Chinese students lead
CHINA liberty of the people. The constitution becomes a maid of all work for the Communist Party that it can push around as it pleases. Without democracy, the initiative and creative power of the people cannot reach full de.
fight for democracy velopment, the potential of the country's superior system of production and planned economy cannot be modernization carried through.
In short, as long as the one-party dictatorship persists the arbitrary rule of the bureaucracy will be perpetu-
IN DOZENS of cities across China, the mass student movement
"against dictatorship and for democracy" has come on the scene.
October Review and the Revolutionary Marxist League (RML - Hong
Kong section of the Fourth International) fully support its legitimate demands and its actions, and respectfully salute the great number of students who are fighting for democracy, undeterred by repression.
[This statement was issued on December 25, 1986.]
Facing the mass movement strug gling for democracy, the bureaucracy has once again revealed its despotic and dictatorial nature. The bureaucracy is not satisfied only with shamelessly rejecting the democratic demands of the student youth, but it has also sought to divide it, slander it and repress it. It has even resorted to using official means to abolish in fact the right to demonstrate, which the constitution grants the people.
Against these authorities who are failing to heed the democratic mands of the masses and trampling on the provisions of the constitution, we express our strong indignation and
It has to be pointed out that the
Chinese Communist Party authorities are waiting for a propitious moment to strike at the democratic movement repress all aspects of it. In the grave situation, the entire
Chinese people must unite and organize in order to defeat the bureaucracy's attacks by bringing a still greater
The Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Macao and overseas, loving peoples throughout the world.
must now extend solidarity actions and support the struggle of the Chinese people fighting for
The student youth are the pulse of the society. "Against the bureaucracy, against dictatorship, against privileges, against exactions," "The facts have to be told, there has to be freedom of information," "We need democracy, freedom, human rights," "Down with the bureaucracy" - the slogans raised by the student youth are also those of the people. This is why the street demonstrations by the student youth have so quickly gained an echo among
The authorities' attempt to drive a wedge between the people and the student youth is condemned to failure. The workers and the people of the cities are not only supporting the actions of the student youth but joining in the demonstrations. They are taking up demands against inflation and for a better standard of living, as well as the fight for democ.
By their independent activity, the Chinese people have already begun to the spell the bureaucracy has cast with its magic words about
Without democracy, the so-called economic reform in fact is no more than blind and irresponsible competition. The result is that investments are not made, that the building industry is collapsing, waste is spreading, foreign trade is in deficit, the economy is becoming disorganized, the prices of living of the workers and the urban declining, and the inequalisociety are widening still further.
Without democracy, the so-called political reform is in fact merely a bit of devolution from the top down of the power [of the central authorities], of the managers of factories, bodies, enterprises and schools that gives an appearance of reducing the bureaucracy's power. Nonetheless, the party committees continue to exercise tight control over the top echelons of power. And the further up you go the more this control is secret.
At every level the country, the assemblies of people's representatives always bear the brand of the Chinese Communist Party bur-
Without democracy, there is no guarantee whatever for the rights and ated, and it will be impossible to eliminate the oppression of the people, the disregard for human rights, as well as prevarication and corruption. The that bureaucratic despotism is the fundamental obstacle to building socialism. All the types of economic reform the bureaucrats are putting forward are fundamentally only a repetition of old litanies.
Hoping that the Communist Party bureaucracy can genuinely loosen the reins of political power, carry out radical reforms and racy is building castles in the air.
for its end in "anti-rightist" repression. Painful lessons
The awakening of the masses after the Cultural Revolution was put to a bloody end by the military. The April 5 Tien An Men event then suffered Spring and the Democratic Movement that followed were met with more general repression and ended in arrests.
Painful lessons on a vast scale have opened the eyes of the Chinese people. No matter what bureaucratic clique climbs onto the throne of power, whatever glittering promises they may make at the start, the bureaucracy will always have the same hatred for the masses' democratic demands.
This is why the Chinese people fighting for democracy must reject from the outset any illusion about any clique in the bureaucracy. It is why they must politically and organizationally overcome divisions and the repressive system set up by the bureaucracy. Only then will they be able to forge an independent political consciousness, create their own organizations and broaden the mass mobilization.
"Arise, ye wretched of the earth!" That is the stirring appeal of the Chinese anthem to the people of the entire country. Today this appeal resounds still more urgently and has
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