Daniel Morley
12 September 2019
The Sunday 8 September protest
threatens to lead the movement in Hong Kong in a reactionary, openly pro-US
imperialist direction. This is extremely dangerous for the movement and must be
firmly and unequivocally rejected.
The march went to the US
consulate in Hong Kong and was strewn with US flags. Some posed outside the
consulate draped in the flags of the G7 countries, begging for their
‘humanitarian’ assistance.
The leaders then posed for
photographs with a large banner which read “President Trump, please liberate
Hong Kong.” In the pictures, you can see that this was all organised by Hong
Kong Autonomy Movement: a coalition of anti-Chinese bourgeois liberal and
right-wing figures. It is a funny kind of autonomy proposed when you must
prostrate yourself before a foreign power to secure it!
A criminal strategy
The strategy of this group
(which, as many have pointed out, is strongly associated with the reactionary
bourgeois coalition “Hong Kong Autonomy Movement”) is to utilise the interests
of American imperialism to undermine China and get what they want. Many on the
right wing of the movement in Hong Kong already have ties to US imperialism
through the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA front which has openly
spent $29m in Hong Kong since 2014.
The right wing of the movement
in Hong Kong has latched onto the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act currently
making its way through the US Congress. This act was introduced by
arch-imperialist Republican Marco Rubio and his Democratic counterpart Ben
Cardin, and threatens to revoke Hong Kong’s special status, which allows it to
import advanced technology from the US and to avoid other trade barriers that
China must endure. The thinking is simple: if they can encourage this law to be
passed, China will suddenly grant Hong Kongers everything they ask for to avoid
barriers to trade with the US.
There is a rather obvious flaw
in this strategy: China is currently embroiled in a trade war with the US, and
is digging its heels in. Although it does fear the economic repercussions, it
sees no alternative, and knows that being able to blame the US washes well with
the Chinese working class, who understand quite well what US imperialism is
really about.
This strategy is absolutely
criminal and Hong Kongers fighting for democratic rights must strongly reject
it and all those who preach it. Trump is no friend of the Hong Kong masses – indeed
he has already written off the protests as riots.
The idea that the United
States is a friend of democracy is preposterous. Everywhere Washington has
intervened, it has done so to advance and protect the imperialist interests of
US big businesses. This was the case in Chile in 1973, in the Iraq war, in the
Honduras coup of 2009 and in the more recent attempts at regime change in
Venezuela, just to give a few examples.
The US has no qualms about
doing business with the reactionary, undemocratic Saudi regime, which is
carrying out a murderous war in Yemen, as long as the relationship is beneficial
to the interests of US imperialism (through oil and weapons contracts,
influence and regional power).
More importantly, Hong Kong’s
problems are far deeper than those of a dictatorial regime. As we have always
pointed out, it is one of the most unequal places in the world, housing is many
times more expensive (both in absolute terms and in relation to wages) than
even in London and New York, and the quality is extremely low as well. Working
hours are obscenely long, as they must be for workers to afford the boxes in
which they live.
To think that Donald Trump and
Wall Street have the answers to these problems is madness. Should Hong Kong
somehow gain autonomy from China on a capitalist basis (which will not happen),
US imperialism will do nothing to address the crying injustices inflicted upon
Hong Kong workers each day.
This liberal, pro-US strategy
plays right into Xi Jinping’s hands, because it serves to isolate the Hong Kong
workers from their only real allies – the workers of mainland China, who suffer
not only the same political regime but the same social crisis of rampant
inequality and exploitation. But mainland workers will not be inclined to
spread the struggle against Beijing’s regime throughout China after seeing the
appeals to Donald Trump and the anti-Chinese propaganda.
Leadership lacking – class
struggle needed!
Throughout the 14 weeks of
this movement, the Hong Kong masses have shown tremendous bravery and
determination. They have put their lives on the line to fight an extremely
powerful regime for democratic rights. But throughout this movement they have
suffered from an absence of clear leadership capable of taking the movement
forward.
The self-appointed leaders or
figureheads of the movement, like Joshua Wong, are bourgeois liberals of the
worst kind. Their whole approach, in tactics, strategy and politics, is
counter-productive. Wong is currently in Germany trying to get the support of
European imperialist powers. In an open letter to Merkel, he has revealed the
real content of his policies.
“We urge the free world to
stand together with us,'' he says, comparing the situation in Hong Kong with
that of Berlin during the Cold War. The “free world” he is appealing to is, of
course, led by the same imperialist powers that oppressed the colonial peoples’
historically, in the most brutal way – including China – and which now prop up
all sorts of dictators in Third World countries, as long as they are on their
side. The next stop in Wong’s tour is the United States itself, where he will
lobby imperialist politicians to “liberate Hong Kong”.
This has led to an atmosphere
of despair and desperation. People feel that their way of life, and the city
that they know, is on the verge of being extinguished. Therefore, they are
prepared to fight ferociously. But with no clear programme of action, no
coherent alternative, no answer for how the people of Hong Kong can actually
end Beijing’s dictatorship, they are beginning to despair.
This is compounded by the
inadequacy of the Civil Human Rights Front; key organiser Jimmy Sham Tsz Kit
being a member of the League of Social Democrats; and the Hong Kong
Confederation of Trade Union (HKCTU)’s timid methods towards the bosses. Their
repeated urge for workers to go on “strike” with the permission of their
employers – as well as continually bungling their efforts to organise “general
strikes” – is making mockery of the strategy of industrial action before the
eyes of many who have never been exposed to class struggle methods.
Therefore, a section of the
protesters are losing faith in strikes and are turning towards reactionary
methods, such as appealing to the US Congress and Trump, which appears to them
as expedient. This led to the large turnout at Sunday’s rally in front of the
consulate, which organisers claimed to have been 250,000 (probably an
exaggeration). Back in 26 June, only around 1,500 people went around foreign consulates
in Hong Kong and begged for western intervention.
This is gradually causing the
movement to enter a decline, for now at least. As this happens, the
well-funded, right-wing fringe of the movement can begin to take more of a
centre stage and speak in the name of the entire movement. Their strategy of
appeals to imperialism will alienate the movement’s left wing, and close off
any chance of solidarity from the mainland. As the movement finally fizzles
out, the regime will then take the opportunity to repress all the key
individuals and organisations, especially on the left.
The only way out of this
perspective is with the methods of class struggle and the programme of
socialism: by mobilising the youth and the working class around a programme of,
not just democratic rights, but social rights. These should include a mass
social housing plan, nationalisation of the property of Hong Kong’s super rich,
and an internationalist appeal to the workers of the mainland to join in a
common struggle against the bosses and all the ills of capitalism.
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