April Fifth Action

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The April Fifth Action (Traditional Chinese: 四五行動; pinyin: Sì-Wǔ xíngdòng), named after the first Tiananmen incident of April 5, 1976 (also known as the April Fifth Movement) is a small and radical, socialist group in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The most famous member of the group is Leung Kwok-hung, better known as "long-hair" locally.

1 Party Beliefs
2 Controversy
3 Elections
4 External link

[edit] Party Beliefs

Although the group strives for an anarchist-communist, revolutionary ideal akin to Che Guevara, they have aligned themselves with the pro-democracy camp in its opposition to the governments of China and HKSAR, to call for more democracy and a shift of power away from the government to the people.

[edit] Controversy

The group is well known for its aggressive and civil disobedience-style of actions to protest against governments of China and Hong Kong during celebrations and visits of state leaders, often resulting in confrontations with the police. Its members have also been prosecuted for disrupting meetings of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). Their lack of regard for the Hong Kong law is due to their Marxist belief that change for the good can only be achieved through a virtual revolution (transformation), not simply reform.

Some have also pointed out the irony of a Marxist allying with democratic parties. Others have instead pointed out that these parties unite in one common goal of being slightly anarchist in opposing what they perceive to be growing Chinese government control over Hong Kong. This is because they stress the 'two systems' part more in the 'one country, two systems' rule enforced in Hong Kong after the 1997 handover back to China. They also promote a welfare state, in contrast to the (ultra-)capitalistic one now in place in Hong Kong.

[edit] Elections

Its most famous member, Leung Kwok-hung ran in but lost both the 2000 LegCo elections and 2003 District Council elections. He considered the latter battle a victory because of the number of votes he got in a district which traditionally supports pro-Beijing candidates. He finally succeeded in the 2004 LegCo election and became the first member of the April Fifth Action in the Legislative Council.

He has been a controversial LegCo member since he refused to take the standard oath which all legislators must take, and instead recited his own expanded version. Leung Kwok-hung has gained most of his voter popularity due to his very strong, if not radical, stance on issues, calling for change for the indecision and inefficiency that has paralysed the Hong Kong government due to weak leadership under the Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. The effect of his Marxist belief of revolution on the governance of Hong Kong is as yet unknown.