CINA

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A PROBLEMATIC NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Since 05.01.04 you can read following New Year Greetings on KCTU's English home page(the notes are made by the author of the contribution):

여러분은 민주노총의 영문 홈페이지에서 다음과 같은 글을 읽을수 있다. 이하 전문을 싣고 기사의 작성자는 몇 몇 구절에 부쳐 주석을 달았음을 알린다.
Our Deepest Condolences to Those Who Are Suffering from the Catastrophic Earthquake and Tidal Waves in Southeast and West Asia
New Years Greeting
Another intense year has passed all too soon, and we are now entering into 2005.
The river of time may flow transiently, however, the KCTU strove through the past year just as an unhindered torrent runs past any obstacles and straightens any curves.
This year, the obstacles that face the KCTU are expected to be just as difficult.
Discrimination against irregular workers and the unemployed, Self-owned businesses and small-to-medium enterprises that are collapsing like dominoes, Those who have been caught in the trap of bad credit and end up in despair, The 10 million people who are suffering in the depth of absolute poverty, Workers who are tormented by the persistent job insecurity from the storm of restructuring. These people are all losing hope for the future.
Are the dreams of these poor workers, people and peasants truly those that are impossible to accomplish?
Working five days a week and earning enough to spend. Developing one’s life through social safety nets and without job insecurity, Respecting, and not hating, each other whether one is rich or poor, Is it really impossible to build a society in which the fruits of growth are shared?
>This is just a idealistic dream, because we cannot respect the riches' - mainly they are exploiters and oppressors, they stay on the other side of the barricade - way of life. Their way of life is created just on our costs. On the other side the riches also cannot, even they want, respect us, because they have to see in us just a kind of tools, able to move and speak - just means to maximize their profits. If they don't need us anymore, the reasons doesn't matter, they have only one goal: to get rid with us. If they respect us as equal human beings, they not be capitalists anymore, no riches anymore, because wealth is based on the exploitation.
이것은 그져 환상에 불과하다. 왜냐하면 우리는 자본가들의 삶을 존중할수 없기 때문이다.-대부분의 자본가들은 바리케이드 건너편에서 압제와 착취를 일삼는다-그들은 그저 우리의 삶을 힘들게 만들뿐이다.
또한 자본가들은 우리를 존중하지도,심지어는 그런 노력조차 하지 않는다. 자본가들에게 노동자들은 말하고 움직일줄 아는 일종의 ‘도구’에 지나지 않는다. -그들에게 ‘말하고 움직이는 도구’는 이윤을 극대화하기 위한 목적 이상의 의의를 지니지 못한다.그들은 도구가 필요가 없어지면 어떻게든 도구를 제거하기만을 원한다. 허나 자본가들이 노동자들을 그들과 같은 하나의 인간으로서 동등하게 바라본다면 그는 더 이상 자본가가 아닐 것이다.왜냐면 부가 착취에 기반한다는 당연한 원리 때문이다.
No. Our dreams can come true.
Our problem is that we do not dream.
Our society has lost its dream, and at the same time, the people have lost their hope.
Before we blame others and before we attack others, we must regain our beautiful dream, hold out our hands to the citizens standing on the streets of solidarity and action. We must let them participate in our dream.
>So far, so badly... No one word about the dispatched troops in Iraq(just remember Lee Soo-ho's loudmouthed announcement to make the troop dispatching as "a main issue of workers' struggle in the coming period"), no words about the situation of migrant workers here, no word about disabled people, and so on...
지금까지,매우 악의적이게도, ‘이라크 파병’<이수호가 파병문제가 노동운동의 중요한 이슈가 될것이라며 떠든기억은 있다>과 ‘이주 노동자 현황’ 그리고 ‘장애인 인권’문제등등에 관해선 한마디도 없다.
In schools the resonant songs of students will ring.
>??
In neighborhoods during the evenings the scent of shared food will make everyone happy. In work places, hope for the future will abundantly flow. Unemployment will not be fear but a second chance to leap forward. Irregular labour will not be punishment from the heavens but merely a temporary process one can pass through according to one’s own decision. Strangers will share warm greetings.
>If it means migrant workers: we don't need "warm greetings", we need and demand nothings else than equality and justice.
만약 ‘이방인’이라는 단어가 ‘이주노동자’를 뜻하는 것이라면, ‘이주노동자’에겐 뜨거운 인사가 필요없다. 우리는 평등과 정의를 요구할 뿐이다.
Politicians and corporate owners will be more mature and humble. Media will be concerned with the wellbeing of the socially weak. Let’s build this kind of world.
>In class societies politicians(the state) are the instruments of power of the ruling class(in the capitalism the capitalists, in the socialism the proletarians and all the other former oppressed). Capitalist media has no concerns about nothing and no one, except to make profit and to support the ruling class.
계급사회에서 정치인은 그져 지배계급의 힘을 제공하는 기계이다. <자본주의 사회에선 자본가들이 지배의 원천을 제공하고,사회주의 사회에선 프롤레타리안들이 그러한 역할을 맡는다. 물론, 이에 따른 억압과 수많은 피해자들이 공존하는 것이다.> 이윤에 눈이먼 미디어들은 이윤추구와 지배계급으로의 아첨을 제외하곤 거의 모든 것에 아무런 관심이 없다.
Looking at the red ball of fire rising from the east to summon a new year, let’s regain the dreams that we had lost.
>Once again:??
또냐?
Dreams are for those who dream, and it is only those who dream that can change history.
Let more streams gather to make a larger river and let the river gush forth like a torrent.
Let’s do away with all the falsehood and idealism. Let’s build a dream of new hope, of peoples’ hope, of reunification, peace and self-determination.
1st January, 2005
Lee Soo Ho, President, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

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First of all Lee Soo-ho's text is made to let the reader be confused(maybe it was not his intention, but in fact it is), his words are idealism pure. If he really meant what he wrote, this just means a goodbye from the class struggle. If he is meaning that his dreams can be reality in this society, that it is nothing else than spreading illusions that the capitalism is reformable. But exactly the opposite is case. If capitalism is ruling more decades our planet will be destroyed. But if Lee Soo-ho means another society, let's say the socialism, as the transforming society to the classless society - till now it was called communism - then there are also several "mistakes" in his text. In a progressive society after capitalism there will be no more corporate like we know it now, because the means of production will be in the hands of the producers. The media will reflect our view, discussions, and so on, because they will be in the hands of the producing people. There will be no more rich and poor!!
첫째로 이수호의 글은 읽는이를 혼란하게 하기위한 목적으로 쓰여졌음이 확실하다. <어쩌면 이수호는 일부러 이런글을 쓸만큼 영특하지 못할지도 모르지만,어쨋건 글자체가 그러하다.>그의 문장은 마치 하늘저편을 묘사한 듯 하다. 만약 그가 진정으로 이런 글을 썻다면, 여러분은 이수호가 계급투쟁에서 손뗏다고 봐도 무방할 것이다. 이수호가 이 글을 통해 이야기 한것처럼 꿈이 현실이 되는 사회를,즉 자본주의란 재정비가가능하다고 하는 믿음을 가지고 있을지는 모르겠으나, 현실은 그 반대다. 자본주의가 조금만더 <한 오십년이라고 치자> 지구를 지배한다면,우리의 행성은 소멸될 것이다. 하지만 이수호씨가 다른세상이라는 것을 계급이 없는 사회주의-지금까지 공산주의라고 불려왔던-을 지칭하는 것이라고 해도 그의 글에는 ‘오류’들이 눈에 띈다. 자본주의 이후의 급진적인 사회에선-계급이 없어진 다는 가정하에-지금까지 우리가 알고 있는 ‘기업’이라는 것은 존재하지 않을 것이다.왜냐하면 생산의 의미는 실질적으로 생산을 담당하는 이들의 손에 있을것이니 말이다.이런 사회에서 언론은 자본가가 아닌 사람들의 삶을 주목한다.왜냐면 빈곤과 부가 사라져 버렸기 때문이다. 번역: Bungoh同志

LET’S FIGHT TOGETHER FOR A WORLD WITHOUT EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION!
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE, ONLY IF YOU WANT AND FIGHT FOR IT!