'Workers' councils will overthrow the tyrants'

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10 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1990 Cai Chung-Guo worked as a peasant before he became a student and university professor. His parents are government officials. They are rehabilitated members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who had been sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

Cai Chung-Guo was an eyewitness to the massacre in Tiananmen Square. He was interviewed last month in Los Angeles for Socialist Action by Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone.

Socialist Action: Tell us about your experience in Tiananmen last June 3-4.

Cai Chung-Guo: I was in Tiananmen Square during the massacre, and it truly was a massacre. The first thing the Chinese government did after they sent the troops into the Square was to declare that there had not been a massacre. This is not true.

I was at Liu Bu Kuo on Chang An Boulevard near the Telegraph Building. The witnesses to the massacre there were all arrested. I am the only survivor. Many, many people were injured. They are afraid to speak to anyone. The police watch them and threaten them. They have been warned to deny what occurred should they be asked what happened.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Bureau is in charge of suppressing the events at Liu Bu Kuo. Six youths working in this office saw for themselves what took place. They have all been threatened to keep them quiet.

S.A.: What were you doing in Tiananmen Square?

Cai Chung-Guo: I had come to Beijing from Wuhan along with 10,000 other students. I was one of the leaders of the Student Union at the University of Wuhan. We came to Beijing May 19 and lived at Beijing University through the events of June 4.

The students discussed and worked among themselves. On the morning of June 4 we began discussions with the Autonomous Federation of Workers. I spent a lot of time with them listening to their speeches and declarations.

I was the first witness to describe the massacre. The massacre began at Mu Xhi Di and spread to Xi Dan and then to Tiananmen Square. Twenty people were killed between Mu Xhi Di and Xi Dan from 11 p.m. to midnight June 3.

I urged the workers from the Union to leave Tiananmen Square, but they refused. They said: "If we leave what will happen to the students." They asked me to go to the Central Bureau of Tiananmen Square and tell the leaders of the students there that the army had begun to kill students. This was at 1 a.m. on June 4.

I went to the student leaders and described what happened. They did not believe that it was possible for the army to have done this, to have used force against them. I then described what I had seen, that the army was using machine guns and automatic weapons. "If you don't leave, they will slaughter everyone." Most of the students did not want to leave the Square and reluctantly did so.

S.A.: What about the workers?

Cai Chung-Guo: The workers stayed. There were 20 main leaders of the workers in Tiananmen. Most of them were killed in the workers' camp during the massacre in the Square.

S.A.: What impact did the recent upheavals in Eastern Europe have on the Chinese workers and students?

Cai Chung-Guo: The events of Romania gave new hope to them. Dazibao [wall posters] are springing up again, despite the tremendous fear of government repression. Acts of resistance are everywhere. This is the result of the courage demonstrated by the Romanian people in particular.

The events in Romania are very important for the Chinese. I traveled to Romania earlier this year; it was very exciting. Young men, women, old people all embraced me, crying, calling out to me: "Tiananmen, Tiananmen.' I cried.

Peter Turnier ev Young people of China will not forget.

I gave a talk at the University in Bucharest. I told them about the development of the student movement and the role of our workers. I said that the Eastern European students and workers should support us and we should coordinate our struggles. All the students stood and applauded after my speech. They shouted: "Action, Action.' The togeth on the I sp memb CCP.) the Ch me thi opener The for an people princij China role in S.A Romai Cai stand 1 depen people goverr may p:

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