SP Newsletter No.264
The Socialist Party will be holding a public meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday June 3 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Speaking on the night will be Stephen Jolly who witnessed the events first hand. We will also be relaunching our pamphlet ‘Eyewitness in China’.

The events that led to the bloody massacre of June 4, 1989, represented a turning point in Chinese history. Millions joined wave upon wave of demonstrations in Beijing itself, with anti-government protests spreading to over 100 cities across China. Throughout this movement and right up to the bloody finish, the demonstrators sang ‘The Internationale’, giving the lie to the regime’s claim that this was a bourgeois counter-revolutionary movement.

The movement went beyond a student protest movement and began to activate broad layers of the population including – crucially – the working class. This was the signal for the regime, led by the architect of capitalist ‘reform’ Deng Xiaoping, to crush the movement and to do so with overwhelming violence, in order to draw a line in blood that workers, students, and other layers should fear to cross in future.

For the first time Stephen Jolly’s incisive eyewitness account of the Tiananmen events has also been published in the Chinese language. A new book, Tiananmen 1989 – Seven Weeks that Shook the World, contains Jolly’s article plus new material written by Vincent Kolo and Chen Mo. Kolo and Mo are both contributors to Chinaworker.info. We hope that is publication will be a useful contribution to the ongoing discussion in China and worldwide over these events.

The book attempts to draw out some important lessons: Could the Tiananmen movement have succeeded in changing China’s political system, and if so, with what political programme? Was the mass movement an attempt to restore capitalism and the crackdown therefore a ‘defence’ of Chinese socialism? Which social classes gained and which were losers from the massacre and the repression that followed? And what role did the working class play in the movement?

The answers to these questions will help us to understand what can happen in China in the future: the prospects for workers to organise and fight against super-exploitation, and the prospects for a new mass movement in the direction of genuine democracy and genuine socialism. These issues and more will be discussed at the public meeting in Melbourne next Wednesday.

SP Public Meeting - Tiananmen Square 20 years on

Featuring Stephen Jolly who witnessed the massacre and spoke at a 500,000 strong demonstration in the Square. Plus the relaunch of our pamphlet ‘Eyewitness in China’ which has been out of print for some time.

7pm Wednesday June 3 in the Annexe (Level 1) at Trades Hall. Corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. For more information phone 03 9639 9111.

Publications available from the SP National Office

Eyewitness in China, The events in Tiananmen Square May-June 1989
SP Pamphlet (46 pages) written by Stephen Jolly.
Cost: $3 or $6 posted to anywhere in Australia.

Tiananmen 1989 – Seven Weeks that Shook the World
Published by Chinaworker.info (96 pages) written by Stephen Jolly, Vincent Kolo and Chen Mo.
Cost: $16 or $20 posted to anywhere in Australia.

Upcoming SP meetings

The Melbourne Branch of SP meets every Wednesday at 7pm in Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. Upcoming meetings include:

3/6/09 – Tiananmen Square 20 years on
10/6/09 – The Irish struggle
17/6/09 – The environment & jobs
24/6/09 – Education under capitalism
1/7/09 – The politics of George Orwell

For more information or for details of meetings in other parts of Australia contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111.

News links

Bolivia: ‘NO’ to the Dismissal of 152 Water Service Workers!
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/05/2701.html

Brazil: Liberdade, Socialismo e Revolução launched
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/05/2602.html

Germany: Die Linke excludes leading SAV members
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/05/2601.html

Join the Socialist Party

If you agree with what you have read in our newsletter or on our website you should consider joining SP. The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth as well as members and supporters in all other states.

We are involved in trade union work and student work. We also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to get rid of the capitalist system, the system that is at the root of all of these problems. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction. To join SP contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a membership application form.

Subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ newspaper!

Support the Socialist Party by subscribing to our monthly newspaper ‘The Socialist’. Subscription rates are only $10 per year or $20 solidarity price. You will receive 11 copies per year delivered to your door every month. You will also receive our email newsletter every week and you will know that you are supporting an organisation that is at the fore of fighting against the capitalist system. To subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a subscription form.

Socialist Party contact details

Melbourne: Phone Anthony on 0396399111.
Sydney: Phone Gary on 0297287727.
Newcastle: Phone Samantha on 0249681545.
Perth: Phone John on 0894020728.
Rest of Australia: Phone our National Office on 0396399111.
Rest of the world: Phone our International Office on ++ 44 20 8988 8760.

The Socialist Party is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 40 countries across the world.

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