CINA

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<행사개요>   

12시. <사전마당> 열린참여마당
-추모사업회 : 열사평전마당(평전, 백서, 추모곡CD 등 전시판매) - 10여단위
                         열사이야기마당(열사에게 다짐하는 글남기기) - 논의 중
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*열사추모 및 투쟁영상 상영 : 본 무대 LED영상

3시30분. <길놀이> : 풍물패

3시50분. <집단 분향>

4시. <영상> 

4시10분. <본 문화제>
-민중의례 / 내외빈 소개
-여는말 (추모연대 의장)
-추모춤 (춤꾼 이삼헌과 몸짓패 들꽃의 연합공연)
-유족발언 (유가협 회장)
-추모공연 (류금신 / 박준)
-추모 및 투쟁발언 : 쌍용투쟁 희생자 추모 및 투쟁발언
                                   고 서정민강사 추모 및 투쟁발언
-추모공연 (장애인노래패 시선)
-추모 및 투쟁발언 : 고 문수스님 추모 및 4대강 투쟁발언)
-추모공연 (전국철거민연합)
-추모시 낭독 : 용산관련 유족 자녀
-추모공연 (수도권추모사업회)
-추모공연 (풍물패 터울림)
-추모공연 (문예팀 합창)
-추모공연 (노래공장, 지민주, 꽃다지)
-추모공연 (문예팀 합창‘누가나에게 이길을 가라하지 않았네’)
-편지글 낭독 : 추모사업회 (열사에게 다짐하는 글)
-참가자 다함께 노래‘함께가자 우리 이길을’
 

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People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) sent a letter, raising suspicions about the cause of the Cheonan sinking to the U.N.S.C. - and S. Korea's "rulers" and their supporters are really pissed off...

Here the latest developments in regard to PSPD's letter:

Today: During a parliamentary session S.K.'s prime minister Chung Un-chan called PSPD's letter questioning the U.N. over investigations into the sinking the Cheonan warship “an act against the nation,” forewarning punishments against the largest left-leaning group...

Tuesday: Members of war veterans’ groups (i.e. f*cking old reactionaries!!) clash with police

while trying to storm the offices of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy in downtown

Seoul. The veterans were angry about the group’s letter to the UN disputing the government’s

investigation of the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan warship.

Wednesday: F*cking old ractionaries "protesting" in front of PSPD's office...

Conservatives blast PSPD (Hankyoreh cartoon, 6.16)

Prime Minister Chung Un-chan, a public prosecutor and a representative of the conservative media jointly blow vuvuzelas, a long-standing tradition in South Africa’s football history, at a member of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD). The vuvuzela is labeled “redbaiting.”
   The PSPD member is taken aback at the collective “aeng!” coming from the vuvuzelas and covers his ears. In his pocket, there is the letter to the member nations of the UN Security Council.
   Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak stands alone and blows a Vuvuzela labeled “The enforcement of Four Major Rivers Restoration Project,” seemingly caught up in his own world.
   Prior to the joint civilian-military investigation team’s briefing at the UN Security Council on the sinking of the Cheonan on June 14, the PSPD submitted a letter to the U.N. highlighting contentious aspects of the investigation’s findings on June 10.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_entertainment/425908.html

Related articles:
☞ Which country do you belong to? (Hankyoreh, 6.16)
☞ Legal sanctions against PSPD unlikely (K. Times, 6.16)
☞ South Korean "NGOs" Attack PSPD (DailyNK, 6.16)
☞ A question of loyalty (JoongAng Ilbo, 6.17)
☞ Chung blasts group for Cheonan letter (K. Herald, 6.17)

Updated news report:

☞ Far-right groups launch violent protests against PSPD (Hankyoreh, 6.18)

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Korea Times(6.14) published the following report:

Migrant workers struggle for overdue wages

A tranquil afternoon at an industrial district in Anyang, a satellite city on the outskirts of Seoul, was shattered last Monday by a group of protesters demanding the payment of overdue wages for a Bangladeshi worker.

Migrant workers and activists stage a rally in front of a factory accused of frequent delays

in wage payments to its foreign employees in this photo taken by the MTU earlier this month.

"Pay outstanding wages," the protesters yelled in front of a paper-coating factory where the Bangladeshi, surnamed Hussein, worked until recently. Hussein has overstayed his visa so he could be deported if caught by immigration officials.

Despite the risk, the 32-year-old held the rally to receive 4.5 million won ($3,650) in overdue wages, his pay for August to December 2008.

"The employer transferred ownership of the company to his son-in-law and claimed he had no money to pay the unpaid salary," said Chung Yong-sup, a protester and spokesman for the Migrants' Trade Union(MTU).

In April last year, the employer promised to pay the wages by September as ordered by the Ministry of Labor but it was an empty promise, Chung said.

Pressured by the rally and mounting criticism in the neighborhood, the new owner, the son-in-law, promised to settle the problem by November. "We will keep watching how the owner deals with this issue," the activist said.

It was the second rally of this kind by the union this month alone - the first rally held last Saturday in Paju, a city near North Korea where scores of small and mid-sized factories are located.

As the number of migrant laborers has rapidly increased in recent years, so has the number of those struggling with unpaid wages.

There are approximately 500,000 migrant workers here who mostly work in the manufacturing, construction and agriculture industries. Nearly 10 percent of them overstay their visa, thus their presence here is illegal.

Foreign envoys and the international community have urged the Korean government to take tougher action against employers "maliciously" delaying salary payments.

Vulnerable to exploitation

Yet, no significant improvement has been made. In 2008 alone, 6,849 migrant workers filed complaints with the labor ministry over delayed wage payments for unclear reasons, up from 2,249 cases in 2007, statistics show.

By June last year, 4,659 complaints of this kind had been lodged ― from the latest data available ― indicating a worsening situation.

The amount of unpaid salaries has soared - 4.4 billion won in 2006, 17.3 billion in 2008 and 12.1 billion won for the first six months of last year. The vast majority of affected workers are Chinese, followed by Vietnamese and Filipinos, statistics show.

"Migrant workers overstaying visa are particularly vulnerable to this issue because of their illegal status here," said Rep. Park Dae-hae of the ruling Grand National Party, who made public the statistics. "It's urgent to establish an independent body to deal with the issue regardless of the residential status of the affected workers."

With regard to the growing problem, human rights watchdog Amnesty International issued a report last October elaborating working conditions facing migrant workers here, and called on the Seoul government to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers through rigorous labor inspections. In February, envoys from major manpower exporting states to South Korea called for tougher state action for the advancement of the human rights of their citizens here.

Labor officials say they make their utmost efforts to contain the problem, but admitted putting all problematic firms on its watch-list is all but impossible.

"Those delaying wage payments in order to avoid it in the end will face criminal punishment," said Shin Dong-jin, a labor ministry official covering migrant worker-related issues.

The government runs two insurance policies - one by the state and the other by a private insurance firm, Seoul Guarantee Insurance Company - to help migrant workers get full payment before they leave the country. But critics say the compensation guaranteed by the policies is "too small to cover unpaid salary" on average.

The state insurance covers up to 7 million won, while the private one guarantees only 2 million won. In most cases, critics claim, the amount of unpaid salary for each worker is over 10 million won on average.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/06/117_67620.html

Related article:
☞ Filipinos want EPS revamped (K. Times, 6.15)

PS: The article "Filipinos want EPS revamped" says that "Workers are currently paid 856,000 won for 40 hours of work, and 928,000 won for 44 hours of work"...
Of course migrant workers don't get 856,000 won for 40 hours... They get 856,000 won as monthly income if they work 40 hours a week and monthly 928,000 won for a 44-hours week!!

 

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People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy submitted few days ago a letter raising suspicions about the cause of the Cheonan sinking(*) to the UN Security Council and the MB administration and its supporting (conservative/reactionary) media (Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo etc.) reacted - surprise, surprise!! - quite pissed off...

But (also unsurprisingly) today's Honkyoreh reported more affirmative:

Civic group takes unresolved Cheonan issues to UN

 
PSPD says the government should not submit a matter to the international community if there is still no internal consensus

Prior to the joint civilian-military investigation team’s briefing at the UN Security Council on the sinking of the Cheonan on Monday, the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) submitted a letter to the nations of the Security Council highlighting contentious aspects of the investigation’s findings. The Lee Myung-bak government has slammed the move as interference in diplomacy, while the PSPD called it a justified action by a civic group.

PSPD sent the letter on June 10 via email to Mexico, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, and the 15 member nations. The opinion statement consisted of an official PSPD letter written in English and a 27-page attachment detailing the problems with the investigation findings.

The letter, signed by PSPD Representative Lim Jong-dae, said the final investigation results into the Cheonan sinking were not announced. It also expressed concern that the response plan announced by the Lee Myung-bak administration could cause serious political and diplomatic controversy. It also conveyed hopes that the UN Security Council would make a rational and fair decision for peace on the Korean Peninsula, taking all matters into account.

The attachment, a translation of the “Cheonan Issue Report 1 and 2” released by PSPD on May 25, asks eight questions about unresolved issues in the investigation results. These included questions about insufficient explanations about the water column and cross section, and six issues regarding the investigation process.

In response to the PSPD letter, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said in a briefing Monday that he believed that the letter was an extremely regrettable action blocking diplomatic efforts currently being put forth by the government. He also said the government plans to resolutely deal with the issue, including having the joint investigation team faithfully brief the UN Security Council. Some government officials, however, slammed PSPD in more relentless terms, calling the move “traitorous” and “messing things up.”

In response, PSPD said it is a group qualified to convey opinions and statements to the UN Human Rights Committee and UN Economic and Social Council as an NGO in consultative status with the U.N. It said the Lee administration has claimed that the civic organization’s activity seeks to divides public opinion. However, PSPD said the responsibility of the Lee administration, which has taken a matter about which no internal consensus has been reached to the international community, is even greater.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/425686.html

* PSPD's "Cheonan Warship Reports" you can read here!

Related stuff:
☞ I Suppose It’s Not Treason, But It Still Stinks (Marmot's Hole, 6.15)

☞ No objections from U.N.S.C. members... (Yonhap, 6.15) 

☞ N.Korean culpability or fuzzy politics? (Hankyoreh, 6.15)
☞ NGOs Urge EU to Step Up Efforts (DailyNK, 6.15)

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While the South African (bourgeois) media celebrates the 2010 FIFA World Cup as "Explosions of Happiness", the situation for the workers who are making the World Cup possible is far off 'happiness'!

Today's Reuters reported the following from Durban:

Police clash with World Cup workers

South African police fired teargas and rubber bullets late Sunday/early Monday to chase hundreds of protesting World Cup workers out of the Moses Mabhida stadium in the coastal city of Durban.

Hundreds of riot cops armed with shotguns, tear gas guns, batons and riot shields chased the workers, who were deployed as stewards in the ground and were protesting over wages, out of the stadium where Germany had earlier beaten Australia 4-0 in their opening World Cup game.

Several workers, incl. at least one woman were injured when they were hit by rubber bullets, a witness said.

"We were mounting a peaceful protest because they were not paying us what we expected and we were surprised that the police started charging at us. They fired teargas at us," said one of the workers, Sydney Nzoli.

The around 500 workers later dispersed after police gave them a 10-minute deadline and said their grievances had to be discussed with their employers.

A police spokesman said the disturbance started after workers were paid less than they expected for their work during the match.

One worker said they were paid 190 rand ($24.50) for the day's work, instead of the 425 rand they were supposed to have been paid in terms of their contract.

Related article:
☞ Police clash with workers in first unrest (Mail&Guardian, 6.14)

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Yesterday's 'top story' in the int'l media:

USA

Taiwan

Austria

Related articles:
☞ N. Korea blasts South's loudspeakers (al-Jazeera, 6.12)
☞ N. Korea threatens to turn Seoul into 'sea of flame' (Yonhap, 6.12)


PS: The N. Korean propaganda is always emphatic about the "unique human character" of its "Korean socialism, guided by the Juche Idea and Songun Policy"...

Well, of course the renewed threat with mass murder/genocide is - possibly - a very special form of 'humanism' (^^Juche/Songun style!^^)...

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Enjoy the weekend reading!!
The following strange/interesting story has been published in today's DailyNK...

(N. Korean) Exchange Student Rebels Look Back

In August, 1962, four North Korean students studying in Bulgaria announced in a statement, "The Korean War was a North Korean war of aggression,” and “It is better to read the Bible(*) than the Collected Works of Kim Il Sung.”

The four were immediately taken by North Korean monitors, faced repatriation but barely escaped. Thereafter, they could have acquired Bulgarian citizenship but instead remained stateless. Finally, in 1991, they took South Korean citizenship. Of the four, Lee Sang Jong and Lee Jang Jik recently came to South Korea to participate in a conference held by the National Unification Advisory Council. The Daily NK met them on the 10th.

They were both born in 1936. Lee Jang Jik's father was a member of the anti-Japanese independence movement, while Lee Sang Jong's father was a tenant farmer. Thanks to their good family backgrounds, they were nominated as exchange students by their schools. After detailed inspections by the Provincial and the Central Committees of the Party, they were sent to Bulgaria at the age of 21, in 1956.

Back then, North Korea sent a number of students to the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries such as East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. "At that time, Kim Il Sung sent about 2,000 students abroad per year, including 250 students to Bulgaria," Lee Jang Jik explained. "Eastern Bloc countries also had a policy of accepting North Korean war orphans and university students as their students. I think North Korea wanted to use that policy to train cadres.”

Their less restricted access to information in Sofia allowed them to plan antiestablishment activities. This led to their criticism of North Korea's propaganda. They said they were only able to put their antiestablishment plan into action because North Korea supported the Stalinist line, while Bulgaria supported Khrushchev.

"The reason we said that we supported Bulgaria’s and Khrushchev's line was to earn the support of the Bulgarian government," Lee Sang Jong explained.

"North Korea repatriated its students in the summer of 1959, three years after the start of our studies. They gave us ideological education for a month, and that is when I came to know for certain that North Korea was a controlled society," Lee Jang Jik said.

Only 80 among the 250 students repatriated to North Korea were allowed to go back to Bulgaria. Only four of them signed up to the statement because, they explained, "North Korea's control and supervision were huge at the time. The more people participated in the statement, the bigger the risk of getting caught became."

After the release of the statement, the four of them were caught and were imprisoned in two groups. Lee Sang Jong and Lee Jang Jik succeeded in escaping from the embassy when surveillance grew loose after a month. Four days after their escape, the Bulgarian government notified North Korea that their embassy in Pyongyang would be closed if they could not guarantee freedom to the escaped students.

A month later, embassy staff nevertheless tried to escort the two students back to Pyongyang. However, Lee Sang Jong’s friends from Romania and China, who had been checking the flight to Pyongyang every day, dramatically rescued them. After the incident, official diplomatic relations between North Korea and Bulgaria were severed for eight years.

When asked to tell us about the lives of North Korean overseas diplomats and students today, Lee Jang Jik said in a trembling voice, "I really pity them.”

"It was two years ago,” he explained. “I saw a diplomat who was heading back to North Korea buying flour from a department store. North Korea must be experiencing a bad food shortage. Despite the transport costs, he was taking flour to North Korea."

Lee Sang Jong said, "North Korea has diplomatic relations with other European countries, too. But they don't have enough money, so the Bulgarian embassy acts as the 'headquarters' and manages North Korean embassies in those European countries." He added, "There are about four employees in the South Korean embassy, but North Korea has about 25 employees at its Bulgarian embassy. Including their families, it must be about 100."

About the lives of employees in the embassy, he said, "Judging by the old embassy car, they must be having a difficult time. The embassy is also selling paintings of tigers at university exhibitions."

"Collecting gifts from the Balkans and sending them home on Kim Il Sung's birthday is also an important duty for diplomats,” he added. “In early April, a North Korean plane lands in Sofia and transports the stuff back directly.”

Talking about modern exchange student life, Lee Jang Jik said, "When North Korean students have a drink at home, all they do is watch each other. They don't talk about anything because they don't trust each other.”

“However, there was an incident when two students having a drink together threw their badges of the Kims (Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il) and swore at them," he explained.

"After quite a lot of drink, they confessed that they did not believe in North Korean system too. Their biggest dissatisfaction with North Korea was that there is no freedom. They said they themselves were scared to go back."

http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk02500&num=6489

* Of course, in my opinion, the Bible is no alternative to KIS's 'Collected Works', not at all! It's just the same load of BS...

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One of today's leading stories in the morning edition of the Israeli (bourgeois) newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth:

S. Korean activists protest Peres visit

Demonstrators deface Israeli flag with palm prints stained in color of blood during president's visit to Seoul

Protesters denouncing Israeli President Shimon Peres as a "killer" rallied Thursday in the South Korean capital as Peres held talks with his counterpart Lee Myung-Bak.

 
Some 50 activists gathered outside the Israeli embassy to protest at last week's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Some defaced an Israeli flag with palm prints stained in the color of blood. Four busloads of riot police were on standby, but there were no clashes.

"We are here to denounce the Lee Myung-Bak government for welcoming the internationally criticized president," priest Choi Hun-Kook said beside a banner reading "Shimon Peres the Killer".

 
"Lift the siege on Gaza immediately," read another banner held by Choi and his colleagues...

The visit has become controversial since Israel's raid that killed nine Turkish activists and sparked worldwide condemnation...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3903081,00.html

Pics from the 'event' you can see here!

Somehow related articles from the German (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel:
☞ 'First It Was Piracy, and Then It Was Kidnapping' (6.07) 

☞ A Closer Look at Israel's Terror Accusations (6.09)

Updated (6.11):

☞ IDF-hired driver: 'Why did they kill so few?' (y.net)

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The Indian news magazine N.DTV reported y'day the following:

170 Hyundai workers arrested on Day 2 of strike

Over 170 agitating workers at Hyundai Motor India’s Sriperumbudur plant were arrested on Tuesday, the second day of the strike, after the management deemed the sit-in strike illegal.

The arrests come after a complete breakdown in conciliatory talks between the management and the workers mediated by the state Deputy Commissioner of Labour.

Further talks will continue on Wednesday but the arrest of the striking workers has upped the ante.

 
"The talks are just for namesake. The management can’t be trusted with anything. We are going to intensify our protests. Now we won’t give up at no cost. We also want them to recognise the union," said Sounderarajan, secretary at CITU.

Sources say the eviction of striking workers from the plant was aimed at a possible resumption of production by using contract workers.

There has been no output of cars from the factory since Sunday night which has led to an entire stoppage of production at the 16 captive component suppliers. Those affected include Lumax, Hwashin and Hanil Lear.

The production hit is starting to hurt Hyundai which sees a large part of its output heading overseas.

More than 4,400 cars down on its production means Hyundai may have to shift even more of its i20 production to its Turkey plant. The i20 was initially supposed to have been made only in India.

A further shift may also end up costing Hyundai and reversing the low cost advantage its Indian export base currently offers.

http://beta.profit.ndtv.com/news/show/...workers-arrested-on-day-2-of-strike-72457

Related articles:

☞ Over 200 Hyundai workers arrested on second day of strike (The Hindu, 6.08)
☞ Labor disputes swell at overseas Hyundai Kia plants (Hankyoreh, 6.09)

Updated(6.10) news:
☞ Hyundai Motor India workers call off strike (IANS, 6.09)
But FT.com reported y'day that "Police break up Hyundai strike".

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One of yesterday's 'top stories' in the int'l media: Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) will protect the next 'Peace and Freedom Convoys' to Gaza...

For example The Guardian (UK) reported y'day the following:

Gaza blockade: Iran offers escort to next aid convoy

Iran has warned that it could send Revolutionary Guard naval units to escort humanitarian aid convoys seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza – a move that would certainly be challenged by Israel.

Any such Iranian involvement, raised today by an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would constitute a serious escalation of already high tensions with Israel, which accuses Tehran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon and of backing Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.

"Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces are prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys that carry humanitarian assistance for the defenceless and oppressed people of Gaza with all their strength," pledged Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's personal representative to the guards corps.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/06/gaza-blockade-iran-aid-convoy

Well, sounds like a f*cking good idea!!^^

And, as the following suggests, in about two weeks a first 'match' IRGC vs. Israeli Navy Special Forces might take place in the Mediterranean Sea near the Gaza Strip:

The Iranian Red Crescent (IRC) has decided to send two aid ships to Gaza this week and has called for volunteers to act as relief workers and accompany the vessels, the state IRNA news agency reported y'day.

"One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers. The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week," IRC director Adibzadeh said.

And according to several Iranian sources it could be the first 'aid' convoy, trying to break Israel's Gaza blockade, 'protected' by IRGC 'volunteers'...