- to govern in the '50s, people's "revolts
including the Cultural
April Fifth
11
Revolution,
the
Revolution,
the Democracy
movement,
the
Student
Movement
Movement
'85, the Student
the petitions in '89
movement.
people's
Time and
democratic
demonstrations forced
to correct
of '86,
and the present again, the huge and
protests the Communist their mistakes and Time and crises were thus
an appropriate course.
the
rulers
chart again, resolved.
that,
country's
the
the
both
The people's movements on sides of the Taiwan Strait over the several decades have revealed the past truth
Communist from apart Party,
the Kuomintang,
eight democratic parties and the Democratic Progressive Party, there exist the people's democratic forces which will never disappear. No ruling party or opposition
such can represent forces.
party
The Democracy Wall
movement
produced a simple programme, "The Chinese Declaration of Human Rights", and a
loose political the Human Rights branches
organisation
League.
organised joint
The meetings
known as various and
were
closely
adhered
to.
organisations
frequently
formulated
activities.
formulated united declarations which The
joint actions and supporting
The
shortcoming
of the student movement in 1986 was that there were
only vague slogans like "Democracy", "Human Rights" and "Freedom". There no concrete action programme
there
was
were
struggle.
nor
long term
goals for the any It did
not voice the feelings of the masses against such economic inflation and consequently lost
woes as
their support.
In the Democracy Wall movement and the Student Movement of 1986, workers were arrested and jailed. The lesson to be learned is that our organisations were loose and small. Students should give assistance to the workers.
Only when the tens of millions of production workers realise that their democratic rights will not be given to them as gifts but will have to be fought for and they take command of the situation in the country, will their production in China truly take off and the tasks of democracy accomplished.
At the same time, we must fight for higher wages and oppose inflation.
Ren Wending is
а
of
12
the Movement"
44.
married, and
years
leaders
old
He daughter. of the "Democracy of 1978/79.
Like
has
was one
Wall
Wei
Wang
days
Jingsheng, Xu Wenli, Liu Qing, Xizhe etc., Ren was spending his
writing, putting up big character
posters,
publishing
propagating
distributing
unofficial
about
democracy,
leaflets, magazines,
freedom
rights.
and making demands on human Ren was a founding member of the group called Human Rights League, the declaration of which entitled "China's Human Rights Declaration" was put up оп 5th January 1979 at the Xidan Democracy Wall. One of the drafters declaration was Ren.
to when he tried
put Democracy Wall in April 1979. He was never tried ΟΙ charged but had to spend four years in detention in Beijing's Banbuqiao prison.
prison guards
of the 19 point Ren was
arrested
оп poster
up a
he
the
a
He
by
self-
infuriated continuing his political discourse. Rather than confess and
compose criticism,
defended his views and actions in writing, secretly scrawling 30.000 charaters on lavatory paper and any other scraps he could find. Ren was lucky enough to be released after four years of imprisonment and he worked He was continuing
in democracy fight
China
to writings
Hong Kong publications and he also campaigned for the release of fighters. "Democracy Saloon" organised by student leader Wang Dan. As the student movement swept the
campuses
of Beijing's Ren courageously
as
an accountant. his
for sending his
universities,
Не
gave
by
other democracy
talks
at the
went
to speak at the universities and the Tiananmen Square.
Extracts of his speeches have been translated and published in this issue of Democracy Wall.
Ren had already been singled out and arrested when the bloody crack
4th. down began in June
Ren is facing long term imprisonment again. Please demand his immediate release by writing to the Chinese embassy in your country or taking other appropriate actions.
Democracy Wall
is
an
occasional poster/information sheet in support of the democracy movement in China and Hong Kong. It is available both in English and Chinese. The issues which have been published are as follows:
No. 1 The September 29th Incident
Hong Kong (English)
No. 2 Wang Dan (English)
No.
3 Wang Ruowang (English)
No. 4
Wang Ruowang (Chinese)
also
No. 5
Wang Dan (Chinese)
No. 6
Ma Shaofang (English)
No.
7
Ren Wending (English)
the
Past issues may be
obtained from
Fight for basic housing, oppose the sale of houses at high prices.
Fight for democracy in
university campus; oppose intervention by the university authorities.
Fight for the freedom to publish newspapers; oppose counter-revolutionary
convictions.
Own
Workers, brothers: Organise organisations legally. Long
your live
the coalition of students and workers.
Democracy Wall,
P.0. Box 31340,
Causeway Bay,
Hong Kong.
in
a
Support our project by sending Us donation to help covering the printing and postage costs.