GREETINGS FOR THE OCTOBER 1 ANNIVERSARY OF CHINA’S GREAT 1949 REVOLUTION DOWN WITH YUPPY, ANTI-COMMUNIST HONG KONG PROTESTS

1 October 2014: Today in Hong Kong, the Western media are playing up the anti-PRC, anti-communist protests. The protests are indeed large but the Western media ignored a huge pro-PRC rally in Hong Kong just weeks ago. The main trade union federation, the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, is pro-PRC. The parliamentary party with the biggest vote in Hong Kong is the pro-PRC, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong. It was formed by pro-communist people and leaders of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions.

Hong Kong was stolen from China by the British in the 1840s as part of the Treaty of Nanking. That followed China’s defeat in the Opium War. The humiliating treaty for China allowed Westerners in China to have “extraterritoriality” meaning that they were not subject to Chinese laws.

Under British rule, Hong Kong people had no democracy whatsoever. They were simply subjects of Britain ruled by the British Governor. This is something the media hide.

In 1967, there was mass workers struggle in Hong Kong. This was led by communist activists and the pro-PRC, Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions. The British colonial authorities responded by arresting hundreds of workers and murdering some 30 to 40 worker and communist activists. Many activists were simply beaten to death after arrest.

However, because of Hong Kong’s economically strategic location and harbour it became a wealthy port/transport hub and a  financial and tourist centre. In a similar way to Singapore it creamed off the wealth produced by workers in surrounding regions. Therefore, Hong Kong has a large middle and upper- middle class. It is these layers who are the backbone of the current, anti-PRC movement. The movement is even wrong by bourgeois-democratic principles. Hong Kong is just a tiny proportion of China – it has just 0.5% of the PRC’s total population. The protesters’ demand is the equivalent of people in Sydney’s wealthy financial district and harbour region demanding that they can completely determine their own area’s policies separate from the whole of Australia’s national laws – thus enabling them to keep for themselves the wealth which they have creamed off (through financial parasitism and payments for transport, retail etc) from the production taking place throughout the whole country.

The anti-PRC movement in Hong Kong is, of course, backed by the Western- funded NGOs. Although many naive, liberal young people have been sucked into the movement, the leaders of it understand that Western-style parliamentary “democracy” would enable the anti-communist side to leverage capitalist wealth and influence to get their way.

Despite the privileged position of Hong Kong, with its large upper middle class, it is still very much a capitalist class society. There is a large and exploited working class there. There are tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong living in what can only be described as cages – tiny, semi- underground pens. When I was there in 2010, I noticed that there was a much higher proportion of homeless people there than in the mainland. Also unlike in the mainland PRC, the police in Hong Kong are racist. Whereas in the mainland it is state-owned companies that dominate the economy, in Hong Kong it is powerful capitalist tycoons, often linked with organised crime (or they are simply the triad bosses themselves) that rule. Asia’s richest man is Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon who owns Hong Kong’s ports among many other things.

The PRC leaders, as part of their wavering policies, have done the wrong thing by allowing a “one country, two systems” formula where Hong Kong is allowed to maintain a capitalist system. This has allowed pro-capitalist forces great influence and thus enables the current anti-PRC movement to have life. The current policy should be reversed or else pro-capitalist elements in the mainland will also be emboldened by the Hong Kong “pro-democracy” movement.

The policy should be “one country, one system of socialism!” The companies and wealth of Li Ka-shing and the other capitalists in Hong Kong should be ripped from their hands and put into public ownership. The banks, insurance companies and ports in particular must become state-owned. This will not only provide the public resources in Hong Kong to put an end to homelessness and free those living in the cages from their horrible existence but will enable Hong Kong’s wealth derived from its location to be at least partly shared with all of China’s 1.4 billion people. The defeat of the capitalists in Hong Kong would also win the PRC the trust and more active support of Hong Kong’s working class and would undercut the present, anti-communist movement.

Comradely,

Praba, Trotskyist Platform Mailout Organiser