Appeal for International Solidarity In the aftermath of the June 4th commemoration, the April Fifth Action, Hong Kong, would like to make an appeal to the international community to denounce the assaults made by the Chinese Government against political activists, especially the workers, in China. The activists in China have put up a heroic fight in the last couple of months. There have been workers protests, petitions and press conferences. These are signs that the Chinese Democracy Movement has made important progress since the June 4th crackdown six years ago. Because of this, the Chinese Government has stepped up its repression, for fear that the Movement might present a serious threat when social discontent and unrest have been building up for the last two to three years. Dozens of organisers have already been arrested in the past few months, among whom are Wei Jin-sang, Wong Dan, Lau Nin-chun and Chan Chi-ming, just to name a few prominent ones. The Chinese Government has been especially brutal to workers who organise union activities. Three workers in ShengZeng, just across the border of Hong Kong, were arrested last year for organising unions and distributing handbills. Unconfirmed reports said that they were sentenced to long prison terms. **************************************************************************** ************ We appeal to you all to send protest messages to the Chinese Governmnet to demand for the release of these activists who had done nothing but to exercise the freedom of speech and the right to associate. Please send protest letters or messages to the Standing Committee, National Peoples' Congress, Beijing, China. We would very much appreciate if you can pass the message to other labour organisations. **************************************************************************** ************ Here are some information about the 3 organizers arrested in ShengZeng: 1. Lee Man-ming and Kwong Lok-cheong, Male, Han race, both from Hunan Province (in the middle of China, along the Yangtze River), about 27 years old. 2. Lee was trained at a Hunan technical college (not sure which department). In his school years, he had already participated in the local student movement. After his graduation, he was assigned to a factory to work. In 1991, he resigned and went to Shencheng and got a job as the public relation officer of the magazine "Youth of Shengcheng". At the end of 92, he went to Beijing University to study and associated with democracy activists there. 3. Kwong Lok-cheong studied in the Shanghai Transport University and was active in the student movement, bding a student leader of the university during the 86-87 student unrest. In a meeting with the then Shanghai Mayor, Jiang Zemin (now the President of china), Kwong critized Jiang harshly and thus won the respect of the students. When the student unrest was over, he was dismissed and went back to the countryside. In 1993, Lee Man-ming invited him to go to Shengcheng to do organizing work. 4. In June, 1993, Lee and Kwong initiated a program to educate the workers about the poor labour conditions in the numerous factories in Shengcheng. In August, they started a Workers' Evening School, which attracted hundreds of workers to attend the courses. Then they planned to establish an independent trade union called the "Union of Labourers". (In China, independent trade unions are not allowed. There is only one union-the Official Trade Union controlled by the CCP). 5. In September, 1993, the Shengcheng Public Security Bureau took away some documents from their office. In October, under pressure from the PSB, they fled to Beijing. Then at the beginning of 94, both of them came back to start again.. 6. In April, 1994, the PSB arrested them. To date, they are still detained incommunicado, with no charges pressed against them. 7. There are about a dozen core activists involved in the project. Two of them are Kwok Po-sing, a student of the Chinese Poeple's University (Beijing) and Lee Ming-Ki of Beijing University. Both were dismissed for political reasons (that means they deviated from the party line and harboured 'libral' ideas). Kwok was arrested at the same time with Lee and Kwong while Lee Ming-ki's whereabout has been unknown from then. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ email: tllau5@hkein.ie.cuhk.hk April Fifth Action Front Portion, 2nd Floor, 103, Argle Street, Mongkok, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2397 6337 Fax: (852) 2394 4383 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~