International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Two Narratives on the Hong Kong Fire

Au Loong-Yu — 2025-12-24T08:33:58Z

The 26 November 2025 Wang Fu Court fire has a lot of similarity with London's 2017 Grenfell fire. In terms of scale, the former was much bigger – instead of just one building there were seven on fire, and instead of 72 deaths there have been 160 deaths as of now. However, the combustible materials used in renovating the outer walls were the direct cause of both.

- IVP611 - December 2025 / Hong Kong, Public services

For Hong Kong activists: Exile, Prison and Repression Without Borders

Andrea Ferrario — 2025-11-30T10:33:06Z

From Hong Kong's cells to the streets of London and Taipei, stories of activists, former prisoners and exiles who resist as Beijing extends control beyond the city's borders

- Features / Hong Kong

Labour's Polycrisis

Kevin Lin — 2025-08-20T12:11:28Z

A concept that takes on a life of its own often says a lot about the material conditions and structure of feeling of the time. Polycrisis, recently re-popularised by the historian Adam Tooze, was first coined in an earlier era of multiple crises in the 1970s. For Tooze, polycrisis points to “this experience of not a single crisis with a single clearly defined logic…but this coming together at a single moment of things which, on the face of it, don't have anything to do with each other, but seem to pile onto each other”, and he locates the beginning of the current polycrisis in 2008 at the point of the Great Recession.

- Features / Philippines, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Asia, Trade unions/workplace organizing, Hong Kong

The National Security Law (NSL) in force: The NSL 47 trial an important landmark in Beijing's annihilation of Hong Kong's autonomy

Au Loong-Yu — 2024-12-22T08:33:44Z

The 47 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong charged in 2021 with trying to overthrow the government by running an unofficial primary to pick opposition candidates for local elections were sentenced on 19 November. Au Loong Yu was interviewed by the World of Labour, Germany about the trial.

- IV599 - December 2024 / Hong Kong

Charting a new course for Hong Kong's struggle

Yuet Zi — 2024-08-21T08:09:59Z

Five years have passed since Hong Kong's mass movement of 2019. Despite the regime's repression and white terror, the embers of resistance still smoulder in the hearts of every Hongkonger, unquenchable. The regime's censorship, repression, and rewriting of history will not succeed in erasing the memory and the truth of 2019, or the righteousness of our democratic cause.

- IV595 - August 2024 / China, Hong Kong

“Frank conversations and the search for consensus are crucial for rebuilding Hong Kong's future democratic movement”

Au Loong-Yu — 2024-08-12T08:51:49Z

In these challenging times, Loong-yu Au, a labour researcher, thinks that frank conversations and the search for consensus are crucial for rebuilding Hong Kong's future democratic movement.

- Features / Hong Kong

Stop the growing repression in Hong Kong!

Solidaires — 2023-07-17T15:14:48Z

For more than two years, many people who took part in the 2019-2020 uprising have been imprisoned in Hong Kong, including trade unionists Lee Cheuk-yan, Carol Ng and Winnie Yu.

- News from around the world / France, Trade unions/workplace organizing, Hong Kong

Living with Political Clarity: A Tribute to Xiang Qing

Au Loong-Yu — 2022-09-04T17:34:38Z

“Xiang Qing often joked that he might have 120 years of life, which he ultimately did not. But I know that he would not mind: he joyfully lived a simple and virtuous life, without any care for his own self-interest.”

- In Memoriam - Obituaries and appreciations / Fourth International, China, Hong Kong

After the fire: Against “burnism”

Zi-yuet — 2022-07-04T14:52:42Z

“Hongkongers' struggle for bargaining power against Beijing cannot be premised on the futile appeal to Western governments to intervene on Hong Kong's behalf, because such an outlook can only result in despair and despondency.”

- Features / Hong Kong

After the fire: Fallen flowers

Zi-yuet — 2022-07-04T14:52:26Z

“It may be more convenient and less demanding for ordinary laypeople to cede agency to leaders than to learn to surmount the challenges of self-organisation and democratic procedure themselves. However, taking responsibility as a member of a community to achieve its self-determination, through regular and direct participation in collective decision-making processes, is what is required for democracy to exist.”

- Features / Hong Kong