In this issue: The Fight to Remember June Fourth Isn’t Over | The State of Labour In Hong Kong | International Solidarity | HK Labour Rights Newsflash
The Fight to Remember June Fourth Isn’t Over
On 4 June 1989, the Chinese government brutally crushed the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, leaving countless students and civilians dead or wounded. For over three decades, Hongkongers kept vigil with candlelight, refusing to forget.
Since 2020, commemorations have been banned. The Hong Kong Alliance was suppressed. The leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and Albert Ho were charged with “inciting subversion” for commemorating June Fourth, and have been held in custody awaiting trial ever since.
Though the candlelight in Victoria Park is gone, every year on June 4, people still quietly wear black, light candles, and carry on the memory. Across the world — including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan — commemorations continue in defiance of forgetting. Same as previous years, we will join the candlelight vigil outside the Chinese Embassy in London.
Commemorating June Fourth is not a crime.
Free Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho.
Restore our rights for assembly and association.
THE STATE of LABOUR in HONG KONG
We released ‘The State of Labour in Hong Kong 2024’ this month, revealing a deepening polarisation in the labour market: the departure of educated young people on one hand and a surge of elderly workers remaining in employment on the other. Meanwhile, the chaotic manpower policies are further deteriorating working conditions for all.
“Hong Kong’s ongoing population outflow is the product of authoritarian governance and a breakdown in public trust,” said Christopher Mung, the Executive Director of Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor. “The government remains wilfully blind, doubling down with Article 23 legislation instead of reassessing course, like plunging a knife into a still-bleeding wound.”
Mung warned that Hong Kong’s employment market is becoming increasingly polarised, with young workers leaving in droves while older citizens compelled to work longer. He called the government’s patchwork talent import strategies ineffective and misdirected, aggravating public discontent and creating the stage for deeper social division.
“With the economy faltering and unemployment creeping upward, these chaotic and imbalanced labour policies are a ticking time bomb,” he added.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
Global Workers Unite Against Authoritarianism
This May Day, we joined hands with exiled labour groups from Myanmar, Belarus, Vietnam and beyond to expose how authoritarian regimes crush workers’ rights. In the name of “national security” and fighting “extremism”, they outlaw independent unions and brutally silence those who dare to fight for democracy. But their violence doesn’t end at the border — they flood the world with sweatshop goods built on forced labour, undermining hard-won global labour protections. That’s why we unite with exiled worker activists — across borders, across struggles — to resist repression and fight back against tyranny.
HK Labour Rights Newsflash
International Solidarity
- Tax Office Pursues Independent Media and Journalists: HKJA Warns of Threat to Press Freedom <Read more>
- 49 Journalists Arrested, Apple Daily Case Sees Longest Detention as Hong Kong Plunges into ‘Red Zone’ for Press Freedom <Read more>
- Hong Kong’s Minimum Wage Falls Behind Taiwan and Japan <Read more>
- Keeta Couriers Strike Over Pay Cuts and Risky Job Conditions in Hong Kong <Read more>
- Ocean Empire Shuts Down as Wage Fund Deficit Soars to HK$113M <Read more>
- Trump Signs Executive Order Ending Collective Bargaining Rights for Federal Workers<Read more>