Join Human Rights Connected as we celebrate Blog Action Day 2014! This year, we focus on the topic of inequality as it relates to human rights.
Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement: The Necessity of Internal Equality
Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, which arose over two weeks ago in response to widespread inequality, offers insight into the transformative potential of student activism, especially China’s biggest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. This self-described “leaderless” movement has successfully galvanized tens of thousands of diverse supporters through its focus on political and social inequality, but the question remains whether it has fully embraced democratic ideals in its internal structure. Regardless of the answer, this endeavor provides a key lesson for grassroots activists worldwide: a movement challenging inequality must itself eradicate inequality among its members to fully leverage its capabilities.
The media tends to frame the movement in terms of nationalism and democracy, but the reality is much simpler: Hong Kong is host to massive political and social inequality. In August, China’s legislature ruled that Hong Kong would receive universal suffrage in its 2017 elections, but with the condition that candidates be pre-screened by a committee, which ensure candidates’ loyalty to Beijing. Social inequality has also aggrieved citizens for years. While Hong Kong is one of the most developed economies in world, it is also one of the most unequal – the politically well-connected elite prosper while roughly one-fifth of the population lives in poverty. This means that, as China analyst Eli Friedman said, “Really almost everybody, except the super wealthy, have been excluded from having any kind of political voice.”
The movement’s list of demands directly addresses these grievances: protestors call for the resignation of current chief executive Leung Chun-ying, an apology from his administration and officials, China’s withdrawal of the proposed ruling, the implementation of universal suffrage, and reform of workers’ rights. These demands may seem hard to attain, but the movement has made significant gains, getting the Hong Kong government to agree to negotiations with the Hong Kong Federation of Students.
This feat is more impressive considering the simplicity of the nonviolent tactics protestors have utilized. These have so far included boycotting classes, organizing major demonstrations, occupying public spaces, distributing placards to the public, and, as in Ferguson, using the “hands up” gesture to demonstrate peacefulness in the face of brutality.
Despite such success, dispute persists whether the leaderless nature of the movement strengthens or hinders it. Preeminent teen activist Joshua Wong states, “If Hong Kong just relies on me, the movement will fail.” While protestors do vary in what the methods and aims of the movement should be, this conversely allows the movement to incorporate the views of a larger, more diverse number of individual protestors. And the leaderless nature poses a challenge to authorities hoping to suppress demonstrations.
Protestors have refused to invite democratic opposition politicians into their fold, which seems to pose a dilemma: How can a movement that has espoused words of solidarity exclude others who share the same goals? Still, this refusal is understandable considering youth in Hong Kong have lost faith in their leadership. As Wong put it, “political reform is not going to come from going to meetings… We had to do radical action because our leaders did nothing.”
Regardless, no movement is perfect. As John Feffer writes, “like many movements, particularly leaderless ones, it makes mistakes and overreaches itself. Still, it is responding to an authentic desire. And it is open to compromise.” Ultimately, though, the Umbrella Movement is most significant for its ability to awaken political consciousness and idealism in citizens unaware that they hold the potential to end inequality in Hong Kong.
