Far right pressing in Hong Kong
Sid Zoichi is currently on the ground in Hong Kong reporting for Red Flag. Follow @RedFlag_news on Twitter for updates.
Sid's previous dispatches can be found here, here, here, and here.
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The occupy site at Admiralty was packed with protestors again last Friday.
After a planned negotiation was cancelled by government spokeswoman Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, student leaders from Hong Kong Federation of Students and student activist group Scholarism called for a rally.
Despite the attendance being up to 100 000, no further actions were announced by organisers.
It seemed that the Hong Kong government was using delaying tactics when it said that talks would be postponed indefinitely.
On one hand, Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor stressed that the decision made by the People’s National Congress of China over Hong Kong’s democratic progress won’t be reviewed. That means that the government is not budging an inch on the key demand of the protest movement – genuine universal suffrage.
On the other hand, the island’s chief executive, Leung Chun Ying, said on Sunday that no crackdown had been planned, meaning the protest could continue.
However, a blitzkrieg on Queensway Rd in the Admiralty district was launched at noon today, when there were less people at the Central site.
The cops caught the protesters off guard and the latter lost all the roadblocks except the last line.
But an anti-occupy march then occurred. In order to separate the two groups, the cops had to leave the last line of roadblocks untouched and retreat from the occupied Queensway Rd.
At the time of writing, protesters are rebuilding the destroyed roadblocks. There is no intervention from the cops, who are standing not too far away.
Another thing worth mentioning is the tension between the right and the left in the movement.
Although claimed to be a leaderless movement, the struggle over leadership and discourse among different political forces never stops in Occupy Hong Kong.
The nationalist far right is the most aggressive. Not only are the distinctly left-influenced organisations such as HKFS and Pan-democracy Camp denounced as capitulationists and communist spies. Anyone who tries to argue a different line to the far right is also labelled a trouble-making leftist.
For example, last Friday a group of high school students, with no affiliation to the left, were showing a film about Hong Kong’s past social movements. Civil Passion, the main right nationalist group, mobilised its supporters to shut the viewing down.
Meanwhile, the left has realised that they have to counterattack. On Sunday HKFS reached out from Admiralty, where its headquarters is located, and held discussions at Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
The students met fierce opposition at Mong Kok, which the far right sees as its stronghold.
Nevertheless, HKFS completed an open discussion forum with the help of the other left forces. The present of police meant that Civil Passion couldn’t shut it down violently.
Similarly, the attempts to stop the film viewing weren’t successful after the first night because left wing youth, including those in the group Left21, defended the high school students.
However, the far right won’t give up easily.
