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The American left and the Hong Kong protests Extract from the D/SWV list for July 23, 2019 2. Braving repression, the Hong Kong protests continue 3. The American left and the Hong Kong protests 3a. Reply to Norma Harrison re the Hong Kong protests 3b. Reply to I.Z. on the supposed "communist" governments 2. Braving repression, the Hong Kong protests continue! Since the Detroit/Seattle Workers' Voice list article of June 25 in support of the Hong Kong protests against the bill allowing extradition to mainland China (http://www.communistvoice.org/DSWV-190625.html), mass demonstrations have continued. Certain differences have appeared among the demonstrators, with most engaging in marches, but a section of youth engaging in more confrontational tactics, such as confronting the police and occupying the Legislative Council chamber on July 1. Among the protests was that of July 17, where older Hong Kong people marched in support of the youth activists and against police suppression. Police abuses have become harsher over time. On July 21, an anti-extradition march was attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets by the police. And then the police stood by as a gang of men with wooden bats attacked demonstrators and other people at a subway station. The demands of the youth who occupied the Legislative Council are as follows (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7LYrLemXOw): >1. Fully withdraw the proposed amendments (the extradition bill is officially >a series of amendments); >2. Rescind the characterization of the movement as a "riot"; >3. Drop all charges against anti-extradition protesters; >4. Fully investigate and hold responsible abuses of the power of the Hong >Kong police; >5. Dissolve the Legislative Council and introduce Universal Suffrage ................ It's notable that so many rich businesspeople are pro-Beijing. They realize that the Chinese revolution faded away a long time ago. They know that present-day China isn't really socialist, although they are concerned not to be arrested in the course of the factional fighting in the Chinese ruling class. ... The opposition to the extradition bill is not a radical social movement. It embraces a variety of different social groups, and many people even have illusions about Western imperialism. What ties it together is that the mass of people are afraid that mainland China is going to tighten its grip on Hong Kong. ,,, The movement against the extradition bill takes place while mainland China is stepping up repression in China. It is putting in place surveillance cameras and computer systems in China. It has clamped down on journalists, Uighurs, eve Chinese university students going to the workers in the name of Marxism. ... The Hong Kong protest movement is a struggle to support people's rights. It is not a movement for socialism, or for radical social demands. It is not clear about what is the nature of mainland China, and it embraces a variety of political and social trends. But it is a courageous movement that deserves support from workers around the world, for democratic rights grease the road towards a more conscious and class-conscious workers' struggle. -- Joseph Green <> 3. The American left and the Hong Kong protests The radical left is supposed to be the standard-bearer of struggle against oppression everywhere. But in fact, a substantial part of the American left is silent about, or opposed to, the Hong Kong protests. For example, the Workers World Party regards the democratic movement as a US imperialist plot. They argue, in essence, that since US imperialism is the greatest enemy of the world's peoples, the democratic movement -- in which there are illusions about Western imperialism -- is therefore also an enemy of the world's people. (https://www.workers.org/2019/06/30/u-s-role-in-hong-kong-protests/) They take a similar stand on many other struggles around the world. For example, they denounce the struggle against the dictator Assad in Syria as a "US war on Syria". The Party for Socialism and Liberation also denounces the democratic movement in Hong Kong, and pretends that is an equally large opposition to the movement. (https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2014/10/party-for-socialism-and-liberation- analyzes-protests-in-hong-kong/) In general, PSL denounces all the movements for democracy or social justice on China on the grounds that "these struggles can only, under the current political circumstances and absent an organized revolutionary communist leadership current, move into the camp of reactionary counterrevolution". PSL even denounces the 1989 protests at Tienanmen Square and is silent about the massacre that occurred there. (https://liberationschool.org/what-do-socialists-defend-in-china-today/) 3a. Reply to Norma Harrison re the Hong Kong protests Another example of the denigration of the democratic struggle is seen from the response to the the D/SWV article of June 25. When our article appeared on the Dope_x_resistancela list, it was immediately replied to by Norma J F Harrison, a California activist who has repeatedly run for a position on the Berkeley school board. Her statement was as follows: >Re: D/SWV: Support the democratic movement in Hong Kong! >Tue Jun 25, 2019 7:07 am (PDT). >Posted by: "Norma J F Harrison" >does democracy = socialist... communist? >We have democracy in the U.S., for example. Israel has democracy, they keep telling us. I forget the figure - I think it was 500,000 people now sleep in the streets of the U.S. That´s democracy. >Fidel said of the revolution 'everybody eats the same'. >He also told us some enormous world-wide figure - number of people that sleep in the streets, and that none of them was(is) in Cuba. >That´s democracy. >Norma Harrison denounces the struggle for democracy, on the grounds that it isn't socialism. She identifies democracy with having 500,000 people homeless. It doesn't occur to her that the working masses use democratic rights to fight against horrible conditions. Our article of June 25th explicitly said that the protest movement wasn't a socialist movement. But we agree with the views of Marx and Lenin that the fight for democratic rights is an essential part of the class struggle. Democracy isn't the final goal, but the struggle for democratic rights is part of the struggle for liberation. It's notable that Harrison seems to have learned her denigration of democracy from Castro. The Cuban revolution was a great event, but Castro eventually set up a system in which there is a show of having elections, but the candidates are forbidden to campaign against any policy of the ruling party, or, in fact, to campaign at all. This system has been described by many visitors to Cuba. For example, Arnold August, a Canadian activist who is an ardent backer of Castroism, boasts that the lack of discussion of opposing views is one of the great virtues of the Cuban system. He writes that in elections to the Municipal Assemblies, "Once candidates have been nominated..., the local electoral commission obtains a short, biographical profile and a photo from the candidates. These are circulated and/or posted in local public places ... This is the only publicity permitted under the electoral law." He regards this as a much deeper form of democracy than allowing campaigning, and as a wonderful way to avoid the influence of money on elections. He admits that in the elections to the National Assembly, "there is one candidate per seat", but he sees this as deeply democratic because the unopposed candidate has to receive "at least 50 percent of the vote plus one". (See his book "Cuba and Its neighbours: Democracy in Motion", 2013. The quotes are from pp. 162, 179. The praise of this system is all through the book.) This is the ideology of putting one's hopes in a "benevolent despot". And in the land of the benevolent despot, whether Cuba or China, it's never the case that everyone eats the same. 3b. Reply to I.Z. on the supposed "communist" governments Another form of opposition to the democratic movement is seen in a June 30th letter written to us by I.Z. She thinks that all the governments that called themselves "communist" should be recognized as such, and supported. Since the present Chinese government is one of them, this would mean denouncing the Hong Kong protests or any mass struggles in China. Below we give her letter, and then our reply. .... <> Full text at http://www.communistvoice.org/DSWV-190723.html --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
