5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Solidarity with the Protest of Hyundai Workers in Ulsan!
Since 28 days two labor activists - one official of the 'irregular' workers' union of Hyundai Motors and the other a former 'irregular' worker at the automaker - are now in sit-in strike on a power supply post...
Last Friday's Hankyoreh published the following related report:
Irregular Hyundai Motor workers still shivering atop pylon
Demonstrators seek to publicize Hyundai Motor’s denial of facts that legislature, judiciary and administration have all admitted
Choe Byeong-seung (left) and Cheon Ui-bong look out from atop a metal pylon outside Ulsan’s Hyundai Motors on Nov. 7, the 21st day of their protest
The 50-meter electrical pylon was so massive that it was an almost overwhelming sight. In the middle of the pylon, 23 meters up, my eyes detected motion in two spots. Choe Byeong-seung, who previously worked for Hyundai Motor as an in-house subcontractor worker before being laid off in 2005, and Cheon Ui-bong, the secretary-general of Hyundai Motor’s temporary worker’s union, stuck out their heads and gazed down from above.
The two climbed up the 50-meter electrical pylon near the Myeongchon Gate of Hyundai Motor’s factory in Ulsan on Oct. 17. It was a midair sit-in that risked their lives, but their presence was small and no more than a mere speck in the sky to those on the ground. No one has yet responded to their demands. At 9 a.m. on Nov. 8, as the sit-in moved passed its 500th hour, I also ascended the towering steel pylon.
My limbs trembled. For the first four meters off the ground, there were no solid grips or footholds. I maneuvered my way upward, holding the steel railings and pillars that stretched askew. As I went higher, the strong wind buffeted my entire body. Even though I was wearing safety equipment to prevent a fall, the world below my feet began to swirl.
As I struggled for eight minutes with the steel pillar that they grabbed onto 20 days ago, I was finally able to make out their voices. “You’re almost here. Lower your head and be careful.” The 10m 2 venue for their elevated sit-in came into view. A 5x2m iron panel was placed on the floor and a green tent provided shelter. In the early days of their occupation, they called a plank of two-centimeter thick plywood their home. There wasn’t even enough room to turn over.
Since they began their protest, it has rained every weekend. Some days they’ve suffered through lightning and thunder. “We couldn’t lie down, so we just stayed sitting in the rain. We were almost out of our minds,” said Cheon. Their co-workers on the ground, worried about them as they braved the storm. On Oct. 26, they sent iron panels up to the two men and on Nov. 2 they sent up a tent.
Still, there is no guarantee of the two demonstrators’ safety. The unstable flooring and tent constantly shook. The steel pylon itself rumbled in the wind. Not far away is a railroad. The fast passing trains unsettled the air shaking the pylon. “When the wind is strong, we batten down the hatches, and crouch inside our sleeping bags like snails.”
At 12:10 p.m., lunch was sent up. Their co-workers attached food to the rope that the demonstrators had sent down. For the two crouching on the 23-meter high spot, the rope is like a lifeline. A black parcel carried up on the rope contained two thermos bottles, ttoekguk (rice cakes in beef broth), and kimchi. They gobbled up the food and made coffee with hot water in the thermos bottles and instant coffee mix. It is a rare moment when the bone-chilling cold melts away temporarily.
Such moments are rare because the men must limit their consumption. They eat two times a day to reduce the amount they excrete. On one side of the place was a bottle filled with urine. Solid waste is handled in the pitch-dark night. The excrement went down the rope to the ground. “I always feel sorry for making my co-workers dispose of it,” said Choi with embarrassment.
The smell, however, cannot be sent down the pole. Even the strong wind cannot sweep away the malodorous air. The men can only wipe their faces with wet tissues. Once every eight days they wash their hair and clean their feet with water sent up from the ground. Their faces were blackish, having been burned in late-year sunlight and frozen in the icy winds.
“This is really no big hardship,” said Choi, whose face was puffy and red. To him, hardship is not a sit-in up on a pylon but life as a temporary worker. Choi has fought for the regularization of temporary workers since May 2004. Since then, two union members set fire to themselves and 160 were sent home, and more than 1,000 were subject to a disciplinary measures. Union members have to pay as much as 600 million won (US$550,000) in fines on the charges of civil and criminal matters filed against them by the management.
In 2004, the Ministry of Labor, and in 2010 and 2012, the Supreme Court judged that Hyundai Motor’s in-house subcontractor employment was illegal, and that Choi should already have been made a regular Hyundai Motor employee. However, the automaker has held out to this day, failing to acknowledge that its use of subcontracted laborers was an “illegal dispatch.” In August, Hyundai Motor announced that they would be hiring 3,000 in-house subcontractor employees as new regular worker recruits through 2016. Temporary workers consider this hiring only some of the in-house subcontractors, and as new hands, which means their work experience is not recognized, as conduct that is not respectful of the court decision. “Don’t you think we’d better wait till labor-management agreement is at least better than the Supreme Court’s decision before we head down?” Choi said with a bitter smile.
Some signs of support and solidarity brought warmth to the sit-in. Lawmaker Jang Ha-na from the Democratic United Party sent a palm-size plant on Nov. 2. A note that read, “We’re sending first a little bit of earth up to you before you come down to us safely,’ was attached to the pot. A note handwritten unevenly by a kid read, ”That greedy boss has gone overboard. You’d better stay up there until you win.“
At 4 p.m., it was time for singing practice. Every day, at 6 p.m., a candlelight rally is held in front of the steel pylon. That day, they settled on the theme song of the TV drama, "Final Jump" for the rally. As night fell, 100 candles were lit. The performance was a far cry from what they had practiced. It was out of tune and meter. Laughter was carried by the wind as the group chuckled at the performance. The men’s fatigue lifted for a fleeting moment.
At 11:40p.m., the two demonstrators and I lay down inside the vinyl tent. Choi yielded the thickest sleeping bag to me, but the air was still cold as ice. "From 5 to 11 a.m. is the coldest time," said Choi. Suffering in the cold all night, Choi continued to cough the next morning. His right index finger, which he had injured climbing up the pylon on the first day of protest, was still badly swollen.
At 9am on the morning of Nov. 8., my feet were again safely on solid ground. They saw me off, pleading that I inform the public of a reality in which only Hyundai Motor denies facts that Korea’s legislative, judicial and administrative bodies have all admitted.” A piece of news that might rekindle a faint hope was being spread on the ground below the electrical pylon. The labor and management special negotiations resumed that day after being halted on Oct. 21. Choi and Cheon, who again faded into distant specks, waved their hands through the cutting wind...
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/559818.html
2012 Nat'l Workers Struggle Rally (#3)
As always on the 2nd weekend in Nov. the "National Workers Rally" - to mark the decades-long struggle of the S. Korean working class for democracy, human and labor rights - took place in Seoul... And of course, as usual, migrant workers - mainly orgainsed in the KCTU[MTU(Seoul/Gyeonggi-do) and STU(Daegu)] - joined the demonstration/protest rally:
Related stuff:
☞ 2012 Nat'l Workers Struggle Rally (#1)
☞ 2012 Nat'l Workers Struggle Rally (#2)
2012 Nat'l Workers Struggle Rally (#2)
As always on the 2nd weekend in Nov. the "National Workers Rally" - to mark the decades-long struggle of the S. Korean working class for democracy, human and labor rights - took place in Seoul...
Labor unionists march along the Cheonggye Stream towards Seoul Square, as part of a march and gathering to honor the spirit of Chun Tae-il. They started their march at the Chun Tae-il Bridge (seen in the photo’s background), which commemorates the deceased activist who is credited with founding South Korea’s labor movement. Around 10,000 activists(*) from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions gathered to protest for better working conditions and the regularization of temporary workers. (News1/Hankyoreh, 11.12)
Workers shout slogans during a rally against government's labor policy in front of Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012. About 10,000 members(*) of the KCTU demanded better working condition and the end to companies' use of temporary employees. (Kyunghyang Shinmun, 11.12)
The final rally...
...in front of Seoul Stn. (more impressions you can see here!)
Related reports:
☞ 전태일열사정신계승 2012 전국노동자대회 (KCTU, 11.11)
☞ 전국노동자대회...서울역 3만여 명 운집 (NewsCham, 11.11)
☞ 3만여 노동자 ‘전태일 열사 정신 계승’, 전국노동자대회 개최 (VOP, 11.11)
2012 Nat'l Workers Struggle Rally (#1)
As always on the second weekend in Nov. the "National Workers Rally" - to mark the decades-long struggle of the S. Korean working class for democracy, human and labor rights - took place in Seoul.
According to 'customs' the events started y'day evening/night with a powerful "Struggle Culture Festival" in front of Seoul Station, in the center of the S. Korean capital and at least 3000 workers, students and resistance activists participated...
Here just some impressions from the event:
Ralated reports:
☞ 3000여 노동자, ‘전국노동자대회 전야제’ 개최 (NewsCham, 11.11)
☞ 2012 전국노동자대회 전야제 (KCTU, 11.11)
Solidarity with the Protest of Hyundai Workers in Ulsan!
Since 22 days two labor activists - one official of the 'irregular' workers' union of Hyundai Motors and the other a former 'irregular' worker at the automaker - are now in sit-in strike on a power supply post...
...at the company's plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan to demand Hyundai give its irregular workers permanent stable employment contracts.
Today's German bourgeois(!!) magazine Der Spiegel published the following notable commentary (yesterday's German version's titel: "Der Untergang des amerikanischen Imperiums"/"The Downall of the American Empire"), regarding today's presidential election in the USA:
Destroyed by Total Capitalism
America Has Already Lost Tuesday's Election
'The US election as a battle between the good Obama and the evil Romney'. But this is a mistake. Regardless of who wins the election on Tuesday, total capitalism is America's true ruler, and it has the power to destroy the country.
The United States Army is developing a weapon that can reach -- and destroy -- any location on Earth within an hour. At the same time, power lines held up by wooden poles dangle over the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy ripped them apart there and in communities across the East Coast last week, and many places remain without electricity. That's America, where high-tech options are available only to the elite, and the rest live under conditions comparable to a those of a developing nation. No country has produced more Nobel Prize winners, yet in New York City hospitals had to be evacuated during the storm because their emergency generators didn't work properly.
Anyone who sees this as a contradiction has failed to grasp the fact that America is a country of total capitalism. Its functionaries have no need of public hospitals or of a reliable power supply to private homes. The elite have their own infrastructure. Total capitalism, however, has left American society in ruins and crippled the government. America's fate is not just an accident produced by the system. It is a consequence of that system.
Obama couldn't change this, and Romney wouldn't be able to either. Europe is mistaken if it views the election as a choice between the forces of good and evil. And it certainly doesn't amount to a potential change in political direction as some newspapers on the Continent would have us believe.
A Powerless President
Romney, the exceedingly wealthy business man, and Obama, the cultivated civil rights lawyer, are two faces of a political system that no longer has much to do with democracy as we understand it. Democracy is about choice, but Americans don't really have much of a choice. Obama proved this. Nearly four years ago, it seemed like a new beginning for America when he took office. But this was a misunderstanding. Obama didn't close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, nor did he lift immunity for alleged war criminals from the Bush-era, or regulate the financial markets, and climate change was hardly discussed during the current election campaign. The military, the banks,
industry -- the people are helpless in the face of their power, as is the president.
Not even credit default swaps, the kind of investment that brought down Lehman Brothers and took Western economies to the brink, has been banned or even better regulated. It is likely the case that Obama wanted to do more, but couldn't. But what role does that play in the bigger picture?
We want to believe that Obama failed because of the conservatives inside his own country. Indeed, the fanatics that Mitt Romney depends on have jettisoned everything that distinguishes the West: science and logic, reason and moderation, even simple decency. They hate homosexuals, the weak and the state. They oppress women and persecute immigrants. Their moralizing about abortion doesn't even spare the victims of rape. They are the Taliban of the West.
The Winner Makes No Difference to Europe
Still, they are only the symptom of America's failure, not the cause. In reality, neither the idealists and Democrats, nor the useful idiots of the Tea Party have any power over the circumstances.
From a European perspective, it doesn't matter who wins this election. Only US foreign policy is important to us -- and Obama is no dove and Romney no hawk. The incumbent president prefers to wage his wars with drones instead of troops, though the victims probably don't care if they're killed by man or machine. Meanwhile, despite all the criticism, his challenger says he wouldn't join Israel were the country to go to war with Iran because the US can now no longer afford such a thing.
In any case, it is wrong to characterize Republicans as the party of warmongers and Democrats as the party of peace -- or even to call the latter a left-wing party at all.
After all, it was Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson who started the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Republican presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon ended these wars. And Ronald Reagan, who Europeans see as the embodiment of both the evil and absurd aspects of American politics, was a peaceful man compared to the standards we have since become accustomed to. He only ever invaded Grenada.
The truth is that we simply no longer understand America. Looking at the country from Germany and Europe, we see a foreign culture. The political system is in the hands of big business and its lobbyists. The checks and balances have failed. And a perverse mix of irresponsibility, greed and religious zealotry dominate public opinion.
The downfall of the American empire has begun. It could be that the country's citizens wouldn't be able to stop it no matter how hard they tried. But they aren't even trying.
Y'day, after one month crossing almost the entire territory of S. Korea, the "Grand March for Life and Peace" - under the motto "All is the Sky, We are the Sky" - ended in Seoul...
In the late morning a protest rally in front of the Nat'l Assembly was held:
In the early afternoon a solidarity visit, to support the resistance movement against destruction of poor tenants' homes, took place in the area of the Yongsan Massacre:
After that a short stop to protest in front of the Ministry of 'Defense':
A short while later a joint rally was held in front of Seoul Stn to support the demands of the victims of the SsangYong mass dissimissal for the promised reemployment:
In the evenening the last destination(Seoul City Hall Plaza) to celebrate final Culture Struggle Festival:
Related reports:
☞ ‘생명평화대행진’ 참가자·쌍용차 동조단식단, “쌍용차 국정조사” 촉구 (VOP, 11.03)
☞ ‘함께 살자! 모두가 하늘이다’...3000인 도심 집회, 행진 (NewsCham, 11.04)
☞ 쌍용차 해고자 전원복직 3000인 동조단식 (KCTU, 11.04)
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