Below is a statement sent to me from Li Minqi(and which I translated)
that he wrote in response to the Human Rights Watch and Labour Rights
Watch report on the Li Jiaqing case in Zhenzhou, China. Li Minqi and I
both know the people involved in helping the workers in this particular
case. They also Again, this kind of statement should give pause to those
who are inclined to view all reports on worker activity in the SOE sector
as inspired by neo-liberal visions of markets. While some of it is
motivated in that direction, much of it is also being done by leftists in
China who have no desire to see more privatiztion.
I should note that the friends of these workers in Zhenzhou also sent out
a short statement expressing displeasure with the mistakes in the Human
Rights Watch and other political and news organisations' reports. Perhaps
I'll translate that out also and send it on...
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.
Based on my own first hand knowledge of this case I join with persons in
Zhengzhou who have shown concern and support for the Paper Factory
workersÕ struggle in putting out the following statement of correction:
1.) This instance of workersÕ struggle is entirely a matter of opposing
corruption, the loss of State Owned Enterprise assets, and opposition to
privatization. When the workers staged a takeover of the factory
management last year, they placed a banner at the front factory gate
exclaiming, "Reform does not equal Privatization," something that the
people of Zhenzhou would all approve of. These goals are far different
from the so-called "independent union movement" run by Chinese liberal
intellectuals who have been co-opted by western imperialism.
2.) The Paper Factory WorkersÕ Representatives Congress is an institution
that is required by "PeopleÕs Republic of China Enterprise Law", whose
function is to carry out democratic management of State Owned
Enterprises. The Zhengzhou Paper Factory Workers acted through their WRC
mass meetings in order to protect socialismÕs State Owned Assets, their
own legal rights, and have little to do with "Independent Union
Organizations."
3.) The So-called "Independent union movement" is a deceptive product of
western imperialism, which utilizes the original goals of socialism to
breed the foundation of its own fake brand of justice and facilitates the
takeover of the socialist state by capitalists, corrupt officials and
intellectuals. In the process, the rights of ChinaÕs entire working class
to state assets is sacrificed, with nothing to show for in return, as the
door is opened to foreign capital to enslave China's workers. The end
result is corruption and the complete appropriation of state assets, now
in its most fully transparent and thorough form. For socialist countries
that have gone this route, this has spelled the end of their political and
economic self-rule. Can it be that workers in the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe have suffered less than such a criminal fate?
History proves that the backward step to privatization and capitalism is a
dead end for workers. China is not Poland, the Chinese working class will
not be deceived.
Li Minqi
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Dept. of Economics
PhD Candidate
Stephen Philion
Lecturer/PhD Candidate
Department of Sociology
2424 Maile Way
Social Sciences Bldg. # 247
Honolulu, HI 96822
