So, nothing is yet decided. But overall the direction is toward a decline in the influence, prestige, and status of the workers. The era when managerial or technical professionals got their children a "place" in the factory to keep them from The democrac in China 1978 FIVE YEARS AGO, Solidarnosc being sent off into the countryside or to assure them a comfortable life is rapidly receding into the past.
When you look at the legal (to say nothing of the extensive extra-legal possibilities) powers of the new managers, you can understand the lack of concern for the conditions of workers.
We are far from the era when the new ruling elite recruited its new members in part from the working class. The modernist techno-bureaucracy that is to be the agent and the beneficiary of the new reform draws its members from the children of apparatus and party families.
The surge of urban growth today is going hand in hand with a weakening of the working class. It remains to be seen whether the workers will stand by passively and just watch this evolution happen. Nothing could be less sure. And the caution, even delay in working out an urban NEP [New Economic Policy] can also be traced to the regime's uncertainties about the workers reactions. D iy movement -1981 announced its formation. At the same time, in the People's Republic of China, the national Association of Unofficial Publications of China (NAUPC), a coalition of 21 unofficial publications all over China, also announced its formation. The NAUPC published an organ named Duty. It was a milestone in the development of the democracy movement which had been unfolding, with frequent interruptions, since the end of 1978. Duty continued publication first every two months, and then fortnightly, until the national clampdown in April 1981. The following article traces the development of the democracy movement. It was first published in the August 1985 revolutionary Marxist journal publi LI SI
The democracy movement of 197881, usually referred to as the Beijing Spring Democracy Movement, develo. ped from the 1976 Tian An Men Square Riot in which over 100,000 people spontaneously gathered at the square in the capital to express their indignation for the ruling regime. (1)
edition of October Review, a shed in Hong Kong.
Similar riots took place in other cities such as Nanjing and Zhengzhou.
On April 5, 1976, more than
100,000 people came out onto the streets on the occasion of the Day of the Dead, to pay hommage to the memory of Zhou
Enlai who died in the January of the same year. International Viewpoint 11 November 1985
The historical significance of the riots is that they were spontaneous mass mobilisations directed against the whole bureaucratic rule, unlike the mass mobilisations during the Cultural Revolution which were controlled by different CCP [Chinese Communist Party] factions and served factional needs and interests. Yet, the riots were violent emotional outbursts but lacking clear programmatic goals, organisation or a nucleus. That was why the riots were quickly and brutally repressed. Still, the mass rejection of the ruling regime indirectly brought about the downfall of the so-called Gang of Four -Mao Zedong's proteges.
By the end of 1978, the Deng Xiaoping faction gained control of the top leadership. A series of rehabilitations took place, which included the official recognition of the Tian An Men Square Riot as a revolutionary, spontaneous mass action. While the Deng Xiaoping faction attempted to use a certain mass support to consolidate its power in the top leadership and to seize power in lower level leadership positions, the people also made use of the opportunity to voice their grievances and put forward their demands. Wall posters began to appear on the Xidan Wall in the capital, mass political discussion meetings took place (some with thousands of people participating), and unofficial publications began to appear. By the beginning of 1979, tens of unofficial publications had surfaced all over the country. The unofficial publications, despite repression, survived until April 1981 when a national wave of arrests of the editors and chief contributors put an end to their semi-legal existence. The movement was forced to go underground from then onwards. From November 1978 to April 1981, titles of unofficial publications known to the outside world numbered over 120. About two dozen were from Beijing, and the others from most of the provincial capitals. Some were able to sustain themselves for over forty issues, some were repressed after the founding issue. Some issues were over 100 pages, some were of four pages, and many ranged from forty to eighty pages. Since the state controlled all means of publication, the unofficial publications had to be mimeographed on low quality paper. Because of technical limitations, most of the issues were published in several hundred copies, though a few managed to secure support from some printing presses and were able to put out more copies. For example, Beijing Spring got the support of the Foreign Language Press and printed 10,000 copies of its combined No 1 and No 2 issues. Then there was pressure from
International Viewpoint 11 November 1985
** †ř' above and no more printed copies came out. Our Generation, a joint project by the students of 13 universities all over China, also encountered the same problem. Its founding issue only had half of its contents in printed form, and pressure from above forced it to come out in incomplete form and even forced a stoppage of publication after its founding issue.
Due to a conservative Publication Ordinance of 1952, (which made application for legal publication impossible), unofficial publications attempted in vain to get legally registered. Hence, they had to remain "unofficial". The Beijing Spring Democracy Movement
The unofficial publications were characteristic of the Beijing Spring Democracy Movement. They served as political and organizational centers grouping together young activists. The unofficial publications were of two main types. One type contained mostly political essays; the other type contained mostly literary pieces. Most of the publications of the first type were published by young workers who had been the red guard generation during the Cultural Revolution; they felt they had been betrayed by Mao and after a period of re-thinking, they came out with clear demands for democracy and a legal system. They formed the core of the Beijing Spring Democracy Movement. The second type was mostly published by students or young workers with literary pursuits, but they had close links with the first type and also some writers in official literary publications.
The Beijing Spring Democracy Movement was in the beginning
*
Demonstration in Peking (DR) rather atomized. Activists with similar viewpoints regrouped around a certain publication for discussion of political ideas and propaganda of their viewpoints. Yet, there were few links among the publications. The inexperience and lack of conscious pursuit of unity was part of the reason for this, but the organizational division stemmed mainly from the different ideological trends of the publications. Roughly speaking, in Beijing, Exploration, with its chief editor Wei Jingsheng, was the most radical of all for it advocated democratic election of all leaders and democratic self-management by the producers. It was very critical of the "liberal" stance of Deng Xiaoping. Beijing Spring, which grouped together mainly heroes of the 1976 riots, most of whom had been recruited into the party or the youth league, served more to support the Deng Xiaoping faction against Mao Zedong's supporters. April 5 Forum was more moderate than Exploration for it assessed the Deng Xiaoping faction as reformers, but it also stressed the importance of mobilizing the people for democratic demands. Human Rights in China demanded respect for human rights and expressed aspirations for western style democracy. These differences in assessment of the Deng faction and in the radicalness of the demands led to organisational divisions and lack of cooperation. Yet, the objective situation compelled a regroupment of the forces fighting for democracy.
In March 1979, Deng Xiaoping changed his stance on the democracy wall. A few months before, he had said that the democracy wall was useful and that it could let the people voice their grievances. However, in March, he said that the democracy wall was a source of instability.
21
Democracy wall in Peking (DR) Wei Jingsheng at once reacted by posting up a wall poster titled 'Democracy or new dictatorship' in which he called for the people to beware of Deng becoming a new dictator. Wei was promptly arrested. Before 1 Wei, several others had been arrested, including Fu Yuehua, a woman who led thousands of peasants on a parade in the capital on January 8, 1979, with the central slogan *against persecution, against hunger, for democracy, for human rights'. Two members of the Human Rights Alliance had also been arrested. The change in the political atmosphere in March caused a reevaluation of the Deng Xiaoping faction's sincerity and readiness for democratic reforms. The need for more coordination among the activists was also being felt December 1979, the trial of felt. Wei Jingsheng took place. Though his radical ideas were not popular, his right to freedom of thought and expression was supported by the activists. Wei Jingsheng, for his dissidence, was given a sentence of 15 years in jail. Liu Qing, editor of April 5 Forum, was arrested for distributing a transcript of the 'open' trial. Liu Qing's arrest helped bring together more activists. In August 1980, 16 publications joined together to form a National Committee to Rescue Liu Qing. This quickly grew into the National Association of Unofficial Publications of China composed of 21 publications, and more joined later.
The formation of the NAUPC was a significant breakthrough. It took less than two years from the emergence of unofficial publications to arrive at their nationwide coalition. 22
Such a rapid development was not a surprise. The downfall of the Gang of Four and the rehabilitation of the Tian An Men Square riot were the result of strong pressure from the masses. The Deng Xiaoping faction carried out its half hearted reforms under serious economic difficulties and ideological crisis of the CCP. When the Deng Xiaoping faction began repressing the people's democratic rights, discontent quickly grew. Certain illusions in the reforming faction broke down. Repression of the democracy movement forced the divided publications to draw together for more support and strength in order to counter pressure from the regime. At the same time, since most of the activists had gone through the Cultural Revolution years, they were experienced in various methods of struggle. When they discarded illusions in one wing of the bureaucracy, their critical appraisal of bureaucratic rule, and the social contradictions caused a further radicalization. While they continued. to carry out political and theoretical debates among themselves, they consciously opted for closer organisational unity. The Polish example was another source of stimulus. The democracy movement greeted Solidamose with enthusiastic fraternity, reprinting the 21 demands and the Charter of Workers' Rights, and assessed that the Polish workers movement had tolled the death knell for bureaucratic rule and set the beginning for a pluralistic party system. The need for international links was much emphasized.
At the end of 1980, when deputies to the county level People's Congress were for the first time open to election, many students (such as Tao Shen, Hu Ping) and worker activists (such as Fu Shenqi, He
Defu, • Gong Ping, Wang Xifeng) ran as candidates to use the campaign as a forum for political debates. Interventions by the authorities were then exposed to show the hypocrisy of such elections.
In early 1981, the party central issued several circulars preparing for a clampdown of the "illegal publications' and illegal organisations'. The activists also started to prepare forming political parties Starting from April 10, arrests took place on a nationwide scale. Those arrested and known to the outside world numbered over thirty, including Wang Xizhe of People's Voice (Guangzhou), He Qiu and Wang Yifei of People's Road (Guangzhou), Xu Wenli, Yan Jing and Chen Erjin of April 5 Forum (Beijing), Lu Lin of Exploration (Beijing), Fu Shenqi of Voice of Democracy (Shanghai), Sun Weibang of Sea Waves (Qingdao), Xing Dakun of Forum of Fraternal Comrades (Qingdao), Liu Liping of Correspondence of Ideals (Changsha), Zhang Jingsheng of The Republican (Changsha), Chun Yongmin and Zhu Jianbin of The Bell (Wahan), Zhong Yueqiu of Voice of the Masses (Shaoguan), Yang Zaixing and Chun Xiaoxiang of Enlightenment (Guizhou), Peng Guangzhong of Biweekly Review (Guizhou), Liu E-an of Brick of Democracy (Tianjin), Ye Zhongwu of Zhi River (Hangzhou), Zheng Yulin of Shouts (Wenzhou), and other activsts like Tao Shen (Changsha), Xu Shuiliang (Nanjing) Yang Guoliang (Beijing), Yu Huimin (Nanjing), Yang Xiaolei (Hangzhou), etc. Attempts to form political organizations
The democracy movement activists were detained without trial for about a year. Later, it was known that Wang Xizhe and He Qiu were sentenced on May 28, 1982 to 14 and ten years imprisonment, and Xu Wenli was sentenced on June 18 for 15 years. It was also reported that Chen Erjin was sentenced to 12 years, Fu Shengi to seven years, and Yang Zaixing to five years.
The court verdict on Xu Wenli revealed that Xu Wenli was leader in coordination with Wang Xizhe, Sun Weibang, Liu E-an and Fu Shenqi to form Alliance of Chinese Communists in June 1980 and later the Association to Promote Democracy and Unification in China in the spring of 1981. A draft programme of the latter organisation had also been drawn up. International Viewpoint 11 November 1985
DOCUMENT
In December 1981, Liu Shanging, a supporter of the Beijing Spring Democracy Movement from Hong Kong, went to the mainland to visit relatives of the arrested activists, and was himself arrested and sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
The Beijing Spring Democracy Movement was suppressed with naked force. Yet, it was a significant development of the movement for democracy in China. In 1957, during the Hundred Flowers Bloom Campaign, the one million critics of the CCP policy were largely intellectuals. The fervent red guards that radicalised in the later vears of the Cultural Revolu- the later years of the Cultural Revolution (represented by the 17-year old red guard Yang Ziguang's manifesto "Whither goes China?") were mainly secondary school pupils. The 1974 Li Yi Zhe Wall Poster (Wang Xizhe being one of its writers), a manifesto demanding democracy and a legal system, symbolised more independent thinking than the red guard generation but it still had illusions in Mao Zedong. The 1976 Tian An Men Square event was a prelude to the anti-bureaucratic political revolution, in which tens of thousands of people participated, yet it was unorganized. The Beijing Spring Democracy Movement represented a more profound development in programmatic positions and organisational practice. Just before it was repressed, it had arrived at the stage of drawing up a programme, developing into a political party, and the vanguards, mostly young workers, began to be conscious of the need to go into the masses. Participation in the election campaigns and conscious links with worker struggles (such as the strike of 3,000 Taiyuan steel workers) in late 1980 were the first steps. As for the political programme, the demand for socialist democracy and Paris-commune type workers control over production and distribution was the predominant trend. This socialist alternative is quite distinct from the dissident movements in the Soviet Union, for example.
With its outstanding activists still in jail, the democracy movement stays underground. Now, the consequences of Deng Xiaoping's reforms, especially the offensives on the living standard of the urban working class, are becoming clear. The objective conditions favour a revival of the democracy movement. It can be expected that the new stage of the democracy movement will see a more mature political consciousness and a closer link between the vanguards and the masses.
International Viewpoint 11 November 1985