Eyewitness in China
The events in Tiananmen Square, May-June 1989
by Steve Jolly
demands
Once that question was discussed and agreed theoretically then we had to ask what conclusions do we draw from this?
The conclusions are very simple. That our number one demands at the moment must be the transitional demands, Lenin's four points and so on, the nurturing and development of the independent trade union movement, the further development of the student movement and its links to the workers and so on. But at the same time, as far as the leaders of this movement are concerned, both workers and students, and indeed as far as the rank and file of the movement are concerned, it would be absolutely mistaken to try to dodge the terrible fact it was necessary to face: that none of the demands of the workers and students in China can be won and secured from the Communist Party and its government. It is absolutely impossible.
But what about the reformist wing of the Communist Party, the students would say, what about Zhao Ziyang? The illusions in him are not half as much as what the capitalist press is saying, especially amongst the active layers of workers and students, but they do exist. So we would discuss the situation in Poland: that the elections do not represent the beginnings of a democratisation of Polish society. The only reason they have taken place is (a) because the Solidarity leaders like Walesa were tamed by Jaruzelski and the Polish regime and (b) because they represent very limited democratic reforms, not real democratic rights and power to the people. It is a question of the bureaucracy giving limited reforms from above to try to prevent revolution from below. I would also point out that in the Soviet Union, side by side with glasnost is the repression against the Georgian masses, and so on. That had to be drawn out, and to stress the lesson that the conclusion of any programme for the students and workers as far as China was concerned had to be for a new government, a new revolutionary government, a political revolution, as we would say as Marxists. In other words, that the workers and students needed to take power. That was the only way that reforms could be implemented and made permanent as far as the Chinese masses were concerned. Once that question was agreed on then you could go on to the organisational conclusions that needed to be drawn from it.
This was all made easier because most of the students and the workers had a good knowledge of the writings of Marx and Engels and Lenin. Although none of them knew anything about Trotsky. Sometimes it was possible to get round to a discussion of Trotsky by discussing the effects that Stalin's political counter-revolution in the Soviet Union had on developments in China itself. How it was the wrong policies of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, influencing the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, which led to the defeat of the Chinese revolution of 1925-27. And how then Mao retreated from the working class in the cities to rely on the peasantry, and so how the 1949 Revolution had not been led by the working class. But that didn't mean that the ideas of genuine Marxism had been completely lost. There was Trotsky in Russia - I explained his leading role with Lenin in the 1917 Revolution - who had held the flag high. I explained the position he had taken in regard to the Chinese revolution and the world revolution in the 1920s and 1930s.
All this was the meat of most of my discussions with the students. But, after these particular discussions with these Shanghai students they took me up to the Monument of Peoples Heroes, which was the base where all the leaders live, along with the capitalist journalists. I met, on that particular day, many of the student leaders. I would have to say they were not as interested in theory as the rank and file. But this was not because they were living any differently from the rank and file. It was more because they felt they had a battle to lead. They were more interested in whether I could give money, organise some tents, organise international solidarity through my links with the Western labour movement if they had anybody in jail: practical questions like that.
I must add that there was a semi-conscious sense among the students of the leaders being under the right of recall, living no better than the rank and file, and in fact, sticking their necks out even more than the mass of the students. And these leaders were extremely brave. The first lot of leaders had all gone on hunger strike. I met some of those who had been on the initial hunger strike. Some of them had suffered brain damage. It was like talking to a child; it was terrible actually, discussing with these heroes who had given up their brain and become like vegetables. They were able to hold a conversation, but they were extremely disturbed, tense, and nervous. They would constantly go off on tangents, and they will never recover.
I wouldn't have a bad word said about any of the leaders. Because a lot of them are now dead. And they were real martyrs, real heroes. Many knew that as soon as they decided they were going to lead that movement, they were basically signing their death warrant: they knew what could happen to them. They were people of a calibre that I'd never met outside the ranks of the Marxist tendency, I'll put it like that. It was a fantastic privilege to meet these comrades, because that's what they were.
By the way, there was never one single organisation leading the students. Even at the Monument, there were five or six student groups. Earlier on in the struggle some of the leaders were quite active as Communist Party Youth League members. At first they saw the movement just as a support to Zhao in his struggle with the 'hard-liners'. But that illusion didn't last. Before I arrived there had been a more militant group that wanted to stay in the Square taking over from a group that wanted to leave it. They all agreed theoretically on the need for a central students' organisation. But getting it together in the absence of theory and a programme was even more difficult. As the movement started to ebb, in fact, certain conflicts developed among the different groups, not politically, but over distribution of the tents, distribution of the money, etc.