26개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Under the motto
We are not criminals! We are not terrorists!
Stop crackdown on undocumented
migrant workers in the name of G-20
Migrants' Trade Union staged a sit-in protest(*) in Hyangrin Church (in Myeongdong, downtown Seoul) between July 13 and August 28.
Additionally - to enforce the protest against the policy of arrest and deportation - MTU’s president began a hunger strike on July 25...
MUST SEE! Comrade "Hong Gil-dong..." released today his video interview...
... with MTU's president and you can watch it here.
* MTU's "Sit-in Struggle Reports" you can read here!
Barely Enough to Keep Body and Soul Together
The minimum cost of living for a four-member household next year has been set at 1.43 million won ($1,200), up 5.6 percent from this year, the S. Korean gov't announced two weeks ago, according to Korea Herald(8.24)...
Almost three weeks earlier Kim So-yeon (Hankyoreh journalist) reported about his experience how he - alone, not a four-member household(!!) - survived with 1,110,919 won ($946.29) for one month:
☞ 30 days on the minimum cost of living (Hankyoreh, 8.02)
Any more questions?
Almost three weeks ago France has begun the deportation of possibly thousands of members of the Roma (aka Gypsy) minority, to Romania and Bulgaria (member states of the E.U.)...
Roma mother and their children sit next to luggage
in Bucharest, Romania, after deported from France
Opposition politicians, labour unions and human-rights organizations have widely condemned the operation as abusive and racist, saying the Roma have too often been Europe's scapegoats.
On Aug. 18, the E.U. Commission for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship reminded France of the "freedom of movement for E.U. citizens." It also warned that it would be watching France closely to make sure due process and the rights of European Roma were being respected.
But despite the criticism, the Sarkozy administration is moving ahead with the plan...
But at least since y'day a broadly organized resistance takes the streets of France to damand: "Stop Deportation! Stop the State-operated Racism!"...
Today's Haaretz/AP reported the following:
Thousands march across France against decision to expel Gypsies
Protesters accuse Sarkozy of stigmatizing minority groups like Gypsies and seeking political gain with a security crackdown. They also say he is violating French traditions of welcoming the oppressed, in a country that is one of the world's leading providers of political asylum.
Thousands of people marched in Paris on Saturday to protest expulsions of Gypsies and other new security measures adopted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
Protesters blew whistles and beat drums in the largest demonstration among those in at least 135 cities and towns across France and elsewhere in Europe. Human rights and anti-racism groups, labor unions and leftist political parties took part in the protests.
They accuse Sarkozy of stigmatizing minority groups like Gypsies and seeking political gain with a security crackdown. They also say he is violating French traditions of welcoming the oppressed, in a country that is one of the world's leading providers of political asylum.
The protests mark the first show of public discontent since the conservative Sarkozy, a former hardline interior minister, announced new measures to fight crime in late July.
Sarkozy said Gypsy camps would be systematically evacuated. His interior minister and other officials said last week that about 1,000 Roma have been given small stipends and flown home since then.
For years, Sarkozy has used his image as a tough, law-and-order politician to win political support. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, saying their camps are sources of prostitution and child exploitation. The latest moves by Sarkozy came after violence between police and youth in a suburban Grenoble housing project and other clashes in a traveling community in the Loire Valley.
Sarkozy also said naturalized citizens who threaten the lives of police officers should lose their citizenship - and his leftist critics slammed that proposal as anti-constitutional and evocative of nationalist measures during France's collaborationist past in the Vichy regime during World War II.
"Mr. Sarkozy is there to stand for the Constitution, not to trample it," said Jean-Paul Dubois, president of France's Human Rights League. "So we consider this situation extremely dangerous, that's why we are here."
Paris police said some 12,000 people took part in the protest in the capital and that no violence took place. Organizers estimated that 100,000 people took part in such marches across the country - though they did not immediately estimate how many of those attended the largest one, in Paris.
Small groups of Gypsies took part, including women with flowered skirts, sandals or looping earrings, and men in jeans with gold caps on teeth in the corners of their smiles. But they were far outnumbered by left-leaning political parties, labor unions, and dozens of activist groups like those supporting illegal immigrants or gays.
"It warms the heart to see so many people out here. Fortunately, there are nice people in the world," said Delia Romanes, walking behind a banner of a 17-year-old Gypsy circus that she heads in northeastern Paris. She said the government has recently sought to strip its performers of their work papers.
Other Roma without proper residency rights were more fearful.
"We are afraid. We aren't prepared for this, said David Anghel," a 24-year-old mason from Romania, who has lived in France for eight years. Holding the banner of a Gypsy-support association, he said his wife had been served with an order to leave their camp in Fleury-Merogis, south of Paris, about 10 days ago. They fear police will come to expel them in the next few days.
Similar peaceful protests took place outside French embassies elsewhere in Europe. In Belgrade, Serbia, dozens of Gypsies chanted anti-racist slogans and held banners calling for an end to the expulsions from France.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/thousands-march-across-france...1.312191
Related articles:
☞ France Steps Up Deportation of Roma (Time, 9.01)
☞ French protest over Roma expulsions (al-Jazeera, 9.04)
Two weeks ago Scott Burgeson has published his entire - remarkable but (IMHO) diversive - essay on the 2008 "Beef Protests" in Seoul...
Few days later he wrote (as a reply on his freeboard): "It's good to know that some intellectuals in South Korea are finally starting to take seriously my essay on the mad-cow candlelight protests of 2008, or to even acknowledge it. As you can see here, when '더 발칙한 한국학' came out last year, the essay was essentially ignored by the mainstream South Korean media, although one or two reviews briefly and vaguely mentioned it being 'dangerous and provocative.' If it was so 'dangerous and provocative,' why was it so uninteresting that most South Korean reviewers felt that it wasn't worth even discussing?"
Here you can read the essay's English complete (4 pages, f... long^^) version:
☞ "A Stranger in Chongno"
Finally, if you still feel bored, here you can read at least 60 comments (on Marmot's Hole) related to Scott's essay!
Enjoy your weekend (reading)!!
Last month Chicago Indymedia predicted in connection to the coming G-20 Summit in Seoul (Nov. 11/12) that "There will be a storm"...
Well, until now it's not really sure if there will be a "storm" or not... But it seems as if the S.K. gov't already prepares for a kind of mass uprising/civil war, according to today's Yonhap report:
Military sets up security command center for G-20 summit
South Korea's military on Wednesday launched a "G-20 command center" to coordinate the government's security planning and operations in preparation for the G-20 summit in early November.
Tasked with protecting the world's leaders and ensuring the hosting of a successful summit set for Nov. 11-12, the command center would serve as a central part of security operations with some 10,000 troops from various military branches taking part, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.
"The military has elaborate action plans and firm determination to counter any possible enemy threat," the statement said. "We will make utmost efforts to make the G-20 summit in Seoul safer than any in the past."
The command center also coordinates coverage with other relevant security agencies, including the Presidential Security Service, the National Police Agency and the National Intelligence Service.
Police are mainly in charge of security on streets and at the convention venue in Seoul, while the military provides policing for the skies and seas, JCS officials said.
Navy ships will conduct underwater searches and patrol ports around the country, while fighter jets will monitor the skies when the world's leaders arrive, they said...
Last month, some 400,000 government officials, police and security personnel staged days of anti-terrorism drills, including mock hostage situations and other attacks, as part of preparations for the November summit:
Already one month ago the Korea Times reported that the National Police Agency will be mobilizing more than 400,000 police around the G-20 Summit in Seoul...
Last Monday's Guardian published the following startling report:
Many migrant workers in UK are modern-day slaves
Thousands of foreign domestic workers are living as slaves in Britain, being abused sexually, physically and psychologically by employers, according to an investigation...
More than 15,000 migrant workers come to Britain every year to earn money to send back to their families. But according to a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, many endure conditions that campaigners say amount to modern-day slavery.
Kalayaan, a charity based in west London that helps and advises migrant domestic workers, registers around 350 new workers each year.
About 20% report being physically abused or assaulted, including being burnt with irons, threatened with knives, and having boiling water thrown at them.
"Two-thirds of the domestic workers we see report being psychologically abused," said Jenny Moss, a community advocate for the charity. "That means they've been threatened and humiliated, shouted at constantly and called dog, donkey, stupid, illiterate."
A similar proportion say they were not allowed out alone and have never had a day off. Nearly three-quarters say they were paid less than £50 a week.
"The first thing to understand when we're talking about slavery is that we're not using a metaphor," said Aidan McQuade from Anti-Slavery International. "Many of the instances of domestic servitude we find in this country are forced labour – a classification that includes retention of passports and wages, threat of denunciation and restriction of movement and isolation."
Lobby groups and charities say that a large proportion of domestic workers are paid less than £50 a week for working 20-hour days. Others have their wages withheld completely. In some cases, the workers are young people who were trafficked over to the UK as children and forced to endure years of violence and forced labour.
The programme also investigates claims that foreign diplomats are among the worst offenders. Their workers, unlike those brought in on a domestic worker visa, cannot change their employer and face being homeless or being deported if they escape. The Dispatches study says it is also extremely difficult to prosecute diplomats for treating their workers as slaves.
Accurate figures are hard to establish because the abuse happens behind closed doors. But campaigners say that every year, hundreds of domestic workers run away from employees they claim have mistreated them.
Marissa Begonia left three young children in the Philippines when she came to Britain as a domestic worker 16 years ago. Now the head of Justice 4 Domestic Workers, a new campaigning organisation run by and for migrant workers, Begonia says most of their clients are forced to work abroad, without ever seeing their families, because of extreme poverty in their home countries.
"It's a matter of life and death," said Begonia. "You have two choices only: you watch your children die slowly, starving, or you leave them and come to the UK to work to make sure your children survive." The Metropolitan police specialised crime unit specifically targets forced labour, including domestic workers. "We've now got 10 cases of domestic servitude we are investigating," said detective chief superintendent Richard Martin, who heads the unit.
"Some victims are being chained to the kitchen sink, working seven days a week, 20 hours a day, for little or no pay. We have had cases of workers being forced to eat scraps off the table, so some of them are not even fed properly, and are assaulted and abused. We've had cases where women have been raped."
Children are also being bought to the UK to work in conditions of slavery. Christina was trafficked from Nigeria to London when she was just 12 years old. She says the woman in charge of her was of Nigerian origin, but worked as a British civil servant first with the Home Office and then Customs and Excise.
"I got beaten up all the time but I had no choice: I had nowhere to go," said Christina, who worked for the woman for five years, until she escaped in 2005. "She hit me with a frying pan and with a belt, so many, many times. It was horrible. I wanted to die."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/30/migrant-workers-modern-day-slavery
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