HONG KONG-Three members and a sympathizer of the Revolutionary Marxist League, a Trotskyist group supporting the Fourth International, were sentenced to jail June 5 for "unlawful assembly." Another three members received suspended sentence.
The four who were imprisoned are: Leung Kwok-hung, a twenty-two-year-old garment worker, who was sentenced to two months in prison; Chan Chung-wah, a twenty-three-year-old student, three months; Wong Chung-ching, a twenty-oneyear-old shopkeeper, three months; and Hou Man-wan, a thirty-year-old delivery worker, two months.
They were accused of having taken part in an illegal demonstration on April 5 in front of the Hong Kong offices of Beijing's Xinhua news agency. The RML had called a rally on that date to commemorate the third anniversary of the Tien An Men demonstration in Beijing and similar demonstrations in other major Chinese cities, and to protest recent repression against the movement for democratic rights in China. Official approval for the rally was not received until the day before it was scheduled to be held.
At the end of the rally it was decided that representatives of the RML be sent to the Xinhua offices to hand in a letter of protest to the Beijing government. It is this action that was deemed illegal by the colonial government of Hong Kong.
Although it is not uncommon for the colonial government to use the reactionary "unlawful assembly" laws to attack the development of mass movements in Hong Kong, this is the first time since 1967 that protesters have been jailed under this legislation.
The sentences thus represent a step-up of colonial repression. It is not surprising working class would in the future have to provide more of the actual leadership of the freedom struggle. He said that "pettybourgeois Blacks" could of course participate, but that they could not be relied on to provide the kind of audacious and clearsighted direction that was necessary to win.
"Black workers," he concluded, "have to have their own political leadership."
"What kind of leadership?" I asked.
"A revolutionary party. We must have one. Or ... it will be like Soweto again, just hitting out blindly, not hitting the enemy where it really hurts. Soweto was good, it taught us many things, but it could have been better, more powerful. We were not very experienced then. Now, we see we must organize ourselves into a see strong force, a more disciplined force.
"Next time, we must be better prepared."
Prison in Hong Kong that the RML has been selected as the first group to be victimized in this way. Since its foundation in 1973, the RML has been the most active and outspoken opponent of the British government here and the first organization to rally support for democratic rights in China.
The imprisonment of the four activists must also be seen in a broader context.
On the one hand, in the past couple of years protests against the housing shortage and lack of adequate educational facilities have been on the rise. Although many of these movements, thanks to their reformist leadership, have been kept from developing into generalized social confrontations, the ruling class is frightened by their scope and intensity.
On the other hand, the ruling class is concerned about the impact of the coming economic recession. For in the past few months spontaneous actions by workers to defend their living standards have erupted sporadically, some involving up to 1,000 workers.
It is precisely this objective trend that compels the government to begin to drop its democratic façade and resort to outright repression. In fact, prior to the sentencing of the RML militants, repression had already been unleashed against other social movements.
In these circumstances it is very important for the mass movement in Hong Kong and the workers movement abroad to speak out against these moves by the colonial government. Any possible form of support from abroad-whether from trade unions, human rights groups, or individuals-is badly needed. -Protests should be sent to British embassies around the world, with copies to the RML, 9 Bailey Street, 7/F, Hunghum, Kowloon, Hong Kong.