As noted by all variants of the media, this last week marked the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the bloody end of weeks of pro-democracy protests by students and workers in Beijing. The events in the Chinese capitol from April to June of 1989 remain one of the most vivid testaments to human courage, solidarity and the indomitable will to freedom in recent world history. It is also exemplary in the lessons it offers to aspiring social movements, particularly those involving students.
A Slate photo essay captures much of the sentiment that enveloped those months of hope, strength and, ultimately, catastrophic defeat.
What's always lost in the official American retelling of the Tiananmen Square protests echoes the mainstream history line of all great social movements: The 1989 occupation of Tiananmen Square was the culmination of years of rehearsals, years of movement-building, years of expanding political consciousnesses. Almost every year following Mao's death in 1976 witnessed protest and other forms of dissent, admittedly mostly comprised of students and intellectuals,
for a dissemination of political power to the people and
against the standard repression used against those involved in political activity not sanctioned by the state. Along with the free-market reforms of the decade (which did not involve popular backing of any significance), the 1980's was a period of slow but conspicuous evaporations of the censor's reach. In flowed many a progressive and Enlightenment idea and manuscript from the West, causing the competently literate minority to demand even greater freedoms.
Undoubtedly, many of the self-described pragmatic variety rolled their eyes at the "symbolic" protests of those out in the streets in the decade before Tiananmen. "What's the point of the bullhorn?" they must have asked. "The government is changing some things independent of your efforts, anyway. You should focus on issues which really matter to students, like [the the equivalent of Madison's 2009 alcohol policy]."
The truth is that without all of the preceding work the '89 protests - protests which nearly brought down the government and unambiguously constitute the most important political development since the Mao era - would not have happened. Social movements only become a relevant force, or strong enough to challenge power, after years, sometimes decades, of building the necessary activist structures and generating radical ideas among a large enough group of people.
Along with the internal momentum for expanded individual freedom and political rights, the inspirational anti-Stalinist revolutions in Eastern Europe, fueled by the Soviet
glasnost policy, provided an essential ingredient to the gunpowder mixture of the Tiananmen protests. But with all social explosions, a trigger is required, and this came in the form of the death of former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang on April 15. Ousted from his position two years prior for tendencies of "bourgeois liberalization," Yaobang was perhaps the most progressive member of the Chinese leadership since the 1949 revolution. The demonstrations which accompanied his funeral turned into a massive outpouring of popular resistance, with 100,000 people occupying Tianenmen the day before Yaobang's funeral. Beijing universities quickly called for general strikes. This was the beginning of weeks-long protest.
Contrary to most American perceptions, allegiance to American-style capitalism did not unite the protesters. Though there was no central leadership to give concrete form to the protest, the anti-government outpouring was united by opposition to the corruption and authoritarianism of the ruling Communist Party. Most favored a transition to democratic socialism; they rejected the Stalinism, or beauracratic pseudo-socialism, of the Maoist government. The daily marches were peppered with red flags and
The Internationale was the unofficial song of the hour. This commitment to socialism echoed similar uprisings in other Communist countries, such as the "Prague Spring" of 1968 and the Polish Solidarity movemement of the 1980's.
Student protesters began making demands to open talks with the government to begin democratic reform; others initiated a hunger strike to increase the pressure. Unlike previous protests, the '89 Tiananmen Square occupation garnered the support of workers and farmers throughout China, including those in Beijing, many of which joined ranks with the students. The hunger strike, in particular, achieved nationwide sympathy.
Eventually, the Communist Party, in the midst of the liberalizations in Eastern Europe, was forced to confront the protests, either with support or repression. It became too large to simply ignore, so amidst internal divisions, the leadership, monst notably Deng Xiaoping, opted for the latter course of action. General Secretary Zhao Ziyang was ousted due to his tepid support for the students. Many military leaders were also reluctant to quell a protest of their own people. Nonetheless, martial law was declared on May 20 and several divisions were mobilized to enter Beijing.
As with all such events, the massive crackdown initiated incidents of extraordinary courage, the likes of which only blossom in moments of extreme crisis. Bus drivers and other workers abandoned their vehicles on the roads surrounding the city, so the army wasn't even able to enter Beijing until June. Even as the tanks finally smashed their way through after weeks of being stalled, thousands of citizens continued to put up road blocks and barricades to block their advance. Even as the protesters were being fired on and squashed beneath the tanks, they continued to impede the army's advance by either charging the army lines, holding their barricades or launching the occassional Molotov cocktail. Hundreds were incapacitated, debilitatingly injured, in the No-Man's Land between the protesters and the troops. As their screams became unbearable, what must have seemed like a miracle occurred: The city's rickshaw drivers, risking the bullets, picked up the wounded and ferried them away to the overflowing local hospitals.
Of course, the most famous instance of resistance at Tiananmen was that of the
Tank Man, or Unkown Rebel, who stood down a row of tanks on the last day of the protest (before the army completely drove out the protestors), June 5. The tanks repeatedly attempted to maneuver around the lone protester, to no avail. Eventually, the Tank Man climbed on top of the front tank, opened the hatch, and appears to shout something at the troops inside. Eventually, he was swept away by two men from the crowd. Though his identity is still unknown, it is widely believed that he was captured by the secret police and quickly executed. His few minutes of videotaped civil disobedience likely constitute the single most iconic act of 20th century political resistance.
Even though the demonstration was eventually brutally quelled, its legacy has lived on in the spirit of civil disobedience, upheaval and the interminable demand for individual humanity and political reform. The Tiananmen protests serve as a lesson to student activism in particular; most notably, the solidarity of the demonstrators, including their indefatigability even in the midst of incredible state violence, demonstrates the importance of a united front in challenging power.
Western students operate in very different conditions; even the most massive of our nonviolent protests are not met with the type of crackdown witnessed at Tienenman. Nonetheless, the causes of our movement require the exact kind of solidarity the students at Tienenman exhibited two decades ago. This is especially important to remember in a context like ours, one in which the most immediate deterrent to progress on our issues comes from the power-serving, corrupt and anti-progressive among the student body.
-KS
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