CINA

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Really? Is such a ("logical") development possible??(*):

Is 'Made in USA' Backlash Next? (Korea Times, 5.30)

The ongoing protest against American beef may develop into an anti-"Made in the USA'' product campaign.

"Let's boycott U.S.-made products,'' read one posting Friday on a popular Korean Internet portal. "It's not just the Korean government that's pushing this import deal on Korean consumers. The American government is in on it. Let's boycott U.S. products,'' it continued. Such postings urging a boycott appeared following the government's announcement of the official resumption of beef imports, Thursday.

"Let's begin a campaign to boycott U.S. products. Boycott Hollywood movies! Don't wear Nike! Don't drink Starbucks coffee and stop going to McDonald's, Pizza Hut and KFC,'' read another Internet post.

U.S. companies with a business presence in Korea could suffer losses from the beef controversy if the campaign gains traction.

Choi In-ki, a top policymaker for the main opposition United Democratic Party, said last week during a National Assembly meeting that the U.S. government has nothing to gain if public resentment against its beef exports continues to build. The public backlash could expand to become an anti-U.S. products campaign, Choi told reporters...

 
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/05/116_25062.html

* But actually everything can be possible:

Yesterday K.T. reported that "armored vehicles with teargas launchers were dispatched" (against the ongoing "anti-US-beef" protests in the center of Seoul).

And now imagine that a tear gas grenade is hiiting and killing a middle school girl! And the tear gas grenade was "Made in USA"!!

Or imagine following scenario: The S. Korean army is buying used attack helicolpters AH-64 Apache from the US Army (☞ S. Korea Considers Buying Secondhand U.S. Copters). And one of the copters, a short while later, is crashing... in a middle school in Gyeonggi-do!! Well, just imagine..

Yeah.. of course following report by today's Korea Times is really "helpfull" to support the current "anti-US..":
☞ 'US Ready to Hit N. Korean Targets'

Related articles:

☞ Massive Candlelit Vigil Planned for Saturday (K. Times, 5.30)

☞ Street Protests, Hunger Strikes, Resignation Demands.. (Marmot's Hole, 5.30)

☞ "너희 월급 세금이다. 비켜라" (통일뉴스, 5.30)

☞ 첫불대오 덕수궁앞 대치중 경찰버스 시민 깔아 (KCTU)

*****

Protesters attempt to block distribution of stored beef (K. Herald)
   
Police are tightening security at 12 warehouses in Gyeonggi Province as protests intensify following the resumption of U.S. beef imports yesterday.
Some 1,800 officers will be dispatched to six warehouses in Gwangju, four in Yongin, one in Incheon and one in Hwaseong, where a combined 2,066 tons of U.S. beef is being stored. The beef has remained frozen since Oct. 5 when banned backbone fragments were found.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the nation's biggest labor umbrella group, said yesterday it will launch an all-out struggle against the government to block the planned release of the meat from the warehouses, presaging clashes with police.

"The government completely ignored public demands calling for securing health, and made a decision for the good of the U.S. livestock industry instead. Scrap the notification and renegotiate the import deal," the KCTU said in a press conference held in front of a beef storage house in Yongin.

"The Lee Myung-bak government has crossed a line that it should not have crossed. The formal notification of the import terms is tantamount to waging a war against citizens."...

"A full-fledged struggle will be initiated the moment the shipments of U.S. beef begin. It will be peaceful, but it will be the government's fault if the police crack down on us high-handedly," the KCTU added...

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While thousands of protestors took the streets today/tonight (after the S.K. gov't today announced to resume the beef import from the USA), the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMP) sent thousands of riot cops to make advertisement for its most famous(*) product:

"CHICKEN CAGE CAR TOURS"

"닭장차 투어"

Let's enjoy a free trip, organized by the SMP (from the rally place to the next prison!!)

For more details please check out:

* Well, of course the "Chicken Cage Tours" are wellknown by S.K. resistance movement - since at least 20 years..

But at the end there will be no fun anymore:

"Thousands of riot police and armored vehicles with teargas launchers were dispatched." (K.Times)

Over 100 detained after beef rallies (Korea Herald, 5.29)  
  
Over a hundred demonstrators were detained during protests against U.S. beef imports held between Tuesday night and yesterday morning in central Seoul, officials said yesterday.

Police held 113 protesters for illegal acts, including obstructing traffic. Four high school students were immediately released while the remaining 109 are being questioned in nine separate police stations in Seoul.

It was the highest number of detentions in four successive days of protests. Most of the detainees voluntarily turned themselves in so as to avoid injuries and clashes with riot police.

"Today, the demonstrators voluntarily got into the police cars after they were besieged by police, which jacked up the number of the detained," said a police officer.

Between Sunday and Wednesday, police detained 211 protesters, mostly in their 20s and 30s. Seventy-six have been released while 135 still remain in police custody, according to the police. No serious injuries were reported.

Senior Cheong Wa Dae presidential secretaries, led by presidential chief of staff Yu Woo-ik, yesterday met to draw up measures to rein in the demonstrations, which are turning increasingly violent ahead of the official notification of beef import terms, slated for later this week. The beef agreement takes effect on the date of the formal notification.

During the meeting, they reaffirmed the government's stance that the right to freedom of expression and assembly through peaceful candlelight vigils must be protected, while illegal street rallies must be sternly dealt with so as to strengthen law and order.

They also stressed that law enforcement authorities must focus on dealing with protest leaders who "strategically and collectively" orchestrate the demonstrations, while building a watertight case for their clampdown on illegal protesters.

Since May 2, police have been investigating the leaders of five civic groups that organized the candlelight vigils in protest against the April beef deal with the United States.

Jongno Police Station has ordered 10 leaders of the groups to appear for questioning by June 2 on charges of violating the Law on Assembly and Demonstration. Police are also considering seeking arrest warrants if they refuse to respond. No formal arrest warrants against any of the protesters have been sought yet by the police.

On Tuesday night, about 2,000 citizens took part in a candlelight vigil in Cheonggye Plaza in central Seoul, demanding the government either scrap the import deal with the United States or renegotiate it.

About 1,500 started marching onto the streets near Seoul City Hall and other major areas in central Seoul at around 9:15 p.m., causing serious traffic snarl-ups. They chanted slogans, calling for the release of the detained protesters and the nullification of the import deal.

Residents of many other cities also took part in candlelight vigils yesterday, including 900 in Busan and 300 in Ulsan.

Related stuff

☞ 안국역 부근서 5천여명 행진中 (통일뉴스, 2.29)

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Welcome to the "newborn"..

If everything is going well in the coming hours (*), the Nepali CA will proclaim tonight the Pepublic of Nepal!! Already since yesterday afternoon the people in Nepal, especially thousands in Kathmandu are celebrating the end of the 240-years old feudal dictatorship by the Nepali Kingdom.

Well, of course it's (after almost 15 years of fierce struggle, especially by the CPN-M/PLA, against the monarchy) just the beginning of a long, long way toward to a (hopefully) real democratic society with a maximum of justice for the majority of the "ordinary" (i.e. the oppressed and exploited) Nepali people!!

But, in my opinion, without international solidarity... Well, I think you know what I mean!!

* Finally in the late night it became reality, as NepalNews reported:

Nepal becomes a Federal Democratic Republic

The historic first meeting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) has endorsed a proposal to amend the interim constitution implementing the declaration of Nepal as a federal democratic republic.

The officiating chairman of the CA, Kul Bahadur Gurung said that of the 564 CA members who took part in the voting on the proposal, 560 voted in its favour while four members voted against it.

The motion for implementing the republic declaration was introduced by the government.

Home Minister Krishna Sitaula introduced the proposal as per the Article 159 of the Interim Constitution, which was put for voting.

Following the voting result, the CA also approved a proposal stating that the King should vacate the Narayanhity royal palace within 15 days.

The proposal states that the King will lose all perks and privileges except his rights as a common citizen. The Narayanhity royal palace will be turned into a national museum or used in national interest as deemed necessary by the government, the proposal adds.

The CA meeting had started after 9 pm on Wednesday night at Birendra International Convention Center (BICC).

Earlier in the day, the major parties including Nepali Congress (NC), Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) and the Maoists had agreed to introduce a proposal to implement republic at the CA. They also agreed to establish constitutional president and executive prime minister and bring about necessary changes in the interim constitution for this purpose.

“The president will be the commander in chief of the national army. He will act as per the recommendation of the Prime Minister. He will be authorised to declare emergency in accordance with the cabinet decision,” said NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi.

He added that president will be elected by the CA and details about his election process will be worked out and incorporated in another amendment proposal soon.

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Since almost two weeks pogroms against immigrants/migrant workers from countries like Zimbabwe, Malawi, Rwanda, Congo, Somalia.. are hitting the townships of several South African cities, such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban etc. Until now at least 50 "foreigners" were killed and more than 50,000 had to flee their homes (photos and reports by the int'l media about it, please see below).

But last Saturday - and that's the good news - thousands of anti-capitalist activists took the streets of Johannesburg to protest against pogroms. The demonstration was organized by the Anti Privatisation Forum (APF) together with a large coalition of resistance organisations, while the "progressive" ANC - from the 1950s until the 90s in the struggle against apartheid state, but now the "ruling power" in the RSA - advised their members not to participate on the demo, because "it's organized by left-radical forces".

But here comes the very bad news: In Rustenberg, north-west of J'burg, according to the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, the next wave of pogroms is likely in preparation. Since few days leaflets are circulating calling on migrant workers, who are employed in the platinum mines there, to "leave the country immediately!"..

Following you can read APF's Statement on the "Anti Xenophobia March" in Johannesburg on last Saturday (5.24):

 
The Anti Privatisation Forum with the Social Movements Indaba and a large coalition of organisations marched on Saturday 24 May 2008 against xenophobia and hate, through the inner city of Johannesburg to the Gauteng Legislature to submit a memorandum to government. The public responded to the call from the Coalition Against Xenophobia in a colourful demonstration for the inclusion of foreigners in our communities. Over 5000 people marched despite SMS messages circulated in ANC circles discouraging participation in a march organised by the 'ultra left'. Well, thanks then to the ultra left for mobilising communities and concerned residents of Johannesburg against the insidious hatred bred by poverty, developing links with immigrant communities and being clear about why we are poor.

Fears are patrolling our freedom and already determine with who or what South Africans associate with. It is regrettable that the APF can report that the buses from its affiliates in Atteridgeville and Shoshanguve had to be cancelled for threatened reprisals. Buses and taxis from other townships did otherwise arrive for the march unhindered. For APF comrades, this was a march unlike any other at its start at the Pieter Roos Park below Constitutional Hill, the Minister of Public Service and Administration, assumed the platform to number herself among the 'we Africans united against the scourge of hatred'; one demonstrator at the march held a placard professing ‘Free markets/Free Immigration/Free South Africa’. Nonetheless, the vast majority of the marchers were agreed that the government’s consistent failure to deliver adequate basic services to poor communities, combined with macro-economic policies that have benefited corporate capital/the rich, are a large part of what is behind the explosion of xenophobia and hatred amongst the poor who live in this country. The memorandum addressed to Premier Mbazima Shilowa as well as the Departments of Housing and Home Affairs calls on the "South African government to acknowledge its role in the crisis, and to assume responsibility for providing solutions to the problems that speak to the root causes of the problem." This would include, the memorandum stated, the suspension of "the neo-liberal macro-economic policy approach."

While the government will be hard-headed in its insistence on finding a criminal motivation to the xenophobic attacks, the demands submitted to government are unlikely to be met. What the demonstration did achieve was an affirmation of African working class unity and to break the spell of tension that has been stalking Johannesburg streets for the last two weeks. Residents of Hillbrow and the inner city cheered the march from their balconies as is it proceeded down Claim and Pritchard streets. The loudest cheer en route to the Gauteng legislature came from the predominately Zimbabwean refugees at the Central Methodist Church. Immigrants taking refuge at the church had prepared to come to the march but their busses to the starting point had been delayed. Banners they had prepared the evening before were as critical of government's policies as the Coalition's memorandum: 'Mr Mbeki: is this what you call quiet diplomacy.' Incensed by the xenophobic coverage in the South African press, particularly the Daily Sun tabloid, another wit declared, 'Aliens are what you find on Pluto'.

Amongst the speakers on the march was a representative from the Refugee Fellowship based at the Central Methodist Church. Representatives of the Zimbabwean, Congolese, Cameroonian, Ethiopian, Mozambican, Somali and Nigerian immigrant communities also had opportunities to speak, all welcoming the solidarity demonstration. As government continues to treat the xenophobia as a criminal phenomenon, they have very little faith that the police will do anything to solve the problem. The South African police violently raided the Central Methodist Church in January this year, brutalising the desperate people sleeping on floors there. How can the police be trusted to find a solution to xenophobia when so many of them are confirmed xenophobes, relating to foreigners as cash machines? When the Remmoho Women's Group visited Alexandra police station on Tuesday, 20th May, refugees there spoke of harassment by members of the police force.

The solution to xenophobia is for 'the enemy at home' to be targeted by our organisation and our action. These enemies are not foreign immigrants but the corporate and government elites who commodify our basic resources, retrench workers, casualise employment, profit-gouge on basic necessities most crucial to the poor and engage in double-speak when it comes to treating all who live in South Africa with fairness, equality, and humanness. Treating xenophobic South Africans only as criminals reminds the APF of government's criminalisation of our members who protest for basic services. Both xenophobia and service delivery protests will not go away unless those with political and socio-economic power listen to the poor, unless social development involves people and is not conceived as a benefit trickling down from investments. With the upsurge in violence, the ANC government must, with all urgency, acknowledge that the time to start back-pedalling on its failed policies and arrogant political ‘rule’ is NOW!.

No-one is illegal!

☞ [5.24] Anti Xenophobia Coalition March (pictures/사진)

☞ APF

☞ South Africa IMC

*****

☞ Hunted by gangs, migrants flee the flames (Guardian, 5.24)

☞ Thousands flee South Africa attacks (al-Jazeera, 5.26)

☞ Is this the end of the Rainbow nation? (The Observer, 5.25)

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"The government is going backwards to the military junta era, a dictatorship, to oppress our democratic ways of expressing ideas!'' a young participant in yesterday's candlelit vigil said, while the S.K. gov't is threatening with a new wave of..

 STATE TERROR

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Police detain 37 beef protesters (Korea Herald, 5.25) 
 

Police detained 37 protesters Saturday in their first crackdown on candlelight vigils against U.S. beef imports.

* Rationalization Or Massacre? (Korea Times)

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Well, it seems that the Lee Myung-bak gov't is now preparing for a final and fatal (especially for the MTU) blow against un-documented migrant workers in S. Korea!

Yesterday's Korea Times published following article:

9,000 Illegal Foreign Workers Face Deportation
 

About 9,000 illegal foreign workers, about 4.4 percent of the total, are expected to face deportation this year as the government is waging a campaign to arrest "unregistered aliens.''

The campaign against these workers has been stepped up since the Lee Myung-bak administration was launched in February.

President Lee told the labor minister in March that he does not want "illegal foreign workers to stay in the country'' and that the government should come up with countermeasures.

Civic groups expressed concern that government officials, concerned only about numbers, may try too hard and cause injury or other human rights infringement during their searches.

Anxiety among foreign workers is higher than ever, especially after two were severely injured while leaping from the third floor of a building in Maseok, Gyeonggi Province, to avoid a crackdown last November, they said.

Officials of the immigration offices nationwide have been given a quota for the number of illegal residents they should arrest _ for Seoul 600 and Busan, 250. The total quota is made up of 3,000 per month from May to the end of July _ no quota has bee set beyond that.

The immigration office said it was not an order from the top but was made from the bottom. He said staff wrote the number they could handle and the central government just approved it. "The quota will raise efficiency in the crackdown,'' an immigration office official said.

Some illegal sojourners have committed crimes here and these incidents have spawned negative sentiment against these guest workers. A Seoul professor said negative sentiment against illegal workers appears to be growing as the economy is slowing down and the job market gets tighter.

There are cases of immigration officials raiding churches, while some often turn up at workplaces and arrest unregistered people without giving notice to the owner of the facility or bringing legitimate warrants.

Lee Jeong-won, outreach and public relations director of the Migrants' Trade Union, said the officials violation of human rights has been a problem for many and the quota has made many overstaying foreigners nervous.

The Justice Ministry last Thursday deported two of the union's leaders - Toran Limbu of Nepal and Abdus Sabur of Bangladesh.

"It shows clearly that the government has set its mind to get tough against us. The quota just proves what they are thinking,'' Lee said. She said the union is planning to hold a protest against the crackdown on May 25...

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/05/117_24540.html

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And only three hours later

Street Vendors Will Join Candlelight Vigil! (*)

Just yesterday Korea Times published an article related to the issue of the permanent repression of street vendors:

Conflicts Between Seoul City, Street Vendors Resurface
 

Seoul city's plan to clear the streets of venders hit a snag after video clips of the brutal beating of a female vender in her 60s, by a young security guard hired by the city, were released on the Internet.

The street vender of "kimbab,'' or rice rolled with dry seaweed, was brutally beaten. She is seen barely able to sit up, wiping blood from her lips in a UCC posted on Web sites. It is titled "Violence Against Grandmother Selling kimbab.''

The incident took place last Saturday in central Seoul where tens of thousands of citizens flocked to oppose the controversial U.S. beef import.

Police later learned that the assailant was one of the security guards mobilized by Seoul city government to run the candlelit vigil smoothly. Police summoned the 23-year-old to question him over his motivation for the attack.

The Self-Employed Workers' Association, an association for street venders, Tuesday urged the government to clamp down on still rampant security guards' assaults against them. "The assault on the kimbap grandma is just the tip of the iceberg,'' it said in a statement.

In fact, the conflict between street retailers and mobilized guards is not new. Such violence has long been witnessed on kiosk-packed streets. The government and police are also well aware of the existence of violence in the "clean-up'' campaign. But the problem is the authorities even plot and wink at such violent incidents in many cases, the association said.

According to the association, 400 security guards hired by Gwangmyeong city government forcibly dismantled numerous street shops in the city's downtown on April 3. Most affected shops were run by those in their 60s or older. Though it was conceived that the shop runners were feeble enough, the guards pushed them down and even kicked them, leaving two with bone fractures.

"Most guards are gangsters or convicted criminals,'' said Shin Hee-chul, 32, a kiosk runner in northern Seoul. "They are paid around 50,000 won up to 100,000 won in exchange for clearing a requested district.''

The so-called "Security Guards" at "work".. 

..attacking/terrorizing street vendors (Uijeongbu, 2004)

Police are too lenient toward them. "Some of them are arrested on charges of doing overdue violence but they are soon freed,'' Shin said.(**)

A police officer said "Of course, we question them when the need arises. Most of them committed only minor violations.''

Shin stressed this conflict between street venders and security guards would continue unless the government legalize street shops.

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/05/117_24489.html

** Bullshit!! Usually they are backed, sometimes even supported by massive presence of riot cops!!

Related articles:

☞ Uijeongbu's Street Vendors are Fighting Back (2004)

☞ Street Vendors' Struggle.. (2007)

☞ 2003.11.30: The Cheonggyecheon Battle

*****

* Reports about y'day's event (updated 5.23):

☞ "대국민담화? 대국민염장지르기!" (통일뉴스, 5.22)

☞ [5.22] 촛불문화제 ("다함께", 5.23)

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Yesterday "His Holiness", the "Dalai Lama" - aka the "GodKing" - finished his 33rd visit (in the last 30 years!!) in Germany(*).

And everywhere, where he was asked about the "Tibetan Future" he said that he only wants "real autonomy" for his "HomeLand"..

Short before his visit in Germany he gave a interview to the German leading (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel(5.12), were he concretized what he really means: "The Dalai Lama has called for extensive autonomy for a Greater Tibet, which includes both the current Autonomous Region and large parts of the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan, or close to a quarter of the landmass of the People's Republic" (**).

Yesterday Professor E. Sandschneider (German Council on Foreign Relations/DGAP, a conservative bourgeois, but "serious" think tank) said in a interview with the German Phoenix TV  that "Abviously the Dalai Lama is demanding religious and cultural autonomy for Tibet. But in fact, sooner or later they will demand the complete independence from China for 'Greater Tibet'."

Well, always the "Dalai Lama" is welcoming the (technically and economically) development in Tibet by China.. But what will be happen when the Dalai Lama has the opinion that's now enough with development (Made in China)..?

* In four cities he held lectures in front of about 20,000 people. Alone in the Bavarian city Bamberg he (or his office, the so-called "Tibetan Gov't in Exile") collected at least 250,000 Euro (300,000,000 won) as entrance fee...
The topic of the lectures: "Human Rights and Globalization". But finally content of the lectures was complete "empty", so every-one of the audience - green "alternatives", extreme right-wing "human-right" activists, parts of the ruling (bourgeois) class - were able to agree totally with "His Holiness's" explanations, according to a regional independent news service in Bavaria.

The "GodKing's" last station in Germany was a "Solidarity Rally" yesterday afternoon in Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The motto of the rally: "Freedom! Germany for Tibet. Tibet for the World".. And 20,000 friends of the Tibetan independence/fans of the "Dalai Lama"/part-time buddhists joined the event and celebrated his performance.. Of course also there his speech was so empty that every-one could agree with him: "Peace, peace and once again peace!!!"

** The population of this provinces: about 150,000,000 people (among the Han majority many other "national" minorities, such as Hui, Miao, Yi..)! But there are "only" 6 Million Tibetans in this area!!

☞ 'I Pray for China's Leadership' (Spiegel/interview, 5.12)

☞ Romantik und Realität (Tagesspiegel, 5.19)

☞ In Deutschland wird der Dalai Lama zum Popstar (Die Welt, 5.18)

☞ Wolkenkuckucksheim am Himalaya (Jungle World, 5.15)

☞ Besetzt oder befreit? (J. Welt, 5.17)

☞ It was no Shangri-La (Workers World News Service)