The office of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) in exile, Salidarnast e.V., has sent a solidarity letter to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), expressing their support to the 45 activists convicted in a national security case. Those included labour movement leaders Carol Ng Man-yee, former President of the now dissolved HKCTU, and Winnie Yu Wai-ming, founder of the Hospital Authority Employees’ Alliance.
The letter signed by the Salidarnast leader Lizaveta Merliak highlights the similarity of repressions in Hong Kong and Belarus. “We understand this injustice all too well because our own comrades, union leaders and activists, face unlawful convictions and imprisonment on similar charges”, says the letter.
Belarusian independent unions denounced attacks on freedom of association, pointing out that authoritarian regimes seek to suppress organized labour to deprive workers of their collective strength. The letter stresses the global interconnection of repressive tactics and dictatorships learning from each other: “As it is Russia in the case of Belarus, so it is China in the case of Hong Kong – major imperialistic states that cannot afford to have a democracy at their doorstep”.
In the context of a most resonant trial under the National Security Law in Hong Kong that has triggered a wave of international indignation, the Belarusian independent unions have expressed their support and highlighted the importance of preserving the experience of the Hong Kong unions’ struggle for the global labour movement.
As your remember, in November this year the Hong Kong High Court sentenced 45 union activists fighting for democracy to prison for up to 10 years in the course of a trial of a national security case denounced by the international community. The legal scholar Benny Thai who is believed to be the inspiration behind the plan received the longest term of imprisonment.
The activists were arrested in 2021 for their role in the unofficial preliminary elections under the 2020 National Security Law. They were charged with an attempt to paralyze the Hong Kong Government and make the mayor of the city resign. They either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of conspiring to commit subversive activities by the three judges approved by the Government.
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