CINA

본문

Well - in my opinion - it seems that the first 24 hours of the MASS PROTEST MARATHON (for 72 hours, from y'day until Sunday/72시간 릴레이 국민행동) is - until now - a full success!

From y'day evening until today between 70,000 (Tong-il News) and 100,000 (KCTU) took the streets of downtown Seoul (City Hall Plaza, Sejong-no..). According to KCTU yesterday in the late evening around 50,000 people gathered in front of Seoul City Hall. Only two hours later (at about 10 p.m.) 100,000 people crowded there!!

And even today in the morning hours about 10,000 people continued the protest in downtown Seoul!

Here you can read Scott B's impressions from Thursday (night) protest:

"..I was out there at Kwanghwamun again last night (Thursday) and if Korea is going to ever have its "Woodstock" this may be it. There were several large drum circles with like 30 drums, people dancing in the center and hundreds looking on; several other folk-type bands playing Crying Nut or Deli Spice songs (with the odd anti-ChoJoongDong ditty thrown in which was kind of incongruous but whatever); and another band with an accordian player and even a foreign drummer, along with a violinist and guitar player..

..The mood was much more festive and there was a sense of joy or juissance as the French say: All the college kids were out in force and mostly in their own circles, either drinking around a fire or even more funny, the girls from women's schools doing their sort of cute little cheerleader synchronized dancing ("Bring it!"). So there was a variety of people and styles (even quite a few red devils in their glowing red horns) but the dominant mood was much more festive despite the highly decentered assemblage of people, and since they are going through the weekend we'll see if this turns into a full-scale Woodstock-like cultural event that really flips this society upsidedown (it was also notable that the police did nothing to break things up even though about 10,000 people were still occupying Kwanghwamun when I left at 5am). I did meet a cool (Korean) activist/NGO guy who came up to me because he had read my last book and recognized me and we had a good long talk: I asked him if this was a movement (undong) or revolution (hyongmyong) and he said he had no idea what to make of this thing yet but he seemed rather ambivalent about its future or long-lasting potential as am I (at one point he pointed to people putting anti-gov't stickers on the police buses and said "They're just playing, they're just having fun."). Oh, and he also said a lot of people he knows on the left are attacking Hankyoreh these days. Anyway, the big day is next Tuesday where they're hoping for 1 million people; alas, given the dearth of drugs here and seriously crowd rocking bands, any comparisons to Woodstock or true cultural revolution may only be superficial at best. The jury's still out on this thing." 

☞ 시민들의 '난장'이 시작됐다 (통일뉴스, 6.05)

☞ 반2MB 72시간 릴레이 국민촛불 현장 (KCTU, 6.06)

Yeah, and right now (KST23:00), according to some KCTU comrades, about 200,000 people are gathering near Gwanghwamun..

李정부 박살내자!

자본주의 박살내자!