5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Today's TOP STORY from KCNA:
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way as requested by its scientists and technicians.
The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and the results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology.
The successful nuclear test is greatly inspiring the army and people of the DPRK all out in the 150-day campaign, intensifying the drive for effecting a new revolutionary surge to open the gate to a thriving nation.
The test will contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the region around it with the might of Songun.
While two days ago S. Korea(resp. Roh Moo-hyun's suicide) produced a top story (actually only one among many other..) in the int'l media, today N.K. produced definitely the TOP STORY no. 1 in the int'l media.
For example in Germany: "North Korea Provokes the World" (Berliner Zeitung), "Kim's Nuclear Test Shocks the World" (Der Spiegel) etc..
But finally the N.K.'s nuke test is achieving (until now) only leading headlines in the int'l news, international condemnations(*) and warnings of tougher U.N. sanctions! What a surprise!!^^
* According to a CNN report from Beijing, even the Chinese gov't is reacting very angry about the latest news from Pyeongyang! Xinhua: Chinese gov't resolutely opposes DPRK's nuclear
To be continued..
"Memorial in Roh Moo-hyun's Honor"
During his (presidential) election campaign in late 2002 Roh promised quite a lot!
- a "labour-friendly" policy
- to improve the human rights in S.K.
- the refusal to support the then planned aggression against Iraq
- to revise the SOFA (status of the USFK)
- to improve the living conditions of the poor/most exploited people
etc, etc..
But from the beginning of his presidency Roh proved that he's just another obidient representative of the ruling (capitalist) class in S.K.!
Nov. 2005: bloody attack against farmers' protest rally in Seoul
- The workers/labor union movement was (partially extreme bloody) oppressed, just like before! Hundreds of trade union activists were imprisoned.
- Tousands of (un-documented) migrant workers were haunted by immigration officers and riot cops, arrested and deported. No small number of migrant workers, threatened by this policy, were forced to commit suicide! ETU-MB and later the MTU became the subject of permanent repression by the "authorities".
- Only few weeks after Roh's inauguration he announced that his gov't is going to support the Iraq War. Later, despite the strong opposition by a majority of the S.K. public, the gov't sent S.K. troops to join the occupation of Iraq.
- The anti-militarist/anti-USFK movement (e.g. in Pyeongtaek/Daechu-ri) has been (partially bloody) suppressed.
May 2006: S.K. army and riot cops terrorizing anti-USFK protesters in Daechu-ri
- During Roh's presidency thousands of tenants were (frequently forcibly) evicted. Thousands of street vendors were (frequently forcibly) expelled and deprived of their basis of existence... etc, etc..
Related article:
☞ Roh Moo-hyun (Guardian, 5.24)
PS: Of course that's not a reason to cheer Roh's suicide!!
1. Struggle News #1 - part of IMC S.K. and Media Redevelopment Action Radio's project, broadcasting from the Candle Light Media Center in Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea.
Struggle News #1 (5.19) covered the last week of actions and events that took place in South Korea:
2. Tomorrow's struggle day(afternoon/night) in Seoul
* according to 촛불시민연석회의. There you can find some more infos about tomorrow's struggle day dates!
"Redevelopment" Without Resistance: Mass Eviction!
First of all: Y'day in the morning - once again - seven activists who are resisting the "redevelopment" project in Seoul's Yongsan district were arrested, according to IMC S.K.!
Meanwhile in Seoul's towntown area - between Sejong-no and Dongdaemun/Eulji-ro and Jongno-gu - the destruction of entire residential quarters are in progress without pause!
"Under the city's New Town plan, up to 98,742 homes are expected to be torn down in the year 2010 alone", Korea Herald wrote Feb. 5. This means that tens of thousands of families will be evicted until the end of next year!
But while the resistance in Yongsan is now (more or less) well documented, the fate of many other areas (including their residents) is possibly unknown/unoticed..
For example Samgak-/Suha-dong.
The residential area was located between Eulji-ro and Cheonggyecheon.
2004, November 7, it was a Sunday, at 4 o’clock in the morning about 1.000 criminal gangsters (hired by the construction mafia) as usual backed by large units of the riot cops (unit 1001…), stormed the area. By using massive violence they drove the people, mainly still in their beds, out off their homes. After 13 hours the gangsters left the area and 150 shops, offices, workshops and restaurants were almost complete destroyed (the entire story, incl. many pics, you can read here!).
Now, almost five years later, despite massive organized...
...resistance by the residents, Samagak-/Suha-dong is complete abandoned and "ready" for "redevelopment".
Impressions from the area before/during and after the eviction:
MUST SEE ("Hong Gil-dong's.." video about the struggle in Samgak-/Suha-dong):
New figures from Germany's domestic intelligence agency show that the number of far-right crimes in Germany increased by 16 percent in 2008. Officials warn of the rise of Black Bloc-style "anarchist"(*) neo-Nazis who actively seek violence at demonstrations. The German (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel wrote yesterday following:
German Authorities Warn of Rise of 'Anarchist' Neo-Nazis
Authorities in Germany have warned of a worrying new tendency within the far-right scene -- the rise of violent 'anarchist' neo-Nazis.
* "National Anarchists"(NA) joining a Nazi demo in Berlin, summer 2001. As you can see it's not a new trent, but since some years the "Autonomous Nationalists" - not the NA - became a mass phenomenon.
Heinz Fromm, the president of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, warned Tuesday of a "new phenomenon" within the far-right scene. Presenting the agency's 2008 report in Berlin, he said that over the last two years a scene had emerged of 'anarchist' neo-Nazis who dress similarly to the so-called Black Bloc of far-left anarchists and who deliberately seek violence at demonstrations. He put the number of so-called "right-wing anarchists" at between 400 and 500 people.
The report also reveals there were 19,894 far-right crimes reported in Germany in 2008, an increase of almost 16 percent over the previous year. Of those, 1,042 were acts of politically motivated violence, an increase of 6.3 percent over 2007. Most of the other crimes were propaganda offenses.
The number of people with extreme far-right views in Germany is estimated by the agency to be around 30,000 in 2008, a slight decline over 2007, when it was around 31,000. Of that number, around 9,500 are thought to be prepared to use violence. However the number of active neo-Nazis in Germany increased significantly in 2008, from 4,400 to 4,800.
According to the report, membership of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) declined slightly last year, from 7,200 to around 7,000 members. However the role of neo-Nazis within the party has grown, said Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. "The neo-Nazi part of the spectrum is gaining greater influence within the NPD," he said. The NPD, which has seats in two state parliaments, officially rejects violence and avoids explicit Nazi references...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,625756,00.html
Related:
☞ Interview: "Neonazis vom Web 2.0" (taz, 5.20)
But also the "ordinary" daily racism in Germany and other EU countries is very alarming as the following example, published last week in The Guardian (UK), is showing:
Roma still face racism
Last month, the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency found that racism and discrimination across the EU is far more widespread than previously thought, with Europe's estimated 12 million Roma, or Gypsy, population particularly affected. Earlier this month it was reported that Roma in Hungary had taken to the streets in self-defence after a wave of attacks led to five of their community being murdered in 10 months. Here, Helene Weiss describes life as a Romany in Hamburg, where her family have lived for 600 years, but still suffer discrimination today:
My name is Helene Weiss. This is my name in Germany and it is the name which is written down in my passport. But my other name is Meuni, which is what my familiy and all my friends call me – family and friends who are Roma or Sinti like me. I grew up bilingually, but the Romany language is my first.
If somebody asked which place in the world I call my home, I would answer: Hamburg. I was born here and have lived here all my life. My ancestors came to this city more than 600 years ago.
Today, I work as an assistant for the Rom und Cinti Union, an organisation that stands up for the rights of the Sinti and Roma people. We advise and support our clients in every day questions, problems with integration and difficult tasks they must sort out with officials. Sometimes we talk to people who are afraid to be deported.
In contrast to this, my everyday life is quite average. In the morning I wake up and head off to my office. In the afternoon I meet my friends and my family. Three times a week I go to school to get my general secondary leaving certificate.
Still, sometimes I feel that people are suspicious of me because of my origins. Some weeks ago I went shopping in the city centre and I suddenly realised that one of the shop assistants had started following me. She observed every step I made. At one point, I turned around and said: 'Excuse me, I am not going to steal anything and I am going to leave your shop now and as fast as I can!' The woman didn’t react, but I could see that she was relieved when she saw me walking away. I have never stolen anything in my entire life and her suspicion still hurts me.
Maybe this is the reason why I don’t like to be called a 'zigan' or Gypsy, because people connect mostly negative stereotypes with this expression. Either 'gypsies' are considered rotten thieves roaming the city or people think about beautiful women, romantic music, adventurous movies and us travelling the country in our mobile homes. Well, yes, we do play great music and I did watch movies about so-called gypsies myself. But we are more than just this.
We are people, like everyone else who is living here, leading a normal live. And we definitely aren’t criminals that don’t care about their children. I don’t know anybody who lives in a mobile home. My friends all live in apartments.
There is one memory I still recall when it comes to discrimination. Four years ago, when my grandmother turned 90, she became very ill and we took her to hospital. She had to share her room with another old German lady. As we unpacked my grandmother’s things, this woman said: 'Hitler must have forgotten to put all of you up against a wall and shoot!' I was terrified. How could she say this? My father tried to talk to the doctor to make him move my grandmother to another room, but the only thing he said was: 'I don’t have time to discuss this right now.' So we took her home at once. A few days later she died.
I was close to tears when I heard what this woman said. I mean, during National Socialism the Nazis deported my grandmother and her whole family to a concentration camp. She was a young woman then. The Nazis abused her and my grandfather and even let their son, who suffered from an infection, die in front of her eyes. I grew up with her horrible memories of those days. I would find her sitting at home crying so many times. Even towards the end of her life, she knew she wouldn’t be able to die peacefully.
When I was about eight years old, I went to a new secondary school. It was a terrible experience. One morning, I entered the classroom and suddenly all the other children started shouting, calling me a 'dirty Gypsy'. I ran home and asked: 'Why do they call me a dirty Gypsy, daddy?' I never was a scruffy person – and I spoke German fluently. Maybe the children didn’t know how cruel they were being to me. I sometimes wonder whether they just repeated what they heard from their parents at home.
As I turned older, the situation got worse. I only had one friend in my class, an African-American girl. We did everything together, maybe because we suffered from a similar problem. We went to the canteen to have lunch and sometimes we would hang out together. My other classmates ignored us. Even the teacher didn’t do much to support me. One afternoon, my brother was beaten up after class. I simply didn’t want to go back to this place. Finally, we were moved to a special school – when I was fourteen.
Since then, I have somehow made it through life. I feel much more accepted now than I felt when I was a child. But I am grown up now and I know how to defend myself.
I don’t want to give the impression that I face racism every day. Neither am I afraid whenever I walk down the street. But the moments I have described, they make me wonder a lot whether I, as a Sinti woman, will ever be totally accepted. I hope that one day I will.
But then again, recently when we wanted to move office, we couldn't find anything. Everybody we called said: 'We will get back to you soon'. And, of course, they never called again. I started wondering: 'Are they not calling back because we are Sinti and Roma, because they don’t want us to rent their office?' To me, the answer is quite obvious.
http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=1073&catID=9
Last Friday the Yongsan Countermeasure Committee(Yongsan Coalition) released following request for int'l solidarity:
[urgent action] Justice for Yongsan!
Friends and comrades,
In Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea, we have an emergency. January 20th, 2009, 1,500 police including the Korean SWAT team made a surprise attack on comrades who were trying to resist forced eviction and the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) “redevelopment” (or gentrification) program. This so-called “redevelopment” program has continued since the 1960s as an effort to transfer capital, shelter and wealth into the hands of large corporations like Samsung, Posco and Hyundai. Many people can’t afford to pay rent in these apartment complexes and buildings that these huge corporations are establishing with the support of the SMG.
After a large group of comrades who were occupying a building in Yongsan, Seoul, were surprise attacked on January 20th, 6 people were killed in a fire.
The SMG is trying to prosecute members of the National Evictee Alliance who were taking part in the occupation. These comrades are still having a sit-in struggle at the same building in Yongsan. A few months ago, the Candle Light Media Center was established in a building behind the sit-in struggle site. The media center is where many activists gather to work on media projects together.
The prosecutor’s investigation team (who were investigating the “Yongsan Disaster” in which 5 people died on Jan 20) consisted of 100 of the most elite investigators who wrote a 10,000-page investigation document. This investigation team interviewed passer-bys, the police authorities, the firefighters, the SWAT team chain-of-command, and investigated the site of the disaster. The prosecutors now have access to this 10,000-page investigation report and they are claiming that 20 members of the National Evictee Alliance are responsible for the deaths and that no police (or government) have responsibility. The court ordered the prosecutors to release the 10,000-page investigation report to the defending attorneys, but the prosecutors refused to release 3,000 pages of the document.
So far, the prosecutors have released 500 pages of the 3,000 hidden pages of the investigation report. These 500 pages have shown that the National Evictee Alliance comrades never attacked anyone, but used molotov cocktails in self-defense when police and thugs hired by construction corporations attacked. The 500 pages also show that rank-and-order police (including SWAT team) were not informed that the building contained paint thinner while the high-ranking authorities were aware of this fact when they made the decision to attack the occupied building.
The defense attorneys are suspicious that the remaining 2,500 pages provide evidence that the police and SWAT team attack was reckless and resulted in the deaths of 6 people. The trial is currently pending because the defense team is trying to take the case to the supreme court.
We need these 2,500 pages that the prosecutors are trying to hide from the defense team. We also need our right to shelter protected and not subjected to the brutal market economy.
Comrades!
Your comrades in Yongsan, Seoul need your help!
Please do something to help because this state apparatus needs people from around the world to shout at it!
I bet you can’t have a solidarity demonstration at your local Korean Embassy! Or can you?
I bet you can’t send an e-mail to the prosecutors and demand that they release the remaining 2,500 pages of the investigation report! I bet you’re way too lazy! Or maybe not?
Please!
Signed,
Yongsan Coalition (http://mbout.jinbo.net)
contact: mbout@jinbo.net
Here’s the e-mail address of the prosecutors: proskorea@spo.go.kr
Here’s the prosecutors’ phone number: 82-2-3480-2337
Here’s the prosecutors’ fax number: 82-2-3480-2405
First of all: Today's Korea Herald reported that "the chairman of the KCTU acknowledged its responsibility for the violence on Saturday, saying there were some union members who were out of the control."(*)
About last Saturday's "National Workers Rally" in Daejeon today's ("left-liberal") Hankyoreh writes following:
Excessive use of force by police during
KCTU and KCTWU labor rally
Labor rally in Daejeon leads to mass arrest of delivery drivers and unionists
Some 457 workers were arrested, and an estimated 150 workers and police injured during a clash between protesters and police at a labor rally convened in Daejeon on Saturday by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU, Minju Nochong) and the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union (KCTWU). The government reacted to KCTWU’s decision Saturday to launch a general strike by threatening a harsh response and banning future KCTWU and KCTU demonstrations. Observers are concerned about a precipitating clash between labor and the government.
The KCTU and KCTWU convened a rally attended by some 15,000 unionists at Nammun Square in front of the Daejeon Government Complex on Saturday afternoon, and demanded the return to work of delivery drivers fired from Korea Express and the labor rights of ‘specially-employed’ laborers. After the rally, participants conducted a march, during which police moved to suppress the demonstration with clubs and water cannons, leading to a heated clash with resisting, flag-waving demonstrators.
Daejeon police said the protesters, armed with bamboo spears, severely injured two policemen and damaged 99 vehicles, including police buses, and 155 pieces of police equipment. They said they would detain those who assaulted police and destroyed public property, and that they soon planned to arrest the protest leaders, including the leadership of the KCTU and the KCTWU.
The police added they would seek compensation and ban future demonstrations by the two unions. When asked about the matter, Park Sang-hyeon, director of the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union’s legal bureau, said that after breaking up the demonstration, police indiscriminately arrested workers, even those who were merely having dinner or were on their way home. Park said in the end, the police should be held responsible for their use of excessive force.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/355443.html
* Most likely KCTU's chairman is a bit "out of control"!!??
And here some voices of the S.K. bourgeois media:
☞ Police Seek Arrest Warrants for 32 Violent Truckers (K. Times)
☞ Truckers threaten mass walkout (JoongAng Ilbo)
☞ Cargo workers threaten strike (Korea Herald)
Before y'day(5.16) the "Nat'l Workers Rally" - to mark the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, but also to defend labour rights/achieve better working conditions, higher wages etc.. - took place in Daejeon, S. Korea. At least 10,000 workers attended it. Among them about 7,000 organized cargo truck drivers. And while the Korean Cargo Transport Workers' Union announced at the same time that they will go soon on "general strike" the state "authorities" used the opporunity to show them how they intend to deal with the strike(*): thousands of riot cops were sent to attack the rally. But thousands of workers resisted during the following fierce street battles. Ultimately at least 150 union activists were injured and 476 arrested..
* The gov't said it will punish truckers who strike, and will consider severing fuel subsidies, suspending drivers’ licenses and banning future KCTWU/KCTU demonstrations, according to K. Herald and Hankyoreh.
Related reports, incl. many pictures:
☞ 화물연대 '총파업 만장일치 가결'노동과세계
☞ 연행자 수 460명 넘어.."경찰이 미친 것 같다"
☞ 457명 연행한 경찰 "민주노총 지도부 조기 검거"
While the members and supporters of the Countermeasure Committee that was formed to address the Yongsan Massacre are preparing for tomorrow's struggle day..
..the repression against the activists and their supporters is continuing, as you can read in the following article (Hankyoreh, 5.15):
Defendants of Yongsan trial file a countersuit
They protest the trial’s fairness and continue to demand prosecutor’s compliance with the court order for full disclosure of investigation records
The six evicted persons who were indicted on matters related to the Yongsan tragedy filed a countersuit with the 27th criminal court of the Seoul Central District Court on May 14.
They are saying, “The court has tried to proceed with the trial, although the prosecutors have not followed the court’s order to make the investigation records public. We are concerned about the unfairness of the trial.” The court could decide to throw out the countersuit if they find an intention to delay the trial.
Meanwhile, the police arrested seven people, including the defense lawyer Kwon Young-kuk, who participated in a protest to criticize prosecutors and to call for public disclosure of investigation records related to the Yongsan tragedy.
Kwon Young-kuk, the lawyer working on behalf of victims and bereaved family members of the
Yongsan tragedy, is arrested by police for participating in a demonstration to criticize prosecutors
held in front of the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office in the Seocho neighborhood of Seoul, May 14.
Even before the protest began, members of countermeasure council that was formed to address the Yongsan tragedy and police were engaged in struggle as the police moved to prevent the protest from happening.
After almost 30 minutes of struggling, approximately forty council members held the protest during which, they issued an open letter to prosecutors, saying, “Prosecutors have infringed upon the defendants’ rights to a fair trial and denied the spirit of criminal procedure laws.” They added, “Prosecutors should disclose the 3,000 pages of investigation documents that they still have not shared with defense counsel.”
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/355092.html
Related article:
☞ Evicted residents from Yongsan file charges against prosecution.. (5.13)
From today's Hankyoreh:
The Democratic Labor Party, the New Progressive Party, the Creative Korea Party, lawmakers Chun Jung-bae and Moon Kook-hyun, former lawmakers Kim Tae-hong and Im Jong-in, MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice, the Journalists Association of Korea, the Korean Producers and Directors’ Association, the Pusan International Film Festival(PIFF), the Jeonju International Film Festival(JIFF), the Bucheon International Fantasy Film Festival(PIFAN), Institute of Financial Economics, and the Institute for Korean Historical Studies. This is the list of names that appear in data on violent and illegal demonstrations held in 2008 submitted by police to Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Young-taek...
It is said that police designated the 1,842 groups of the People’s Conference Against Mad Cow Disease and 50 groups of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement as of “illegal and violent protest groups”... (the complete editorial you can/should read here!).
Yeah.. PIFF, JIFF, PIFAN etc.: "illegal and violent protest groups"?
At least! Possibly also "pro-communist", "terrorist" entities.. Who knows??
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yeah! please spread and circulate this widely!!부가 정보