a variety of pretexts and were banned in the early 1980s. Mainly for self protection, to ensure the continued existence of the movement, moves began in 1980 to form a national organisation of publishers of independent journals and a national federation was eventually formed by those still at liberty in September 1980 This move to national organisation was perceived by the party leadership as a great threat, and this development helped to precipitate the final suppression of the movement. Another development had a similar effect. From late 1980 onwards, the Democracy Wall Movement was accompanied by outbreaks of industrial unrest as well, including strikes in some areas. Some striking workers demanded free trade unions and in some cases independent unions were actually formed (although they didn't last long) Some of the Chinese unofficial Chinese journals had reported on solidarity in Poland including the organisation's 21 demands the first of which was for free trade unions. So Democracy Wall was blamed for inspiring and organising the strikes and seen as a bigger threat. The party feared a Chinese solidarity with workers linking up with the Democracy wall Movement and so providing a base of mass support. This was behind the party's promises of democratic management for industry. There was no solidarity in China and the final crushing of Democracy Wall came in early spring 1981. The movement was put down on the grounds that it threatened the unity and stability of China which was vital if the economic reforms were to succeed. The party also claimed that the movement had violated Deng's four cardinal principles (support for Marxism-Leninism/Mao Zedong thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the leadership of the CCP) On these criteria many people had indeed overstepped the bound and the movement was thoroughly suppressed. Student Demonstrations 1986-1987 Part of the background to these events was the conflict going on within th...
