Socialist Action () is a Trotskyist political organisation in Hong Kong. It is affiliated with International Socialist Alternative (ISA) and works closely with the ISA sections in China and Taiwan. It describes itself as being based on the method and analysis of Marxism, to politically re-arm and organise the working class in the fight for a socialist world. They oppose the Chinese Communist Party, which they claim has made China the 'Sweatshop of the World' with one of the most extreme wealth gaps on the planet. They stand for the creation of fighting independent trade unions by Chinese workers to fight against capitalist exploitation and authoritarian rule.
Socialist Action criticises the approach of the main pan-democratic opposition parties in Hong Kong, which they claim to be incapable of success. Socialist Action plays a role in workers' strikes, environmental protests and campaigns for migrants' rights.
Origins Socialist Action was founded in 2010 by young activists involved in the 2010 Hong Kong by-election () campaign for universal suffrage which followed the resignation of 5 pro-democracy lawmakers from Hong Kong's Legislative Council. While supporting the general aims of this movement against the Hong Kong government's limited electoral reform proposals, Socialist Action campaigned behind the slogan "Realise democracy – Kick out the capitalists!" This was "to raise the flag of socialism and explain why the struggle for democratic rights must challenge capitalism in order to succeed."
In addition to supporting the movement's main demands for abolition of the legislature's elite-based functional constituencies and election of Hong Kong's Chief Executive by universal suffrage, Socialist Action also called for the lowering of the voting age to 16, the right of migrants to vote, for legislators to receive only a skilled workers' wage, and for the Legislative Council to be replaced by "People's Assembly".
The magazine Socialist () was started in 2009 by mainland Chinese activists as an underground publication which is banned by the Chinese authorities. From 2010 Socialist Action began joint production of the magazine which is not banned in Hong Kong. Since 2011 a Taiwan edition of the magazine has also been produced.
Umbrella Revolution and democracy struggle
Socialist Action participated in the 2014 Umbrella Revolution movement.
Opinion on the movement
Socialist Action argued that while mass occupy movements were a good way to begin mobilising a mass movement, this would not by itself be enough to force the Chinese government to concede free elections in Hong Kong. Socialist Action was the first organisation in Hong Kong to raise the demand for school strikes as a weapon in the democracy struggle. Socialist Action had argued in meetings and rallies in the year-and-a-half preceding the mass movement that school strikes should be built upon by escalating to workers' strikes and other forms of mass civil disobedience. Socialist Action believe the spontaneous nature of the movement is insufficient to carry the movement to victory, and it is necessary for democratic control of the movement by its grassroots activists, as well as a much clearer strategy to link the democratic struggle in Hong Kong with growing anti-government sentiment in China.
Socialist Action also stress the link between democratic demands and economic struggles over soaring rents, stagnating wages, and the lack of a universal pension system and standard working hours in Hong Kong. They believe the fight for genuine universal suffrage cannot be separated from the fight against the capitalist elite which controls economic and political decision-making. During and indeed long before the Umbrella Revolution erupted, Socialist Action criticised the mainstream pan democratic politicians and their NGO allies for being "tied politically to the coat tails of the capitalist class". Given the capitalists' support and acceptance of the current dictatorial system in China, from which they benefit economically, Socialist Action argues that those parties and groups with a pro-capitalist political outlook limit themselves to demanding very partial democratic reforms and refuse to call for the overthrow of the CCP dictatorship or for extending the democracy struggle into China. In June 2014, when Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah launched a proposal to 'democratise' the nomination committee, which Beijing is insisting upon as a means to vet election candidates for the post of Chief Executive, Socialist Action denounced this as "another rotten compromise attempt" and staged protests at a meeting called by Tong and attended by mainland officials.
Democratic committees
Socialist Action also took issue with what it claimed was too little internal democracy within the Umbrella Movement, accusing the pan democratic leaders of "imposing their undemocratic 'small circle' model of leadership upon protest movements in Hong Kong." They called for democratic grassroots' committees to be set up inside the occupation movement and for all discussions on tactics and political demands to be conducted through such democratic structures. Socialist Action's campaign for internal democracy within the Umbrella Movement took a major turn when the leaders of the Occupy Central campaign tried to organise an online referendum inside the occupations. This followed televised talks between the Hong Kong government and student representatives on 21 October 2014. The proposed online referendum, which was initially supported by the leaders of the Federation of Students, included a question on whether to accept or reject the government's offer of a 'supplementary report' to Beijing, something many considered to be an insignificant gesture. Socialist Action campaigned vigorously against the proposed referendum saying it was a misuse of 'democracy' within the movement and a manoeuvre to call off the protests, a position that was widely reported in the Hong Kong media. The referendum was killed off by mass pressure from the occupiers, with the student leaders withdrawing their support.
National Education struggle Many of the controversies that emerged during the Umbrella Movement such as which forms of struggle are most effective and the need for genuine internal democracy were also raised two years earlier in the mass movement against 'school brainwashing', the popular name for the government's Moral and national education plan. These mass protests culminated in a weeklong occupation outside the Government Headquarters in Tamar in September 2012. Socialist Action was the only organisation that proposed a city-wide school strike as a means to escalate the protests. Student members of Socialist Action launched a 'City-wide School Strike Campaign' to propagate this idea. The Tamar occupation was abruptly called off by its leading group – a coalition of NGOs and representatives of the Professional Teachers' Union. This in the opinion of Socialist Action was another example of insufficient democratic discussion and lack of grassroots control through democratic structures. The City-wide School Strike Campaign was the only force in the movement that openly criticised the way the movement was called off, arguing that a full victory could have been achieved instead of settling for the government's partial retreat over this issue.
Political views
Socialist Action members are active in many campaigns against state repression and to defend the rights of political dissidents including several of their own members who have been persecuted by the Chinese state. In October 2011 Socialist Action members helped the young mainland Chinese dissident Zhang Shujie to escape from China and seek asylum in Sweden. Zhang, a regular contributor to their underground magazine 'Socialist' () and the chinaworker.info website, was arrested as part of the major crackdown of 2011, which followed the fall of the governments in Tunisia and Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Zhang faced the danger of a long prison term on charges of "contact with a banned organisation" and "crimes related to national security" (a very common accusation against critics of the Chinese Communist Party). Zhang revealed to a seminar in the Swedish parliament in 2012 that public security officials in Chongqing offered him his freedom in return for passing on information about other left-wing activists. The police paid for him to visit a Socialist Action conference in Hong Kong in October 2011 but instead of spying on the participants, the visit was used to organise his escape. The Stockholm parliamentary seminar was attended by Hong Kong legislator 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung who also actively assisted Zhang Shujie's escape from China.
Supporting workers' struggles Socialist Action campaigns for the rights of working-class people by giving practical assistance, solidarity, and tactical proposals to workers' struggles. Before Hong Kong introduced a statutory minimum wage in 2011, a move fiercely resisted by employers' organisations, Socialist Action actively campaigned for the minimum wage to be set at HK$33 per hour and called for a mass recruitment drive to strengthen unionism in notorious low-wage sectors such as the retail and catering industries. In a widely criticised move, the government set the minimum wage at the low level of HK$28 per hour. Due to the effects of inflation and especially higher housing costs, Socialist Action in 2015 argued for the minimum wage to be raised to HK$45 per hour, compared to the government set level of HK$32.50.
In the 40-day strike of Hong Kong dockworkers in 2013 which challenged Li Ka-Shing's business empire, Socialist Action collected 36,000 Hong Kong dollars for the strikers. They proposed specific actions to strengthen the strikes’ effectiveness and go beyond the limited, largely media-centred concept of struggle favoured by union officials. Socialist Action has consistently supported strike action by workers in pursuit of their rights such as the high-speed railway construction workers' strike in August 2013, the strike by transport workers at Swire Coca-Cola HK in October 2013, the Lohas Park construction workers' strike also in 2013, and strikes by lifeguards at public beaches and swimming pools in July and September 2014. Socialist Action stresses the need to abolish the outsourcing system, a root cause of low wages and poor worker protection, and urges workers to actively transform their unions into fighting organisations in defence of workers' rights. On several occasions Socialist Action has organised solidarity actions to raise support for mainland Chinese workers such as during the Yue Yuen footwear workers' strikes of 2014, in Guangdong province, which were the largest factory stoppages in China for three decades. In the autumn of 2013 international protests were organised to demand the release from detention of Shenzhen workers' representative Wu Guijun. In close coordination with its sister organisations of the Committee for a Workers' International, Socialist Action and the chinaworker.info website organised protests at Chinese embassies in 13 cities around the world from Sydney, Australia to Bangalore, India. Wu was released in June 2014 in what was an important and rare victory for China's fledgling independent workers' movement.