From June 2001, HKCTU joined more than 40 local pro-democracy and human rights groups to organize a signature campaign calling for the direct election of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). The campaign rejects the election of the next Chief Executive in March 2002 by a committee of 800 people, and instead calls for 'one person, one vote'. In addition to this demand for universal suffrage, the campaign is opposed to a second term for the current Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa. The former shipping tycoon's pro-business interests have been devastating for workers' rights, social welfare and public services in Hong Kong.

On July 1, 2001, several hundred trade unionists, activists, community organizers and social workers marched to the Central Government Office to mark the fourth anniversary of the establishment of the SAR as a day of protest. A petition bearing the signatures of 50,000 people calling the direct election of the SAR Chief Executive through "one person, one vote" was handed to the government.

As part of this campaign HKCTU also opposed the passage of the new law on the election of the Chief Executive which includes a provision granting the central government in Beijing the power to remove the Chief Executive. We condemn this system under which an exclusive club of 800 people select the chief executive, who can then be removed by Beijing at any time. Nowhere in this process is there any possibility for the Hong Kong people to express their own will.

This reminds us that our struggle for democracy in Hong Kong is inseparable from the struggle for democracy in mainland China. This goes back to HKCTU's own history as the first genuinely independent trade union federation in Hong Kong, and as a workers' organization supporting the struggle of the autonomous union movement in mainland China. The bloody repression of that movement on June 4, 1989, and the continued arrest and detention of trade unionists on the mainland is an issue which we are deeply concerned with. This year 48,000 people joined the candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to mark the 12th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. It is a reminder that the pro-democracy movement remains strong, and that our union is a part of it.

HKCTU also participates in a number of human rights and labour rights networks committed to opposing repression in mainland China. In particular, we have a strong commitment to organize campaigns against workers rights violations (especially industrial accidents) by Hong Kong employers on the mainland.

We see our struggle for trade union and workers' rights in Hong Kong as inseparable from the struggle for those rights throughout mainland China. Central to this is the struggle for freedom of association which is both essential to the fulfillment of the rights and interests of workers in China, and a necessary condition for the continued development of these rights in Hong Kong. We are deeply concerned about the situation of detained trade unionists on the mainland, and believe that their freedom to form trade unions of their own choosing is absolutely fundamental.

Next> See the lead article in the March 2002 Union Action, "Whose Voices? While the Beijing elite and HK billionaires re-appoint Tung Chee Hwa, another round of attacks on the public sector begins"

Also see> Welcome address to the first ICFTU China Working Party meeting
by Lee Cheuk-yan, HKCTU General Secretary