Together with China Labour Bulletin (CLB) and the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, the Hong Kong Liaison Office of the international trade union movement (IHLO) is launching an international campaign in preparation for 4 June 2002, commemorating the 13th anniversary of the Chinese government’s bloody repression of workers and students near Tiananmen Square.

As part of this campaign a short booklet is under preparation for publication in Chinese and English. The booklet is a collection of a dozen interviews with independent trade union members and workers in Hong Kong, as well as workers in mainland China. The interviews focus on their recollections of May and June 1989, and what it means to them today. A key issue is why it is important to collectively remember these events. Several of the interviews go beyond their memories of the massacre in Beijing and the Hong Kong protest rallies, and instead focus on the importance of the autonomous workers’ movements at that time and the demands and aspirations of the workers involved. This is an important reminder that these demands and hopes remain as relevant today as ever.

In addition to the booklet, about 10,000 Workers Remember postcards in Chinese and English will be printed and distributed.

It is hoped that the demands and hopes of workers in 1989 will be linked to the situation faced by workers in mainland China today, thereby encouraging greater public awareness of the need for worker and trade union rights, especially freedom of association and the right to organise. In addition to this, the campaign organisers hope to raise public awareness of the significance of 4 June to the independent trade union movement in Hong Kong, and its relationship to the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong and the mainland.

An important part of this international campaign is to encourage trade union locals, national centres and global union federations to pass resolutions recalling the events of 4 June 1989, and demanding genuine recognition of freedom of association and the fulfillment of workers’ rights in China. Furthermore, trade unionists everywhere will be reminded of the arrest and detention of trade unionists in mainland China and the need to increase pressure for their release.

Finally, it is hoped that a younger generation of trade unionists and workers will be critically informed about the events leading up to 4 June 1989, and the struggle for independent trade unions in China. In doing so we hope to build on the international labour movement’s collective memory of repression in all parts of the world. This, it is believed, is essential for the realisation of international solidarity.

Trade Union Resolution on the 13th Anniversary of the Suppression of the Independent Trade Union Movement in China

The [union name] [congress/conference/meeting] in [place] on [date]:

RECALLING the formation of independent trade unions in China in the Spring of 1989, and the demands and aspirations of the Workers Autonomous Federations in their struggle to advance the collective rights and interests of workers as part of the democracy movement;

CONDEMNING the bloody repression by the Chinese government on 4 June 1989, and the arrest, detention, and persecution of independent trade unionists and labour activists ever since;

DEMANDING the immediate and unconditional release of all imprisoned trade unionists and labour activists in China today and the removal of the criminal records of those already released so that their independent union organising activities and struggles for workers’ rights shall never be regarded as crimes against society or the state;

CALLS UPON the Chinese government to recognise freedom of association as a fundamental right of working people and to allow all workers in China to freely form trade unions of their choosing;

RESOLVING to campaign locally and internationally to foster international solidarity for independent trade union organising in China by encouraging awareness among our union members and ensuring that these concerns and demands are reflected in the policies of trade unions at national and international level;

COMMITS to ensuring that the struggles, aspirations and sacrifices of workers in China in 1989 and today shall not be forgotten and to declare: Workers Remember!

Also see the link: http://www.ihlo.org/item2/item2-10.htm