CINA

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Solidarity With the Struggle of Migrant Workers in S.K.!

Agit-prop Rally/Candlelight Vigil in Seoul

Tomorrow(Wed.), 7 p.m., Daerim Stn.(subway line no. 2), exit no. 12

!!'불법'사람은 없다!!

For more info please check out:
☞ 12/9 단속반대 액션 공지!!

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A Great Idea, But Possibly Moribund...

Once upon a time there was a bunch of Swedish yuppie/"entrepreneurs" and they had the f*cking great idea how to make some easy money combined with "a touch of adventure".

And they found a simple and "brilliant" way:

"(Female) slave laborers in Pyongyang will produce for us jeans (our brand name: NOKO Jeans) and we will sell the first-ever jeans 'Made in D.P.R.K.' (where the 'Dear Leader' strictly forbids the wearing of jeans, i.e. the U.S. imperialist shit... But that's not our problem!!^^) in the luxery and trendy PUB department store in central Stockholm for at least 150 euro ($220, equivalent to several annual income of an ordinary N.K. worker... But that's also not our problem!!^^)"

While until y'day all went well... quite suddenly - last night - PUB department store found out that NOKO Jeans were/are produced in the world's last "Gulag"...

And so, today in the morning PUB department store cancels sale of Swedish jeans made in N.Korea...

For more backgrounds and recent developments about that idiotic story please check out: 

☞ N. Korea's first designer jeans on sale in Sweden (Reuters, 12.01)

☞ Swedish firm launches jeans 'made in North Korea' (The Independent, 12.04)

☞ From a Land Without Jeans, Denim Diplomacy (NYT, 12.05)

☞ Swedish store cancels sale of N.Korea-made jeans (Global Times, 12.07)

☞ Dep't store cancels sale of jeans made in N.K. (Independent, 12.07)

☞ Warenhaus stoppt Verkauf nordkoreanischer Jeans (Spiegel, 12.07)

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After the KRWU Strike:

The Ruling Class Seeks for Revenge!

Ever since the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) called a "temporary" end to its strike, the KORAIL capitalists, the Lee administration and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) have been speeding up their suppression of unions. Undoubtedly police and prosecutors will be acting quickly with their investigation of the KRWU leadership.

Ever since the KRWU called off its strike, members of the Lee gov't have been acting like the victors in some war. The GNP, in particular, has not held back. At a meeting of ruling party officials last Friday, there was an outpouring of remarks about how the KRWU had raised a white flag, that those responsible for the strike must be held civilly and criminally liable...

The prosecution is seeking the arrest of union leader Kim Ki-tae and 15 other key members, on whom the court earlier issued a warrant.
"Though the strike ended, we will act upon legal principles and continue the investigation on those who are responsible for it," said a prosecution official last Friday.
A total of 197 union members, including Kim, were indicted over the strike and 884 were dismissed, Korea Herald reported y'day.

"At this point, it looks as if they want to bring not just the KRWU but also the entire labour movement utterly to its knees" The Hankyoreh (12.05) fears and outlines the possible Next steps for the KCTU.

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Just (four hours ago) Yonhap reported following:

Rail unionists call off strike

The embattled union of Korea Railroad (KORAIL) called off its longest-ever strike Thursday after severely crippling the nation's rail services for eight days.

The KORAIL union called a news conference Thursday evening to announce that its striking members will immediately return to work "in order to prepare for a fresh struggle against the government and the KORAIL management."

The union then urged the management to resume dialogue in a "faithful and reasonable" manner.

Related reports:
☞ Rail unionists set to call off strike: officials (K. Herald)

☞ KRWU shifts tactics and returns to work (Hankyoreh)

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Today is the 7th day of the Railway Workers Strike in S. Korea. According to K. Times "it has already become the longest strike waged by the union".

But meanwhile the gov't does it's utmost(^^) to escalete the situation!

Already yesterday it declared:

"THE STRIKE IS ILLEGAL!"

 
At the same time dozens of cops raided the head quarter of the KRWU in Seoul's Yongsan District to arrest union activists (on charges of "masterminding an nationwide illegal strike and disrupting Korail operations") and confiscated "incriminating evidence", incl. the unions computers. The cops also formed a special division to hunt the "leaders behind the strike" and set out to locate 15 executive members of the KRWU for whom arrest warrants have been issued, incl. Kim Ki-tae, the chairperson of the union.

But the efforts by the gov't are confronted with resistance!

While about 5,000 workers rallied in Seoul/Yeouido today afternoon, calling for the government and KORAIL to stop oppressing legitimate labor activities...

...many representatives of different civic groups gathered at the same time in front of the Central Gov't Complex in downtown Seoul (near Gwanghwamun) and called for the termination of the government's crackdown on KRWU.

But while, according to JoongAng Ilbo, KRWU publicly asked today for negotiations or talks with the KORAIL management without “preconditions”, ultimately KORAIL CEO Hu Joon-yeong, a former national police chief, reaffirmed his hard-line policy, saying the management is not going to give in to current demands by the KRWU.

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Solidarity With the Struggle of Migrant Workers in S.K.!

Agit-prop Rally/Candlelight Vigil in Seoul

Tomorrow(Wed.), 7 p.m., Ttukseom Stn.(subway line no. 2), exit no. 4

!!'불법'사람은 없다!!

For more info please check out:
☞ 12/2 단속반대 액션 공지!!