Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Updates from the China Labour Bulletin and the ILC
1) China Labour Bulletin Press Release (16 April, 2002): Another Liaoyang Labour Leader Arrested
2) Letter from ILC Campaign Coordinator Jean-Pierre Barrois (Paris)
3) Message from Han
Dongfang, Editor, China Labour Bulletin (Hong Kong)
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1) China Labour Bulletin Press Release
(16 April, 2002)
Another Liaoyang Labour Leader Arrested
On 16 April, 2002, the government arrested one more leader of the mass workers' protest in
Liaoyang, Gu Baoshu. Gu (37), is one of the representatives of the Liaoyang Ferro-alloy Factory workers who staged mass street protests against retrenchment in mid-March. Gu's arrest took place a day after he and several other representatives went to the city government complaints office to seek the release of four leaders who had been arrested earlier. In order to avoid further arrests, the workers decided against further street protests, but instead sent several representatives, including
Gu, to negotiate with the government. Nevertheless, the workers' caution and attempt to enter into negotiations failed to prevent Gu's arrest.
Gu escaped earlier detention on 20 March when he went inside the city's government office to demand release of the workers' leader, Yao
Fuxin, who was the first of the organizers to be detained. Gu was held in custody in an office but was freed from the premises by over 100 fellow workers. On the same day, when the protesting workers went home from their demonstration, the riot police broke through the protesters' picket line and took away three leaders, Xiao
Yunliang, Pang Qingxiang and Wang Zhaoming.
Five representatives of the Liaoyang Ferro-alloy Factory's workers' protest have been arrested so far. They are: Yao
Fuxin, male (54); Xiao Yunliang, male (57); Pang Qingxiang, male (58); Wang
Zhaoming, male (37); and Gu Baoshu, male (37).
On 27 March, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU) filed a complaint with the International Labour Organization's Committee on Freedom of Association over the arrest of Yao
Fuxin, Xiao Yunliang, Pang Qingxiang, and Wang Zhaoming. Gu Baoshu's arrest will be added to the testimony of the complaint.
China Labour Bulletin
(CLB) expresses its dismay at the continued detention of workers' representatives by the Liaoyang city government, despite objections by workers in the city and the international community. The arrests will not scare off the deeply impoverished workers in
Liaoyang; but will instead turn the widespread grievances among workers into frustrated anger, further exacerbating the conflict.
CLB reiterates its demand on the Liaoyang city government to:
-- Immediately release all the detained workers' representatives;
Enter into dialogue with the workers over their grievances against wage arrears and corruption.
-- The local governments of Liaoyang city and Liaoning province are, at the cost of inflaming social confrontation, trying to cover up their malpractices and corruption by heightening the conflict between the workers and the government.
CLB also demand that the central government step in and stop the officials in Liaoyang city and Liaoning province aggravating the already tense situation in the pursuit of their own vested interests.
- China Labour Bulletin
16 April, 2002
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2) Letter from ILC Campaign Coordinator Jean-Pierre Barrois
International campaign
to free Yao
Fuxin, Pang Qingxiang,
Xiao Yunliang, Wang Zhaoming and Gu Baoshu
Dear Friends,
Again, on behalf of the ILC and China Labour Bulletin, I wish to thank all the endorsers of the appeal to free Yao
Fuxin, Pang Qingxiang, Xiao Yunliang and Wang Zhaoming. As per the information disclosed by China Labour Bulletin on 16 April, we must now add Gu Baoshu to this list.
You will find below a message from Han
Dongfang, editor of China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong and co-organiser of the international campaign along with the
ILC.
Brother Dongfang asked me to convey this message to all the Appeal endorsers with the hope that you will circulate the appeal for even broader endorsement -- to more friends, to more colleagues, to your local or regional union branch, to your national union.
If you wish a copy of the updated version of the Appeal, with the initial list of signatories from around the world, please contact the ILC in France at
eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr or ilcinfo@earthlink.net
. We need to circulate this Appeal as widely as possible.
We will keep you informed regularly on the developments with this campaign.
Thanks again
Jean-Pierre Barrois
on behalf of the ILC
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3) Message from Han
Dongfang, Editor, China Labour Bulletin (Hong Kong)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Workers all over the world are under the assault of the twin forces of privatisation and
globalisation, and as always in history, we are not passive lots to be slaughtered in silence. In China where our brothers and sisters are denied the basic workers' rights to organise and bargain independently, retrenched workers in Liaoyang city in the northeastern province of Liaoning have taken courageous actions to reclaim their rights and defend their livelihood.
Once again, their freedom has been snatched away as their fellow workers over the years. The international labour movement has always been very supportive of the workers' struggles in China, and at this stage when an alarming rate of unemployment is going to set in with China's accession to the
WTO, international solidarity is all the more important to the struggling Chinese workers. As Xiao
Yunliang, one of the arrested workers' representatives in Liaoyang, commented on the support and solidarity from the international trade union movement:
"If it wasn't for this support then we would be totally unsafe. We are in a really difficult position right now and without your help and solidarity it would be even more dangerous - things would be even worse. We would like to express our thanks for all support." (the whole conversation has been put on CLB's website at
http://iso.china-labour.org.hk/iso/article.adp?article_id=2146
Just today, I talked to Xiao's daughter, and relayed the ILC campaign for the release of the arrested workers in
Liaoyang, specifically mentioning your catchphrase of 'Injury to One is Injury to All'. She was deeply impressed by the concept behind the slogan, and she said,
"Apart from my sincere gratitude, I don't know what else to say."
Now that formal arrest has been announced to the four workers' representatives, I would like to appeal to your continuous support demanding for their immediate release.
Thanks again for your support.
In Solidarity,
Han
Dongfang, Hong Kong 11/04/02