◆ INTERNATIONAL
Hong Kong trade union leader re-arrested In February of this year, Lee Cheuk-yan, General Secretary of Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions was arrested for pro-democracy activism. He was released on bail but then in April, under the cover of COVID-19, pro-Beijing authorities in Hong Kong rearrested Lee and 14 other democracy activists. Mr Lee was due to attend the 2019 NTEU National Council, but last minute visa issues forced him to deliver his talk by video link. Despite a sometimes shaky connection, he enthralled Council with his extraordinary story of activism and resistance. In December last year, NTEU UTS Branch members hosted a forum with Mr Lee. He spoke to members about the political impacts of government repression against the freedom movement and academia in Hong Kong.
Lee told The Guardian that the arrests were clearly intended to intimidate activists and voters in the run-up to the September elections. Lee told Union Aid Abroad: 'We need the international community to continue to stand with us in our fight for democracy'. Lee is a veteran labor leader and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing the New Territories West constituency for more than two
decades. He co-founded and is Vice Chair of the Hong Kong Labour Party. NTEU members are continuing to support work by Union Aid Abroad to protest Lee’s arrest and support trade unionists and democracy activists in Hong Kong. ◆ Richard Bailey Above: Lee Cheuk-yan at a rally earlier this year (Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions)
Out from under the cover of COVID ...continued from previous page domain from the epidemiologists and immunologists; to the feminist researchers analysing the weight of the burden upon women of managing COVID while government recovery programs purposefully favour men; to the health specialists, psychologists and sociologists monitoring and at the same time helping people cope; to the planners and engineers and economists developing models of how we can do things differently; and the environmental experts warning climate change is still the bigger problem. Students are both disengaged because they have so much to cope with – and
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more engaged as they want their university education to equip them for global citizenship in a changing world. Over 1200 academics signed an open letter calling upon the Victorian Government to stop the roadwork and protect the remaining Djab Wurrung trees and land (see link at end of this article). Universities should be acting in the public interest for the public good. We need to be intervening in public life, and encouraging raging debate inside universities. It is our responsibility to get past the bizarre notion that facts and science and evidence are merely a different opinion. And those opinions become truth if you shout louder.
How about a shout-out instead for education and learning and research and listening and asking questions? Let’s remind ourselves and others why universities do matter. And why we in Australia have to speak out and stand up for our colleagues in other countries who are facing more and more repression – and Coronavirus. ◆ Jeannie Rea was NTEU National President 2010–2018, and is an Associate Professor at Victoria University Open Letter to Victorian Government from Australian academics regarding the sacred Djab Wurrung Directions Tree:
shorturl.at/bgh09
ADVOCATE VOL. 27 NO. 3 ◆ NOV 2020
