f all top leaders for example they criticised Zhao Ziyang for his and his families wealthy and bourgeois lifestyle (golf habit). The Workers were unwilling to accept student dominance over worker's organisations. Their shop floor organisational efforts were hampered especially after martial law and they were kept out of Tiananmen Square itself by the students until the last days of occupation. But they did form independent unions which also had a political function, being intended to give workers a collective voice in national and local decision-making as well as protecting their interests at work. The Workers still saw Poland's solidarity, which was legalised 2 days after Hu Yaobang's death, as a model to follow. The Workers targeted the system from the beginning whilst many students seemed to want to join the system and reform it from within. Workers called the party elite a bourgeoisie and quoted the Communist Manifesto "workers of the worlds unite" Unlike its predecessors the 1989 democracy movement enjoyed great popular support. Student groups received food and other supplies and money. People saw more and more corruption amongst the party elite and were angered by falling wages and living standards despite party promises to the contrary. Meisner paints a picture of China at this time which shows a country in moral chaos. The government had basically lost control of officials in the southern coastal regions where there was cut-throat competition for scarce raw materials. Officials had access to supplies at low state-regulated prices, and they caused there to be an overproduction of consumer goods, while necessities were in short supply. Basically, the economy was out of control. For example, the government gave out promissory notes instead of cash payment for grain. The Deng era in the history of the People's Republic began in late 1978 with the new regime broadly supported by intellectuals who rallied around the promise of sociali...
