- Han Dongfang
Han Dongfang (韩东方
pinyin : Hán Dōngfāng) has been an advocate for workers' rights in China for more than two decades during which time he has won numerous international awards including the 1993 Democracy Award from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy.Born in the impoverished village of Nanweiquan in Shanxi Province in 1963, Han first came to international prominence when, as a railway worker in Beijing, he helped set up the Beijing Autonomous Workers’ Federation (BAWF) during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The BAWF was People’s Republic of China’s first independent trade union, established as an alternative to the monolithic Chinese Communist Party controlled All China Federation of Trade Unions, which did little to protect the rights of ordinary workers.
The BAWF was disbanded after the June 4 crackdown and Han was placed at the top of the Chinese government’s most wanted list. Han turned himself into the police and was imprisoned for 22 months without trial until he contacted tuberculosis in prison and was released in April 1991. He spent a year in the U.S. undergoing medical treatment before returning to China in August 1993. On his return, he was arrested in Guangzhou and expelled to Hong Kong, where he still lives today.
In 1994, he set up [http://www.clb.org.hk China Labour Bulletin] , a non-governmental organization that seeks to uphold and defend the rights of workers across China. CLB supports the development of democratic trade unions, respect for and enforcement of the country’s labour laws, and the full participation of workers in the creation of civil society.
China Labour Bulletin is actively involved in labour rights litigation, and has helped to bring over a hundred law suits on behalf of workers in mainland China. It campaigns for workers’ freedom of association and their right to free collective bargaining, and encourages the development of collective, factory-wide, labour contracts as a worker-focused alternative to corporate social responsibility programs. CLB also has a productive research department that has produced nine in-depth reports on the labour rights situation in China. Moreover, CLB has English and Chinese websites designed to disseminate information about labour rights in China and the work the organization is doing in this area.In addition to his work at CLB, Han conducts regular interviews with workers and peasants across China on Radio Free Asia. These interviews give a unique insight in to lives of ordinary working people in China are broadcast three times a week on shortwave across China. The entire archive can be listened to at the CLB website.
External links
* [http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/workers_rights/wr_china/wr_china_1.htm Human Rights First interview]
* [http://www.theworldly.org/ArticlesPages/Articles2005/MayJune05Articles/HanDongFang.html The Worldly - Han Dongfang: Bringing China's Labor Movement to Light]Video
* [http://www.cerium.ca/article3997.html#Video When will we have Free Unions in China ?] Online video of speech given in February 2007 in Montreal.
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