Rally-goers walk from Chater Garden to Government House in one of three police-approved demonstrations on Saturday 17. Police estimate march peaked at 8,300
A day earlier, education minister sought to discourage secondary school students from boycotting classes in the new academic year.
Thousands of teachers in black took to the streets of Hong Kong on Saturday despite heavy rain in a show of solidarity with young protesters, as the city braces for an 11th weekend of demonstrations sparked by the now-shelved extradition bill.
The Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU), organiser of the event themed “Safeguard the next generation, let our conscience speak”, held a rally at Chater Garden in Central before a march to Government House, the residence of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
Despite the downpour, the organiser said more than 22,000 people attended, while police estimated the march peaked at 8,300.
PTU president Fung Wai-wah noted many of those arrested and injured during protests were students.
“This is the first time teachers are joining a march that engages mostly educators in the past two months,” he said. “Young people and students are our future. We need to come out and safeguard them.”
The march was among three demonstrations planned on Saturday that have been approved by police.
At 11.15am, the amber rain signal and thunderstorm warning were issued by the Observatory as gloomy skies opened on the city. The march kicked off soon after 11.30am, with the amber rain signal taken down at 12.30pm.
– Secondary school maths teacher Chan Hoi-yee, 37, said she joined the protest because she felt the government had turned a deaf ear to demonstrators.
Noting that pro-democracy group Demosisto, co-founded by political activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, had called for secondary class boycotts [1] every Monday for an indefinite period of time when schools reopen, Chan said she believed that university students had the autonomy to do so if they wanted to join the action.
But she said she would not encourage her secondary school students to follow suit. “Some of them may not have understood the motives well enough and may be affected by peer pressure,” she said. “But if they need to, I will respect them.”
As of noon, because of the sheer number of participants and the weather, bottlenecks in the procession began to form, with crowds packing Central MTR station. The last batch of marchers left the starting point at around 1.15pm.
The night before, thousands of students gathered in Central [3] for a rally – also at Chater Garden – to call for the United States and Britain to help the city fight for democracy.
– Earlier on Friday, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung sought to discourage [4] secondary school students from the boycott of classes.
A survey by Demosisto and two student concern groups found thousands of them backed such action against the hated bill.
The legislation would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong has no such agreement, including mainland China, where critics say fair trials are not guaranteed.
PTU said officials had failed to respond to the five demands of protesters over the last two months, including the full withdrawal of the bill, as well as the appointment of a judge-led independent inquiry into police use of force on protesters.
– Primary school teacher Mona Li, 47, said students and parents could make their own decisions about joining the class boycott after they were clear about the motives for the action. But Li criticised Kevin Yeung for saying there should not be political interference in schools.
“Politics relates to the lives of everybody,” she said. “If he doesn’t understand, then he is not qualified to be a minister.”
– University teaching assistant Michael Cheung, 24, echoed the comments.
“Politics is part of life,” he said, adding that teachers could lead students in discussions over political and social affairs.
Cheung suggested that participants for the proposed boycott could take reference from similar activities leading up to the Occupy movement in 2014 [6], to “boycott class but not learning”.
That year in September, public lectures were arranged at Tamar Park to allow students to continue their quest for knowledge. (...)
Links
[1] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3023097/prodemocracy-group-demosisto-calls-weekly-monday-school
[2] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-andcrime/article/3023209/hong-kong-protests-student-leaders-say-they-were
[3] https://www.scmp.com/news/hongkong/politics/article/3023207/thousands-students-turn-out-protest-rally-central-hong-kong
[4] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3023097/prodemocracy-group-demosisto-calls-weekly-monday-school
[5] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3023000/hong-kong-police-watchdog-says-force-turned-down-requests
[6] https://www.scmp.com/topics/occupy-central