No, Lou, as I stated, it tells us the opposite. There are many cases of
worker self-organization and workers' leaders who have been arrested that
are worthy of leftist's support in China. The assumption that they are
neo-liberals or dupes of neo-liberals is a simplistic way of approaching a
rather complex issue. We can doubt the motivation of the source of this
report, surely, as do the workers in this case. But for that to mean then
that we should not support someone like Li Jiaqing, or the struggle for
workers in that case (and many others, the Paper Factory, according to an
article in the Workers Daily last year, is only one of scores of such
cases in Zhenzhou City), is a position that is of little use to real
workers involved in real struggles over privatization of SOEs in China.
Steve
On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, Louis Proyect wrote:
> Pardon me if I come across as a little thick, but doesn't this tend to
> reinforce what I stated originally? Despite my strong feelings of
> camaraderie with Henry Liu and my unabashed support for Yugoslav socialism,
> etc., doesn't this seem to say that we should take HRW reports on China
> with a grain of salt in the future?
>
> >Below is the statement from Li Minqi:
> >
> >
> >March 18, 2001
> >For Immediate Release:
> >
> >The True Story Behind Zhengzhou # 1 Paper Factory WorkersÕ
> >Anti-Corruption, Anti-Privatization Struggle
> >
> >In recent days, the organization Human Rights Watch and Labour Watch and
> >other Overseas Organizations as well as The New York Times and The World
> >Journal (the largest Chinese newspaper in North America), have put out
> >statements and reports asserting that Li Jiaqing is an "Independent Union
> >Leader", that the Paper FactoryÕs workers have established an "independent
> >union organization," etc. These organizations do this as part of an
> >effort to alter or cover up the real goals of the Paper Factory workersÕ
> >struggle.
>
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
>
>
>
