The May 4th Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist and nationalist movement that began on this day in 1919 when more than 4,000 unversity students took to the streets in protest of the Treaty of Versailles. These protests became a national and cultural movement that served as an inspiration for later left-wing movements.
On the afternoon of May 4th, over 4,000 students of Yenching University, Peking University, and other schools marched from many points to gather in front of Tiananmen. They shouted slogans as "struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home", "do away with the Twenty-One Demands", and "don't sign the Versailles Treaty".
The next day, students in Beijing as a whole went on strike and in the larger cities across China. Students, merchants, and workers joined the protests. The demonstrators appealed to the newspapers and sent representatives to carry the word across the country. In Shanghai, a general strike of merchants and workers took place, negatively impacting the economy.
In the years that followed, many Chinese political thinkers turned to leftist politics in the wake of the political upheaval of the May 4th Movement. In 1939, Mao Zedong claimed that the May Fourth Movement was a stage leading toward the fulfillment of the communist revolution.
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
- 💙Comprehensive list of resources for those in need of an abortion -- reddit link
- 💙Resources for Palestine
Theory:
Yeah this was in the context of her signing her union card, and commie coworker celebrating by showing off his hamsick tattoo. She asked what it was, he said "communism symbol" and she asked "what's communism?"
We basically said "Yo what if the people who actually worked at a job were in charge instead of the bosses, and banks and rental companies couldn't hoard all the housing and making it so damn expensive?"
We work in homeless services and she is trying to buy a house right now, so I hit with the personal touch. I don't think it was an effective explanation, but she signed the card so hey.