South Korean Society, Rotten and Corrupted
- Owing to the unreliable economic policy of the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors the south Korean economy faces a catastrophic crisis and the people's living goes to ruin.
This year alone such financial crisis and business bankruptcy as skyrocketing debts of the big business groups and individuals, nothing to say of the financial deficit of the government, get more severe. In last May, 9 big business groups were designated as the restructuring targets and 49 more in June.
16 big construction groups and some 2600 subcontract enterprises which are in dire financial difficulty are on the verge of bankruptcy. So the financial institutions which invested most of the loans in real estate markets fell into utter confusion.
Many enterprises declared bankruptcy and a great number of the unemployed people are wandering about the streets. The number of the young unemployed increased to 1,243,000 in August this year from 905,000 of last year.
As the result of the suspension of the inter-Korean cooperation due to the confrontation moves of the treacherous clan of south Korea nearly 300,000 jobs were lost and a damage to the tune of 5,972 billion won occurred so that the people's livelihood is considerably threatened.
Last year the poor households numbered 3,058,000 and over 7 million people were deprived of elementary right to existence and eke out a bare existence living in makeshift houses, shanties or rent houses.
- Ever-growing Violent Crimes
The number of crimes such as killing, robbery, rape, larceny, violence in south Korea was more than 590,080 in 2009, increasing 45,560 more than that of 2008 (8.4% increase).
The crime of murder was 1,370, increasing 24% more than that of 2008, and the robbery 32%, larceny 15% more than that of 2008. Major economic crimes such as fraud and usurpation also increased 10% more than that in 2008.
The criminals the police dealt with in 2009 reached to 2,333,710 persons.
- Suicide Prevalent in Society
12,858 people committed suicide in 2008 but in 2009 the number increased to 14,579, 1,721 more than that of the previous year.
Suicide among the schoolchildren in primary, middle and high schools, in particular, is increasing at a record high. In 2009 it increased by 50% in comparison with the previous year.
Though the south Korean conservative ruling group is clamoring about a “package of 5-year measures to prevent suicide” in a bid to reduce suicides at any cost, the suicide pathology will further mount as malignant tumor in south Korea due to its anti-people policy.
Today the south Korean people denounce the ruling group of traitors that destroyed the national economy, inter-Korean relations and the people's living, vociferating “the people's livelihood can never be improved under the current regime”, “we must judge the regime for a new society to live in happily” and “let us bring about the people's world at an early date through the vigorous struggle to judge the traitorous regime”.
Monday, 13 December 2010
Friday, 19 November 2010
We Oppose the G20 Summit a Festival of the Haves
We Oppose the G 20 Summit Meeting,
a Festival of the Haves!
"Day of the People's International Joint Action"
(At Seoul Station, November 11)
South Korean and international Representatives
of the "People's Action" in a Demo
Denouncing the G 20 Summit Meeting
Wire Entanglements around the Meeting's Venue
Fascist Police Represses the Peaceful
March of the People
A Rat ("G" means a rat in vernacular)
Ridicules the Summit
"We Oppose the G 20 Summit which Makes
the People Pay for the Economic Crisis"
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
report of smash g20 picket at SK embassy
SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY MADCAP SECURITY OFFICIALS' FIREARMS AT THE READY DURING THE SMASH SEOUL, SMASH THE G20 PROTEST ON FRIDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2010
On Friday 12 November, people from various leftist groups and organizations turned up at the south Korean embassy in London to stand in solidarity with south Korean workers, G20 protestors, prisoners and all anti-G20 activists from across the globe who took part in the G20-protests in Seoul, south Korea on 11-12 November and condemn the Lee Myung Bak fascist style puppet regime of south Korea for it brutal onslaught on south Korean workers and their rights.
Protestors handed out anti-G20 fliers to the passing public highlighting the issues.
However from the very start of the protest, south Korean officials of the embassy took a hostile stance towards the protest being held outside the front door of their embassy. Their armed security personnel immediately came out of the embassy and stood at the front of the entrance looking very uneasy and brandishing firearms in full view of the people lawfully protesting. Thus it appears they are so very worried about protestors handing out a few fliers, they now feel the urgent need to brandish firearms about the place to try and intimidate protestors and keep them away from the puppet embassy.
The British diplomatic police (also armed), as usual, were called in and were soon lording it over the protestors and throwing their weight about in less than 10 minutes, by ordering people to move to the other side of the road to their `designated' protest area (10 metres away). The recent Millbank Tower Tory HQ riots are still fresh in the minds of the UK police force. Hence their fear of a possible repeat of those events at the south Korean embassy had enough people turned up. The police told us that the south Korean puppet officials had said that they were feeling very intimidated and harassed by our presence outside the embassy. That was the UK cops' pretext to get us all arrested if we didn't move. Is that also the reason why the south Korean embassy security felt the need to brandish firearms at the protestors? That they felt intimidated by people handing out fliers outside their front door? No, it is because they want to frighten us from protesting in larger numbers outside their puppet embassy in future. They think they can use the same vicious underhanded gangster-style tricks that they use against their own people of south Korean against protestors in Britain. A far cry when one considers how the south Korean puppet authorities use their tried and tested method of tear gas and brutal crackdowns and repressions against south Korean labour activists, civic organisations, or anyone who dare utter a word of sympathy in relation to North Korea. One south Korean member of the organisation `Solidarity for Implementing the South-North Declaration' was inflicted with a 2 year prison term on November 8, on the charge of violating the draconian National Security Law of south Korea. He was sentenced for two years behind bars, charged with possession of `enemy-benefiting' music CD-s praising the North of Korea (DPRK).
We initially refused to move and remained standing right outside the entrance of the embassy on the pavement (public highway) until the very last minute, when we were almost certain we were all going to get arrested under Section 14 (5) of the Public Order Act. At that point, we decided we would shift slowly over to the other side of the road and begin condemning the south Korean regime via a large megaphone so that the embassy staff could hear us loud and clear. Better to be there and piss off the south Koreans for a few hours, rather then give them the full satisfaction of having us removed completely from the embassy area in the back of a police van to the delight of those inside the puppet embassy.
One courageous protestor decided to remain defiant and risking arrest and receiving a Level 3 fine of maximum of 1000 pounds as punishment, refused to obey police orders and continued to stand right outside the embassy and continue handing out anti-G20 fliers. He was being harassed by the cops as usual and threatened with arrest if he did not move to the other side of the road to join the rest of us. But he remained defiant
The protestors condemned the UK cops for their own behavior in general, as well as the government agencies of south Korea for conducting crackdowns on undocumented migrants, during which migrants are brutally arrested, illegally imprisoned and then deported. The authorities of south Korea were also condemned for the detention and expulsion of several Philipino G20 activists. South Korean Police had been carrying out illegal and racist stop and search procedures just before the G20 Summit on whoever they think looked `suspicious' or had `dark skin'. The government at the same time is continuing to carry out devastating attacks on south Korean workers, activists, labour unions and civic organisations
The demo called for the release of all south Korean prisoners, jailed under the draconian National Security Law. They condemned the south Korean embassy staff in London for brandishing firearms at the protestors who had the lawful right to be there outside the embassy, and demanded the dissolution of the brutal NIS (south Korean Secret Police) of south Korea. The G20 was condemned by the protestors as a bunch of crooks, by accusing them of attempting to make the world `safe' for neo-liberal capitalism by forcing emerging economies to shoulder part of the burden of the crisis, promoting trade and investment liberalization dressed up in `new robes', negotiating weak financial reforms that largely allow financial speculation to on unchecked and reviving the ailing IMF and other IFI-s, and this agenda being pursued despite the fact that neo-liberal capitalism is clearly a failed model, which only increases poverty and inequality around the globe.
Whilst this was going on, the courageous and defiant protestor handing out fliers and refusing to move to the "designated" protest area on the other side of the road and under threat of arrest or even worse (had south Korean security staff at the embassy opened fire on the protestor), was indeed arrested under section 14(5) of the Public Order Act (causing harassment, alarm or distress) ….i.e. and in this case, also for disobeying a legal order made by a senior police officer. He was driven off in the back of a cop car under the loud megaphone chants of "NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, - FUCK THE POLICE!
At the police station, the police initially told the arrestee that he could be held until Monday 15 Nov if they could not have got him into court on Saturday 13 Nov. At midnight on Friday 12, luckily, he was released after been cautioned. Whilst being held for nearly 10 hours, he was also quizzed by the cops in an interview room, and asked about what happened outside the embassy and who the organizers of the event were in the interests of information gathering.
"NO COMMENT" was the response given to all questions by the brave and trusted comrade.
Well done to everyone who turned up on the day!
GLOBALISE RESISTANCE!
SMASH THE G20!
CAPITAL KNOW NO BOUNDARIES, SO WHY SHOULD WE.
SMASH THE LEE MYUNG BAK REGIME OF SOUTH KOREA!
FREEDOM TO ALL LABOUR ACTIVISTS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS IN SOUTH KOREA AND ACROSS THE GLOBE!!
And finally,
TO ALL SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY PUPPET SECURITY PERSONNEL AND THEIR SOUTH KOREAN NIS AGENTS IN LONDON!
We say,
IN THE INTERESTS OF NOT TURNING UP THE HEAT AND AVOIDING A FLARE UP IN YOUR EMBASSY AREA, YOU HAD BETTER KEEP ALL YOUR FIREARMS AT BAY AND OFF THE STREETS OF LONDON, AND STOP BRANDISHING THEM AT PEOPLE WHO LAWFULLY PROTEST THE FASCIST-STYLE BRUTAL LEE MYUNG BAK REGIME OUTSIDE YOUR PUPPET SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY!
WE ARE NOT INTIMITATED AND WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY FIREARMS BEING BRANDISHED BY A BUNCH OF THIRD RATE CROOKS AND AGENTS OF THE TREACHEROUS LEE MYUNG BAK PUPPET REGIME OF SOUTH KOREA RESIDING IN THE SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY IN LONDON!
SMASH SEOUL, SMASH THE G20
smashg20.blogspot.com
On Friday 12 November, people from various leftist groups and organizations turned up at the south Korean embassy in London to stand in solidarity with south Korean workers, G20 protestors, prisoners and all anti-G20 activists from across the globe who took part in the G20-protests in Seoul, south Korea on 11-12 November and condemn the Lee Myung Bak fascist style puppet regime of south Korea for it brutal onslaught on south Korean workers and their rights.
Protestors handed out anti-G20 fliers to the passing public highlighting the issues.
However from the very start of the protest, south Korean officials of the embassy took a hostile stance towards the protest being held outside the front door of their embassy. Their armed security personnel immediately came out of the embassy and stood at the front of the entrance looking very uneasy and brandishing firearms in full view of the people lawfully protesting. Thus it appears they are so very worried about protestors handing out a few fliers, they now feel the urgent need to brandish firearms about the place to try and intimidate protestors and keep them away from the puppet embassy.
The British diplomatic police (also armed), as usual, were called in and were soon lording it over the protestors and throwing their weight about in less than 10 minutes, by ordering people to move to the other side of the road to their `designated' protest area (10 metres away). The recent Millbank Tower Tory HQ riots are still fresh in the minds of the UK police force. Hence their fear of a possible repeat of those events at the south Korean embassy had enough people turned up. The police told us that the south Korean puppet officials had said that they were feeling very intimidated and harassed by our presence outside the embassy. That was the UK cops' pretext to get us all arrested if we didn't move. Is that also the reason why the south Korean embassy security felt the need to brandish firearms at the protestors? That they felt intimidated by people handing out fliers outside their front door? No, it is because they want to frighten us from protesting in larger numbers outside their puppet embassy in future. They think they can use the same vicious underhanded gangster-style tricks that they use against their own people of south Korean against protestors in Britain. A far cry when one considers how the south Korean puppet authorities use their tried and tested method of tear gas and brutal crackdowns and repressions against south Korean labour activists, civic organisations, or anyone who dare utter a word of sympathy in relation to North Korea. One south Korean member of the organisation `Solidarity for Implementing the South-North Declaration' was inflicted with a 2 year prison term on November 8, on the charge of violating the draconian National Security Law of south Korea. He was sentenced for two years behind bars, charged with possession of `enemy-benefiting' music CD-s praising the North of Korea (DPRK).
We initially refused to move and remained standing right outside the entrance of the embassy on the pavement (public highway) until the very last minute, when we were almost certain we were all going to get arrested under Section 14 (5) of the Public Order Act. At that point, we decided we would shift slowly over to the other side of the road and begin condemning the south Korean regime via a large megaphone so that the embassy staff could hear us loud and clear. Better to be there and piss off the south Koreans for a few hours, rather then give them the full satisfaction of having us removed completely from the embassy area in the back of a police van to the delight of those inside the puppet embassy.
One courageous protestor decided to remain defiant and risking arrest and receiving a Level 3 fine of maximum of 1000 pounds as punishment, refused to obey police orders and continued to stand right outside the embassy and continue handing out anti-G20 fliers. He was being harassed by the cops as usual and threatened with arrest if he did not move to the other side of the road to join the rest of us. But he remained defiant
The protestors condemned the UK cops for their own behavior in general, as well as the government agencies of south Korea for conducting crackdowns on undocumented migrants, during which migrants are brutally arrested, illegally imprisoned and then deported. The authorities of south Korea were also condemned for the detention and expulsion of several Philipino G20 activists. South Korean Police had been carrying out illegal and racist stop and search procedures just before the G20 Summit on whoever they think looked `suspicious' or had `dark skin'. The government at the same time is continuing to carry out devastating attacks on south Korean workers, activists, labour unions and civic organisations
The demo called for the release of all south Korean prisoners, jailed under the draconian National Security Law. They condemned the south Korean embassy staff in London for brandishing firearms at the protestors who had the lawful right to be there outside the embassy, and demanded the dissolution of the brutal NIS (south Korean Secret Police) of south Korea. The G20 was condemned by the protestors as a bunch of crooks, by accusing them of attempting to make the world `safe' for neo-liberal capitalism by forcing emerging economies to shoulder part of the burden of the crisis, promoting trade and investment liberalization dressed up in `new robes', negotiating weak financial reforms that largely allow financial speculation to on unchecked and reviving the ailing IMF and other IFI-s, and this agenda being pursued despite the fact that neo-liberal capitalism is clearly a failed model, which only increases poverty and inequality around the globe.
Whilst this was going on, the courageous and defiant protestor handing out fliers and refusing to move to the "designated" protest area on the other side of the road and under threat of arrest or even worse (had south Korean security staff at the embassy opened fire on the protestor), was indeed arrested under section 14(5) of the Public Order Act (causing harassment, alarm or distress) ….i.e. and in this case, also for disobeying a legal order made by a senior police officer. He was driven off in the back of a cop car under the loud megaphone chants of "NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, - FUCK THE POLICE!
At the police station, the police initially told the arrestee that he could be held until Monday 15 Nov if they could not have got him into court on Saturday 13 Nov. At midnight on Friday 12, luckily, he was released after been cautioned. Whilst being held for nearly 10 hours, he was also quizzed by the cops in an interview room, and asked about what happened outside the embassy and who the organizers of the event were in the interests of information gathering.
"NO COMMENT" was the response given to all questions by the brave and trusted comrade.
Well done to everyone who turned up on the day!
GLOBALISE RESISTANCE!
SMASH THE G20!
CAPITAL KNOW NO BOUNDARIES, SO WHY SHOULD WE.
SMASH THE LEE MYUNG BAK REGIME OF SOUTH KOREA!
FREEDOM TO ALL LABOUR ACTIVISTS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS IN SOUTH KOREA AND ACROSS THE GLOBE!!
And finally,
TO ALL SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY PUPPET SECURITY PERSONNEL AND THEIR SOUTH KOREAN NIS AGENTS IN LONDON!
We say,
IN THE INTERESTS OF NOT TURNING UP THE HEAT AND AVOIDING A FLARE UP IN YOUR EMBASSY AREA, YOU HAD BETTER KEEP ALL YOUR FIREARMS AT BAY AND OFF THE STREETS OF LONDON, AND STOP BRANDISHING THEM AT PEOPLE WHO LAWFULLY PROTEST THE FASCIST-STYLE BRUTAL LEE MYUNG BAK REGIME OUTSIDE YOUR PUPPET SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY!
WE ARE NOT INTIMITATED AND WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY FIREARMS BEING BRANDISHED BY A BUNCH OF THIRD RATE CROOKS AND AGENTS OF THE TREACHEROUS LEE MYUNG BAK PUPPET REGIME OF SOUTH KOREA RESIDING IN THE SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY IN LONDON!
SMASH SEOUL, SMASH THE G20
smashg20.blogspot.com
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Guarantee of Right to Existence Demanded in S. Korea
Guarantee of Right to Existence Demanded in S. Korea |
|
|
| Pyongyang, November 14 (KCNA) -- The "people's action for coping with the international meeting" grouping more than 80 civic and public organizations including the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held a rally marking the day of people's joint action demanding the guarantee of the right to existence in Seoul on Nov. 11 with at least 10 000 workers and farmers and people from all other walks of life participating. |
Thursday, 4 November 2010
South Korean Confederation of Trade Unions statement
CALL FOR ACTION - The G20 Summit is NO EXCUSE for Repression!KCTU
The G20 Summit is NO EXCUSE for Repression!
October 1st, International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea
Dear Friends and Allies,
You have already received an email urging you to join protests against the G20 Summit, which will be held in Seoul, South Korea from November 11 to 12. As you know, the G20, originally formed to respond to the global financial crisis, is attempting to set itself up as the authority responsible for directing the world economy and defining world governance. While completely excluding most nations from decision-making, the G20 is attempting to make the world ‘safe’ for neoliberal capitalism by forcing emerging economies to shoulder part of the burden of the crisis, promoting trade and investment liberalization dressed up 'in new robes', negotiating weak financial reforms that largely allow financial speculation to go on unchecked, and reviving the ailing IMF and other IFIs. This agenda is being pursued despite the fact that neoliberal capitalism is clearly a failed model, which only increases poverty and inequality around the globe.
As if this was not enough, the Lee Myeong-bak administration is using the upcoming Summit as an excuse to strengthen repression of common people and social movements in South Korea. To fight this attack we need your support, even before November.
On October 1st tell the South Korean government and the world that the G20 Summit is NO EXCUSE for Repression by participating in the International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea.
Background
The government is carrying out its attack on democratic and human rights on many fronts.
Claiming they are “establishing public order to support the successful opening of the G20 Summit,” the Immigration Service and other government agencies have been conducting a massive crackdown on undocumented migrants, during which migrants are brutally arrested, imprisoned and then deported. Proclaiming to be “preemptively responding to foreigner crime,” the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department has been carrying out blatantly illegal and racist stop and search procedures, questioning anyone they think looks ‘suspicious’, which generally means anyone who looks foreign and dark-skinned.
The government has also formed a “special road maintenance crew” to “clean up the streets” before the G20 by cracking down on street vendors. The police have been patrolling areas where homeless people usually spend time, such as subway stations and neighborhoods where service organizations and temporary boarding houses are located. These measures are brutally destroying the livelihoods and wiping out the resting places of South Korea’s poor.
At the same time, the government has been carrying out a devastating attack against South Korean workers and labour unions, even going so far as to ignore commitments made at previous G20 meetings. At the 3rd G20 Summit held in Pittsburgh in September 2009, national leaders agreed that, "the current challenges [posed by the crisis] do not provide an excuse to disregard or weaken internationally recognized labour standards.” Despite this fact, the government has repeatedly defied ILO Committee of Freedom Association recommendations by repressing unionization by teachers and public employees, applying the Article 314(Obstruction of Business) of Penal Code to prosecute union officers, and attempting to control union activities through implementation of the ‘time-off’ system, which drastically limits the number of union staff that can paid on company salaries. The government is also violating the G20’s stated principle of putting the creation of ‘decent jobs’ at the center of economic recovery by pursuing labour flexiblisation policies including the weaken of restrictions on mass lay-offs and expansion of the industries in which agency workers can be legally employed.
To top all of this off, in May the ruling conservative Grand National Party forced the passage of a “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit,” which legalizes tools for the repression of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. This law, which goes into effect on October 1, allows the government to mobilize the army “if necessary” to maintain public order. It also established ‘Safe Escort Zones’ around the G20 meeting site, the hotels where representatives will stay, the routes they will travel to the Summit, and other G20 related areas. Public officials are authorized to stop people from entering these zones and to carry out indiscriminate stop and search procedures within them. What is more, they are not required to publically announce which areas during what times are designated ‘Safe Escort Zones’. This law is clearly meant to squash all forms of criticism and protest against the G20.
On October 1st tell the South Korean government that the G20 is NO Excuse for Repression!
If we do not resist these measures, repression in South Korea will only grow stronger. This will have a devastating effect on the lives of common people and the people’s movement’s ability to fight for more equitable alternatives to the G20’s neoliberal agenda. We need your support and solidarity now more than ever.
This is way we have proclaimed October 1st, the very day the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit” goes into effect, an International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea.
We are asking allies around the world to organize solidarity actions on this day and deliver the following demands to the South Korean government.
The G20 Summit is NO excuse! Stop the crackdown on migrants, street vendors and homeless people!
Honour international labour standards and ILO recommendations! Stop labour repression and labour flexibilisation policies!
Repeal the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit” and end repression of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly!
Solidarity actions may take the following forms:
Rallies or other actions in front of South Korean consulates and embassies
Meetings with consulate and embassy representatives to deliver protest statements
Press conferences
Rallies or other actions in public areas
Any creative action you wish to organize
Attached is a sample protest statement, which can be used in meetings with embassy and consulate representatives and/or as the basis for press statements.
Please let us know about actions you have planned and send reports of completed actions.
News about solidarity actions, as well as any questions or requests for additional materials may be sent to: Peoplesg20action.seoul@gmail.com
Endorsed by
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
National Association of Professors for Democratic Society (NAPDS)
Citizen’s Movement for Environmental Justice
Korean Federation of Medical Groups for Health Rights
Korean Women's Association United (KWAU)
Global Call to Action against Poverty Korea (GCAP-Korea)
Korean Peasants’ League (KPL)
Civil Society Network for Financial regulation and taxation on speculative capital
Civil Society Organisation Network in Korea
People’s Solidarity for Social Progress (PSSP)
People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
Korea Alliance of Progressive Movements
National Students March
Korean Women Peasant Association
Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea (JCMK)
All Together
Green Korea United
Korean Urban Poor Association
Alternative Forum of University Students
National Democratic Association of Street Vendors
Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice
Institute for Global Political Economy
Imagine Institute
Corea Institute for New Society
New Community Institute
Institute for New World
SpecWatch Korea
Korean Clerical and Financial Workers Association
NANUMMUNHWA_ Global Peace Activities
Korean People's Solidarity against Poverty
Energy Climate Policy Institute for Just Transition (ECPI)
Action for Energy Justice
Migrant Workers Rights Watch, Korea
Solidarity for Street Vendors and Informal Workers
Korea Progressive Academy Council
Progressive Strategy Council
Center for Energy Politics (CEP)
Korea Federation for Environment Movement (KFEM) / FOE Korea
The Committee for a Socialist Workers' party (CSWP)
Democratic Labor Party-Korea (DLP-Korea)
New Progressive Party-Korea (NPP-Korea)
Socialist Party-Korea (SP-Korea)
Transparency International_Korea
People not Profit
Workers Institute of Social Science, South Korea
Korea Labor&Social Network on Energy
Korea NGO's Energy Network
Revolutionary Workers' Front
Students' Alliance against G20
http://kctu.org/9842
The G20 Summit is NO EXCUSE for Repression!
October 1st, International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea
Dear Friends and Allies,
You have already received an email urging you to join protests against the G20 Summit, which will be held in Seoul, South Korea from November 11 to 12. As you know, the G20, originally formed to respond to the global financial crisis, is attempting to set itself up as the authority responsible for directing the world economy and defining world governance. While completely excluding most nations from decision-making, the G20 is attempting to make the world ‘safe’ for neoliberal capitalism by forcing emerging economies to shoulder part of the burden of the crisis, promoting trade and investment liberalization dressed up 'in new robes', negotiating weak financial reforms that largely allow financial speculation to go on unchecked, and reviving the ailing IMF and other IFIs. This agenda is being pursued despite the fact that neoliberal capitalism is clearly a failed model, which only increases poverty and inequality around the globe.
As if this was not enough, the Lee Myeong-bak administration is using the upcoming Summit as an excuse to strengthen repression of common people and social movements in South Korea. To fight this attack we need your support, even before November.
On October 1st tell the South Korean government and the world that the G20 Summit is NO EXCUSE for Repression by participating in the International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea.
Background
The government is carrying out its attack on democratic and human rights on many fronts.
Claiming they are “establishing public order to support the successful opening of the G20 Summit,” the Immigration Service and other government agencies have been conducting a massive crackdown on undocumented migrants, during which migrants are brutally arrested, imprisoned and then deported. Proclaiming to be “preemptively responding to foreigner crime,” the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department has been carrying out blatantly illegal and racist stop and search procedures, questioning anyone they think looks ‘suspicious’, which generally means anyone who looks foreign and dark-skinned.
The government has also formed a “special road maintenance crew” to “clean up the streets” before the G20 by cracking down on street vendors. The police have been patrolling areas where homeless people usually spend time, such as subway stations and neighborhoods where service organizations and temporary boarding houses are located. These measures are brutally destroying the livelihoods and wiping out the resting places of South Korea’s poor.
At the same time, the government has been carrying out a devastating attack against South Korean workers and labour unions, even going so far as to ignore commitments made at previous G20 meetings. At the 3rd G20 Summit held in Pittsburgh in September 2009, national leaders agreed that, "the current challenges [posed by the crisis] do not provide an excuse to disregard or weaken internationally recognized labour standards.” Despite this fact, the government has repeatedly defied ILO Committee of Freedom Association recommendations by repressing unionization by teachers and public employees, applying the Article 314(Obstruction of Business) of Penal Code to prosecute union officers, and attempting to control union activities through implementation of the ‘time-off’ system, which drastically limits the number of union staff that can paid on company salaries. The government is also violating the G20’s stated principle of putting the creation of ‘decent jobs’ at the center of economic recovery by pursuing labour flexiblisation policies including the weaken of restrictions on mass lay-offs and expansion of the industries in which agency workers can be legally employed.
To top all of this off, in May the ruling conservative Grand National Party forced the passage of a “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit,” which legalizes tools for the repression of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. This law, which goes into effect on October 1, allows the government to mobilize the army “if necessary” to maintain public order. It also established ‘Safe Escort Zones’ around the G20 meeting site, the hotels where representatives will stay, the routes they will travel to the Summit, and other G20 related areas. Public officials are authorized to stop people from entering these zones and to carry out indiscriminate stop and search procedures within them. What is more, they are not required to publically announce which areas during what times are designated ‘Safe Escort Zones’. This law is clearly meant to squash all forms of criticism and protest against the G20.
On October 1st tell the South Korean government that the G20 is NO Excuse for Repression!
If we do not resist these measures, repression in South Korea will only grow stronger. This will have a devastating effect on the lives of common people and the people’s movement’s ability to fight for more equitable alternatives to the G20’s neoliberal agenda. We need your support and solidarity now more than ever.
This is way we have proclaimed October 1st, the very day the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit” goes into effect, an International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea.
We are asking allies around the world to organize solidarity actions on this day and deliver the following demands to the South Korean government.
The G20 Summit is NO excuse! Stop the crackdown on migrants, street vendors and homeless people!
Honour international labour standards and ILO recommendations! Stop labour repression and labour flexibilisation policies!
Repeal the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit” and end repression of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly!
Solidarity actions may take the following forms:
Rallies or other actions in front of South Korean consulates and embassies
Meetings with consulate and embassy representatives to deliver protest statements
Press conferences
Rallies or other actions in public areas
Any creative action you wish to organize
Attached is a sample protest statement, which can be used in meetings with embassy and consulate representatives and/or as the basis for press statements.
Please let us know about actions you have planned and send reports of completed actions.
News about solidarity actions, as well as any questions or requests for additional materials may be sent to: Peoplesg20action.seoul@gmail.com
Endorsed by
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
National Association of Professors for Democratic Society (NAPDS)
Citizen’s Movement for Environmental Justice
Korean Federation of Medical Groups for Health Rights
Korean Women's Association United (KWAU)
Global Call to Action against Poverty Korea (GCAP-Korea)
Korean Peasants’ League (KPL)
Civil Society Network for Financial regulation and taxation on speculative capital
Civil Society Organisation Network in Korea
People’s Solidarity for Social Progress (PSSP)
People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
Korea Alliance of Progressive Movements
National Students March
Korean Women Peasant Association
Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea (JCMK)
All Together
Green Korea United
Korean Urban Poor Association
Alternative Forum of University Students
National Democratic Association of Street Vendors
Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice
Institute for Global Political Economy
Imagine Institute
Corea Institute for New Society
New Community Institute
Institute for New World
SpecWatch Korea
Korean Clerical and Financial Workers Association
NANUMMUNHWA_ Global Peace Activities
Korean People's Solidarity against Poverty
Energy Climate Policy Institute for Just Transition (ECPI)
Action for Energy Justice
Migrant Workers Rights Watch, Korea
Solidarity for Street Vendors and Informal Workers
Korea Progressive Academy Council
Progressive Strategy Council
Center for Energy Politics (CEP)
Korea Federation for Environment Movement (KFEM) / FOE Korea
The Committee for a Socialist Workers' party (CSWP)
Democratic Labor Party-Korea (DLP-Korea)
New Progressive Party-Korea (NPP-Korea)
Socialist Party-Korea (SP-Korea)
Transparency International_Korea
People not Profit
Workers Institute of Social Science, South Korea
Korea Labor&Social Network on Energy
Korea NGO's Energy Network
Revolutionary Workers' Front
Students' Alliance against G20
http://kctu.org/9842
Monday, 18 October 2010
Unpopular Rule in S. Korea Protested
Unpopular Rule in S. Korea Protested |
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| Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- The Confederation of Trade Unions and the Construction Trade Unions of south Korea made public a joint statement on October 15 to denounce the unpopular rule enforced by the south Korean puppet group. The statement referred to the fact that a constructor in his 40s set himself on fire to death in protest against the entrepreneur side which failed to pay wages in arrears in Sunchang County of North Jolla Province on October 13. It deplored the present reality in which workers are forced to meet grievous deaths. It went on: The "government" is apt to talk about "pro-common people" policy and "fair society". But, in fact, it has pressed for such policies for fattening big enterprises as the improvement project of four large rivers. The authorities should punish those responsible for the suicide and ensure workers the rights to labor and existence at an early date. If not, they would face strong anti-"government" struggle of workers across south Korea, the statement warned. |
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Will to Struggle for Equality and Freedom Reiterated
Will to Struggle for Equality and Freedom Reiterated |
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| Pyongyang, October 17 (KCNA) -- The Committee for Event Marking 40th Death Anniversary of Youth Chon Tae Il of south Korea held a meeting in Seoul on Oct. 12 and expressed its will to fight for genuine life. At the meeting speakers recalled that four decades ago Chon Tae Il set himself on fire, crying for the right to workers. His suicide flared up the struggle to build a world in which people lead a life worthy of human being, they said. They called on the people to pool efforts to realize his desire. A declaration read out at the meeting underscored the need to overcome present trials and difficulties in the same spirit of resistance as displayed by Chon. The declaration called on the people from all walks of life to wage a dynamic struggle to stamp out all social evils and build a genuine world in which equality and freedom are fully ensured |
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