CINA

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This weekend the anually highlight of the struggle of the S.K. working class has been celebrated.. very peacefully(*).

Today approx. 30,000 people, S.K. workers, migrant workers, street vendors, students, civil right activists... joined the  National Workers Rally   in Seoul's Daehang-no:

Some more impressive pictures from the event you can see here!

Yesterday night the warming-up, i.e. the "Struggle Culture Festival" took place in front of Seoul Stn. and at least 10,000 people participated:

(Source of the pics: KCTU, OMN, NewsCham)

More about the struggle weekend:

☞ [11.9] 참세상TV report

☞ [11.9] KCTU report

☞ [11.9] VoP report

☞ [11.8] KCTU report

* Related:

☞ [2003.11.9] State Terror Against the Nat'l Workers Rally

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On the coming weekend the anually highlight of the struggle of the S.K. working class will be celebrated (*).
It begins on Saturday afternoon with the - as usally really great - Workers Struggle Culture Festival (until the late night!!). This year it will take place in front of Seoul Station (not in Yeouido, as it was scheduled before!!). Here you also can find the MTU solidarity booth/tent (MTU members are cooking delicious food, the Soju.. comes from the Korean Street Vendors Confederation!):

On Sunday the  National Workers Struggle Rally/Demo  will hit the streets of Seoul (start: 2 p.m. in Daehang-no, near Hyehwa Stn.):

* Related: 

☞ Interview with Lee Yong-shik/KCTU S.G. (Vop, 11.7)

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Annually, in the beginning of November, the S.K. working class is celebrating its struggle against exploitation and opression with a massive rally and demonstration (this year it will be on coming Sunday!!).
Five years ago (2003, Nov. 9), after two weeks of almost daily state terror, executed by thousands of riot cops, against strikes and protests, the "National Workers Rally" has been attacked (by the riot cops) from the beginning..
And - surprise, surprise - finally the "event" escalated a "little bit"..

MUST SEE: "Hong Gil-dong's" video documentary about the..
☞ National Workers Rally 2003.11.9

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Yonhap published today following strange piece:

Obama's win inspires hope for.. immigrants in S. Korea

Barack Obama's election as the first black U.S. president brought new hope for change an ocean away in South Korea on Wednesday, inspiring migrant workers.. looking to make greater inroads into this largely homogeneous society.

"African-Americans were once slaves and were called 'talking beasts' in the U.S. Now one of them has become the U.S. president," said Pastor Park Cheon-eung, the Korean head of the Ansan Migrant Workers Center in southern Seoul.

"In Korea, those who come from Southeast Asia are looked down upon because they come from poorer countries and they are dark-skinned. I trust this historic event will make a difference. Koreans will change, and migrant workers will have a higher self-esteem."
Skin color deeply affects the way the one million migrant workers residing in Korea are treated. Those from China, Vietnam, the Philippines and some African countries generally hold low-paying, labor-intensive jobs in and around industrial complexes and are looked down upon, while white North Americans are usually welcomed as English teachers and business consultants.

"As a minority in Korea, I welcome Obama, a minority in the U.S.," said Maung Zaw, 39, a Myanmarese democracy activist who recently received refugee status in Korea...

Sorry, but I can't see complete no connection between the new elected US president and the issue of migrant workers in S. Korea!!
  Well, if I would follow the N. Korean propaganda, that S.K. is only a colony of the USA... But as far as I know, that's not the reality, not really..^^

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"Jail term sought for officer opposing crackdown on anti-U.S. beef rallies", today's Korea Herald headlined.
The South Korean prosecution (Seoul Northern District Court) is demanding a three-year jail term for Lee Gil-jun, a riot police officer who refused to return to his unit because he did not want to be mobilized against rallies opposing U.S. beef imports earlier this year, according to Yonhap.
Lee Gil-jun was indicted in August on charges of "desertion and insubordination" because he refused to rejoin his unit (*) after an "overnight leave", motivated by his belief that returning would pit him against the protests that he believed in.

7.25: Press conference with Lee Gil-jun

Korea Times published today following about Lee's case:

3-Yr Jail Term Sought for Riot Policeman

The prosecution has demanded a three-year prison term for a riot police officer who refused to return to his unit in protest of a police crackdown on a candlelit rally against the import of American beef.

Prosecutors Friday asked the Seoul Northern District Court to hand down the jail term to officer Lee Gil-jun, who was indicted in August on charges of deserting his squad, not responding to senior officers' orders, and defaming his seniors.

On July 27, Lee, a 25-year-old riot policeman of six months, held a media briefing after a three-day leave to announce his resolution not to rejoin his Jungnang Police Station unit in northeastern Seoul. He said he was forced to suppress protesters, which he said was against his conscience, and called for the abolishment of the riot police system. A few days later, he presented himself to police for questioning.

Lee said in court, "Everything has happened in a flash since I decided not to return to the unit. I listened to my conscience and acted on it.''

In South Korea, a man can be dispatched to an ordinary military camp or the riot police on a random basis after being drafted.

"If officer Lee had the faith to keep democracy and a law-abiding society, he should not have refused the order to crack down on demonstrators. Lee also disparaged riot police, who exercise public power fairly, by calling them a means of violence,'' a prosecutor said.

A member of civic coalition Korea Solidarity for Conscientious Objection said, "Lee can be considered a conscientious objector, and such people usually get an 18-month jail term. His seems too harsh.''

Lee was not the only riot police officer to protest the rally crackdown. In June, another riot policeman (Lee Gye-deok) requested a transfer to military camp, claiming police work was against his political beliefs and conscience. He was confined in the guardhouse for a month.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/11/117_33732.html

* Related contributions:
☞ Lee Gil-jun - A Riot Cop In Resistance #1
☞ Lee Gil-jun - A Riot Cop In Resistance #2

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Wow.. Until now I had no idea that Japanese military leaders can be sooo funny:
Just enjoy General T. Tamogami's latest joke: "The Korean peninsula had been prosperous and safe under the Japan's rule" (i.e. the colonial occupation between 1910-1945).
Well, I'm sure that the majority of the Koreans will "misunderstand" (^^) the "joke" -  definitively!!!

Anyway, today's Guardian (UK) has the story (also IHT, NYT etc.):
 

Tokyo to sack defence chief for denying Japan's wartime acts

The chief of staff of Japan's air force is to be sacked after he claimed the country had been drawn into the second world war by the US and denied it had been an aggressor during its occupations of the Asian mainland.

In an online essay entitled 'Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?' General Toshio Tamogami yesterday claimed that Japan had been provoked by the then US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, and that many of Japan's wartime victims took "a positive view" of its actions.

The claims drew a swift rebuke from politicians. The defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said he would dismiss the general immediately. "I think it is improper of the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view that clearly differs from the that of the government," he told reporters. "It is inappropriate for him to remain in this position."

The prime minister, Taro Aso, a nationalist who has upset Japan's neighbours with ill-judged comments about the war, described Tamogami's views as "inappropriate, even if they were made in a personal capacity".

In the essay, which is likely to spark outrage in China and South Korea, Tamogami wrote: "Even now there are many people who think that our country's aggression caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Great East Asia War." Japanese nationalists use the term the Great East Asia War to support their view that Japan entered the conflict to free Asian countries from western colonialism.

"But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the [war]. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor," he wrote.

He said the Korean peninsula had been "prosperous and safe" under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation and that Roosevelt had "trapped" Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour in December 1941. He went on to accuse Roosevelt of being a puppet of the Comintern, the international communist movement founded in Moscow in 1919.

Tamogami, who did not seek the defence ministry's permission to submit the essay, called for Japan to reclaim its "glorious history". He said: "A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline."

He shares the view of many neo-nationalists that the Allied war crimes tribunals - which sent several Japanese leaders to the gallows - were a farce...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/01/japan-pearl-harbour-war-hiroshima

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Comrade Joo Bong-hui, a wellknown activist of KCTU, protesting in Manila, Philippines (10.27)..

..on the occasion of the "2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development" and the alternative "Peoples’ Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights" (PGA), held in the capitol of the Philippines until today.

For more infos:
☞ PGA

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As I wrote (10.27) in my contribution about the "National Struggle Day of Irregular Workers" five years ago (2003.10.26) more than 1000 migrant workers participated in the rally, demonstration and following street battle with thousands of riot cops. During the clashes with the cops two members of ETU-MB, Jamal and Bidduth, were brutally arrested (*):

* Related report by KCTU:
☞ Two Migrant Workers and Members of KCTU Deported

Finally here you can (MUST!!) watch a video documentary by comrade "Hong Gil-dong in the Forest" about the "events" after the cops started their attacks against us!

PS:
You should keep in mind: At that time the "liberal"/"progressive" (or whatever) Roh Moo-hyun ("worker friendly", Roh promised in his election campaign!!) administration governed S.K. already for more than eight month!!