More than one way to the Square – Video Featuring Activist Zhen Jianghua
Comments Off on More than one way to the Square – Video Featuring Activist Zhen Jianghua
“All along, the young generation of human rights defenders have not been able to come together. We have to hide our identities, play our roles in various areas in order to be able to carry out our work, whilst facing government repression.
I don’t know how long this situation will last. Under the government purge in recent years, those who once spoke for us have now disappeared. Since hiding our identities is futile and would only invite harsher suppression, should we then come out into the open? To let our friends and families know, we are here, we believe that all human beings have equal rights, and we insist on using peaceful action to promote and protect human rights. In exposing government abuses of human rights, and organizing social campaigns to fight for the rights of victims, we also face existential risk. But fact it we must.
We may not be able to bring much change to this era, but we can open up a model for the next generation to see that there is still space to act, space to breath, in the civil society. When they come to this road marker, let them turn their heads and look back at the pits we fell into, pits full of bones and bodies.
This is perhaps already pretty good.”