The 1989 great movement launched by students, workers and citizens for democracy, freedom and human rights, and against corruption and bureaucracy was brutally repressed by the ruling bureaucracy. However, over the last 20 years, the objectives of the 1989 movement for democracy have demonstrated that they are valid and necessary for Chinese society. The resumption of the ruling might of the bureaucracy has guaranteed it more arbitrariness and ardour in depriving the people of their democratic rights, and in pursing corruption and graft. The restoration of capitalism in China is being carried out through a collusion of power and money; a large section of communist party cadres have legally appropriated public wealth and turned into upstarts, while capitalists have gained access to the ruling party, which is degenerating into a bourgeois party, and has even discarded its previous camouflage rhetoric of upholding “socialism” and “vanguard of proletariat”. The slogan of “Mr Democracy” from the May 4 Movement of 1919 has still not secured its ground in China after 60 years of so-called New China.

           On the other hand, Chinese society suffers from more differentiation and polarization. Former welfare securities have mostly been scrapped, and new medical and educational services are expensive, adding to the burden of the majority of the people. The threat of unemployment and under-employment grows, collusion between political officials and capitalists strengthens, and abuses are rampant. The struggles also accelerate on the seizure or occupation of urban and rural land, and this is particularly serious for peasants since their direct livelihood is made insecure. The agrarian issues continue to be most grave.

           Such adverse policies from the state have deepened the grievances and anger of the people in the lower social strata. With social contradictions growing more and more acute, more protests and revolts have taken place. In recent years, statistics have shown that people’s resistances have been growing; in 2007 alone, there were 100,000 incidents of social unrest, and over 400,000 incidents of labour disputes. Indeed, the more repressive the regime, the more resistances there are.

           Society advances with the persistence of struggles of the people all over the world fighting for democracy, freedom and livelihood. The advance of technology also enables more weapons such as the internet to be deployed by the people in their struggles. For example, exposures of injustice and calls for action are often circulated on the internet. It is no longer possible for the ruling autocracy to continue with extreme, brutal and arbitrary repression. Hence we find the current party-state leaders, under the pressure of the people, declare that they need to be concerned with the people’s interests, and put up a posture of being liberal and open, despite the fact that their repressiveness is revealed time and again.

           Today, on the 20^th anniversary of the 1989 Movement for Democracy, we put forth the following demands and continue to struggle for their actualization:

1.  The Chinese Communist Party leadership and the State Council should immediately announce the rehabilitation of the 1989 Movement for Democracy and the “June 4 incident”, and recognize that the movement was a peaceful practice of the rights and freedoms of demonstration, rally, parade and gathering; the government’s previous characterization of the 1989 Movement as a “riot” should be revoked.

2.  The party-state authorities should announce the full list of victims and casualties during the repression, compensate the families for their losses, and persecute the officials responsible for the repression.

3.  The party-state authorities should immediately and unconditionally release all detained dissidents and “political prisoners”, and reinstate their political rights.

4.  The one-party dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party should be abolished, and power should be returned to the people for democratic politics to be implemented, for genuine democracy to be institutionalized, and for the people to be true master of the country.

5.  All officials should be elected by the people in a democratic way, and should be monitored and recallable. All citizens should have the rights to vote, to be elected, and to monitor the authorities. The salaries and remuneration of all officials should be comparable to ordinary workers, and corruption, graft and privileges of officials should be scrapped.

The struggle to remove social inequalities, poverty and injustice cannot be separated from the struggle for democratic rights. Only when there is institutionalized democracy will there be happiness and peace for the people.

        20 May 2009