June 1989 - A contingent of women workers leads a workers' convoy into Beijing.


June 1989 - Workers from Beijing Mechanical Factory No.5.


June 1989 - in Hong Kong the Union of Post Office Employees staged a half-day strike and draped post offices in black banners to protest the bloody repression of June 4.

Together with China Labour Bulletin (CLB) and IHLO, HKCTU is organising an international campaign in preparation for June 4, 2002, commemorating the 13th anniversary of the Chinese government's bloody repression of workers and students in Tiananmen Square.

As part of this campaign a short booklet is under preparation for publication in Chinese and English. The booklet is a collection of a dozen interviews with independent trade union members and workers in Hong Kong, as well as workers in mainland China. The interviews focus on their recollections of May and June, 1989, and what it means to them today. A key issue is why it is important to collectively remember these events. Several of the interviews go beyond their memories of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Hong Kong protest rallies, and instead focus on the importance of the autonomous workers' movements at that time and the demands and aspirations of the workers involved. This is an important reminder that these demands and hopes remain as relevant today as ever.

In addition to the booklet, about 10,000 Workers Remember postcards in Chinese and English will be printed and distributed.

It is hoped that the demands and hopes of workers in 1989 will be linked to the situation faced by workers in mainland China today, thereby encouraging greater public awareness of the need for worker and trade union rights, especially freedom of association and the right to organize. In addition to this, the campaign organisers hope to raise public awareness of the significance of June 4 to the independent trade union movement in Hong Kong, and its relationship to the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong and the mainland.

An important part of this international campaign is to encourage trade union locals, national centers and global union federations to pass resolutions recalling the events of June 4, 1989, and demanding genuine recognition of freedom of association and the fulfillment of workers' rights in China. Furthermore, trade unionists everywhere will be reminded of the arrest and detention of trade unionists in mainland China and the need to increase pressure for their release.

Finally, it is hoped that a younger generation of trade unionists and workers will be critically informed about the events leading up to June 4, 1989, and the struggle for independent trade unions in China. In doing so we hope to build on the international labour movement's collective memory of repression in all parts of the world. This, it is believed, is essential for the realization of international solidarity.