By harry glass
China’s forced-march industrialisation continues apace. The OECD, the rich nations’ think tank, says that by 2010 it will become the fourth largest economy in world — overtaking Britain, France and Italy.
China already accounts for 6% of world exports and is expected to reach 10% in the next five years, overtaking Germany and the US to become the world’s biggest exporter.
But the real story is the class struggles this industrialisation has generated and the dislocation it has caused. There are many stories now of big riots and clashes with police in both rural and urban areas.
Another measure of the volatile and complex class struggles now taking place is the number of worker-activists imprisoned for organising a fightback, including by forming independent trade unions.
The following examples come from a list compiled by the China Labour Bulletin (CLB) and the Hong Kong Liaison Office of the international trade union movement (IHLO).
Du Hongqi and Li Tingying
Du Hongqi and Li Tingying, workers at an artillery factory run by the South China Industries Group, were detained for independent trade union organising on 24 November 2003. The arms factory was going bankrupt and had been taken over by another enterprise, which was planning to convert it to civilian production. Some 700 out of the 1,500 factory workers were then laid off.
Du and Li founded an unofficial trade union in September 2003 to fight for better working conditions, and had organised their fellow workers to carry out several petition and protest actions.
After the mass lay-offs, their union helped to voice the workers’ demands for unemployment compensation and local government aid to find new jobs. Du Hongqi and Li Tingying were subsequently detained by the police, and Du was formally arrested on 8 December 2003 on the charge of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.”
On 18 October 2004, he was tried and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. He will be due for release in Oct 2006. The fate of Li Tingying remains unknown.
Zhang Shanguang
Zhang Shanguang, formerly a secondary school teacher, was first sentenced to seven years imprisonment after the 4 June 1989 government crackdown for his role in organising the Hunan Workers’ Autonomous Federation. While in prison, he contracted severe tuberculosis.
After his release, in early 1998, Zhang attempted to officially register a labour rights group that he founded — the Association to Protect the Rights and Interests of Laid-Off Workers (APRILW).
APRILW immediately attracted more than 300 members. On 21 July 1998, the police detained Zhang, searched his home and confiscated all documents and correspondence relating to APRILW. Subsequently charged with “passing intelligence to hostile overseas organisations” and “incitement to subvert state power,” Zhang was tried on 27 December 1998 and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
His tuberculosis has continued to worsen and he is now in a very poor condition.
He Chaohui
He Chaohui was a former railway worker at the Chenzhou Railway Bureau and vice-chair of the Hunan Workers Autonomous Federation during the May 1989 pro-democracy movement. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in 1990 for organising a strike by railway workers in May 1989.
In 1997 and 1998, he reportedly took part in several more strikes and demonstrations and gave information on the protests to overseas human rights groups. He was also said to have been active at that time in forming a group to support the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
In April 1998, the police detained He after finding a US$300 cheque sent to him by an American university professor. This was seen as confirmation that he had provided overseas groups with information about the recent workers’ protests in Hunan. He was later released due to a lack of evidence, but was rearrested May 1999 on the charge of “endangering state security (illegally providing information to foreign organisations.”
After a three-hour trial the following month, He was sentenced on 24 August 1999 to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Kong Jun and Li Xintao
Kong Jun and Li Xintao, two activists from Shandong Province, were tried on 11 May 2005 by the Mouping District Court in Yantai City, Shandong. They were found guilty of “disrupting government institutions” and “disturbing social order” and were sentenced to two and five years’ imprisonment respectively.
They had organised public protests against the bankruptcy of their factory, the Huamei Garment Company. Managers at the company, which declared bankruptcy in August 2002, had failed to pay the workers’ wages or social insurance benefits from March 2001 onwards.
Both activists wanted to appeal against their sentences but were reportedly unable to find lawyers willing to represent them.
Miao Jinhong
Miao Jinhong and Ni Xiafei led a group of migrant workers in Zhejiang Province in blocking a railway line and attacking a police station to protest at unpaid wages. Both men were detained in October 2000 and were subsequently tried and sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment (charges unknown.)
Shao Liangchen
Shao Liangchen was a leading member of the Ji'nan Workers' Autonomous Federation in Shandong Province during the May 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations. He was detained by police on 15 June 1989, tried in September that year on charges of “sabotaging communications equipment” and then sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.
His sentence was subsequently reduced to life imprisonment, and then in July 1994 to 17 years’ imprisonment. He received two further sentence reductions in 1998 and 2000.
Wang Miaogen
Wang Miaogen, a manual worker in Shanghai at the time of the May 1989 pro-democracy movement, was a leading member of the Shanghai Workers’ Autonomous Federation which was formed that month. Detained shortly after the government crackdown, Wang then spent two and a half years in untried police detention undergoing “re-education through labour” on account of his involvement in the banned workers’ group.
Wang has been held incommunicado at the Shanghai Ankang Mental Hospital now for more than 12 years.
Zhu Fangming
Zhu was a 28-year-old worker at the Hengyang City (Hunan Province) Flour Factory and vice-chairman of the Hengyang City Workers Autonomous Federation. He organised demonstrations and took part in sit-in in front of the municipal government offices.
After the events of 4 June he allegedly led workers to the municipal Public Security Bureau to demand justice. He was sentenced in December 1989 by the Hengyang City Intermediate People’s Court to life imprisonment on a charge of “hooliganism”. Zhu is currently being held in Hengyang Prison.
For a full list: www.china-labour.org.hk