Migrant workers’ groups marched against gender discrimination and poverty on Sunday afternoon to express their solidarity with the global feminist movement.
According to organisers, around 100 attended the rally, chanting “women’s right, workers’ right” and “equal work, equal pay” as they marched from Great George Street in Causeway Bay. They went via the Indonesian Consulate to end the demonstration at Times Square.
Participants also held signs saying: “tax the rich,” and “no sexism, no racism.”
The march was organised by political group Socialist Action and Indonesian left-wing migrant organisation Kobumi. Groups including the United Muslim Front, League of Social Democrats, Progressive Labour Union, and Refugee Union also participated.
Participants marched in solidarity with the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, and aligned themselves with a “grassroots feminism” that seeks to defend the rights of workers and women against systematic oppression.
“The #MeToo movement should not only confine itself to the media, it should also be organised in the workplace through trade unions, to win back our right to our own bodies,” a press release from Socialist Action said.
Demonstrators also acted out an art performance symbolising the breaking of the chains of oppression and exploitation of women.
The Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions also called for the defence of refugee and migrant worker rights and rallied against racial and gender discrimination, demanding the abolition of Hong Kong’s “live-in rule.” The rule requires domestic workers to live with their employers, though migrant worker groups say it enables abuse.
Last month, a domestic worker lost a legal challenge to scrap the rule.
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