The Social Democrats League, a pro-democracy party with a 19-year-old story, announced that it would hold a press conference on Sunday to announce its dissolution, signaling the disappearance of the pro-democracy parties of the Hong Kong political landscape.
“Next year is said to have marked the 20th anniversary of our foundation, but we will not succeed to date,” said the LSD in a media opinion on Friday. “We are announcing our dissolution.”
A source told Cantonese RFA that the LSD had been warned several times, from April, that it had to dissolve before July 1 or risk being forcibly dissolved.
The outgoing president of the LSD, Chan Po-Ying, previously refused to comment. On Friday, she said again that she would not answer before the press conference.
“No resistance, no change”
Founded in 2006, the LSD slogan was “no resistance, no change”. The party made the headlines in 2008 when he obtained three seats from the Legislative Council with Wong Yuk-Man, Leung Kwok-Hung and Albert Chan, becoming the third pro-democracy party. Known for his style of confrontation, LSD legislators threw bananas as the chief of the time, Donald Tsang, during a Legco session, becoming a symbol of the radical democrats of the city. Apart from the Legislative Assembly, the LSD has organized and participated in numerous manifestations and campaigns of civil disobedience.
In 2009, LSD and the Civic Party launched the “Five Construction Refrendum” campaign, in which five legislators resigned and released their seats to demand universal suffrage. The five, including Leung Kwok-Hung of LSD, Wong Yuk-Man and Albert Chan, and Alan Leong and Tanya Chan of the Civic Party, were re-elected during the May 2010 by-election.
Legislative filibusters and internal divisions
In 2011, LSD launched a “voting reimbursement” campaign targeting the Democratic Party for its role in the continuation of electoral reforms approved by Beijing. Internal disagreements on the strategy have led to a split, Wong Yuk-Man and Albert Chan forming the power of people. Leung Kwok-Hung then took over as a LSD chair. The party retained only one LEGCO seat in the 2012 and 2016 elections, but legislative filibusers and budgetary protest actions continued alongside the power of people.
In 2016, Leung Kwok-Hung was disqualified from Legco for keeping a yellow umbrella and tearing a copy of the decision “831” of the NPC when taking the oath. Since then, the LSD has had no seats in the Legislative Assembly but has continued popular activism and protest actions.
Leung Kwok-Hung is still imprisoned
Many LSD members have served prison terms for civil disobedience. Leung Kwok-Hung, now 69, remains in prison as a defendant in the national security case of the 47 Democrats. LSD vice-president Jimmy Sham, also one of the 47, was released last month after serving his sentence.
Even after other pro -democracy parties such as the Democratic Party and the dissolved civic party, the LSD continued the actions of the street in the era of national security law – addressing questions such as the import of work and the minimum wage.
Earlier this year, the party planned a demonstration outside the government’s headquarters on the day of the budget, but canceled due to “immense pressure”. Some LSD members also had their frozen or closed bank accounts, and several were billed for “unauthorized fundraising in public” and “unauthorized poster display”.
Published by Greg Barber