China: Solidarity with victimised Jasic Technology workers

Left activists protesting in support of Shenzhen Jasic Technology workers.

Left activists protesting in support of Shenzhen Jasic Technology workers.   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Since 18 July, workers at Jasic Technology – a factory in Shenzhen employing 1,000 workers making machines and robots – have been campaigning to set up a democratic, independent, trade union. The company, local CCP (‘communist’) government, and the official state-controlled union oppose this demand and have viciously cracked down on the struggle.

The company has sacked several workers who are leading the struggle.

Police detained 30 workers on 27 July. Many are still being held. Workers have reported torture and physical assaults by police. Those released are under police surveillance.

Protests

Workers and left-wing student activists have staged protests outside the police station against the repression and demanded the release of their comrades. These workers could be charged with “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” which can result in five years in prison.

On 11 August a leading female activist in the struggle, Shen Mengyu, a well-known worker activist, was kidnapped by unidentified men (suspected security forces) and her whereabouts is still unknown.

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI – to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) demands that police reveal where she is being held and on what charges. We demand her release and the release of the other detained workers, and that no charges are pressed.

We demand the responsible local politicians and police officials be dismissed for ordering the crackdown. We demand immediate recognition of the rights of Jasic Technology workers to form a democratic and independent trade union and the immediate reinstatement of dismissed workers.

The bosses of this private stock market-listed company have close ties to the local CCP government and are determined to quash this attempt to establish a union that is not under the company’s control.

The involvement in this conflict of many left-leaning youth is a complicating factor for the regime and a sign of big changes in the political mood in China this year.

Despite censorship, the Shenzhen Jasic struggle is being widely followed by left youth and worker activists around China.