The Tidal Wave of New Unions during the Hong Kong Resistance Movement of 2019–20: Toward Social Movement Trade Unionism

Abstract

During the Anti-extradition Movement in Hong Kong, a wave of new unions surfaced—18 newly registered unions in 2019 and 491 in the first half of 2020. This article examines and analyzes the factors behind this upsurge in new union activism and asks how protesters acquired trade union consciousness. Previously, in the throes of an earlier protest movement in 2014 led by young people who valued individualism, self-activism, spontaneity, and post-materialism, hierarchically structured institutions were distrusted and scorned, including trade unions. Yet half a decade later, during the 2019–20 protest movement, many thousands of participants joined forces to form the new unions. These took the shape of a new type of union known in labor studies as “social movement unionism.” Despite having little experience, the new unions were able to sustain themselves, and some began to engage not only with political activism but also with management-labor issues and worker rights. This article draws on extensive interviewing during 2020–22 with labor activists and trade union organizers from old and new unions.