workingclasshistory:

On this day, 15 April 1989, reformist Chinese Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang died, prompting a gathering of workers in Tiananmen Square within an hour, and eventually sparking a wave of protests by students and workers across the country which would only be crushed by the military several weeks later.
While the rebellion is generally described in the west as a student movement calling for liberal capitalist democracy, the reality is more complex, and the working class was deeply involved.
When students faced police repression, many workers took action to support them. In Beijing after the declaration of martial law, workers took to the streets, built barricades and fraternised with advancing soldiers, effectively stopping them from reaching the city centre.
While students and intellectuals who spoke English did talk in abstract terms about “democracy”, workers were primarily concerned with economic problems which were being exacerbated by market reforms introduced by the government, which they saw as being a result of undemocratic bureaucracy.
As one worker put it: “(I)n the workshop, does what the workers say count, or what the leader says? We later talked about it. In the factory the director is a dictator; what one man says goes. If you view the state through the factory, it’s about the same: one-man rule… Our objective was not very high; we just wanted workers to have their own independent organisation.”
When the military crackdown finally began around the country on 4 June, workers were the most numerous of the victims, with extensive fighting in working class districts around Beijing. The exact number of victims of the repression is unknown, but estimates range from the official Chinese government figure of 300 up to some thousands. Families of the victims have identified around 200 people who were killed.
Learn more about the uprising, as well as others around Asia, in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/asias-unknown-uprisings-volume-2-george-katsiaficas
Pictured: Chinese workers demonstrate in support of students https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1694912630693880/?type=3