Home » jj blog

message from Chinese activists and academics in support of Occupy Wall Street

by | 2 October 2011 | 29 Comments | Last modified: 1 Nov 11:56 am

This letter of solidarity, signed over by 50 intellectuals and activists in China, was posted to Utopia yesterday. Thanks to everyone for the translation and editing work!

From the middle of September, a great “Wall Street Revolution” has broken out in the United States. This street revolution, going by the name of “Occupy Wall Street,” has already expanded to over 70 cities and countries in North America, Europe, and other areas. In their statement on “The Wall Street Revolution,” the American people have sworn that this demand for “a democratic country, not a corporate kingdom” mass democratic revolution must spread to every part of the world, and they will not rest until this goal is met. From the anti-capitalist demonstrations that began after the 2008 financial crisis, and which this year have spread across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and South America, this magnificent global mass democratic movement has finally spread to the center of capitalism’s financial empire-Wall Street.

The eruption of the “Wall Street Revolution” is an historical indicator that the popular democratic revolution that will soon sweep the world is set to begin. It is an especially significant and important event for this movement. Before this most recent action, street protests had virtually been exclusively used as a tool by US elite groups to subvert other countries. Now, however, the “Wall Street Revolution” - with its goals of shared prosperity and popular democracy - has launched protests in the country that is the self-proclaimed defender of democracy. This will inevitably strike a hard blow against the US elite group, itself responsible for the plunder and oppression of people all over the world, and the group that pushed the world into crisis and instability. The protests ring the death knell of the rule of capital. Popular democracy will replace elite democracy in the 21st Century, and the curtain has lifted on the movement from elite politics to popular politics. Using the language of the “Wall Street Revolution,” this is a struggle of the popular 99% against the corrupt 1%, a struggle of the popular 99% against the elite 1%,and is the final struggle of the popular forces against elite capitalist rule.

The world belongs to all of the people of the world. Countries belong to the entire people of those countries. Even moreso, wealth is produced by the entire people, and therefore should be shared by the entire people, it cannot be monopolized by the 1% - or even less than 1% - that is made up of an extremely small number of elites. The demand for common prosperity in economics, and popular democracy in politics has become an unstoppable historical trend! The rapid expansion of a fictitious economy and the massive flow of social wealth has created an amply reliable material foundation for the realization of the common wealth of all people. The development of internet technology and political civilization has created the conditions for human society to make the transition from capitalist democracy to popular democracy. Human society is fully capable of transforming, on the foundation of the past democracy of slaveholders, the democracy of feudal lords, and the democracy of the capitalist class, to make the fundamental shift from the democracy of the elites to real popular democracy. Common prosperity and popular democracy will become the main content of the historical transformation of the 21stCentury. No matter how brutally the American riot police will attempt to suppress the participants in the Wall Street revolution, no matter how much the global elites – especially those in the U.S. and China –try to suppress news of the Wall Street revolution, they cannot stop the vigorous growth and ultimate victory of the democratic revolution of the people of the world.

The violent repression and virtual blockade of news about the “Wall Street Revolution” by elite groups led by the US proves that the fate of oppressed people around the world is the same, regardless of whether they are from developed or developing countries, whether they are from so-called democracies or authoritarian countries. The international elite was the first class to link-up internationally via globalization. Their plunder of public wealth and repression of popular democratic movements is cruel and far-reaching, and utterly lacking in freedom and democracy. So-called freedom and democracy in modern society is nothing more than democracy for capitalism, an elite democracy. Freedom is another word for the elite to plunder, oppress and violently suppress others. Popular forces have been completely excluded from the freedoms and democracy of modern society, and the extent of democratic rights is to choose between presidential candidates that have already been vetted by capital. You can vote once every four years, but you have no way of affecting the people above you who directly determine your fate: your boss or superior. And there is no way of constraining the capitalistoligarchs who can take away the wealth of the majority of the population with the slight of hand of fictitious capital. Freedom and democracy have become a virtual game, nothing more than a tool to subvert other countries. Now the popular and democratic world revolution - symbolized by the “Wall Street Revolution”- demands an end to this political game, and that freedom and democracy be returned to the people. Democracy is not just a check on the president, but a check on government officials; democracy is not just a check on power, but a check on capital. If the rights and privileges of feudal and absolute rulers are understood to be a sin and abomination, then giving those rights to capital is also a travesty.

Securities and computer networks should have been two crucial elements of our shift from an industrial society to an information society, from a material economy to a virtual economy, from capitalism to a human-centered economic system, and from elite politics to popular politics. But the elite class has turned securities into a tool of appropriation akin to the ‘indulgences’ issued by middle-age church functionaries in Europe. In the new securitized economy, all the public’s wealth can easily melt into thin air - including their houses, wages, labor power and even their hope for the future. All these things have become the targets of appropriation by a tiny elite minority. Both the white-collar middle classes in developed countries - owners of fictitious property, and the blue-collar workers in developing countries who cannot afford housing or health care, belong in point of fact to the same class: modern proletariat. When the people protest the unprecedented plunder and vast income gap perpetrated by fictitious capital, they are met with violent repression - both in so-called democracy countries that claim to be defenders of human rights such as the US, and in authoritarian countries that are said to lack freedom and democracy. Faced with street protests erupting from the Balkans to North Africa, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have repeated over and over, “The rights of peaceful protest and the occupation of public space should be respected at all times.” Yet when US citizens attempt to exercise this right they immediately are faced with violent repression by armed police, and a blockade by the news media. If this is reaction of the US - the self-proclaimed leader in human rights - then we can imagine what the reaction will be in other capitalist countries. Rule by the capitalist elite is just as described by the “Wall Street Revolution” - everywhere. There is nowhere left were we can live and die as people.

The eruption of the “Wall Street Revolution” in the heart of the world’s financial empire shows that 99% of the world’s people remain exploited and oppressed - regardless of whether they are from developed or developing countries. People throughout the world see their wealth being plundered, and their rights being taken away. Economic polarization is now a common threat to all of us. The conflict between popular and elite rule is also found in all countries. Now, however, the popular democratic revolution meets repression not just from its own ruling class, but also from the world elite that has formed through globalization. The “Wall Street Revolution” has met with repression from US police, but also suffers from a media blackout organized by the Chinese elite.

The same fate, the same pain, the same problems, the same conflict. Faced with a common enemy in an elite global class that has already linked-up, the people of the world have only one option: to unite and in a unified and shared struggle overturn the rule of the capitalist elite, to ensure that everyone enjoys the basic human rights of work, housing, health care, education, and a secure old-age. But we must go further if we are to realize shared prosperity and popular democracy in a new socialist world historical framework, If we are to fully escape and neutralize the crises and disasters that capitalism has brought the human race, and realize harmonious social development.

The great “Wall Street Revolution” and the great popular “Chilean Winter” that preceded it signal that the day when we realize shared prosperity and popular democracy is approaching. It signals that worldwide popular and democratic socialist movement - dormant since the 1970s - is waking up again. But this time, it will be the final battle to put capitalism in its grave. The victory of popular democracy and death of elite rule are inevitable! The embers of revolt are scattered amongst us all, waiting to burn with the slightest breeze. The great era of popular democracy, set to change history, has arrived again!

Resolutely support the American people in the “Wall Street Revolution”!

Resolutely support all street protests pushing for shared prosperity and popular demoracy!

Long live the “Wall Street Revolution”!

Long live the global movement for popular democracy!

Long live popular international solidarity!

Signed by,

1. Ma Bin (Veteran Communist Party member and revolutionary, major contributor to the Angang Constitution)

2. Zhang Hongliang (Beijing scholar)

3. Kong Qingdong (Beijing scholar)

4. Zhang Qinde (Retired member of the Central Committee of the CCP)

5. Sima Nan (Senior television host, Beijing)

6. Zuo Dapei (Beijing scholar)

7. Su Tieshan (Beijing scholar)

8. Jia Genliang (Beijing scholar)

9. Han Deqiang (Beijing scholar)

10. Han Zhong (Actor, portrayed Chairman Mao in the television series Mao Anying)

11. Liu Yiran (Director of the television series Mao Anying)

12. Gu Xiulin (Kunming scholar)

13. Zhao Lei (Chengdu scholar)

14. Liu Changming (Jinan scholar)

15. Sun Xiliang (Changsha scholar)

16. Guo Songmin (Beijing scholar)

17. Yang Siyuan (Beijing scholar)

18. Xu Liang (Beijing scholar)

19. Fan Jinggang (Webmaster of the leftist Utopia website: http://www.wyzxsx.com)

20. Wu Guoping (Leader of the Red Culture Forum in Wuxi, Jiangsu)

21. Dai Cheng (Leader of the Red Singing Group, Changzhou, Jiangsu)

22. Ge Liying (Left social activist, Zhengzhou, Henan)

23. Ren Yangcheng (Special Model Worker, Linzhou, Henan)

24. Yuan Jinping (Anyang, Henan)

25. Zhao Dongmin (Xi’an Red legal worker)

26. Sang Wenying (Leader of Xi’an Red Singing Association)

27. Li Zhong (Left social activist, Shanxi)

28. Nie Xiaoping (Doctor of Tradition Chinese Medicine, Beijing)

29. Wu Zegang (Tibetan farmer and CCP member, Li County, Sichuan)

30. Su Qun (Volunteer for Suzhou Red Singing Association)

31. Zhu Chao (Left social activist, Chongqing)

32. Xi Weiming (Left social activist, Shanghai)

33. Li Xin (Left social activist, Tianjin)

34. Cao Wenzhi (Leader of the Jingshan Park Red Song Association)

35. Wu Fengzao (Retired Steel Worker)

36. Xue Yun (Left social activist, Principal of Dianshi School)

37. Yang Xiaolu (Beijing Anti-GMO activist)

38. Ma Tingna (Beijing Anti-GMO activist)

39. Lü Ying (Retired Technology worker, former Red Guard)

40. Liu Ying (Guilin, Guangxi scholar)

41. Chen Hongbing (Former Red Guard from Zhengzhou, Henan)

42. Shi Hengli (Emeritus Researcher, Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences)

43. Xiong Ju (CCP member, Poet, Writer, Retired Employee of Chongqing Publishing House)

44. Xie Mingkang (Dianjiang County, Chongqing, County Construction Committee, retired)

45. Wu Bihai (Left social activist, Zhejiang)

46. Wang Qingren (Professor at Nankai University, Tianjin)

47. Sima Pingbang (Vice-Chair of China Blogger Salon)

48. Wang Zuojun (Senior media host, Environmentalist)

49. Zeng Youcan (Engineer)

50. Chen Jing (Left social activist, Beijing)

(list of signees awaiting translation, please contact [email protected] to help!)

(image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shankbone/6199854848/ - David Shankbone)

Tags: | | |

29 comments on “message from Chinese activists and academics in support of Occupy Wall Street

  1. I am very pleased to read this. I want to thank the writers and the translators!

  2. Pingback: Message of solidarity from Chinese activists and academics, via China Study Group « The AcaFEMic

  3. Pingback: Manifesto from China: Support Occupy Wall Street « Kasama

  4. Pingback: Çinli aydın ve eylemcilerden Wall Street’i İşgal Protestolarına Destek « Sol Küre

  5. Pingback: Message from Chinese activists and academics in support of Occupy Wall Street - Houston Communist Party | Houston Communist Party

  6. Bill Northway on said:

    Eloquent! You’ve hit the nail on the head, I think…

  7. I’d be really interested to hear a bit more background as to the origins of this. Who wrote it? Are they involved in activity for ‘popular democracy’ in China? Are the sort of perspectives outlined here widely held at any level within Chinese society?

    I’m asking these questions from a position of both interest and ignorance.

  8. Apparently the authors are Ma Bing and Zhang Hongliang. Ma Bing is a 98-year-old former revolutionary (joined the CCP in 1932) who later become a fairly high-ranking official in the economic bureaucracy. Zhang Hongliang is a firebrand internet phenomenon and a professor in Beijing.

    Lots more info here if you can read Chinese!

    http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E9%A9%AC%E5%AE%BE
    http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E5%BC%A0%E5%AE%8F%E8%89%AF

    The letter first appeared, and is kind of centered around the website Utopia, so it’s in the penumbra of left-nationalist Maoism.

    Hope this helps!

  9. Pingback: China’s delight at Wall Street Revolution | The World | International affairs blog from the FT – FT.com

  10. Pingback: “US Media Blackout of Protest Is Shameful” | China Digital Times (CDT)

  11. Dave Stratman on said:

    “Thinking about Revolution”
    by John Spritzler and Dave Stratman

    “What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 – 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.”

    –John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, August 24, 1815

    Once again the time has come for revolution in America. Instead of a British king we have a ruling class of bankers and billionaires who control the government and all the important institutions of society. Despite the electoral circus and other trappings of democracy, the big shots call the tune. Politicians serve them, not us. This dictatorship of the rich has pushed economic inequality to obscene levels, has left more and more Americans unemployed or working at jobs that pay too little, has driven homes into foreclosure, deprived families of adequate medical care, saddled young people with huge student loans, caused environmental disasters like BP in the Gulf, and sent loved ones to kill or be killed in wars based on lies. The future holds misery for the many and privilege for the few.

    These and other problems are part of a system in which money is power and most people don’t have any. The powerful men and women who run our world were not elected and cannot be unelected. They can only be re-moved from power by revolution.

    [Full text continues at the web site below. Topics include: Why revolution is not only necessary but possible. What strategy can succeed. Why equality means replacing capitalism with a sharing economy without money, in which everybody has equal access to the wealth and benefits that society creates. Why democracy means laws are only made locally with order in society coming from voluntary federation.]

    www.newdemocracyworld.org/Thinking.pdf

  12. Dave Stratman on said:

    Thanks to the Chinese revolutionaries who wrote this inspiring message and the China Study Group who conveyed it.

    If there is any way to convey our thanks and our article, “Thinking about Revolution,” to the Chinese revolutionaries, we would be deeply grateful. It is posted at www.newdemocracyworld.org/Thinking.pdf

  13. Robert Norton Cable on said:

    We greatly appreciate the solidarity of Chinese activists and intellectuals! China and the USA should both be true people’s republics-not Communist, not Fascist, not Republican, not Democrat, but democratic/socialist in the essential sense. Let’s have government of the 99%, by the 99% and for the 99% everywhere in our precious, intimately inter-dependent world that is so seriously threatened by ignorance, greed and violence. JUSTICE AND PEACE !

  14. We thank you for heartfelt understanding and support

  15. Pingback: Kiinalaisaktivistit tukevat Wall Streetin valtausta | 15M Suomi | Scoop.it

  16. Pingback: SOCIALIST UNITY » MESSAGE FROM CHINESE ACTIVISTS IN SUPPORT OF "OCCUPY WALL-STREET"

  17. Pingback: NYC Labor Against the War: 10.5 OWS Report: Mass Worker Support | NYCLAW: NYC Labor Against the War

  18. USA Expat in China on said:

    I am a guest living and working here in China and feel most heartened by this statement of solidarity with the OccupyWallStreet movement. I no longer recognize the country I grew up in. I was a working class kid in New York City and received a world class education at no tuition in the public schools and college through a Bachelor’s degree. The world was my oyster and I made a very fulfilling professional future in NYC and the surrounding northern suburbs. Today, I watch in disbelief and horror as the wealthy elite makes a shambles of our economy, bankrupting people, throwing them, illegally, out of their homes and throwing people out of jobs. I see corporations, flush with over $2 trillion in cash, waiting out the recession and elections instead of hiring, putting cash back into the pockets of the consumers who support 70% of the economy. Greed has reared its ugly head and on steroids with a government bought by the wealthy and powerful. Power to the people who will abuse it the least!!!!

  19. Pingback: Kiinan vasemmistolta tukea Wall St. -protesteille - Sosialismi.net

  20. Markus on said:

    Thank you a lot for your message. These are the kind of words that will realize what they are speaking about.

    I think we should spread more basic global demands like above:

    - against the global elite
    - free global movement of the people
    - unconditional basic income for everybody
    - …

    Let’s rock the planet.

  21. tatsmaki on said:

    If USA is facing spontaneous revolution, then what to do
    tatsmaki (Japan)

    A demonstrator “Occupy Wall Street” shouted: “A revolution is beginning !”
    Wonderful!! But a problem is in the direction of revolution.
    At the time of G8 leaders’ meeting in London British workers staged a demonstration under a banner “Abolish Money !”.
    They became the avantgarde of libelation movement of earthmen.
    But your spontaneous demonstration “Occupy Wall Street” doesn’t raise both a tactical and strategic targets. A initiative and the leadership by workers’ parties or leading groups don’t be felt.
    In the USA the poor under tyranny by Wall Street and its boss Rockefellers forms 29% of population (311 mill. 800 thou. in 2010), i.e. 90 mill. 420 thou. people. The number of selfmurder became 4 times more in 2009 than 2007 according to a record by the National service on selfmurder prevension, USA.
    You should raise a tactical target for Basic Income to secure all Americans’ life which is called by American young man Piter Jozef, and a strategic target for Abolition of barbarous and tyrannical Money system, for transition to the new society of gratuitous services in all life fields of peoples.

    :idea: :smile:

  22. Pingback: From our friends in china» Always there to help the US » message from Chinese activists and academics in support of Occupy Wall Street – Joe Tapias

  23. Pingback: Occupy Wall Street Creates a Buzz in China « China Wangre

  24. Pingback: Vitro Nasu » Blog Archive » Message from China

  25. Pingback: Chinesische Aktivisten unterstützen Occupy-Wallstreet-Bewegung | Global Review

  26. Pingback: Message from Chinese activists and academics in support of Occupy Wall Street

  27. Pingback: China loves #occupywallstreet | Believe Me When I Tell You

  28. Pingback: [Info] Globe: Occupation & Struggle 10/03-09 | Japan - Fissures in the Planetary Apparatus

  29. Pingback: Beijing International Peace Vigil » Blog Archive » Palestine | Islamophobia | West Bengal | Occupy Wall Street | Media | Steve Jobs | Egypt | Syria | Britain | US elections | EU | China

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

HTML tags are not allowed.

icon_wink.gif icon_neutral.gif icon_mad.gif icon_twisted.gif icon_smile.gif icon_eek.gif icon_sad.gif icon_rolleyes.gif icon_razz.gif icon_redface.gif icon_surprised.gif icon_mrgreen.gif icon_lol.gif icon_idea.gif icon_biggrin.gif icon_evil.gif icon_cry.gif icon_cool.gif icon_arrow.gif icon_confused.gif icon_question.gif icon_exclaim.gif