Neither Washington nor Beijing: The Left Must Stand With the Uyghurs

Neither Washington nor Beijing: The Left Must Stand With the Uyghurs

This 2020 article by an activist from our affiliate, the Uyghur Solidarity Campaign, discusses what the Chinese state is doing to the Uyghur people, what is motivating the atrocities, and how socialists, progressives, trade unionists and the workers’ movement can make concrete solidarity:

An advert posted in November 2019 alerted employers across China to a lucrative opportunity. “1000 ethnic minorities” from Xinjiang were available for hire in batches of 100 or more. “Semi-military style management” under “government-appointed cadres” assured their compliance. Prospective employers could even “apply for police to be stationed 24 hours a day for in-factory management”. The agent guaranteed “no loss of personnel” for the duration of the one-year contract.

Methodical persecution.

The Uighur people, and other Turkic majority-Muslim ethnic minorities in China’s north-western Xinjiang province, have long faced discrimination. But in recent years, the Chinese state has escalated extraordinary, methodical persecution. [Read more]