Dear Colleagues,

Hope this email finds you well. We are a group of scholars that are based in North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. We are reaching out to you concerning the recent government suppression of labor activists and leftist students in China. 

Over the past summer, workers at the Shenzhen Jasic Technology in Shenzhen, China, sought to form a union. However, in July and August the workers, labor activists and leftist students that supported them were forcefully repressed by the Chinese state. More than a dozen of them were detained or kidnapped and haven't been released yet. Moreover, over the past few days, the state suddenly heightened its repression, kidnapping and detaining even more workers, students, and activists whom the state believes were involved in the Jasic struggle. So far, around 30 individuals have gone missing, including activists associated with student groups at universities in Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and other cities. Based on information we have gathered, more students are still at risk, and serious political charges are likely to be brought against many of them.

Here is some news on the state crackdown:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/13/asia/china-student-marxist-missing-intl/index.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-labour-protests/student-activists-disappear-in-southern-china-after-police-raid-idUSKCN1L90YL

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/11/labor-activists-disappear-after-suspected-raids/

In light of this extremely dire situation, we are organizing urgent solidarity actions to put pressure on the Chinese government. Especially, we are reaching out to prominent leftist scholars around the world, asking them to 1) openly condemn the Chinese state's crackdown, and 2) boycott China's World Congress on Marxism and other similar conferences held in China in the future. 

It would be greatly appreciated if you could join this solidarity effort. You could communicate your intention to boycott by sending us a short statement (suh275@psu.edu), posting the statement on social media, writing media op-eds and/or agreeing to be interviewed for news articles. 

Additionally, it would be of great help if you could reach out to other prominent leftist scholars and colleagues to encourage them to join this solidarity campaign.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Hope you will stand with the labor and student activists in China! Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,

Alexander Day (Associate Professor, Occidental College) 
Anita Chan (Co-editor, China Journal; Visiting Fellow, Australian National University)
Ching Kwan Lee (Professor, UCLA)
Daniel Fuchs (Research and Teaching Fellow, University of Göttingen)
Dorothy Solinger (Professor, Emerita, UC Irvine)
Elaine Bernard (Wertheim Fellow and Former Executive Director, Labor and Work Life Program, Harvard Law School)
Elaine Hui (Assistant Professor, Penn State University)
Eli Friedman (Associate Professor, Cornell University)
Frances Fox Piven (Distinguished Professor, City University of New York)
Manfred Elfstrom (Postdoctoral Scholar and Teaching Fellow, University of Southern California)
Jack Qiu (Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Joel Andreas (Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University)
Jude Howell (Professor, The London School of Economics and Political Science)
Lisa Rofel (Professor, UC Santa Cruz)
Pun Ngai (Professor, Hong Kong University)
Ralph Litzinger (Associate Professor, Duke University)
Robert Brenner (Professor Emeritus, UCLA)
Ruth Milkman (Distinguished Professor, City University of New York)
Sam Gindin (Adjunct professor, York University)
Sarah Swider (Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen)
Tim Pringle (Senior Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies; Editor, The China Quarterly)