5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Well, there was no counter-attack from the North Korean military (thankfully!!) to Monday's resumption of the S. Korean artillery exercises on Yeonpyeong...
KPA's chief of staff explained: "This was nothing but a childish play with fire of cowards... The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation like one taking revenge after facing a blow." (^^)
So the crisis of a large-scale armed clash between South Korea and North Korea appears to have been avoided for the time being...
But, dear audience, please stay tuned!(*)
Related articles:
☞ The day the guns were silent (Asia Times, 12.21)
☞ N. Korea doesn’t respond militarily... (Hankyoreh, 12.21)
☞ KPA Supreme Command: World Should Know Who Is Provoker (KCNA, 12.20)
* Because it might well be that the coming "holiday season" is/will be a f*cking great opportunity to initiate large-scale armed clash, resp. to declare war!! Yesterday's K. Times: "S. Korea ready for surprise attack ahead of Christmas"...
S.K. armed forces were put on the highest alert around Aegibong, a mountain peak located just three kilometers from the DMZ, as S.K. Christian maniacs, supported by the gov't and backed my the military, held a ceremony last night to turn on Christmas lights:
Looks like a superb target for N.K.'s short-range artillery...(^^)
Related "news report":
☞ S. Korea lights up Christmas tree on border with N. Korea (Yonhap, 12.21)
PS: It seems that the S. Korean armed forces - like their "colleagues" in the North - are already geared up for the "final battle", i.e. the forcibly reunification...
Written on the S. Korean soldiers' headbands: “Tongil”(통일) means “unification” and
“Myeolgong”(멸공) means “eradicate the communists.” The (f*cking stupid) message
being, “Let’s unify Korea by eradicating the communists!”
The organizers and participants of yesterday's migrant workers rally (to mark the "Int'l Migrants Day") in Seoul adopted the following "2010 Declaration of the Human Rights of Migrants":
Towards a New World without Discrimination and Exploitation!
① In this country we have been given the name 'migrant'. This word has many meanings, which we did not choose ourselves. In addition to signifying someone who lived in another place and then migrated to South Korea, 'migrant' refers to someone who is the object of repression and exploitation in the workplace and discrimination and rejection in everyday life. Even worse, 'migrant' connotes a latent criminal and the target of policing, control and expulsion in the eyes of the South Korean government. In the past, we fought against these chains that bind us with our whole bodies and spirits. The more we looked for the key to unlock the lock on the chains, however, the deeper the key ring grasped in the hand of our oppressor became hidden in a maze.
20 years laced with discrimination and exploitation have now passed. After all of our resistance we have realized something. That only we, and no one else, can achieve our own freedom. That the key that can unlock the chains that bind us is not in the oppressors hand but in ours. That we can rewrite the meaning that Korean society has given to the name 'migrant'. This means that we can rewrite 'migrant' as beautiful.
② We firmly reject the idea that we must endure repression and exploitation. We reject the Employment Permit System (EPS), which gives power to the government and employers to grant us jobs but refuses us the rights to association, bargaining and collective action that in fact belong to all workers. As members of the Korean working class who know the value of our sweat and our labor, we declare our right to live as workers who freely choose their jobs. Short-term rotation policies, like the EPS, fail to take into account that migrants are people and are the origins of discrimination and human rights abuses. These policies treat migrants as tools of profit but denied us the right to live as human beings. The EPS is a barometer that reflects the perspective and atmosphere of South Korean society. We are already living in this land. The EPS, which denies this fact while also denying justice and the needs of Korean society must be abolished immediately.
③ We refuse to be the targets of policing and expulsion. We are not latent criminals. We are merely people seeking happiness for ourselves and our families. We have no intentions to cause harm to anyone. All human beings have the right to physical freedom and the right to defend that freedom. These rights must be protected. As such, we firmly reject the government's labeling of as us latent criminals. The government uses this label to justify its brutal crackdown against us, which it claims is necessary to maintain the safety of South Korean society and even to protect our human rights. We recognize, however, that these claims are simply a means to hide the fact that the government's actions are illegal and violate human rights. The indiscriminate, inhumane and life-threatening raids and deportations must stop immediately.
④ In the name of 3 million overseas Koreans we firmly reject discrimination against overseas Koreans from less-developed countries, which has become an absolute yardstick by which to measure South Korean. Some 350 thousand overseas Koreans from China and the countries of the former Soviet Union are living as migrants in South Korean society. Despite the fact that are all overseas Koreans, in South Korean society, the Act on Overseas Koreans applies fully to overseas Koreans from rich countries and only partially to those who come from poorer countries. The South Korean governments attempt to broaden the field of discrimination, which arises from its fixation on economic capacity, cannot but be an indicator of the state of society. As overseas Koreans and migrants we reject all efforts to keep us in field of discrimination and firmly demand our rights.
⑤ We demand our rights as workers and has women who have come to this country to live as members of families. We should not be denied rights as women and as workers because we are migrants. Women migrant workers must be allowed to reside safely in this country. Our rights must not be violated due to abuse of authority at the workplace or any other criminal designs. Protection of and redress for the violation of women migrant workers rights must be swift. The essential dignity of women who have migrated through marriage must be respected. We reject all attitudes that reduce women to a form of exchange value and reaffirm the fact that proper family life begins with respect for one's partner's culture. Marriage migrants have the right to respect and happiness based on true multiculturalism, not a false multiculturalism that means unilateral imposition of Korean culture.
We assert that all children in the country have equal rights. The government's attitude of singling out the children of multicultural families and refusing to recognize the children born of undocumented migrants equals discrimination against children. All children have the right to registration based on birth and to attain nationality, and these rights must not be violated simply because of the residence status of their parents. In fact, children should be given more protection and attention in the event that they lack a nationality. In particular, no child should be denied heath and education rights on the basis that he/she does not have a nationality. We also affirm that all children have the right to be raised in a healthy manner by their families, in particular their parents. All provisions that discrimination against children are illegal and must be abolished.
⑥ We demand that the government give immediate attention and protection to refugees and asylum seekers. We are concerned that applications for asylum are proceeded in a manner aimed at administrative ease rather than being based on rationality and fairness. The current system of reviewing applications is carried out in a manner overly dependent on international politics and the easy management of visas without consideration for human beings' basic right to life. We demand that the system be revised and ask that more visas be granted for humanitarian reasons. We wish to see South Korea become a place where individuals who flee persecution and discrimination can live with their rights respected. We also demand that the South Korean government ratify the International Convention on Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. We stress that equal protection of the rights of migrants and their families through the ratification of the Convention, which outlines concrete practices, is necessary if the advent of the age of muliculturalism is to be more than simply a noisy event.
We believe that our declaration is not only meaningful for us migrant workers, but will also help to make South Korean society more just, more fee and more beautiful. Our declaration is a dignified call to break the chains of discrimination and exploitation and build a new world through social solidarity.
● Stop discrimination against migrant workers and abolish restrictions on workplace transfers!
● Stop the crackdown and deportations and legalize all undocumented migrant workers
● Stop criminalization of migrant workers!
● Protect the rights of migrant women!
● Protect migrant children's health and education rights!
● Increase recognition of refugee status and protect refugees' rights!
● Fully implement the Act on Overseas Koreans and protect overseas Koreans' right to travel freely!
● Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrants!
2010 International Migrants Day Assembly in S.Korea
http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=68800#0
PS: How can it be that there is not even one word about the current situation of MTU, resp. the ongoing policy of repression - conducted by the S.K. gov't (MoL/MoJ) - against MTU? Where is the demand to recognize and legalize the MTU???
Today afternoon in downtown Seoul: Migrant workers and their supporters marked yesterday's "Int'l Migrants Day" with a protest rally...
"Braving frigid weather, more than 400 migrants and human rights activists called on the government to stop its crackdown on undocumented foreigners and overhaul the employment system to eliminate exploitation and discrimination against them within the workplace...", today's Korea Times reported.
Related reports:
☞ “이주노동자 착취의 사슬, 우리 손으로 끊겠다” (NewsCham)
☞ 'We are not human machines' (K. Times)
Actually we get used to headlines in the int'l media like "N. Korea threatens the South with War", "North Korea threatens with nuclear war", "Korean peninsula on 'brink of war', Pyongyang says" or statements from N.K. like "Seoul will be the next target. It will be a sea of fire", "The army and our people are ready for both an escalated war and an all-out war" etc...
Well, we get used... And who gives a shit?
But in yesterday's Asia Times Kim Myeong-chol("Pyongyang's unofficial spokesman") defined N.K.'s latest war threatening more precisely:
Acting for supreme leader Kim Jong-il, the Young General (i.e. Kim Jong-eun) is only one click away from issuing a long-awaited order to the Korean People's Army's (KPA) shiny and sleek, quick-response global strike force. This would see the torching of the bulwark of the US empire, the skyscrapers of New York City and other centers of metropolitan America.
Crack front-line units of the KPA are ready round the clock to bomb Seoul, turning it into a towering inferno before moving in on the ground to complete their mission.
Japan's cooperation with the US would invite retaliatory nuclear missile attacks on their nuclear power plants, with the result that Tokyo and other major cities of the Japanese archipelago are rendered unhabitable...
It will only take Kim Jong-eun a couple of minutes to turn Seoul into a sea of fire, five minutes to torch Tokyo, and 15-20 minutes to evaporate New York and Washington in a "day-after" scenario...
The moment of truth will come sooner than originally expected, vindicating the validity of the military-first policy mapped out by Kim Jong-il and demonstrating how wise the Korean people are in selecting Young General Kim Jong-eun as heir to the supreme leader.
Kim's complete "article"(MUST READ!!) you can check out here:
☞ When North Korea’s threats become reality (A. Times, 12.14)
Related stuff:
Yesterday's NepalNews had the following funny(??) piece:
'Buddhism is close to Marxist ideology'
Vice chairman of the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) Dr Baburam Bhattarai has drawn a parallel between Marxism and the Buddhist philosophy, saying that the two doctrines are very similar.
"The Buddhist philosophy is very much similar to Marxist ideology," he said.
Speaking at a book launching ceremony organised by Nepal-China Society in the capital on Sunday, the Maoist ideologue said Lord Buddha held very progressive view during his time and his philosophy and teachings are not so far removed Marxist ideology.
At the programme, Bhattarai also stressed on the need to expand the Buddhist philosophy across the world.
And it seems that the S. Korean Buddhists are already on the right track!!(^^):
Jogyesa, the main temple of the Buddhist Jogye Order in central Seoul, displays a placard stating its refusal to admit members of the Lee Myung-bak administration and the GNP in protest of the
four-rivers refurbishment project... (Yonhap, 12.09)
Bangladesh: Mass Protests and Riots Against Exploitation
Four workers were killed and more than hundred injured by police terror
Today's Hankyoreh "reported" the following:
Deadly clash at S.Korean-owned factory
South Korean-owned garment factory workers demanding the implementation of a new minimum wage clashed with police at an industrial zone in Chittagong, southeastern Bangladesh, on Sunday, leaving up to four people dead and some 150 hurt, the Associated Press reported.
Police fired live bullets and tear gas shells at the protestors after thousands of workers attacked factories and smashed vehicles at the Chittagong Export Processing Zone that houses about 70 foreign companies that mainly manufacture garments, shoes and bicycles, and employ about 150,000 workers.
Sunday‘s clashes came out as a South Korean company YoungOne shut down all 17 of its factories in the country late Saturday after workers attacked the facilities. YoungOne employees have argued that the government’s hike in wages that was supposed to come last month has not been implemented.
YoungOne is the largest garment maker in Bangladesh and a leading outdoor garment and equipment maker in Korea.
Related articles (in the bourgeois media):
☞ CEPZ erupts in violence, 4 workers killed (The Daily Star, 12.12)
☞ Six Korean firms hit by Bangladesh protests (K. Herald, 12.13)
For more info please check out LabourStart!
The Korean Peninsula by Night
A shot of the Korean peninsula captured by an U.S. satellite, Oct. 29.
North Korea(*) is covered in complete darkness. (source: Hankyoreh, 12.11)
* aka the "Paradise of the Int'l Working Class" led by the "Sun of the 21st Century", i.e. the "Dear Leader"...(!!!)
Hyundai Irregular Workers' Factory Occupation Ends after 25 Days
(by Wol-san Liem/Research Institute for Alternative Workers Movements, 12.10)
Yesterday (December 9), members of the Hyundai Motors Irregular Workers Chapter of the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU) left factory 1 of the Hyundai Plant in Ulsan. Their departure marked the end of a 25-day long occupation, which they had endured without adequate food, water or bedding.
Today, representatives from the Hyundai Motors Irregular Workers Chapter, the Hyundai Motors Local Branch (regular workers), and the KMWU sat down with representatives from Hyundai Motors and its in-house subcontractors. In accordance with an agreement reached between the President of the Irregular Workers Chapter, Lee Sang-su, President of the Local Branch, Lee Gyeong-hun and President of the KMWU, they presented the following 4 demands: 1) Cancellation of damage suits and charges against workers who participated in the occupation, and payment of medical bills; 2) guarantee of reinstatement for those who participated in the occupation, 3) protection for strike leaders, and 4) a plan for negotiations concerning the regularization of illegal dispatch workers.
While negotiations have begun, it will be an uphill battle to get demands met, and take even more determination before the ultimate goal of regularization for illegal dispatch workers is achieved. Past experience including a similar struggle in 2005, has shown that without the pressure of a factory occupation it is not likely that Hyundai Motors will yield much ground. For this reason many of the striking workers had not wanted to leave factory 1 until after their demands were met in full, and originally pledge to continue the occupation until Hyundai agreed to employ them directly as regular workers.
In reality, however, the striking irregular workers have faced increasingly difficult conditions in the last several days. In addition to repression at the hands of Hyundai Motors, they have been put under growing pressure by the leadership of the Hyundai Local Branch to bring their struggle to a speedy conclusion. While the KMWU Delegates Assembly voted in favor of a general strike in support of the irregular workers struggle on December 22, it had not set a firm date. Meanwhile, President Lee Gyeong-hun of the Hyundai Motors Local Branch determined to put the general strike to a second vote at a Branch general assembly, despite the fact that the KMWU Constitution gives the delegates assembly the right to call for a general strike. When the Hyundai Motors Local Branch leadership could have been educating its members on the importance of regular-irregular workers solidarity and preparing for the general strike, it was instead suggesting to its members that it was time for struggle to be over.
With knowledge of the negative result of the Branch general assembly, and the reality that the second vote signified the cancellation of general strike plans and the loss of support from the Branch, the irregular workers set to heated debate within the factory about whether to go one with their occupation or agree to leave and begin negotiations with a set of less than satisfactory demands. In the end, they chose to accept the demands listed above as a basis for negotiation and entrusted the decision to continue or end the occupation to the Chapter leadership. After meeting with the KMWU and Branch presidents, Lee Sang-su declared an end to the occupation.
Sadly, the conclusion of the occupation demonstrates clearly the limits of the solidarity between regular and irregular workers developed in the beginning of the strike and, even more so, the lack of will on the part of the Hyundai Motors Branch’s leadership to support a strike that it should have recognized as the struggle of all Hyundai workers.
Nonetheless, there have been important victories through this struggle. The consciousness and daring of a few irregular workers quickly spread throughout the Irregular Workers Chapter and from Ulsan to Asan to Jeonju. The hundreds who participated in the strike have been transformed through the experience, coming to recognizing their common cause and developing the power and courage to demand their right to be treated equally. They constructed and made use of democratic decision-making structures even in the midst of the cruel conditions of their factory occupation, and formed a still growing sense of class-consciousness. Despite the fact that they will return to work on December 13, Hyundai irregular workers have vowed to continue organizing among their colleagues and preparing for the next phase of the struggle for regularization. As one reporter commented, the end of the factory occupation at the Ulsan Plan represents, "a victory for the Hyundai irregular workers themselves, but a loss for the labor movement as a whole."
It is the power of class-consciousness and unity that makes struggle possible. The struggle, therefore, will surely go on.
http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/hyundai-irregular-workers?xg_source=activity
Yesterday's Strike Newsletter:
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