rights and against bureaucratic cotruption.
Nothing however could have prepared the campaign's supporters for the extent of bloodshed of unarmed students and workers that was to take place on and after June 4th. The mood of supporters is now changing from grief and horror to anger and resolve. The degree of repression that the Chinese leadership is willing to unleash suggests their desperation as much as their ruthlessness.
The reports since received from China indicate that this desperation arose firstly because of the strength and organised nature of the mobilisations in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere. The students and intellectual dissidents displayed a political maturity in their tactics and internal organisation which posed
greater challenge to the credibility of the ruling bureaucracy than ever seen before. But perhaps more importantly, the active participation by residents and workers sounded alarm bells for a leadership strongly identified with and committed to a host of economic reforms which rely on passive compliance by the urban working class in the face of measures for increased productivity.
Workers in key industries in Beijing beagn to vent their frustration over the lack of Page 2
UPDATE/ CHINA The fight for solidarity democracy and workers' control over production and the running of their factories, by setting up, a month after the first student demonstrations in April, the workers' autonomous federation with their own tent and banners prominentiy displayed in Tiananmen sqaure.
Trini Leung from the Hong Kong trade union education centre, the federation's camp during the occupation of Tiananmen square, writes; 'Under the red banner of the workers' autonomous federa-. tion and fluttering slogans calling for democracy and freedom of association, between 50 and 100 workers erected a tented headquarters ... members of the union were mostly production workers, service sector workers and worker intellectuals. Among the core members there were steel workers, railway workers, aviation workers, restaurant cooks, students and lawyers The problems the federation were addressing focused on the corrupt bureaucracy and the existence of a privileged elite in China.
The wide wage discrepancy between workers managers, the lack of workplace democracy, the lack of genuine workers' representation in the policy-making process, poor labour protection and working conditions, and the deterioration of workers living standards in recent years were among their main grievances.
The federation's camp was towards the north-east of the Square. On the evening before the massacre, troops were massing at that end of the Square, and it was clear that a confrontation of some sort was about to occur. The members of the union, were among the most courageous of the demonstrators, and holding their union banners high, they marched to the front of the crowds, facing the waiting troops. It was from this corner of Tiananmen Square that the massacre began.
Students who survived massacre told us in the following hours that most of the repre-
sentatives of the autonomous workers' federation were killed as the troops attacked. (1)
Similar autonomous unions in other industrial centres of China were soon follow. There can be little doubt that it was the organised and militant workers' support for the democracy movement that posed the biggest threat to the bureaucracy and exacerbated the prevailing divisions within it. sought throughout the uprising to stress the patriotic nature of their struggle and their commitment to the republic suggests a recognition of their role in securing the ideals of the revolution rather
trusting them to their
Where now from here for democracy movement? The initial frenzy of demonstrations, rallies and public meetings cannot be sustained. Nor is it necessarily wise to do so. The solidarity which needs to be built is one that can respond to the long term needs and immediate demands of the movement, as and when they arise. What a tragedy it would be if one year, or even ten years after the 1989 uprisings, the British working class was once again caught unprepared to extend its strongest political and moral support.
This depends on the construction grassroots Chinese solidarity organisations throughout the country, and the fomation of close links between these and the Chinese organisations, both legal and underground, supportive of the democracy movement. There is much to be done. The British labour moveemnt must reorientate its contact with China on the basis of exposing the complicity of the official structures claiming to represent Chinese students and workers, as well as that of our own government and its capitalist friends who have little concern for democracy - whether in China, Hong Kong, or the six
counties of Ireland or in Britain itself.
The task of re-establishing liaison between student unions, trade unions, professional, arts and sports bodies and educational establishments which undermine the Chinese state's bureaucratic control is a major one, requiring close international cooperation. In particular, the leaders and members of the autonomous workers union will face severe repression and will rely on political back-up from workers' organisations outside