CINA

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In the S. Korean capital Seoul (almost totally ruled/controlled by the "reconstruction" mafia!!) there are still - surprisingly - a few beautiful areas. Here just some impressions from Jongno-gu(incl. Hyehwa-dong), Seongbuk-gu and Dongdaemun-gu:

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Here a few images to provide evidence of Tuesday's brutal crackdown on the striking Yoosung workers in Asan, S. Korea:
 

Related reports you can read here on LabourStart (Korea section)!

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MTU published today the following message:

Greetings everyone!

We are happy to inform you about the recent success of MTU's 'Solidarity Night' last May 14 at the Kyunghyang Shinmun Building. The event was attended by approximately more than 300 friends and comrades. They have come from various sectors of the society. The migrants from different communities like Filipino, Nepal, Bangladesh, etc; the union groups, social movement groups, human rights groups, churches, students, expats and supporters.

 
The event was a success in part because of our close cooperation specially with the 'Rainbow School' student-teachers, KCTU Seoul Regional Council representatives Joh Jeong-mi, KCTU Legal Counseling Center from KCTU Seoul Regional Council, MTU staff, leaders and member and our guest volunteer Christian(...)dongji.

 
We also thank our Hosts, Kim Ho-jeong and Luna Park, our translator from PSSP Wol-san Liem and our performers Gandiv Subedi, Shanti Adhikari, 'Rainbow School' dancers and our very good friend from 'Stop Crackdown Band', Soe Moe Thu.

Thank you all for your support and we hope that you liked our surprise gift awarding, the program and performances, the food and most especially, the true warmth of Solidarity and friendship!

We hope to be together with you again in good times and in struggle. Thank you so much!

http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=157119

Photo impressions from the event you can see here!

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Today - once again - the S. Korean ruling class called their henchmen to crush a justified strike/workers protest!
 

Police disperse striking unionists in a raid at Yoosung Enterprise Co., an auto parts supplier

for domestic car makers, in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, on May 24. Operations

of the factories of local car makers, including Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.,

were halted due to their subcontractor's strike. Yoosung produces piston rings, cylinder

liners and other key components needed to manufacture car engines. (Yonhap)

Here a short summarized 'chronology':
 

At 4(KST) in the afternoon: striking workers awaiting the (already announced)

attack by the riot cops...
 

And only a few minutes later it became the reality...
 

...with excessive force (by "thousands of riot cops", according to Yonhap)!!
 

At 6 p.m. 533 (according to Minjung-ui Sori) striking workers were arrested!

Finally today's (bourgeois) Korea Times reported the following:

Police disperse striking Yoosung workers

Thousands of riot police raided a regional auto parts manufacturing plant, Tuesday, to put an end to a week-long “illegal” strike that disrupted the production of Hyundai Motor and other major automakers.

More than 2,500 police entered the factory of Yoosung Enterprise in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, at 4:00 p.m., where hundreds of unionized workers have been holed up over the past week, according to South Chungcheong Provincial Police Agency.

Police met little resistance from the workers while dispersing them. About 500 unionists were apprehended.

“We had to use force to disperse the striking workers and hand control of the facility back to the management. The raid was unavoidable as last-minute talks between management and the employees on strike fell apart,” a police officer said.

Police will decide whether to detain the workers or not after looking into their involvement in the walkout.

Police obtained arrest warrants for two union leaders and a search warrant for union offices from the Daejeon District Court.

He said 31 companies of riot police and three police vehicles equipped with water cannons were deployed to the scene.

Police helicopters hovered above the site to monitor the movements of the striking workers.

More than 500 unionized workers began occupying the factory on May 18 after they failed to reach common ground with their management on working conditions and salaries. Following the walkout, the management of Yoosung Enterprise, which specializes in piston rings, cylinder liners and other key components of car engines, imposed a lockout on the plant.

On Monday, the company’s management and labor held unsuccessful talks to resolve the confrontation.

The Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), affiliated with Yoosung labor union, released a statement condemning the police raid.

“Law enforcement authorities refused to follow law and order by sending riot police into the plant. This is tantamount to a barbaric act. We will fight along with unionized workers of Yoosung Enterprise to the end until we achieve our goals,” the KCTU said.

It said it will launch a nationwide campaign to force President Lee Myung-bak to step down.

Despite the strike coming to an end on Tuesday, it will likely take some time for the plant to resume operations, meaning that automakers will have to grapple with output disruption for the time being.

According to the auto industry, the ongoing strike has forced automakers to suspend production of several vehicles due to a shortage of engine components.

Yoosung supplies key engine components to all five automakers operating here. In particular, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the nation’s two largest automakers, depend heavily on its supply as they receive 70 percent of engine-related components from the firm.

Hyundai and Kia said if the walkout lasts through the end of May, they will be forced to cut output by as much as 50,000 cars. The other three carmakers — GM Korea, Renault Samsung and Ssangyong Motor — will see their production drop by a combined 10,000.

Hyundai has already been forced to shut down its assembly line for the Tucson ix sports utility vehicle, while Kia had to halt production of its Carnival passenger minivan.

According to the Korea Employers Federation, the labor strike has already cost automakers over 150 billion won in lost output as of Tuesday. From May 26, they will likely incur over 100 billion won in losses on a daily basis.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/05/117_87577.html

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This event will promote the idea of the planned "unity"/"unification" of the so-called "progressive" forces in S. Korea...

A comrade told me yesterday the following, explaing the background of the event: "Well, there are tons of different positions, suggestions and ideas in the wake of the general elections and presidential election next year as to what the progressive movement should do during that 'political period. This 'Progressive Harmony group' demands the unity of the Democratic Labor Party, New Progressive Party and the Socialist Party first and then form an alliance with the bourgeois opposition 'Democratic' Party...
And this May 24 meeting is the first gathering of the harmony group for general mass."

PS: Duriban band "Supsuphaesur Grunge" will play a gig at the meeting, to promote the struggle of the Duriban Sit-in Collective

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A visit in MTU's office (Seoul, Seodaemun-gu):

The location of MTU's office (inside KCTU Seoul Regional Council building):

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The (bourgeois) Korea Times will publish in its tomorrow's printed edition the following "in-depth analysis" about the reasons why Kim Jeong-eun is traveling to

China:                                                                                                                                    

China's leadership training for Jung-un
 

NK heir's trip focuses on smooth power transfer, economic aid

North Korean heir Kim Jong-un’s China trip, which began early Friday morning, has two target audiences, according to analysts.

It sent the unequivocal message to international observers that Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, will be the Stalinist state’s next leader.

For the domestic viewers, it will be regarded as a leadership training program to help the younger Kim gain credentials as a leader.

This interpretation was supported by the report that Jong-un might tour the historic sites located in northern China where Korean independence fighters teamed up with their

Chinese counterparts to fight against Japan, the colonial master during the 1930s.

Baek Seung-joo, chief of the Center for Security and Strategy of the Korean Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, said the dynastical succession from father to son in the

North appeared to be on the right track.

“Against this backdrop, Jong-un’s China trip is taking place. This, therefore, could mean that the North wants the world to recognize that the young leader in his late 20s

will lead the nation,” he said.

The expert played down the possibility that the younger Kim’s China trip is focused on gaining economic assistance from China, North Korea’s closest ally.

Baek declined to give a detailed interpretation of China’s motives to accept Jong-un’s visit even though he doesn’t officially represent the North. “China has a consistent

policy regarding the succession issue. It repeated that it won’t intervene in sovereignty-related issues,” he said.

A government official, who asked not to be named, agreed that the main purpose of Jong-un’s China visit is to affirm internationally that he is the man to rule the reclusive

nation.

North Korea watchers speculated that Jong-un may meet Xi Jinping, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Central Military Commission who is reportedly to replace

President Hu Jintao as president next year, during this trip.

If realized, it will be viewed as a meeting between the next leaders of China and North Korea.

Park Young-ho, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the younger Kim’s China trip will be better understood when it is put in the

context of North Korea’s deepening economic dependency on China.

Considering the trade setting, he said China has become more significant to the North than ever before.

“It’s like North Korean version of seeking China’s endorsement for the younger Kim as its next leader,” he said. “I don’t want to describe it like this, but it will be easier

for one to understand accurately the purpose of the younger Kim’s China trip when explaining it like that. North Korea’s interpretation will be different though as it put

heavy emphasis on self-determination.”

Park noted Jong-un’s China trip will also help him establish leadership credentials as the itinerary included historic sites in the northern provinces of China.

“During Japanese colonial rule, Korean independence fighters teamed up with the Chinese to fight against their common enemy, which in the region is Japan,” he said.

The late Kim Il-sung, Jong-un’s grandfather, was one of the independence fighters having joined the anti-Japanese campaign in the 1930s.

“By visiting those sites, the younger Kim will be viewed by grass-root North Koreans as a legitimate successor of the revolution of which his grandfather played a part.”

Park remained skeptical about the possible impact of the younger Kim’s China trip on inter-Korean relations or the resumption of stalled nuclear talks.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/05/116_87352.html

But eventually this piece will be just good-for-nothing... Because the same paper, on its online edition, had to report today in the early evening(KST) the following:

[Urgent]NK leader, but not his son, visiting China: presidential office 

 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was visiting China Friday, a Seoul government source said, contradicting earlier reports that his heir-apparent son, Jong-un, traveled to the

country.

The trip, if confirmed, will be the leader's third in slightly over one year. He had visited China in early May and late August last year.
It has yet to be confirmed whether the 69-year-old leader was accompanied on the trip by his heir-apparent son, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The name of the junior Kim was not on an official list of about 70-member entourage, said the source.(Yonhap)

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/05/113_87369.html

 
Yep, that we can call perfect serous and investigative journalism!!

Anyways, please enjoy a nice weekend!!!

A

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Since y'day you can find the following piece on the English main page of Yonhap news agency:

Former noodle restaurant Dooriban highlights legal loopholes letting down evictees

The South Korean capital, Seoul, has not mushroomed in population from a few hundred thousand to over 10 million in a little more than half a century without ongoing and dramatic changes being made to its cityscape.

 
But as the saying goes, what goes up must first be knocked down. Parks and mountains aside, Seoul's dense urban fabric is such that hardly any land, let alone a plot big enough for a sizeable building project, lies vacant. This occasionally causes protracted -- even violent -- conflicts.

Korea's most notorious case of redevelopment-related conflict reached a climax on Jan. 20, 2009, in Yongsan, central Seoul, when five evictee protesters and one policeman were killed in a fire that erupted during a violent clash.

The incident shocked Korean society to some extent, but has so far failed to prevent further stalemates of the kind from which it resulted.

One such situation is to be found at Dooriban, formerly a noodle restaurant next to Hongik University in western Seoul. It now stands as one of the only two remaining structures on an otherwise razed plot of land. The other is an empty traditional Korean hanok building (*), the demolition of which Dooriban's occupants have also struggled to prevent.

While GS Engineering & Construction, the current owner of the plot, waits for a chance to complete the demolition job and start building, Dooriban is holding out in protest at what, according to its owner, is a highly unjust eviction attempt that would effectively cast her out onto the street.

"We were offered three million won (US$2,700) in compensation," says Yoo Che-lim, the husband of Dooriban's owner Ahn Jong-nyeo. "Normally, the legal act that protects small business owners and tenants grants the right to do business for at least five years, but a subordinate clause states that this does not apply in areas designated for redevelopment."

 
Another law that entitles evicted small business owners to compensation for investments they have made in their own businesses also fails to apply to Dooriban, apparently because the scale of the redevelopment plot is too small.

Yoo quit his job at a publishing company in order to join the full-time occupation now in progress at Dooriban. "The law is wrong," he says. "It needs fixing. Applied as it currently is, it amounts to violence, not law."

Yoo likens the current legal struggles of evictees to those of early campaigners for the rights of women or black people, who also found themselves on the wrong side of existing laws at the time.

As of mid-May 2011, the Dooriban protest has been going on for one year and six months. After legal attempts by an alliance of local residents to secure adequate levels of compensation from GS E&C failed, Dooriban eventually remained as the only business to refuse subsequent increased cash offers from the construction giant.

The Dooriban owner, Ahn, is clear about her demands.

"Of course, I want the means to reopen Dooriban in this neighborhood, as well as compensation for lost Dooriban income, my husband's lost income since he quit his job, and compensation for our expenses in occupying this building in the mean time," she says.

When Dooriban's electricity supply was severed last summer, many of its occupants conducted a sit-in protest for a week at the headquarters of Mapo ward where it is located.

Dooriban owner Ahn Jong-nyeo and her husband Yoo Che-lim

"We claimed that it was the duty of the ward authorities to provide their citizens with commodities such as electricity," says Yoo. "The ward head said he would 'give us electricity.' He gave us a generator, but is not providing oil to run it."

 
An employee at Mapo ward's department of urban planning derides the notion that it is up to the ward to ensure that electricity is provided. "That's up to KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation)," he says. "Anyone knows that."

"We hope the matter is resolved harmoniously," says a more senior employee from the same department.

With regard to Ahn's hope that Mapo ward will provide an opportunity for Dooriban to sit down and talk with GS E&C, he says the ward would have no objections if both sides requested the use of space in its headquarters to engage in dialogue.

Mapo ward declines to explain why it provided the generator.

Negotiations with GS E&C have been complicated by the fact that the construction company has allegedly subcontracted another enterprise, named Samojin, to complete the demolition job on the plot.

"Samojin has a bad reputation as the subcontractor that takes on the toughest demolition jobs and uses the most violence," says human rights activist Dopehead Zo, who currently spends much of his time supporting Dooriban by means including Internet broadcasts and Twitter.

"Samojin is working with GS E&C at a similar site at Dorim-dong in Yeongdeungpo ward," adds Zo. "A lot of illegal demolition and violence is going on there."

Having lost its gas supply and had most of its kitchen equipment forcibly removed, Dooriban no longer functions as a restaurant. It remains, however, busy with regular support concerts, talks, flea markets, film festivals and other events, and has become a symbolic hub of activism.

"We're under pressure but we're strong because lots of people are involved," says Yoo as he sits by the charcoal briquette stove on the first floor. "We're not arming ourselves or looking for a fight, but if Samojin approaches us with violence, we are prepared to resist."

"We use a lot of social media," says Zo. "If there is an immediate threat, we can send out a tweet," If this happens, Zo claims, a considerable number of people will arrive in around 20 minutes.

When contacted in early May, Samojin CEO Kim Bong-jung, expressed bemusement that Dooriban was receiving so much media attention when "there are so many other tenants in worse situations, they're just not intellectuals."

"We do our best to reach an agreement between the redevelopment association and the tenants. Every day that tenants resist, the members of the redevelopment association lose money. The tenants can stay there forever: it reaches a stage where we can't mediate any longer."

Kim claims an agreement was recently reached between Samojin and a committee formed of pastors, members of two progressive minor opposition parties -- the Democratic Labor Party and New Progressive Party -- and others representing Dooriban. "It should all be solved later this week or next week," he says.

Yoo is not so sure.

"In late April, we conveyed our demand, via the committee, to Samojin that it provide the means for Dooriban to reopen somewhere else in the local Hongdae area," he says. "At the time, Samojin agreed. But we haven't heard anything for more than three weeks, so we're not sure if they really meant it or whether they want to lull us into a false sense of security before attacking."

In the mean time, a group of activists is attempting to get a law passed that bans forcible eviction in such cases. As long as the law remains unchanged, however, Dooriban's status remains precarious and its struggle, with widespread local support, continues.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/05/16/34/0302000000AEN20110516001800315F.HTML

* Actually there's right now an independent art gallery inside.

Related report:
☞ Duriban - 500 Days of Struggle Against 'Reconstruction' (2011.5.08)

 

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Here, as I promissed, some more impressions from last Saturday's MTU Solidarity Night:
 

Few hours before the event: meeting of the preparation group
 

Decorating the place for the coming event
 

Solidarity message from comrades in Japan
 

'Secret' rehearsal for the coming performance
 

Preparing the directions to the place of the event
 

The opening ceremony, incl. THE S. Korean traditional struggle song
 

Michel's (MTU president) welcoming speech...
 

...followed by a great culture program...
 

...enjoyed and celebrated by the audience!!