Hong Kong July 1 – 50,000 march for democracy

Democratic Party’s betrayal draws angry reactions

J. M. Roy, Socialist Action (cwi in Hong Kong)

Around 50,000 people took part in the annual 1 July march in Hong Kong, but this year it had a different feel to it. Traditionally a day for Hong Kong citizens to call for greater democracy, this year was different. Socialist Action was present with a colourful and noisy contingent of young members calling for genuine democracy, a living wage and for solidarity, not only between workers in Hong Kong and China, but internationally. As Hong Kong becomes ever more politicised, people are beginning to realise that the old parties don’t have the answers.

The recent government proposals to slightly amend the make up of the undemocratic Legco had passed with the necessary two thirds majority the previous week thanks mainly to the votes of the so called ‘Democratic’ Party who, after making secret deals with the Beijing government, which even their own party members were kept in the dark about, supported the government plans to keep functional constituencies. The party which has for 20 years denounced the massacre of June 4th and called for the release of political prisoners is now doing deals with those responsible.

The party leadership seriously underestimated the people of Hong Kong if they thought they could make deals with Beijing while still professing to be ‘democratic’. As the march from Victoria Park to government house got under way. the contingent of the party on the march was forced to hire their own security guards to protect them from hecklers, many from within their own party. Cries of ‘traitors’ ‘shame’ and ‘betrayal’ rang out as the ‘Democratic’ Party marched.  Veteran party member Szeto Wah was accused by a member of his own party of ‘trampling on the bodies of 6-4’ by dealing with Beijing.

The most prominent theme on the march aside from a call for genuine democracy in Hong Kong was a call for a minimum wage of $33 an hour. There are half a million workers paid less than this in Hong Kong, many of them young people as well as the elderly and migrant workers who are unscrupulously exploited by bosses taking full advantage of the capitalist system by paying workers less than $20 an hour. Socialist Actions banners called for a minimum wage of $33 an hour, with no exceptions and no backing down by union leaders.

The march ended at Government House where many young people including a larfge group of League of Social Democrat members, and members of Socialist Action, staged a sit in, demanding to speak to Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to demand an end to functional constituencies and the implementation of full democracy. The sit in carried on until the early hours of the morning. Many young people were forcibly removed by the police, as was Legco member Leung Kwok Hung (Long Hair)

The march showed that many people in Hong Kong are ready for an alternative to the system they have been forced to put up with for too long. An undemocratic system controlled by the bosses. They have now witnessed what they thought were the advocates of democratic change in the ‘Democratic’ party selling them out to their new masters in Beijing.

Socalist Action (cwi in Hong Kong) was present at the demonstration with two stalls in Causeway Bay and Wan Chai. Represented by members from Hong Kong, China, Europe and the Philippines, there was great interest and support from the public, with both stalls completely selling out of our magazine ‘Socialist’.

Cash counts: An interesting result of the demonstration was the cash collections of various parties in the pan-democratic camp. The Democrats, following their decision to support Donald Tsang's fake democratic reforms, saw their total cash collection slump by 80 percent from last year's result of HK$300,000, to HK$45,000. The League of Social Democrats (LSD) collected HK$260,000. The LSD contingent in the march encompassed more than 5,000 people and was at least ten times larger than the Democratic Party’s section. Socialist Action, in its first ever 1 July demonstration under that name, collected HK$6,040.