{"id":14097,"date":"2017-02-07T17:59:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T09:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=14097"},"modified":"2017-02-07T00:29:07","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T16:29:07","slug":"hong-kong-one-year-since-mong-kok-riot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2017\/02\/07\/14097\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong: One year since Mong Kok riot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>February 8 marks the anniversary of the Mong Kok riot<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Adam N. Lee, Socialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong)<\/p>\n<p>The first riot in Hong Kong for 50 years is yet another monument to \u2018CY\u2019 Leung Chun-ying\u2019s disastrous misrule. The riot on February 8 last year, Lunar New Year\u2019s Eve, was sparked by hardline police methods, and this is partly confirmed by the very different and more cautious approach adopted by the police this year during the Lunar New Year festivities.<\/p>\n<p>Last year\u2019s crackdown on \u2018illegal\u2019 street hawkers completely backfired given the prevailing atmosphere of explosive social tensions and also the deep frustration following the failure of the mass Umbrella Movement of 2014 to shift government policy on the issue of democratic elections. The prospects for young people in particular have become bleak. A\u00a02015 study showed\u00a0median monthly income for the city\u2019s fresh university graduates had fallen to HK$10,860 in 2013 from HK$13,158 in 1993\u00a0\u2013 a fall of 20 percent over 20 years. Housing in Hong Kong has become an absolute nightmare with the least\u00a0affordable house prices of\u00a0367 leading cities according to\u00a0a global study.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-14098\" src=\"http:\/\/media.chinaworker.info\/2017\/02\/hk-riot-police-advance-600x338.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>130 injured<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Clashes between youngsters and police raged through the night of February 8-9, leaving 130 people injured. 800 policemen were dispatched to the scene during the night and\u00a0more than 2o fires were set in dumpsters and trash cans.\u00a0So far, 90 arrests have been made and court proceedings have been started against 57 people.<\/p>\n<p>For most people in Hong Kong, the riots symbolised the slide into political crisis and polarisation under its hardline pro-Beijing government.\u00a0CY Leung, having created the conditions that led to the riot, tried to squeeze political and propaganda capital from it. The government has moved even further in the past year to militarise the police \u2013 expanding manpower, creating more elite units, and investing in new \u2018public order\u2019 weaponry such as more advanced rubber bullets. The politicisation of the police\u00a0\u2013 as a more open tool of government\u00a0\u2013 has continued.<\/p>\n<p>But the government\u2019s attempt to whip up public outrage over the riot to criminalise protest and to paint the anti-government camp as \u2018violent\u2019 has largely failed. This message has probably encountered even greater rejection in Hong Kong than in other countries \u2013 US, Britain, France \u2013 where riots have erupted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Legco byelection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From the outset, so unpopular is CY Leung\u2019s administration, that its message fell flat. Underlining the size of the gap separating the government from the people, a \u2018riot leader\u2019 and member of the localist organisation Hong Kong Indigenous won 66,000 votes in the Legco byelection (New Territories East) just three weeks after the riot.<\/p>\n<p>The localists (Hong Kong \u2018anarcho-racists\u2019) glorified the riot as an example of a new type of \u2018heroic\u2019 struggle. It\u2019s ironic that one year later the fighting talk has been replaced by the darkest defeatism. They were wrong last year and they are wrong again now. Lacking ideas, organisation and connections to the working class, the localists weren\u2019t prepared for the arrests, disqualifications and persecution that has been unleashed against them. To win, more is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Socialist Action does not believe riots can achieve political change. We understand why they happen and we hold the government responsible. But different methods and ideas \u2013 based on the historic traditions of workers\u2019 struggle \u2013 are needed to effectively challenge a dictatorial regime. A year ago, we said, \u201cTo change the system you need to get organised and offer a real political alternative to the current dictatorial capitalist system. A riot doesn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>More background on the 2016 riot:<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2016\/03\/04\/12008\/\">Q &amp; A: Riot in Hong Kong<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4><a href=\"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2014\/11\/19\/8583\/\">Vital lessons of Hong Kong\u2019s \u2018Umbrella Revolution\u2019<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 8 marks the anniversary of the Mong Kok riot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":14098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hong-kong","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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