CINA

본문

[7.29] KCTU's Solidarity Demo in Pyeongtaek

Produced by Video Activist comrade "Hong Gil-dong.."

A collection of photos from the same "event" you can see here!


 

본문

 
Is a "Victory" for the Striking Workers Within Reach?

Today in the morning(CET) al-Jazeera reported that Talks on to end SsangYong strike were resumed..
And just a short while ago Korea Times wrote that a Breakthrough Expected in Ssangyong Negotiations... 

Related articles:

☞ Ssangyong workers and managers sit down to talk (JoongAng Ilbo)
☞ Ssangyong Motors management and labor resume negotiations (Hankyoreh)

본문

1. Today's (bourgeois) Korea Times has following depressing report about the current horrible situation(I presumed such a development already one week ago!!) - caused by special warfare, conducted by the cops since almost 10 days - in the occupied SsangYong plant:

Ssangyong Motor Factory Turning Into 'Refugee Camp' 
 

The fired workers, who have occupied the paint shop of a Ssangyong Motor factory for 68 days, are living in a dismal conditions as they have been denied water and food for about a week.

Visitors to the building, including doctors and medical staff said the situation will turn worse as dozens are already injured and around 10 occupants are suffering from depression.

"It's like a refugee camp," said Baek Nam-joon, a member of a humanitarian doctors' association. "Protesters have been living in a hell-like environment."

Baek said a sour, acid smell is lingering inside the building following days of tear-gas spraying by police helicopters.

"It was hard to breathe," he said. Many of them are exposed to dehydration as drinking water was drying up. Doctors estimated that 200 were injured.

"Six of them need an immediate surgery or medical care. Many have severe injuries, including broken ribs or joints incurred during clashes with riot police."

According to Baek, they are given one or two rice balls per day. "Toilets are in dismal condition as the water supply has been cut off."

Hundreds of protesters have complained of a lack of sleep, he said.

"They sleep just two or three hours a day as police helicopters above the building generate unbearable noise."

Lee Chang-geun, spokesman for the unionized protesters, said noise from helicopters and speakers installed nearby the building was adding to the terrible conditions. "We have no food, no water and no sleep."

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/07/113_49306.html

 
2. Today KCTU's solidarity demo (for the SsangYong strike) took place in Pyeongtaek. About 3,000 activists demanded first and foremost humanitarian aid for the besieged strikers...

...but (surprise, surprise!!) they were attacked by large units of riot cops, using water cannons and "tear gas bombs" dropped from helicopters.

본문

International Solidarity!!

Protest rallies in front of S.K. embassies/consulates:
6.28: Tokyo, 7.24: Bratislava/Slovakia, 7.27: HongKong, 7.28: San Francisco/USA

For more information from the "frontline" in S.K., please check out LabourStart!

본문

MUST SEE! Video activist comrade "Hong Gil-dong.." released y'day two impressive documentaries about Saturday's Nat'l Workers Rally in Pyeongtaek.
You can watch them here and here (video #1: the opening rally near Pyeongtaek Stn., video #2: the demo to the SsangYong plant and the following confrontation with the riot cops)!

From today's Hankyoreh:

Water as a weapon

The police shoot a water cannon at members of Korea Confederation of Trade Unions

for attempting to deliver water to Ssangyong Motors union members near the

automaker’s plant in Pyongtaek City in Gyeonggi Province, July 25.

And last but not least.. KCTU's next plan to support the SsangYong Strike:

(Update) Latest news from Korea Times: "Laid-off union members of Ssangyong Motor said Monday they are open to talks with management to end their occupation of a building in the company's factory in Pyeongtaek..
The remarks came two days after management refused to hold talks. Ssangyong executives are far from positive about the proposal, saying it was a union tactic to buy time and take the upper hand in negotiations."

Finally - the struggle goes on!! 

본문

Some beautiful impressions from yesterday's National Workers Rally, organized by KCTU. In the afternoon at least 7,000 workers, progressive political and resistance activists gathered in downtown Pyeongtaek to demonstrate their solidarity with the SsangYong Strike(*):

* But "of course" it wasn't so peaceful all the time! After the rally ended hundreds of activists wanted to deliver food and water (humanitarian aid!!) to the besieged strikers but were confronted and attacked by approx. 9,000 riot cops, using water cannons and "tear gas bombs"(according to Yonhap), as you can see/read in the following reports:   I☞ VoP    I☞ cMedia    I☞ NewsCham

본문

1. Struggle News #9 is "on air" since Wed., 7.22 (the 'script' you can read here)!

2. Tomorrow's National Workers Demo in Pyeongtaek, organized by KCTU:

SOLIDARITY WITH THE SSANGYONG STRIKE!!

3. Alleged negotiations:
"Ssangyong Union, Management to Meet Tomorrow", according to Korea Times(7.24)...

Latest news from the "battlefield":

☞ [쌍용차24일 20:35]잠시 소강, 용역버스 9대 대기 중 (미디어충청)

☞ 공권력투입 닷새째...경찰진압 격화 '전쟁터'노동과세계 (KCTU)

Update (7.25):
Today's Yonhap News: "Ssangyong Motor Co. refused Saturday to hold talks with laid-off workers occupying part of the company's sole assembly plant..."

4. Last night at the frontline (SsangYong plant, the occupied paint shop):

본문

THE FINAL(??) BATTLE #4

The bourgeois Korea Times about today's situation on the frontline:

Police Move Closer to Removing Ssangyong Motor Strikers 
 

"If you don't talk, just kill all of us!," reads a banner hung by laid-off unionized workers at the paint shop inside the factory of Ssangyong Motor in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, indicating they will not give in as confrontation with police at the plant continued for a fourth day, Thursday.

Riot police are getting closer to the paint shop, taking over facilities one by one from the resisting union members. They approached to within 50 meters of the building, with dozens of policemen and protesters injured during the clashes.

Police are considering using forklifts and other heavy machinery to remove tires and all other barricades the laid-off workers have stacked in front of the building.

Protesters occupying the paint shop continued to fire bolts and sharp metal pieces from huge slingshots. (*)

In response, police have cut off water and food supplies and make noise all night long to keep them from sleeping. (**)

Helicopters sprayed liquid tear gas onto protesters on top of the building from the morning and huge speakers installed near the building blared messages calling on them to leave.

According to eyewitnesses, a growing number of protesters have been left exhausted since food and water supplies were suspended last Thursday. Some are reportedly suffering from depression. Those injured have received no medical treatment because of a lack of medicine inside the building, a family member said.

She added that the 600 remaining in the building have been eating only one or two rice balls a day...

Ssangyong Motor said Thursday that five unionized workers have left the paint shop on their own over the last three days. It said a total of 30 people have been injured in clashes, including 12 policemen, 14 employees and five union members.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/07/117_48978.html

For more information (an enormous collection of articles!!) about the class struggle in S. Korea please check out LabourStart (repeatedly daily updated!)!

* It's just self-defense!
** And that's just (police) TERROR!!

Since y'day the cops are also using taser guns, aka electroshock weapon:

The taser gun "ammunition":

Related article:
☞ 경찰이 ‘화살총’으로 추정되는 것 쏴 (미디어충청, 7.22)

And last but not least: according to (unconfirmed!!) reports the cops are planning to use "sleeping gas" against the striking/occupying workers to break their resistance and to end the struggle..

But - finally - the struggle goes on!!

본문

THE FINAL(??) BATTLE #3

Following the latest on-site developments:

1. The occupation of the paintshop is still going on!
2. The riot cops are still trying to figure out how to seize it..

At the same time (some parts of the) KCTU executed today a "general strike" (KCTU's press release for the strike you can read here): In the afternoon thousands of automobile and steel industry workers gathered in downtown Pyeongtaek and later clashed with large units of the riot cops while they wanted to march in the direction of the SsangYong plant.

Simultaneously medical workers wanted to deliver meds and water to the striking workers..

..but they just were arrested by the cops!

Finally let's have a closer look at the activities of the opposite side, i.e. the riot cops etc.:

Right now 5,000 riot cops and SWAT/anti-terror units are on the ground, ready to terminate the strike/occupation!

Korea Times reported today following:
Police confronted union workers inside the factory of Ssangyong Motor in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, for a third day, Wednesday.
They brought steel containers into the factory in an apparent move to secure bases from whch they can carry out raids on the striking workers who are firing steel nuts and metal from slingshots.
Taking over two buildings seized by the protesters Tuesday night, riot police encircled a storage building nearby. It has been used as one of the union's strongholds.
Police have taken control of all buildings other than the paint shop inside which striking workers have access to 33,000 liters of inflammatory material.
"After gaining control of other buildings, we will take action to disperse protesters in the paint shop," a senior police officer on the scene said.

But while the S.K. bourgeois media is lamenting that the striking workers are using slingshots the mobsters, once again hired by the SYM management and collaborating with the cops are using (surprise, surprise) SLINGSHOTS:

Here the mobsters(with the white helmets), together with riot cops are knocking down a captured striker(X = a steel rod):

And since y'day police helicopters are attacking the occupied paintshop with liquid tear gas:

And last but not least.. the food embargo becomes more and more "effective"(y'day's dinner for the striking workers):

But - finally - the struggle goes on!!

본문

THE FINAL(??) BATTLE #2

Today the situation in the embattled SsangYong Motor(SYM) plant in Pyeongtaek was relative "calm" (compared to yesterday's battle)...

 
Only "minor" clashes between the riot cops and the striking workers took place:

But nonetheless the current situation for the striking workers is very serious!
While yesterday about 3000 riot cops "liberated" almost the entire SYM plant, the paintshop, the factory's largest building, is still occupied by at least 800 strikers.

Now some, incl. the S.K. bourgeois media, are assuming an imminent attack by the riot cops'(more than 1,700 are still there) special forces. Just few hours ago(KST), at nightfall, some of them tried to approach...

But while a defense of the occupied paintshop is comparatively "relative easy" another scenario is much more dangerous:
Since last week any medical and food supply to the striking workers is blocked by the cops (as a result of the demand by the SYM mangement and an approval by the court).

Since last week: NK/prison style "dinner" for the striking workers

Now, since almost the entire factory is "liberated" the striking workers can be "strangulate" more "effectively"! Just call it a planned famishment!!
And additionally since y'day they were cut off from water, electricity and gas!

But - finally - the struggle will go on!!