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Today Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) called for "General Strike" (GS) against the planned new bill for, or better said against irregular workers in S. Korea. (Right now I just will write about what was going on today, what I understood from the Korean reports and documentaries. Later I will write down my thoughts about the GS. So, no comment right now!)

According to the internet magazine Minjung-ui Sori about 10.000 workers joined the main rally in Seoul/Yeouido, near the National Assembly (NA), the S.K. parliament.

According to a speech of KCTU all across S.K. 60.000 workers joined the GS. After the main rally several activists wanted to march in the direction of NA, but they were blocked by large units of riot cops and many lines of their huge buses.

After some - not really violent - clashes between the activists and the cops havy water canon attacks against the entire rally begun. From now some more serious clashes started: the cops used riot shields and truncheons and the protestors bamboo sticks. The clashes continued until the early evening hours.

A summarizing report in Korean, including three video docus about the rally and the clashes, you can read/see here:

http://www.vop.co.kr/new/2005120133506.html

Meanwhile thousands of farmers clashed with the riot cops downtown Seoul.

In the afternoon they begun a rally in Seoul's university district Daehak-no, near downtown, to protest against the past police terror against their protests (I already wrote about this several days ago).

After the rally they marched the short route to Jong-no/Sejong-no intersection, one of the main traffic routes in Seoul. There, after the protestors took the intersection, large units of riot cops with their buses and water canon tanks blocked the way what could lead to the dirction of Cheonghwadae, the residence of the S.K. president.

Source of the pics: Minjung-ui Sori

Only after a short while later also there the cops started massive attacks with water canons against the demonstrators, under them many women...

Also here direct confrontations between the cops and protestors errupted soon and continued until the early night hours.

Until now I don't found numbers of the cops, but when I think about my experience in protests like today I would estimate that several ten thousands of the riot cops were on the spot.

A summarizing report (in Korean) you can read here (including a video docu):

http://www.voiceofpeople.org/new/2005120133510.html

The semi-official news agency Yonhap reported this:

Militant labor group begins strike over non-regular worker bill

South Korea's militant umbrella labor group, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), launched a nationwide general strike on Thursday, asking for greater protection of non-regular workers' rights in a government-proposed legislation.

The walkout, however, is unlikely to have a serious impact on the nation's key industries, as merely 10 percent, or 60,000, of its 620,000 affiliated unionists complied with the strike call.

It continued here:

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20051201/610000000020051201175313E6.html

What the bourgeois Korea Times is writing about the same issue you can read here:

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200512/kt2005120119372411990.htm

And as I wrote already: FROM ME, NOW, NO COMMENT...