26개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
One week ago ICC(*) published the following "breaking news":
The S. Korean ruling class tears aside the veil of its “democracy”
We have just received news from Korea that eight militants of the “Socialist Workers’ League of Korea” (Sanoryun) have been arrested and charged under South Korea’s infamous “National Security Law”.1 They are due to be sentenced on 27th January.
There can be no doubt that this is a political trial, and a travesty of what the ruling class likes to call its “justice”. Three facts bear witness to this:
• First, the fact that South Korea’s own courts have twice thrown out the police charges against those arrested.
• Second, the fact that the militants are charged with “forming a group benefiting the enemy” (ie North Korea), despite the fact that Oh Se-Cheol and Nam Goong Won, amongst others, were signatories of the October 2006 “Internationalist Declaration from Korea against the threat of war” which denounced North Korea’s nuclear tests and declared in particular that: “the capitalist North Korean state (...) has absolutely nothing to do with the working class or communism, and is nothing but a most extreme and grotesque version of decadent capitalism's general tendency towards militaristic barbarism”.
• Third, Oh Se-Cheol’s speech leaves no doubt that he opposes all forms of capitalism, including North Korean state capitalism.
These militants are accused of nothing other than the thought crime of being socialists. In other words, they stand accused of urging workers to defend themselves, their families, and their living conditions, and of exposing openly the real nature of capitalism. The sentences required by the prosecution are only one more example of the repression meted out by the South Korea ruling class against those who dare to stand in its way. This brutal repression has already targeted the young mothers of the “baby strollers’ brigade” who took their children to the 2008 Candlelight demonstrations and later faced legal and police harassment;4 it has targeted the Ssangyong workers who were beaten up by the riot police who invaded their occupied factory.
Faced with the prospect of heavy jail sentences, the arrested militants have conducted themselves in court with exemplary dignity, and have used the opportunity to expose clearly the political nature of this trial. We reproduce below a translation of Oh Se-Cheol’s last speech before the tribunal.
Military tensions in the region are on the rise, following the provocative shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November last year and the killing of civilians by the North Korean regime’s canon, answered by the despatch of an American nuclear aircraft carrier to the region to conduct joint military exercises with the South Korean armed forces. In this situation, the statement that humanity today faces a choice between socialism and barbarism rings truer than ever.
The propaganda of the US and its allies likes to portray North Korea as a “gangster state”, whose ruling clique lives in luxury thanks to the ruthless repression of its starving population. This is certainly true. But the repression meted out by the South Korean government to mothers, children, struggling workers, and now socialist militants shows clearly enough that, in the final analysis, every national bourgeoisie rules by fear and brute force.
Faced with this situation we declare our complete solidarity with the arrested militants, notwithstanding the political disagreements we may have with them. Their struggle is our struggle. We address our heartfelt sympathy and solidarity to their families and comrades.
http://en.internationalism.org/node/4172
* "International 'Communist' Current"
Related contribution (2008.8.31):
http://blog.jinbo.net/CINA/1600
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
1. Today's news:
The announcement of a new 'unity government' by Mohamed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian "prime minister", has been met with massive anger by thousands of protesters, who say too many members (incl. the new "PM") of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's party remain in power.
The "PM" announced that the former defence, foreign, interior and finance ministers will keep their key posts in the new government formed after the public uprising led to the flight of President Ben Ali.
Today's mass protests in Tunis and several other cities forced (until now) three new ministers to resign.
The General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), which played a key role in protests against the North African state's ousted president, refused to recognise the new government.
Today in the morning at an extraordinary meeting UGTT has decided "not to recognise the new government," Ifa Nasr, union spokesman, said a short while ago.
In Tunis, riot police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters during a rally against the new government in the centre of the capital.
For more updated news please check out LabourStart and the Al-Jazeera Special "Uprising in Tunisia"!
2. "For freedom, democracy and social justice!", statement by the Tunisian Communist Workers' Party (PCOT), Jan. 15:
In its statement issued in Tunis PCOT renewed its invitation to the opposition to convene a national assembly backed up by renewed coordination, at national and local level, of support for specific and concrete demands so that the movement does not run out of steam.
“The popular protests are still ongoing, no one can predict either their length nor development. Tunisia entered a new phase in its history characterised by the rise of the people and their desire to regain freedom, rights and dignity.”
This raises the responsibilities of the opposition, especially its most radical wing, to find new policy solutions for a program providing a plan for overall change in Tunisia said the party.
Listing the most important and immediate issues as the release of all prisoners; bringing to account those responsible for repression, plunder of property and the killing of citizens, the repeal of all security restrictions and the restoration of freedoms and legality, frteedom of expression, organization and assembly the party called for immediate measures ‘for the world of work: income security, health and immediate recognition of trade union rights and the independent organisation of the unemployed and the precariously employed.
“The Workers’ Communist Party will remain, as it has always been, on the side of workers, deprived and poor, first in line for a new order in Tunisia, for freedom, democracy and social justice.”
2011, Jan. 14: A first great victory(*) for the...
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
For the first time in the modern Arab history a popular uprising toppled a dictatorship!!
Massive street protests - incl. almost daily fierce street battles resisting the bloody state terror(more than 80 protesters were killed by the "security forces") - over unemployment, mass poverty, corruption and political oppression forced (ex)President Ben Ali to flee the country Friday night after 23 years of iron-fisted rule.
Here just a few impression from Tunis, last Friday afternoon:
* An activist of the Tunisian Communist Workers' Party said y'dy: "We, the people of Tunisia, won a battle! But the war against exploitation and oppression isn't over! The revolution must continue until we'll achieve a liberated society!!"
For more updated info please check out LabourStart!
Here the "Weekend Reading"(source: Haaretz, 1.06):
When the Messiah comes, Israel will deport him
When the Messiah comes, he will be without papers.
When the Messiah comes, he will be taken into a small room, off-white and chilled, with one gray metal chair at each side of a gray metal desk.
When the Messiah comes, he will be questioned by a junior officer of the Shin Bet, and by an official of the Interior Ministry, who got his job through his cousin, who is an inspector of ritual dietary observance at a cookie bakery and who got his job through his sister's father-in-law, third assistant to the deputy chair of the Shas party branch in Ramla.
When the Messiah comes, no one will know.
His donkey, which is white and is named Snowpea, will be impounded in a leaky underground police lot near the Lod railroad station. There will be no paperwork. By nightfall it will have disappeared, spirited into a closed truck by the lot's watchman, who after his shift will drive the donkey to a moshav. Money will change hands, and the donkey as well, four times, until it is sold by settlers to Palestinians some of whose ancestral land now lies inside the settlement fence.
When the Messiah comes, the first sign will be a gag order.
A coded report on a high-profile news website will be made to disappear. It will reappear on a blog in Seattle, and then in the Guardian. The government will delay response, finally issuing a statement ascribed to sources in Jerusalem, reading "We have no knowledge of this." The IDF, quoting an unnamed senior military official, will state that there is no evidence that a Messiah of any kind has come. It will later soften the denial, saying it is checking the report and directing reporters to the Defense Ministry, which turfs them to the Prime Minister's Office, which cannot be reached for comment.
When the Messiah comes, rabbis will treat him like Jesus.
They will brand him disloyal, diseased, Reform.
In wall posters, Sabbath sermons, ritual decrees and signed petitions, careful not to use his title, chief rabbis of cities and towns will warn of an existential threat to the essential Jewish character of the state. Under no circumstances are Jews to sell or rent homes or lots to someone like this. The rabbis' wives will vilify him as a carnal threat to Jewish girls.
The rabbis' declarations will divide the Jewish people and bring wrath and dishonor upon Israel. The rabbis will continue to draw large civil service salaries, as well as generous tips, in cash, goods and services under the table and off the books.
When the Messiah comes, the Right will crucify him. Im Tirzu will roll out ads and billboards showing him with a tail to go along with his horns. A blogger from Commentary will call him a whiny, petulant boob. In Maariv and the Jerusalem Post, seven columnists will all have at him in the same three day period. NGO Monitor will ask for donations to expose his sources of funding.
When the Messiah comes, the Occupation will end.
But before it does, a global social network led by the Republican Jewish Coalition, Fox News, The Zionist Organization of America and Daniel Pipes, will launch a campaign aimed at exposing the Messiah as a Muslim.
When the Messiah is crucified, the army will deny that he was even present at the time.
When the Messiah comes, an Israel political party whose voters are routinely denigrated by native-born Israelis as whores and non-Jews will propose legislation declaring him a delegitimizer of Israel and the army (over the crucifixion), a blasphemer of Zionism (for suggesting that the Palestinians were not the sole obstacles to peace), and rendering him ineligible for citizenship unless he signs a loyalty oath stating that even if Israel did practice crucifiction, it did so in a democratic and Jewish manner.
Aides to Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari, along with Beitar Jerusalem soccer fans, will take out a Facebook page headed "Mavet L' Mashiach" – Death to the Messiah.
When the Messiah comes, he will be granted refugee status by the United Nations as a legitimate seeker of asylum, but will be held at a detention camp in Israel's Area 51, near the perimeter of the Dimona nuclear reactor facility, where a judge will trick him into signing an illegible document, which will force his deportation to Chad.
By the time the messiah leaves the Jewish state, he'll be thrilled to go.
Y'day and also today, despite massive police terror, tanks and curfews, the...
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
...goes on!!
Here a brief summary of yesterday's "events" reported from the "front line":
- Interior minister, Rafik Belhaj Kacem, dismissed.
- Prime minister announces release of all those arrested during recent protests.
- Heavy armed police units stormed the headquarter of the trade union (UGTT).
- Mass demo (aprox. 30,000) in Sfax, attacked by "security forces" with tear gas and life ammunition.
- Hatem Bettahar, assistant professor (a French citizen) shot dead – by a gov't sniper in Douz.
- Protests in Hammamet (important tourist destination). At least one or more dead; police station burned.
- Ruling party headquarters in Dar Chaabane (Nabeul) on fire.
- Army increasingly visible on the streets of Tunis and other cities.
- Hamma Hammami (Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia), arrested.
- Former political prisoner Lamari Ahmed arrested.
- Abdelwahhab Maatar, lawyer for rapper El Général, reportedly arrested.
- Headquarters of ruling party in Sfax said to be on fire.
- Curfew declared in Tunis and the suburbs from 8pm until 5.30am...
Related articles/reports:
☞ Deaths in Tunisia despite curfew (al-Jazeera, 1.13)
☞ Tunisia's youth finally has revolution on its mind (Guardian, 1.13)
☞ Tunisia: The Brink of Revolution (al-Bab, 1.11)
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
Today's news from the "front line":
Tunisian protesters, many of them are now organized in several "People's Resistance Committees"(PRC) say they will continue demonstrating over unemployment, mass poverty and against the dictatorship in the North African country despite the government's deadly crackdown on them.
PRC announced they will hold mass rallies across the country for the next three days, starting today.
The trade union, General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) has also said it will call a general strike in several southern cities in response the police brutality, i.e the state terror.
Protests have been going on across Tunisia for almost a month now. The UGTT says more than 70 people have been killed in clashes with government forces since the last weekend.
"It's chaos here in Kasserine after a night of violence, sniper fire, theft and looting of shops and homes by policemen in civilian clothes," said Sadok Mahmoudi, an activist of the UGTT regional union describing yesterday's situation there. This story was corroborated by other witnesses.
"The number of killed has exceeded 50," Mahmoudi said, citing a report obtained from the medical staff at the regional hospital of Kasserine, where the bodies were transported.
This comes as UGTT has called on Tunisian President(resp. the dictator!!) Ben Ali to order an independent inquiry into the deaths of demonstrators. But the call was rejected by the regime!
Meanwhile, according to sources of the People's Resistance, in the last hours thousands of heavy armed Soldiers in APC and backed by tanks were deployed in the centre of Tunis after the People's Rebellion spread to the capital's center.
Almost at the same time "the gov't sacked the interior minister and announced it would free protesters", AFP reported a short while ago.
"It's a People's Uprising"
Like that Sihem Bensedrine, spokesperson for the banned National Council fot Freedom in Tunisia(CNLT), described the current developments in Tunisia in her today's interview with the German newspaper die tageszeitung.
Fear has changed sides in Tunisia. For years the Tunisian population, its youth, its workers, its mothers were paralysed by fear of repression. Political lethargy was the rule, revolt the odd exception. Now things have turned upside down. Defiance of the brutal regime, its state, its spies, its media, its ruling party, its police and its army has become the rule during the four weeks of the uprising which has shaken Tunisia. Today's main slogan on the streets of the north African coutry:
"We do not fear you any more!"
The movement has not been subdued by persecution, imprisonment, torture and killings. Nevertheless the regime continues to kill, maim and torture the best of its youth. Last weekend alone, the orgy of repression reached a new climax as 20 protesters were killed by the forces of repression. Yesterday the police fired live ammunition into the crowds in Tala, Kasserine and many other cities in Tunisia, incl. its capital Tunis, killing at least 11 more people (according to Tunisian human right activists at least 50 protesters and activists were killed since the beginning of the uprising).
Al-Masry Al-Youm (independent Egyptian media organization): "In Tunisia, young people, the poor, thousands of workers and many other members of the civil society are leading an uprising that will go down in history as an important struggle for improved social, economic and political conditions."
Since exactly one week more than 30 janitors and cleaning personnel - representing 170 mainly female irregular workers in their 50s and 60s - have been holding a sit-in protest in the main building of Seoul's Hongik University, demanding the school withdraw the collective termination of their employment contracts (more background info here and here!).
But despite the support by KCTU and several (student) solidarity groups, they have not only sympathizers among the student body of Hongik University... as you can see/read here (describing last Thursday's ugly incident, explained by Tae-Jun Lee):
In the picture, Hongik University's student body president(the man who wear a blue jacket) is breaking into and trying to interrupt the rally.
He said, "Student are studing now, so this loudness interrupt their concentration. External forces(he is constantly describing the peple who band together about this problem to this expression.) should be banned to get into the school and interfere the problem. Irregular workers, just wait and keep quiet, and we student will solve the problem." But until now, they have done nothing for the laborer, on the contrary they plainly opressed the laborer's protest like this picture showing...
Social Rebellion in North Africa
In Tunisia since almost four weeks, in Algeria since last Wednesday: An increasing mass movement, initiated and joined by thousands of workers and the unemployed (young and old, both males and females), fights against exploitation and oppression...
Mohamed Zitout, a former Algerian diplomat, explained: "It is a revolt, and probably a revolution, of an oppressed people who have, for 50 years, been waiting for housing, employment, and a proper and decent life..."
Last week's/current protests in Algeria:
Protests in Tunisia:
Related reports:
☞ Algeria cuts food costs amid unrest (al-Jazeera, 1.09)
☞ Algeria protests turn violent (al-Jazeera, 1.08)
☞ Anger in Algeria (al-Jazeera, 1.07)
☞ Algerian riots resume over food prices (Guardian, 1.07)
And here you can check out al-Jazeera's special section (articles, videos and pics) about the Tunisian Social Uprising: ☞ "Trouble in Tunisia"
For more updated info please check out LabourStart!!
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