China's Beijing Commune shakes the entire world

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See 8-10. "dd now drawn every layer of the Chinese population into motion.

One thousand soldiers dressed in military fatigues joined in a May 17 demonstration of 1 million in Beijing. When asked why they joined the upsurge, one soldier said, "We're just regular soldiers. We want democracy and freedom, too."

Despite continuing threats of a clampdown, the Chinese government has been unable to use the 200,000 troops deployed around Beijing against demonstrators occupying Tiananmen Square. Soldiers sent to Beijing have been influenced by the masses of factory workers surrounding their troop vehicles who urged them to support the students' demands for democracy.

Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng, and other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders advocating repression against the mass movement have temporarily gained the upper hand in the party, but the huge scope of the upsurge has prevented them from acting. Martial law, declared in mid-May, has so far remained a paper proclamation.

Political commentators throughout the world are increasingly referring to the April-May events in Beijing as the "Beijing Commune," a reference to the Paris Commune of 1871 in which the workers took over Paris and ruled the city through their own independent institutions.

Independent workers' organizations Half-a-million people demonstrated in Beijing on May 30 in the face of new troop deployments and threats from the CCP's central committee. Workers and intellectuals have announced plans to keep up a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square until June 20, the date set for a national conference of the CCP.

As student leaders returned to the campuses, independent workers' organizations have stepped in to organize the protests. The government has attempted to stop this development by arresting leaders of independent trade unions, but new unions have organized spontaneousiy in factories across the country.

Claims that the demonstrators are demanding the restoration of capitalism have been contradicted by protesters' demands against inflation, low wages, and by the organization of independent unions by factory workers. In fact, the demonstrations have spread widely throughout the population in response to pro(continued on page 10)

CHO much so that every important pro-choice organization is actively involved in mobilizing opposition to them at the clinics.

Operation Rescue can be expected to grow if the Supreme Court undermines a woman's constitutional right to abortion. The pro-choice movement must be prepared for this likelihood.

Alexei Folger/Socialist Action The most important response to the Supreme Court and Operation Rescue was the April 9 Washington march of 600,000. Now the movement must make it clear that April 9 wasn't a one-shot response, but part of an ongoing strategy of massive demonstrations in (continued on page 3)