Workers in the Tiananmen Protests: The Politics of the Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation

Abstract

On the evening of 15 April 1989, the day of Hu Yaobang's death, the campuses of Beijing's university district were already stirring to political activity.' At the very same hour, around the revolutionary heroes' monument in the centre of Tiananmen Square, ordinary citizens began to gather, moum, and talk politics much as they had during the 'April 5th' movement of 1976.2 From a few dozen who gathered there in the first hours after dusk, the