5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
The Migrants' Trade Union(MTU) has been conducting a sit-in protest at Hyangrin Church in Seoul's Myeong-dong since July 13 to protest the South Korean government’s unjust crackdown against undocumented migrant workers. Additionally MTU’s President began a hunger strike on July 25.
Here you can read MTU's 4th report, published last Saturday(7.31):
*July 27 (Tuesday)
Many people have been coming to the sit-in protest site to conduct interviews and report on our struggle. Yonhap News, a union researcher from England named Ciaran, a Korean foreign student from Harvard University and Salad TV visited and cover our story. It makes us feel as if we are receiving a lot of attention and encouragement. Kim Yi-chan from the KCTU Special Committee to Fight for the Reinstatement of Dismissed Workers and comrades from KCTU Seoul Regional Council, and Seoul General Union also visited our protest site.
*July 28 (Wednesday)
This was the fourth day of the MTU President’s hunger strike. There were also a lot of interviews on this day. Redian and Labor Today covered our protest. Our president gave a passionate interview, despite being very tired from the hunger strike. We also participated in a meeting of the Seoul Alliance of Irregular Workers Unions and spread the word about our protest. We were also visited by participants in the Migrant Rights Defender and officers from the Hyangrin Church.
*July 29 (Thursday)
Chamsesang(*) and Nepal News conducted interviews. As this was the fifth day of our President’s hunger strike Doctor Choe Gyu-jin from the Alliance of Health and Medical Workers Organizations came and treated him. Doctor Choe told the President that his is very weak and need to be careful. We agreed that the President would have regular check ups. This day we were visited by the Imprisoned Workers Supports Alliance, People’s Solidarity for Social Progress, a Nepalese comrade and Comrades Yuri and Dongyoung. The Incheon Migrants Alliance also carried out street outreach at Dongam Station Plaza in the afternoon.
* July 30 (Friday)
The Director and other comrades from the Seoul Branch of the Railway Workers Union and comrades from the Alliance of Irregular Workers Union, Seoul Branch, the Korean Clerical Workers Union for Solidarity, Hwaija Branch, Kiryeung Electronics Chapter of the Metal Workers Union, the Korean Public Interest Lawyers’Group, Gong-Gam, MWTV, the Morado Team and Student March visited this day.
We also held a candlelight protest calling for an end to the crackdown in front of Myeongdong Cathedral beginning at 7pm. Roughly 150 migrant workers and Korean supporters attended.
Despite it being the sixth day of his hunger strike, MTU’s President gave a powerful speech and received much applause. The Director of KCTU Seoul Regional Council, Lee Jae-wung and Minister Im Bo-ran of Hyangrin Church gave solidarity speeches. “Big Smile”a singing group from KCTU Seoul Regional Council’s Central DistrictCouncil performed and Nepalese comrades spoke and sang “We Shall Overcome.”Members of National Student March did a protest dance and Comrade Somodu of Stop Crackdown Band gave the final performance. We are very grateful to all who attended. It gave great strength to those of us conducting the sit-in protest and other migrant workers.
Participants included: KCTU Chief Vice President Jeong Ui-heon, KCTU Seoul Regional Council Director and other comrades, KCTU Seoul Regional Council, Central District Council Chairperson, Seoul General Union President and other comrades, Korean Public Service Workers Union, Seogyeong Branch, KCTU Special Committee to Fight for the Reinstatement of Dismissed Workers, People’s Solidarity for Social Progress, All Together, Human Rights Foundation Saram, Joint Committee for the Construction of a Socialist Party, Hyangrin Church, National Student March, Korea Exposure and Education Program, Public Interest Lawyers’Group Gong-Gam, Incheon Migrants Alliance, Democratic Workers Alliance, Nanum Culture, Workers Liberation Evictees Alliance, Korean Migrant Workers Human Rights Center, Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights in Korea, Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea, Friends of Asia, Korean Teachers and Education Workers’Union, MWTV, Morado Team, Dasan Human Rights Center, MTU.
* Chamsesang's interview you can read(but only in Korean^^) here!
And finally MTU's facebook you'll find here!
Yesterday's Hankyoreh reported the following about the latest (unpleasant) developments connected with the Duriban Sit-in Struggle:
Electricity cut off at Hongdae redevelopment protest site
The redevelopment company targeted the building for demolishment and cut the building’s electricity cable
Today's (protest) press conference in front of Duriban sit-in struggle/squat site
“Cutting off someone’s electricity in the middle of summer is a death sentence. We have lit dozens of candles, but it leaves us worrying about fire, and the corners that the candlelight cannot reach smell.”
It is July 28, and the kalguksu noodle restaurant “Duriban,” in the Hongik University (Hongdae) neighborhood, has gone without electricity for eight consecutive days. Its struggle with heat and darkness continues. As the site of a sit-in by local artists and civic activists opposing redevelopment in the Hongdae area that has been going for 210 days so far, Duriban has become known as “Little Yongsan,” an allusion to the disaster involving people made homeless by redevelopment in the Yongsan area last year.
On July 21 Namjeon D&C, the company carrying out the redevelopment in the area, cut the electricity cable leading to Duriban, saying that it was “stealing electricity from the neighboring construction site.”
Duriban had been temporarily using an electricity cable from a nearby subway construction site, with consent, after the redevelopment company removed electrical wiring in order to demolish the building.
The electricity was forcibly cut off, while Korea Electric Power Corporation’s (KEPCO) attitude was that forcible execution had taken place and that it was therefore unable to restore the supply.
As a result, more than 10 activists have been holding an indefinite sit-in protest at Mapo District Office since July 26. Ahn Jong-nyeo, owner of Duriban and head of a task force for victims of home demolition in the Donggyo neighborhood, urged the local ward office to solve the problem. Ahn said that when the electricity was cut off to an inhabited place, the people there should be designated as eligible to be provided with electricity as a basic living necessity, even if they had no money.
In response, Mapo District Office sent an official document to KEPCO demanding cooperation, while KEPCO stated that the electricity meter had been removed from the building last year following a legal request from the construction company and that the issue of restoring the electricity supply was a complicated one. It said it would conduct a legal examination and reach a quick decision.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/432649.html
For more detailed info (sorry, only in Korean!) please check out:
Seoul: Sit-in Struggle against the crackdown in the name of the G-20
The Migrants' Trade Union (MTU) has been conducting a sit-in protest at Hyangrin Church in Myeongdong since July 13 to protest the South Korean government’s unjust crackdown against undocumented migrant workers.
MTU’s President began a hunger strike on July 25.
This act is an earnest call for an end to the criminalization of and repression against undocumented migrants’ rights. We ask for you solidarity and support.
MTU's Third Report (the 2nd you can read here):
* July 21 (Wednesday)
This morning we participated in a press conference calling for cancellation of the layoff of irregular workers by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (Nonghyup), which was held in front of the Nonghyup office near Seodaemun Station. As always, Nonghyup still refuses to guarantee the rights of irregular workers. In addition, they fired the Branch Leader of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation Branch of the Korean Clerical Workers Union for Solidarity, using the end of his contract as an excuse. We showed our solidarity for the workers’ struggle and raised our voices in protest.
In the afternoon, we participated in a mass rally held by KCTU in Jonggak. Despite the heat many workers gathered to protest democratic unionism and show their resolve to continue their struggle in the second half of the year. At this protest we handed out flyers criticizing the crackdown on undocumented migrants and calling for support for our sit-in protest.
* July 23 (Friday)
The President of MTU gave a solidarity speech at the Students’ Alterglobalization Forum. We also made a call for greater attention to and support for the rights of migrant workers during a session migrant workers’ human and labor rights. In the afternoon Filipino workers visited us for counseling and advice. One of the workers was pregnant and hoping to get an extension of the time allowed for finding new work. Her problem was that the Job Center refused to grant her more time because her three-year residence period would soon end. In the evening we participated in a memorial service for Samsung Electronics workers who had died due to industrial accidents and passed out leaflets.
* July 24 (Saturday)
We participated in a conference on Marxism. MTU’s President gave a lecture on the situation of migrant workers. After the lecture there was a lively discussion and participants carried out street outreach and fundraising for our struggle against the crackdown.
In the evening we had a cultural event with MTU members. We gave a report about the sit-in and our future plans. There were also many performances. We learned a Filipino movement song and watched a dance performed by members of the sit-in protest. We also played fun games and generally had a good time.
* July 25 (Sunday)
This was the first day of the MTU President’s hunger strike. We participated in a Rally against the Crackdown on Undocumented Migrant Workers held by Daegu Migrants Solidarity Group, KCTU Northern Gyeongsan Regional Council, Norther Gyeongsan General Union and Gyeongsan Migrant Workers Center.
Despite the hot weather, any migrant workers from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Indonesia participated. The MTU President gave a solidarity speech in which he noted that we must strengthen solidarity among all workers who are oppressed if we are to win respect for our rights. At the end of the protest participants threw water balloons in a symbolic act. After the protest we had a meeting with migrant workers from the Daegu area. The Daegu migrant workers resolved to carry out various actions to protest the crackdown.
*July 26 (Monday)
This was the 14thday of the sit-in protest and the second day of the President’s hunger strike. During the day roughly 15 lawyers and trainees from the organization Minbyun visited our protest sit and expressed their solidarity. They said they would continue activities to support our struggle. In the afternoon we participated in a protest held by the National Street Vendors Conferdation and gave a solidarity speech.
Several officers from KCTU Seoul Regional Council also visited us, as did comrades from the National Alliance of Irregular Workers Unions and members form the “Do Something to Stop the Crackdown” group.
http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=29684#1
Daegu: Since almost 10 days the concentrated struggle against the "G-20 Crackdown" is still going on!
Last week Japan's so-called "Training Program" for migrant workers - comparable to the S. Korean "ITS"(*), we were fighting against for years... - became an object of special attention by some US media.
Last Wednesday's NYTimes published the following coverage:
"Training Program" Is Said to Exploit Migrant Workers
Six young Chinese women arrived in this historic city three summers ago, among the tens of thousands of apprentices brought to Japan each year on the promise of job training, good pay and a chance at a better life back home.
Instead, the women say, they were subjected to 16-hour workdays assembling cell phones at below the minimum wage, with little training of any sort, all under the auspices of a government-approved “foreign trainee” program that critics call industrial Japan’s dirty secret.
“My head hurt, my throat stung,” said Zhang Yuwei, 23, who operated a machine that printed cell phone keypads, battling fumes that she said made the air so noxious that managers would tell Japanese employees to avoid her work area.
Ms. Zhang says she was let go last month after her employer found that she and five compatriots had complained to a social worker about their work conditions. A Japanese lawyer is now helping the group sue their former employer, seeking back pay and damages totaling $207,000.
Critics say foreign trainees have become an exploited source of cheap labor in a country with one of the world’s most rapidly aging populations and lowest birthrates. All but closed to immigration, Japan faces an acute labor shortage, especially for jobs at the country’s hardscrabble farms or small family-run factories.
“The mistreatment of trainees appears to be widespread,” said Shoichi Ibusuki, a human rights lawyer based in Tokyo.
From across Asia, about 190,000 trainees — migrant workers in their late teens to early 30s — now toil in factories and farms in Japan. They have been brought to the country, in theory, to learn technical expertise under an international aid program started by the Japanese government in the 1990s.
For businesses, the government-sponsored trainee program has offered a loophole to hiring foreign workers. But with little legal protection, the indentured work force is exposed to substandard, sometimes even deadly, working conditions, critics say.
Government records show that at least 127 of the trainees have died since 2005 — or one of about every 2,600 trainees, which experts say is a high death rate for young people who must pass stringent physicals to enter the program. Many deaths involved strokes or heart failure that worker rights groups attribute to the strain of excessive labor.
The Justice Ministry found more than 400 cases of mistreatment of trainees at companies across Japan in 2009, including failing to pay legal wages and exposing trainees to dangerous work conditions. This month, labor inspectors in central Japan ruled that a 31-year-old Chinese trainee, Jiang Xiaodong, had died from heart failure induced by overwork.
Under pressure by human rights groups and a string of court cases, the government has begun to address some of the program’s worst abuses. The United Nations has urged Japan to scrap it altogether.
After one year of training, during which the migrant workers receive subsistence pay below the minimum wage, trainees are allowed to work for two more years in their area of expertise at legal wage levels. But interviews with labor experts and a dozen trainees indicate that the foreign workers seldom achieve those pay rates.
On paper, the promised pay still sounds alluring to the migrant workers. Many are from rural China, where per-capita disposable income can be as low as $750 a year. To secure a spot in the program, would-be trainees pay many times that amount in fees and deposits to local brokers, sometimes putting up their homes as collateral — which can be confiscated if trainees quit early or cause trouble.
The Japan International Training Cooperation Organization, or Jitco, which operates the program, said it was aware some companies had abused the system and that it was taking steps to crack down on the worst cases. The organization plans to ensure that “trainees receive legal protection, and that cases of fraud are eliminated,” Jitco said in a written response to questions.
Ms. Zhang says she paid $8,860 to a broker in her native Hebei Province for a spot in the program. She was assigned to a workshop run by Modex-Alpha, which assembles cellphones sold by Sharp and other electronics makers. Ms. Zhang said her employer demanded her passport and housed her in a cramped apartment with no heat, alongside five other trainees.
In her first year, Ms. Zhang worked eight-hour days and received $660 a month after various deductions, according to her court filing — about $3.77 an hour, or less than half the minimum wage level in Hiroshima. Moreover, all but $170 a month was forcibly withheld by the company as savings, and paid out only after Ms. Zhang pushed the company for the full amount, she said.
In her second year, her monthly wage rose to about $1,510 — or $7.91 an hour, according to her filing. That was still lower than the $8.56 minimum wage for the electronics industry in Hiroshima. And her employers withheld all but $836 a month for her accommodations and other expenses, according to her filing.
And as her wages went up, so did her hours, she said, to as many as 16 a day, five to six days a week. Modex-Alpha declined to comment on Ms. Zhang’s account, citing her lawsuit against the company.
As part of the government’s effort to clean up the program, beginning July 1, minimum wage and other labor protections have for the first time been applied to first-year workers. The government has also banned the confiscating of trainees’ passports.
But experts say it will be hard to change the program’s culture.
Economic strains are also a factor. Although big companies like Toyota and Mazda have moved much of their manufacturing to China to take advantage of low wages there, smaller businesses have found that impossible — and yet are still pressured to drive down costs.
“If these businesses hired Japanese workers, they would have to pay,” said Kimihiro Komatsu, a labor consultant in Hiroshima. “But trainees work for a bare minimum,” he said. “Japan can’t afford to stop.”
For almost three years, Catherine Lopez, 28, a trainee from Cebu, the Philippines, has worked up to 14 hours a day, sometimes six days a week, welding parts at a supplier for the Japanese carmaker Mazda. She receives as little as $1,574 a month, or $7.91 an hour — below the $8.83 minimum wage for auto workers in Hiroshima.
Ms. Lopez says Japanese managers at the supplier, Kajiyama Tekko, routinely hurl verbal abuses at her cohort of six trainees, telling them to follow orders or “swim back to the Philippines.”
“We came to Japan because we want to learn advanced technology,” Ms. Lopez said.
Yukari Takise, a manager at Kajiyama Tekko, denied the claims. “If they don’t like it here,” she said, “they can go home.”
But after inquiries by a reporter for The New York Times, a company that organizes the trainee program in Hiroshima, Ateta Japan, said it had advised Kajiyama Tekko to recalculate the wages it pays foreign trainees and ordered it to grant the vacation days owed to the trainees.
“They may have pushed the trainees too hard,” said Hideki Matsunishi, Ateta’s president. “But you must also feel sympathy for the companies, who are all struggling in this economy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/business/global/21apprentice.html
Related video:
☞ Japan: Training or Exploitation? (CNN, 7.22)
* In South Korea, the Industrial Trainee System (ITS) is a common source of cheap and docile labour. This system is inherently systematic in its exploitation and abuse of migrant workers. The ITS only guarantees migrant workers a three-year legal stay in Korea, but as a trainee not a legal worker. After three years, the 'trainees' must go back to their country. As trainees, they have no 'legal' rights and bargaining power with employers; neither do they receive protection from local unions or state regulatory bodies because they are not 'legitimate' workers, even though they perform the same jobs as regular workers. Migrant workers are mainly employed in small factories as trainees with labour intensive production, they have to perform the so-called 3-D (dirty, dangerous and difficult) jobs with very low payment (around US$ 350 per month), long working hours and no labour rights. They are not allowed to join unions. Despite frequent industrial accidents, they are not entitled to compensation. In fact, the ITS is a kind of modern slavery. It is no wonder that migrant workers (trainees) run away from their work and become undocumented workers. Around 80 percent of all foreign workers remain in South Korea illegal migrants. (Asian Human Rights Commission, Jan. 2004)
Today's "top story" in the int'l (at least 'western') media:
A huge cache of secret US military files provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how "coalition forces" have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.
The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks ("The Afghanistan War Diary") in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years...
Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing...
The war logs also detail:
• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.
• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.
• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.
• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date...
But while the war logs/diary shows the true face of the war in Afghanistan the White House (surprise, surprise!) is attacking WikiLeaks, according to today's Spiegel online edition...
For more detailed info please check out Guardian's special section "Afghanistan War Logs" or WikiLeaks' "Afghanistan War Diary"!
According to yesterday's top news story in the S. Korean and int'l media the regime in Pyongyang is threatening with a Nuclear Jihad (i.e. 'retaliatory sacred war'/K. Herald: "North Korea warns of 'revengeful holy war'") as you can see in the following examples...
Yonhap: "N.Korea threatens to use nukes against ROK-US joint naval drills"
AP: "NKorea Vows Nuclear Response To US-SKorea Drills"
Al-Jazeera: "N. Korea threatens 'sacred war'"
And here you can 'enjoy' the source (via KCNA) of yesterday's headlines:
NDC: Counter US-S. Korea War Exercises with Nuclear Deterrence
The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces finally went into reckless actions against the DPRK after having frantically pushed ahead with the moves to stifle the DPRK under the pretext of the "Cheonan" case.
A spokesman for the DPRK National Defence Commission issued a statement on Saturday clarifying the principled stand of the army and people of the DPRK in this regard.
It said: The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces are planning to stage joint naval exercises in the East Sea of Korea from July 25 to 28, the "Ulji Freedom Guardian" joint exercises and joint anti-submarine exercises in the West Sea of Korea from August 16 to 26 and different ceaseless joint naval exercises from late in August to early in September and other drills. All these war maneuvers are nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the DPRK by force of arms to all intents and purposes.
If the publication of the results of investigation into the "Cheonan" case which was faked up by the U.S. imperialists at instigation of their puppet forces was the first reckless military provocation to the DPRK, the joint naval maneuvers they are to stage even with nuclear strike means involved under the pretext of the above-said case amount to an unpardonable second military provocation to the DPRK, the statement noted, and continued:
The chief architect of the warship case seems to send a "message as deterrence" to somebody while staging offensive exercises under the pretext of the forged case after falsifying its truth. This is as reckless an act as waking up a sleeping tiger.
The DPRK National Defence Commission re-clarifies the following principled stand as regards this abnormal situation where the U.S. and the south Korean puppet forces are threatening this land with a nuclear war under the pretext of the "Cheonan" case:
The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the south Korean puppet forces.
The more desperately the U.S. imperialists brandish their nukes and the more zealously their lackeys follow them, the more rapidly the DPRK's nuclear deterrence will be bolstered up along the orbit of self-defence and the more remote the prospect for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will be become.
The army and people of the DPRK will start a retaliatory sacred war of their own style based on nuclear deterrent any time necessary in order to counter the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war.
Now that the U.S. imperialists are persisting in their direct military provocations in gross violation of the spirit of the September 19 joint statement in which they promised not to attack or invade the DPRK with either nuclear or conventional weapons, it is a natural option of the army and people of the DPRK to take corresponding all-out retaliatory measures.
The army and people of the DPRK will take all steps to the last to thoroughly probe the truth behind the case under the situation where the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces persistently and deliberately link the DPRK with the "Cheonan" case.
It is a legitimate and sovereign right to protect the honor and dignity of the DPRK for them to probe the truth about the despicable "fabrication" and "charade."
The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces will keenly realize what high price they will have to pay for their reckless military provocation rendering the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the worst phase under the pretext of the "Cheonan" case.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201007/news24/20100724-01ee.html
Related articles:
☞ Joint military exercise begins in East Sea (Korea Herald, 7.25)
☞ US and S Korea begin joint drill (al-Jazeera, 7.25)
☞ S Korea-US military exercise begins in the Sea of Japan (BBC, 7.25)
Today's Hankyoreh published the following report:
Environmental activists begin sit-in at Four Rivers sites
The Lee administration has forged ahead with the project during the rainy season despite widespread opposition and safety concerns
Calling for an end to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, major leaders from local chapters of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) carried out a surprise occupation Thursday morning of the Ipo Weir site on the Han River and the Haman Weir site on the Nakdong River.
At around 5 a.m. Thursday, Busan KFEM Secretary General Choi Soo-young and Jinju KFEM Secretary General Lee Hwan-moon used a rubber boat to enter the Haman Weir construction site in Gilgok Township, Changnyeong County, South Gyeongsang Province.
They subsequently took over a 40-meter crane installed at the site. The Korea Water Resources Corporation had dismantled most of the equipment in anticipation of heavy rains on July 16 and 17, but the crane was not taken down because it was deemed to present no safety issues.
Meanwhile, at around 3:25 a.m. the same morning, Seoul KFEM Secretary General Yum Hyung-cheol, Suwon KFEM Secretary General Jang Dong-bin, and Goyang KFEM Executive Committee Chairman Park Pyeong-su began an occupation atop the skirt board of the 30-meter fifth column of Ipo Weir in Daesin Township, Yeoju County, located in Han River Zone 3.
During a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, Yeom, who had brought food, water, and gasoline for a generator to the indefinite occupation, said that the KFEM “opted for an occupation because we could no longer sit by and watch the irrational and anti-ecological destruction of life.”
“The government needs to halt the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project before it is too late, and establish a pan-societal discussion body to find alternatives and solutions,” Yeom said.
Following the occupation Thursday morning, the KFEM formally called upon the Lee Myung-bak administration to immediately halt the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, establish a body for citizen dialogue, and form a special committee within the National Assembly to examine the project.
“The government has merely been entrusted with authority, yet it is disregarding the objections of a majority of South Koreans and pushing forward with the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project,” said KFEM Secretary General Kim Jong-nam, visiting the site of occupation at Ipo Weir. “As the representative public servant, Mr. Lee Myung-bak needs to pursue true dialogue with the people, the ones who hold real sovereignty.”
An advertisement installed at the top of Ipo Weir bearing the words “Yeoju’s Landmark Weir” was covered up Thursday with a large banner reading “Leave the Four Rivers Alone,” and the occupiers also put up a banner reading “SOS 4 RIVERS” in English. The occupiers on Ipo Weir cut off a makeshift path connecting with the weir in order to prevent others from entering. About 50 civic group members from the Busan and South Gyeongsang area held a candlelight demonstration at 7:30 Thursday evening in front of the Haman Weir construction site, where they called for a halt to the Four Major Rivers Project.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/431769.html
Last week MTU (Migrants' Trade Union) started a sit-in struggle against the ongoing crackdown campaign in the name of coming G-20 Summit in Seoul, S. Korea.
We are not criminals! We are not terrorists!
Sit-in protest against crackdown on undocumented
migrant workers in the name of G-20
First Report (by MTU, 7.20)
* In June the South Korean government began a concentrated crackdown on undocumented migrant workers, claiming this measure is necessary to ensure the successful holding of the G20 Summit in November. The government says the crackdown will go on until the end of August. All around the country the Immigration Service, the Ministry of Labor and the police are carrying out raids and stopping people on the streets. Everyday dozens of people suffer because of this inhumane policy of arrest and deportation. As if this is not enough, the government is even forcing detained migrants to pay a fine of up to 2 million won, furthering their troubles. At some immigration offices the fine is being taken out of back wages sent to detained migrant workers without their consent. This is clearly an illegal act. First crackdown, then fines... Forcing this double burden on migrants is a severe form of oppression.
There are also cases of violent treatment. For example, a Chinese migrant worker was beaten after being taken to the office of the Suwon Immigration Service.
To protest against this policy of arrest and deportation, the Migrants' Trade Union began a sit-in protest in Hyang-rin Church in the Myeongdong district on July 13.
Although there are not many of us participating in the sit-in many people, including activists from overseas, came to our opening ceremony to show solidarity and support.
We wish to express our sincere gratitude to all those who participated.
http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=29372#0
*****
Protest against mass crackdown on the undocumented
migrant workers in S. Korea!
Dear friends and allies,
Migrants' Trade Union (MTU) sends you warm greetings and solidarity. We are writing to inform you of very upsetting events taking place in South Korea and to ask for your support.
South Koreais currently preparing to host the G20 Summit in November. The government of Lee Myung-bak is using the upcoming event as an excuse to enforce policies that trample on basic democratic rights. In particular, the Lee administration is using the G20 Summit as a pretext for carrying out a massive crackdown against undocumented migrant workers currently residing in the country.
For many years now, migrant workers have worked in South Korea's small and medium-size factories, playing an important role by supporting South Korean industry. Undocumented migrant workers, who have often lived in Korea longer than their documented colleagues, have become especially accustom to Korean culture and lived together with Korean citizens as part of Korean society.
Despite the fact that the Korean government brings thousands of migrant workers to Korea to fill labor shortages in small and medium-size companies, it will not allow them to legally settle or invite their families to live with them. Refusing to sight the UN Convention on the Protect of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Family, which promises basic protections for migrant workers' human rights, the South Korean government treats migrant workers only as cheap and disposable labor. The government's sole policy towards undocumented migrant workers has been one of viscous raids, detention and deportation, which has lead to countless injuries and deaths. Every year, migrant workers lose their lives in the course of the government's crackdown.
This year, the government is using the G20 Summit as an excuse to openly strengthening the policy of raids, detention and deportation. Since May, the police have been carrying out a 'crackdown on foreigner crime', stopping people on the street for no reason other than that they appear to be foreign. The government has said it plans to get rid of South Korea's 180,000 undocumented migrant workers by the end of August.
In response, labor and social justice organizations are joining forces to oppose this anti-human rights, anti-labor policy, and carry out a united struggle to protect migrant workers' rights.
We ask for your support and solidarity as we move forward with our struggle. Please send letters of protest to the South Korean government expressing your grave concern about its repression against migrant workers. A sample letter is attached for your reference.
Your solidarity is an important part of a wider effort to protect the rights of South Korea's migrant workers. We will work hard to keep you informed of the situation here in Korea. We ask for your sincere attention and support.
July 4th, 2010
A Sample Protest Letter you'll find here!
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