On our blog today we have Anthea Koon, Chair of the STUC Youth Committee 2018/19, discussing recent events in Hong Kong and why international solidarity is needed.

The people of Hong Kong are to be admired as millions took to the streets to protest the extradition bill, with young people at the helm. Teenagers and elderly alike have gathered to make a stand against the potential erasure of their rights and freedoms. Young people have been continuously supporting protests by being present, and even some students were still studying on the march.

However, it is saddening to find that while people are peacefully protesting, the police took to the unjustified use excessive force and violence, which has been on the rise since the Umbrella Movement despite no previous association with violent action. Protesters were sprayed with pepper spray, beaten up, and shot with rubber bullets, a sight that no one ever wants to see. The peaceful protesters have been labelled as “rioters” by the police and head of government, and some were arrested while being treated in a hospital following clashes with the police.

Three people, a 35-year-old man, a 21-year-old woman and a 29-year-old woman, have even died since the bill was proposed, all of them jumping to their deaths after leaving messages opposing the bill and supporting the protesters. We don’t want young people to lose hope and be weighed down by these deaths. We don’t want any more to follow.

So far, the bill has been suspended but the people demand a full withdrawal. We must never forget the people who lost their lives in fighting for something they so strongly believed in and our hearts go out to their families who have lost their loved ones.

Hong Kong, we stand in solidarity.