Protests in Hong Kong must end by Monday morning, threatened the chief executive.
The Hong Kong Chief Executive, Leung Chun-ying, who refused to resign after a demand made by the Federation of Students, made a televised address on Saturday, 4/10, claiming to be urgent that all entrances to government headquarters were clear by Monday so that staff could work and roads unblocked so that schools could reopen.
He also said that if the conflict between the movement and opposition groups continued, it would“very likely to keep getting out of hand” and urged citizens to keep calm. He added that the Occupy movement had seriously affected people’s lives, incomes and public services.It was the clearest threat of the city government after the failed attempts to end the protests with the use of repression. And certainly with the support of the central government in Beijing as the Communist Party of China has declared its full confidence in Leung. No wonder, since he was put in charge by a committee of 1200 members appointed by the government, and “elected” with little more than 660 votes. He’s merely a puppet of the Chinese capitalist dictatorship.
However, in the same way that police repression caused an increase in the participation of the population, tens of thousands of people flooded the area of Admiralty, in the city center, hours after his speech, forming the largest concentration of protesters in recent days. A demonstration on Saturday night was called to denounce the attacks made on Friday on protesters by about 1000 people opposing the movement.
Mob attack the movement
The protesters were attacked on Friday afternoon, by men who destroyed their camps, injured about 50 people and sexually harassed women. The attacks occurred in Mong Kok, a collection of shops, apartment buildings and hotels which is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the world.
The area of Mong Kok is notorious for organized gangs known as Triads, extorting small traders. Protesters say the attackers were linked to them. In fact, the police confirmed that of 19 men arrested, eight had a triad background.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students has accused the government and the police of “conniving” in the assaults on the protesters. Its leaders raised the issue of lack of police in local and their little commitment to end violence.
In fact, the government used the incident to say that violence was a good reason to end the occupation of the city center. The police issued a statement calling for “calm” and that people should leave the areas of confrontation as soon as possible. Indeed, the occupation was being kept calm and, by “coincidence”, the areas of conflict were the very areas of occupation.
This seems to give reason to the protesters, who said the attackers were pro-government gangs and that their action was orchestrated with it. After the attacks, the leaders of the Federation of Students announced the cancellation of dialogue with the government by email: “Yesterday the government said it was willing to hold a dialogue with students. Today, it broke his promise to the people, and without justification repressed the Occupy movement, treating the people as the enemy.”
The united front of the counter-revolution
Various parties and entities begin to call the end of the occupation. The former Democratic Party legislator, Law Chi-kwong, asked people not go to the Admiralty and warned that if they did, they should be prepared to suffer repression. And demanded that the government acted “not later than tomorrow [Sunday], or even before.”
The heads of university committees appealed to students to leave all areas of occupation and to put safety first.
So far, too, despite the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions has said it could call a general strike, nothing has been done. Apparently, the call was made to keep the workers’ expectations, but without action.
The next few days can be decisive. If the government fulfills its threat, repression can occur on a large scale with unpredictable results. Therefore, it is urgent that workers come into play in an organized way, especially the teachers union, the largest of the city and which has close links with students. This is how the threat of a government, greatly weakened so far, can turn into whimpers.
