The Pro-democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces by J. Unger

Author:J. Unger [Unger, J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General
ISBN: 9780873328371
Google: MTZDngEACAAJ
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Published: 1991-01-15T05:03:19+00:00

The Role of the Workers

The production workers participated in the movement mostly as individuals. They but rarely came onto the streets as contingents of workers carrying aloft banners identifying their own work units. Did they, then, play any important role in the movement? There are several answers to this question. The official press deliberately downplayed the level of their participation. When workers or other Chongqing residents from non-academic walks of life warranted mention, invariably they were described as provocateurs who had somehow managed to mix themselves in among peacefully demonstrating students. In addition to the two getihus, in the months of April, May and June Chongqing ribao reported a number of other arrests: three on 4 May (one peasant, two unemployed youths); nine on 20 May (all of whom had allegedly resorted to violence; of the nine, two were ex-convicts); five on 5 June for overturning vehicles (all described as peasants from suburban counties, several of them with criminal records); and two women workers on 10 June for trying to instigate protests calling for the release of the five arrested on 5 June (one of the two allegedly was already under disciplinary supervision for having stolen cloth from her own factory).15 The very fact that in the same period, not one student or intellectual or white-collar employee was reported to have been arrested conveyed to the people of Chongqing an important message: a student movement could be tolerated by the authorities, but not a mass movement; and any attempts by those living on the margins of society to take advantage of the demonstrations so as to foment unrest would be ruthlessly crushed. The authorities also seemed to be endeavouring to mark off as illegitimate any public expression of the grievances of the general masses of people.

For their own part, the students and intellectuals felt ambivalent about the ‘lower’ social strata joining their protest movement. On the one hand they lamented that the workers did not come out in full support; on the other, particularly in the early stages of the movement, they had tried to keep the workers and others at arms’ length, both metaphorically and literally. In their overriding concern to attain an image of selfless idealism unmarred by material demands, and in an effort to earn credibility in the eyes of the authorities by mounting a strictly peaceful and moderate campaign, they cordoned themselves off in the marches and rallies from onlookers and even supporters.16 But as the protests mounted and they began to perceive a groundswell of popular support, and as it became increasingly apparent that financial support in the order of many thousands of dollars was essential to their cause, they began to consider the benefits of widening their base. Students began to canvas factories to solicit support.

The initial attitude of the students played into the hands of the authorities, whose nightmare was a Solidarity-style front of all social strata. When the students endeavoured to prevent others from mixing in with their processions, the police assisted them in forming a human cordon.

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