, demonstrations have been held every day. The workers
have added a new slogan to their platform: Free our dele-
gates!"
Between 25 and 28 May 2002, an international delegation of
trade unionists organised at the initiative of the Interna-
tional Liaison Committee for a Workers' International (ILC)
visited China.
This delegation brought with it the thousands of signatures
of militant activists and trade union and labour representa-
tives that had been gathered around the world endorsing an
appeal launched jointly by the International Liaison Commit-
tee and China Labour Bulletin -- a bulletin that is pub-
lished in Hong Kong by Han Dongfang, one of the founders of
the Independent Workers Federation in Tienanmen Square in
1989.
The delegation brought with it the following demands formu-
lated in the international appeal:
"The defence of the workers' rights recognises no borders or
exceptions. It is the duty of every organisation that stands
for the defence of the workers throughout the world to sup-
port and defend the fight by the Chinese workers for their
legitimate demands.
An attack on one of us is an attack on us all.
We demand the immediate release of the imprisoned Liaoyang
workers!
The Chinese workers must enjoy the rights enshrined in ILO
Conventions 87 and 98 -- the right to strike and the right to
organise."
When it arrived in Liaoyang, the delegation was expelled by
the police, who banned the delegation from having any contact
with the local authorities or visiting the prison. [For more
information on the delegation, see the full report on the
owcinfo.org web site.]
However, the Liaoyang workers have since made it known that
they had been informed of the arrival in their town of an
international delegation, and that this demonstration of
solidarity had "greatly encouraged" them.
This is a first step. But the Liaoyang worker delegates are
still in detention.
We the undersigned call on all trade unionists around the
world to take up the commitment formulated by the interna-
tional delegation at the press conference held at the of-
fices of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU):
"This international campaign will continue until the Liaoyang
prisoners are set free."
In Liaoyang, just as in Daqin, the Chinese workers are
struggling for the rights set out in ILO Conventions 87 and
98: the right of association, the right to organise freely in
the trade union of their choice.
Through these two fundamental ILO Conventions is expressed
the question of all the ILO Conventions in their normative,
binding and universal character, codifying not only general
and abstract principles but also precise and concrete rights
applicable to everyone, whatever their country, whatever
their circumstances. What is at stake is the right to strike,
the right to negotiate, the right to organise.
It is a question of the fight by all the workers of the world
who, without codified rights, without independent trade
unions -- which are necessary instruments for the exercise
and defence of those rights -- are easy prey for the pillage
and exploitation organised by the WTO and the institutions of
globalisation.
An attack on one of us is an attack on us all!
We call on every militant activist and trade union represen-
tative around the world:
- Let us make July 10, 2002, a global day of struggle to
free the Liaoyang Five. On that day, in every country,
let us organise gatherings and delegations to the Chinese
embassies; let us send many more telegrams and faxes to
the Liaoyang authorities.
- Let us take up the fight to free the Liaoyang workers,
for the Chinese workers to have the right to organise and
to join the trade union of their choice -- and for China
to ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
- Let us prepare a new international delegation of trade
unionists in order to express the solidarity of the
workers of the whole world with their Chinese brothers
and sisters, to demand the freeing of the Liayang
prisoners, the freeing of all those labour militant
activists who have been imprisoned for striking and
demonstrating.
Initial Signatories: Han Dongfang (China Labour Bulletin);
Cai Chonguo (China Labour Bulletin); Olivier Doriane, Inter-
national Liaison Committee for a Workers' International;
Daniel Gluckstein, Coordinator, International Liaison Com-
mittee for a Workers' International (follows a list of more
than 100 unionists from 29 countries; the full list is posted
on our owcinfo.org web site)
[Note: I've signed that call, as member of the Me-
talworkers' Trade Union in Sweden (Metall) - RM]
---
[This appeal was launched on 16 June 2002 in Geneva, at the
international meeting held in defence of ILO Conventions by
the International Liaison Committee for a Workers' Interna-
tional, after the participants heard a report given in the
name of China Labour Bulletin on the situation in Liaoyang,
and after learning of the contribution by Lee Cheuk Yan, Ge-
neral Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade
Unions, following the election of the ACFTU -- the official,
government-backed Chinese union federation -- to the Inter-
national Labour Bureau.]
*********************
4) Support Coupon for International Campaign to Free the
Liaoyang 5!
[ ] Add my name to the above declaration and to the
International Campaign to Free the Liaoyang 5
[ ] I pledge $ _____ to help fund the expenses of this
international campaign. I will send this contribu-
tion to OWC, c/o S.F. Labor Council (AFL-CIO),
1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94109,
with my check payable to OWC.
[ ] I will join you at the noon-time protest rally in
front of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco
(1450 Laguna @ Geary Blvd, near Japantown) on
July 10.
[ ] Please send me a hard copy of the Liaoyang 5 brochure
for distribution to friends and co-workers. [ ]
Send me multiple copies (list #) _________ .
I will enclose a contribution to cover expenses.
NAME
UNION OR ORG (for id. only)
TITLE (for id. only)
ADDRESS
CITY
STATE
ZIP
COUNTRY
EMAIL
(please fill out and return to OWC at
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
********************
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