Hong Kong's League of Social Democrats calls for ‘dignity' for workers on Labour Day
Hong Kong's League of Social Democrats (LSD) held a four-person rally outside the government headquarters on Labour Day, calling for the city's working class to be afforded 'dignity' amid economic uncertainties.
'Our banners did not contain any large letters stating 'Against Importing Labour' or any other specific demands. That is because living with dignity sums it all up,' the pro-democracy group said in a statement.
'Be it in the workplace, in life, or in society, we must live as human beings,' it said.
The group said that Thursday marked the sixth year that a May Day rally had not been held in Hong Kong. 'The organisations and volunteers holding flags and banners have become distant memories, having vanished for the sixth year,' the statement read.
Police stopped LSD chair Chan Po-ying – along with members Dickson Chau; Yu Wai-pan; and Tsang Kin-shing, nicknamed 'The Bull' – on their way to the Central Government Offices in Admiralty.
The LSD was previously chaired by 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung, Chan's husband, who is in jail for 'conspiracy to commit subversion' following Hong Kong's largest national security case. He is seeking to overturn his conviction and sentence.
'Vanished from the streets'
Speaking outside the government headquarters on Thursday, Chan also lamented the lack of democratic representation within the city's Legislative Council.
'If there were still opposition lawmakers in the legislature, I believe that under economic uncertainty and a slowdown of such proportions, there would be constant discussions about how the government should protect workers' rights,' Chan said.
A women workers' group on Sunday urged the government to halt its 'enhanced' labour import scheme, saying it had negatively affected employees' working conditions.
Unions under the city's largest pro-Beijing labour coalition, the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU), have also made similar calls.
The LSD on Thursday also recalled a botched May Day rally in 2020 that saw its members and those of the allied Labour Party arrested and charged under Covid-19 social distancing rules.
Since then, any trace of the city's labour movements has 'vanished from the streets,' it said in the statement.
The May Day rally in 2020 was held just two months before Beijing imposed the national security law in Hong Kong, which prompted the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) to disband in September the following year.
The pro-democracy labour union coalition was among the 50-odd civil society groups that folded in the wake of the passing of the law.
In 2023, a planned Labour Day march was scrapped after Joe Wong, former chairperson of the HKCTU, went missing for four hours.
Another former member of the union coalition, Denny To, said that Wong withdrew the application for the march, which had yet to receive police approval, after he experienced an 'emotional meltdown.'
The HKFTU also called off its own march that year.
Union leaders are also among the 45 pro-democracy figures jailed for subversion under the 2020 security law. Pro-Beijing union coalitions, such as the HKFTU and the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions, however, are still active.
Hong Kong is seeking to tighten union laws on national security grounds, citing a surge in union registrations during the 2019 protests and unrest, as well as 'political' strikes against the government.
The government has proposed jail terms of up to three years for national security-related offences under the Trade Unions Ordinance.
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