Democratic struggles resurge
China by Zhang Kai
Before the sixth anniversary of the 4 June 1989, the Beijing regime started rounding up activists of the democracy movement. It was reported that a few dozen activists had been taken away from their home or had disappeared.
All these years, the regime has resorted to repression of dissidents. In 1994, several hundred persons were reportedly detained or jailed. The most famous dissident Wei Jingsheng had suddenly disappeared after his short release from prison. Wei Jingsheng's assistant Tong Ge had also been arrested for a whole year and nothing had been heard of him. In the past years, the period from March to June had been alert periods for the regime when it put dissidents in prison or under house arrest. This year, it was rumoured that the period would extend to August or September, indicating a growing tension in the political scene in China with the veteran Chen Yun already dead and Deng Xiaoping about to die, and with the power struggle in the top leadership growing Petition by intellectuals
This year, a wave of petition letters from intellectuals to the Party and government leadership has taken place. At the end of February, twelve scholars and dissidents including Bao Zunxin and literary critic Wang Ruoshui wrote two letters to the National People's Congress, one "Recommendations Against Corruption", and the other "To Abolish Arbitrary Detention and to Safeguard Personal Freedoms". Former student leader Wang Dan and 25 others including Lin Mu wrote to the National People's Congress "Recommendations on the Defence of Basic Human Rights and Social Justice". Dissident Liu Lianchun and 21 others wrote a petition "Recommendation on the Abolition of the Practice of Re-education through Labour" The NPC did not react to these petitions, and some of the petitioners were arrested before June Fourth this year. The arrests, however, did not inhibit the wave of petitions. Within two weeks, at least eight other petitions were launched. The leading one was a petition by 45 well known intellectuals, 15 of whom were 24
International Viewpoint #268 July 1995
NV from the Science Academy. The title of the petition was "Greeting the United Nations Year of Lenience, Appealing for Lenience in Domestic Politics" appealed for a re-evaluation of June Fourth and the release of prisoners connected to June Fourth.
Another petition was by 52 scholars and dissidents, appealing for "drawing on the lesson of blood, promoting the process of democracy and the rule of law". It asked every citizen in China, but in particular the party and government authorities that have made wrong decisions, to rethink the tragedy of June Fourth with repent, reason and responsibility. Victims' families
It was also the first time in six years that 27 families of victims of June Fourth (the families included Professor Ding Zilin from Beijing University jointly petitioned to the Standing Committee of the NPC saying that they absolutely cannot accept that the government resorted to machine guns and tanks to harm so many people and still could hurriedly conclude on a world-stunning tragedy with the words 'quenching a rebellion'. They requested the NPC Standing Committee to form a special commission to investigate into the June Fourth Incident, to conduct independent and just investigation, to disclose the number and names of deceased, and to answer to each individual family. They called on people of the whole country to be concerned for the destiny of the families of the June Fourth victims.
This wave of petitions is an indication of the revitalizing of people's struggles in China. The background to this is an intensification of power struggles at the top. With Chen Yun dead, Jiang Zemin has been placing his men from Shanghai in important positions in Beijing. Beijing's mayor Chen Xitong was removed from power on the accusation of corruption. Yuan Mu also had his directorship of State Council Research Office removed. (Chen Xitong and Yuan Mu were the two hardliners for the June Fourth crackdown, and had been supporters of Li Peng.) On the other hand, Li Peng has just published a bibliography of his own life, entitled "Li Peng — Son of Yen River", which was an attempt to eulogize his past.
The economic situation has also aggravated, which is anóther cause for further discords in the leadership. In 1994, prices of grain, cotton and fuel soared by 21.7% (official figures). The Beijing Steelworks, a key state-owned factory, was denounced for "serious flaws and deficits" Whether the growing regionalism in the south should be contained is another controversy. With the political and economic situation becoming more explosive, it is no surprise that the people's struggles are ascending. *
"Arafat cannot deliver"
International Viewpoint's Salah Jaber talks to Tikva by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) in
Honig-Parnass, editor of News from Within, published difficult... In Israel, disconnecting yourself from Zionism is disconnecting yourself from friends. You can no longer
• International Viewpoint: how did you become an anti-Zionist militant?
Tikva: I was raised in Palestine by a very Zionist family, and I belong to the generation that fought the so-called war of independence', in 1948. Already then, I adhered to that artificial combination between Marxism and Zionism, and started identifying with the Mapam party. After the war, I studied in the Hebrew University and became the Secretary of Mapam in the Knesset [the Israeli parliament] in the 1950s. I felt relaxed, of course, with this combination of Marxism and Zionism. But gradually, the meaning of the Middle East conflict and the role of Israel in it became clearer to me: what opened my eyes most was a book written in the early 1960s by the forefathers of Matzpen', Moshe Machover and Akiva Orr, Peace, Peace but no Peace. It contained articles and documents revealing Israel's refusal to make peace. This, of course, was a kind of a shock to me. I felt close to Matzpen when it was formed, but I did not join. Actually, I came closer to the Communist Party and in 1956 I lived in London for almost a year and participated in the Communist Party activities there. But on my way back to Israel, the 20th Congress of the CP of the Soviet Union was another shock to me and then for years, I was just lost.
I passed my PhD and pursued my academic life while becoming more and more anti-Zionist, but i was only in the 1980s that I came across Matzpen in Jerusalem. That was when the war against Lebanon started, and I joined the protest movement, the Committee for Solidarity with Bir Zeit University in particular, in For more information...
Jerusalem. which Matzpen was involved. I then joined Matzpen. • So you were not aware, in the 1970s, of the existence of the RCLMatzpen as a Trotskyist organisation?
Not at all. I kept reading Marxist writings without knowing Trotskyism. I discovered it only through Matzpen in the early 1980s.
Liberating yourself from Zionism is a long, very difficult process, you know. Even when you are politically disconnected with Zionism, the emotional ties are still so strong. If you do not have the support of an organisation, and you are doing it by yourself, it is of course much more difficult. This emotional process needs support and solidarity from comrades and friends. In Israel, disconnecting yourself
Palestine/Israel from Zionism is disconnecting yourself from friends. You can no longer participate in the society • You broke with Zionism after deciding that Zionism was not willing to settle for peace. So why react so critically to the peace agreement' ?
Matzpen's support of the PLO is based on the criteria that it is anti-imperialist, fighting against Zionism, and representing the entire Palestinian people. Our view was that as long as the PLO was an anti-imperialist force in the region, we support it, although it is nationalistic, although we are aware of its bureaucratisation process. It was not a support for nationalism as such, but a support for a nationalist struggle in so far as it is progressive.
"Liberating yourself from Zionism is a long, very difficult process. Even when you are politically disconnected with
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Zionism, the emotional ties are still so strong. If you de