5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
長白山/백두산
S.Korean (cheap) attack..
..and the Chinese (funny) counter-attack.
For more about such idiotic stuff (^^!!!):
☞ Let the Sino-Korean netizen war begin!
AFTER TWO YEARS OF STRUGGLE:
A FIRST STEP ON THE WAY TO
THE LEGALIZATION OF MTU
Statement Welcoming the Seoul High Court’s Decision Overturning the Rejection of MTU’s Application for Union Registration
- The Korean government must now grant official union recognition to MTU immediately!
- We welcome the decision of Seoul High Court to overturn the rejection of MTU’s application for union registration!
Today, 1 February the 11th Special Division of Seoul High Court (Justice Su-hyung Kim presiding), issued a judgment calling for the cancellation of the rejection of MTU’s application of union registration. This judgment overturned the previous ruling (Feb. 2006) which had upheld the original rejection of MTU’s application.
MTU presented application for union registration to the Seoul Regional Labor Office on 3 May 2005. However, the Labor Office rejected our application on 3 June 2005 on the basis that undocumented migrant workers do not qualify as workers, and based on unjust requirements such submission of the name of each workplace represented, the names of union representatives and a complete list of union members.
Following this, MTU filed a suit with the Administrative Court protesting the Labor Office’s unjust decision and asking that the rejection of our application be cancelled. However on 7 February 2006 the Administrative Court turned down our request, claiming again that undocumented migrant workers do not have the same status as other workers.
We against protested this clearly unjust decision and filed an appeal to the High Court. Now, after waiting no less than one and a half years, the justness of our claim has finally been proven.
We welcome today’s decision with great joy!
We believe that the high court’s ruling is the outcome of our long and difficult struggle for the human rights and labor rights of migrant workers. We also believe that it is the result of the warm solidarity of our Korean comrades who have defended and supported us this whole time.
We hope that today’s decision will give new hope and spirit to the 400,000 migrant workers who have been suffering under the relentless crackdown and deportations.
We believe this judgment provides a new opportunity for us to deepen our organizing and strengthen our struggle for migrant workers’ rights.
The road before us is still long. Right now, many migrant workers who have been caught in crackdowns are suffering from shock and the horrible treatment inside foreigner dentition centers, which are worse than prisons. They are unable to receive the severance pay and back wages justly due to them. Those who are sick are unable to get medical treatment. Instead they are being forcibly deported. We must struggle with even more determination to end this oppression and win the rights of migrant workers so that we may life freely and safely with the dignity of human beings.
Now, the Labor Office must accept the Court’s ruling and recognize MTU as an official union. If it does not accept the decision and instead appeals to the Supreme Court, we will condemn this ant-labor attitude of the Ministry of Labor and continue to struggle with even more conviction.
2007.2.01
Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants' Trade Union (MTU)
KCTU/Seoul Regional Council
About this important development even the S.K. bourgeois media is reporting:
☞ Court backs migrant workers' union (K. Herald, 2.02)
☞ On appeal, illegal workers get right to organize (JoongAng Ilbo)
The S.K. "alternative" media - of course - is also reporting:
☞ 불법체류 이주노동자도 노조 만들 수 있다 (Voice of People)
DLP and the coming presidential election:
Labor party leader seeks solidarity among progressive forces
The leader of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Wednesday called for all progressive forces to unite for the December presidential election as the conservative major opposition party gains popularity due to sluggish economy and security concerns.
"There is hope that if progressive forces make a united front, we can sweep to power," DLP chief Moon Sung-hyun told a news conference. "We'll surely achieve a grand solidarity of all progressive forces."
Moon said his party will ally with all those who support the DLP's major policy platforms, but shun engaging in political realignment that might tarnish its public image as a labor party.
"We'll leave our door open to those intending to go along with our stance on medical insurance, housing and education" he said. "But we'll not do something that mars our identity."
The DLP, founded in 2000, has nine incumbent lawmakers in the 296-member National Assembly. The party's popularity reached a record 21.9 percent in an opinion poll in 2004 amid hopes it would take the initiative in reforming the South Korean political community, which has long been marred by factional fighting, money politics and regionalism.
The DLP's approval ratings, however, have gradually withered as its lawmakers didn't put forward any impressive legislation and didn't present a significant alternative policy for dealing with chronic economic doldrums, critics said.
The labor party was further hit hard after its deputy secretary general was indicted in December on charges of pro-North Korea activities. In a recent public survey, the party's approval ratings plummeted to 4.2 percent.
With the presidential elections drawing closer, the progressive party has a chance to revive the public's confidence in it amid a flurry of moves to regroup the political community. Some lawmakers who defected from the left-leaning ruling Uri Party have indicated they might align with the DLP.
"Public expectation of the Uri Party has been scattered. I believe a majority of people still want progressive forces to do well, so I confirm that the DLP should meet that expectation," Moon said.
Since 1998, South Korea has been governed by left-leaning governments seeking detente with North Korea and a greater redistribution of wealth. Recent public surveys, however, predicted a landslide victory by the conservative opposition Grand National Party in the December election.
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20070131/610000000020070131160042E7.html
Yonhap, 1.31
Yeah, dear DLP, keep dreaming!!
Actually - in my opinion - it would be very good for the S.K. society if progressive forces would get more influence/"power"..
But the DLP??? I really don't know..
Not long time ago a S.K. left(radical^^) political activist told me following story: "In the beginning of DLP's activities the people, like the activists in KCTU, called Kwon Young-gil (THE main "leader" of DLP) the Korean T. Blair(!!). Now they call him the Korean Lula(!!!!!)" Harrharr..
In Dec. 2005 Chosun Ilbo published following - about a very interesting opinion by one of the "leading" DLP activists:
☞ We Need a Peaceful and Persuasive Protest Culture
The (anti-DPRK) internet magazine DailyNK made (1.26) an interesting interview with Ryu Sang-min, the head of Chonnam Nat'l University Student Union, a strong candidate for the next chairperson of Hanchongnyeon (HCR/Korean Federation of University Student Councils/한총련):
Here's the English translation:
You used the expression "nuclear-owning people" (haekpoyu minjok). What do you mean by that? (The interviewer refers to what Ryu said in a "New Year's Joint Struggle Proclamation.")
- North Korean nuclear [weapons] must be seen from the perspective of our nation (minjok). The possession of nuclear weapons is not aimed at the South. It's clear that nuclear weapons are not used against the same people. North's nuclear weapons are the consequence of the 62 years of USA's sanctions and attempts to overthrow their system and government. North Korea developed nuclear weapons for self-defense. It's because of USA that has attempted to crush the dignity and self-determination of North Korea. The nuclear weapons prevent war for our whole nation (uriminjok, "our nation", "our people", "our race"). North Korea's ability to prevent war keeps peace in the Korean peninsula and lets us live free from worry.
Your opinion of the North Korean Military First policy (sôn'gun chôngch'i) is very positive.
- Because of the Military First policy the peace in the Korean peninsula can be protected and the danger of war prevented. Because of North Korea's strong war deterrent, USA and other foreign powers (oese) can't mess with the Korean peninsula so easily. When in 2003 USA was going to attack Iraq it was said that it was because of weapons of mass destruction, but actually they were able to attack because there were no such weapons. If there was no military first [policy], it's possible that the Korean peninsula would face what happened in Iraq.
The role of military first is big in preventing USA's frantic plans of toppling North Korea['s government] and establishing a pro-American government.
Aren't you presenting purely the North Korean view?
- This is about preventing the dangers faced by the Korean peninsula, not about following the Northern system and politics unconditionally. Media is condemning us by claiming that we act on the orders of North Korea. We are concerned because the terminology [concerning military first policy] is used in a negative sense.
Why do you emphasize the struggle against Grand National Party?
- The presidential election takes place in 2007, and the fate of the nation depends on who gets elected. Bellicose statements such as "the problem of North Korean nuclear weapons must be solved even if there's a danger of war" prevent the unification and peace of the Korean peninsula. Therefore, we have declared struggle against Grand National Party [GNP] in the presidential election.
This year's election is not simply a contest of policies and pledges but a war (chônjaeng) between the forces of peaceful unification (p'yônghwat'ongil seryôk) and the fascist forces of the past (kwagô p'asyoseryôk). Since GNP has lost two presidential elections they'll fight hard to take the power. GNP's schemes uncompatible with the June 15 era must be stopped.
Do you see GNP aiming to return to the dictatorship of the past?
- GNP, regarding North Korea as enemy and the June 15 declaration as national discrace is an anti-masses(panminjung), anti-unification force.
What do you think about the serious breaches of human rights in North Korea?
- I can't understand the talk about North Korean human rights problems. USA is pointing out human rights problems in North Korea, but USA's breaches of human rights are more serious. How many people in the big land mass of USA are able to live and hold up human rights?
There are several North Korean human rights organizations in our country as well, but the violations of human rights in South Korea are also very severe. The Southern part is no different in regard to human rights. Human rights are a question of the system of the society. People in North Korea must feel it in order to have a problem, it's not something to be defined by outsiders.
Isn't the North Korean human rights situation too horrible to be compared with South Korea?
- Where's the proof? North Korean refugees say there are human rights problems, but they can't be believed. US human rights organizations' covert operations (kongjak) make North Korean refugees tell lies. USA gives all kinds of funds to human rights organizations and has them operate along the Chinese border and scheme "unwilling" escapes from North Korea. We must listen to the opinions of people living in North Korea and not the refugees. I went to the Kumgang Mountains and met North Koreans (Pukhan tongp'o) there. I didn't hear them say that there are human rights problems [in North Korea].
So do you mean that there are no human rights problems in North Korea?
- We must correct our perspective on human rights problems. People living in North Korea are proud of the Military First policy, and if they think that it's ok to have less to eat and wear in order to defend that policy, then the consequently arising problems can't be regarded as human rights problems.
Translation by: A. Leppäsen
Well, I think there should be no further comment necessary!!^^
But actually I really can't believe that he (Ryu) is meaning this f.. bull shit seriously. Like that: "I went to the Kumgang Mountains and met North Koreans there. I didn't hear them say that there are human rights problems" .. Harrharr!!!!
Of course I know that he - unfortunately - means it seriously! I had several meetings with HCR activists and so I know..
add. 2:
1.24 이주노조 서울출입국관리소 집회
Source: 이주노동자방송국
PS:
On the rally possibly maximally 50 people participated.. But at least 250 riot cops were hanging around there in "readiness"..
Last year - I think - a new web site was established: "Pyongyang Chronicles - The Voice of the Citizens of Pyongyang" (www.pyang.su). Actually the content was just a lot of f.. b..sh..
Anyway, since before y'day, or so, you can just see following on the entrance page:
This website is currently unavailable.
Korean Workers' Party
What, the f.. hell, is Hanguk Nodong-dang? I know only Chosun Nodong-dang..
There are three possibilities for this "confusion":
The people who are/were operating this site don't know nothing about N.K. ..
..or it's simply trash..
..or a new tried anti-"communist" propaganda coup by the NIS(^^)
???
THE CIVIL WAR IN PALESTINE
Since last Thursday evening at least 30 people - militants, but also little children, teenagers, old people - were killed in Gaza in heavy fights between Hamas and Fatah. In the same time even in the West Bank dozens of activists of both organizations were kidnapped by Fatah and Hamas militants.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants abducting
Fayyad al-Arba, a local Hamas leader,
in the West Bank town of Nablus on Sunday.
Allthough yesterday the Hamas leadership called for calm on the streets... the fights still are continuing.
☞ Gaza clashes claim 5 more lives; death toll approaches 30 (Haaretz)
Al Jazeera before yesterday published very interesting interviews with "activists" of Hamas and Fatah bout the reason why they're fighting and what for(^^):
☞ An eye for an eye in Gaza (READ IT! It's really interesting, believe me!)
Just one day later the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth wrote about the reason of the bloody struggle:
"It is a struggle over Palestinian identity – between Fatah(*) striving for a national secular identity, and Hamas seeking to establish an Islamic Palestinian identity. This is a war between the values of the West and Islam. It follows, therefore, that the fate of the Hamas government will not be determined in Gaza or Ramallah, but rather in Tehran and Washington.."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3357742,00.html
..and Hamas' PIC "supplemented" inadvertently:
"Internal conflicts are a gift from heaven for the defenders of imperialism and Western cultural, religious and democratic supremacy and hence a gift on a platter for the governments of Israel and the United States, and likewise for the Zionist movement.."
Meanwhile today in the morning a Islamic Jihad suicide bomber, in cooperation with Fatah's(*) Al- Aqsa Brigades, killed in the south Israeli coastal town Eilat three people in a bakery..
* Yeah, right - it's the same organization!!!
함께 살아가기 위해
1.24 MTU RALLY IN MOK-DONG
The rally near the entrance of S.K.'s main Immigration Office (*)
Before y'day MTU activists - supported by some student solidarity groups, the KCTU, DLP, Da-hamkke.. - held a rally in front of Seoul's Immigration Office to protest against the continuing mass human hunting against migrant workers in S.K., for the introduction of the Work Permit System..
Well, comrade "Hong Gil-dong.."(숲속홍길동同志) made following video about the performance there by comrade Yeon Yeong-seok:
More about the rally:
☞ [1월 24일] 단속추방 반대 및 미등록 이주노동자 합법화 집회
* The Immigration Office includes in the 5th fl. also the notoriously detention center for migrants
First of all, when I read the articles (about the case of the People's Revolutionary Party/PRP), published in the last days especially in the bourgeois newspapers (some of them I uploaded y'day here)I feel they might have a - possibly - deeper meaning:
It wasn't right to execute the defendats of the in the PRP trial, because at first the police/KCIA.. used torture and above all the accused were no communist activists and wanted not overthrow the "government". So what would be happen when the police/KCIA/public prosecutor's office had not used torture but the defendants were nevertheless "guilty" of trying to overthrow the gov't???
In my opinion (at least) during the time of the different S.K. dictatorships everyone who was standing (at least) humanism had the RIGHT to fight against the dictatorship - for another, a democratic regime/gov't (for communists/anarchists/socialists or whatever it should be a DUTY to fight for to overthrow - at least - a dictatorship!!)!
So at least nowadays, about 16 years or so after the introduction of (some kind of) democracy the current gov't should rehabilitate and compensate ALL of the prosecuted by the different dictatorships!!
And finally the gov't - to show that they really learned from the history - should abolish immediately the notoriously National "Security" Law!
*****
Another interesting article about the era of the Park Chung-hee dictatorship was published in today's ("left"-liberal) daily Hankyoreh:
Findings shed light on dark period of Korean history
Gov’t commission reevaluates those punished under Park Chung-hee’s ‘Emergency Measures’
South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently published the results of its investigation into a particularly oppressive period of Korean history. The period of time in question, a total of 2,159 days between January 8, 1974, when Park Chung-hee’s 1st Emergency Measures were announced, to December 8, 1979, when the 9th Emergency Measures were lifted just after the dictator’s assissination on October 26, represented a strong crackdown by the dictatorial government on dissent.
The commission’s findings were obtained by the Hankyoreh on January 24. They describe myriad human rights abuses during that time, including 1,412 judgments on 589 cases from the appeals and supreme courts on persons indicted for the violation of the Emergency Measures during the period.
The Emergency Measures were made possible through Park Chung-hee’s 1972 Yusin Constitution, which also essentially guaranteed him unlimited presidential office. The measures, in the name of national security and civil order, placed restrictions on the fundamental rights of citizens, including assembly, association, and freedoms of speech and the press. The 1st Emergency Measures prohibited anyone to mention anything regarding the Yusin Constitution, and the 4th set of measures, announced in April of the same year, meted out punishment to those with ties to the National Young Students’ Alliance for Democracy (Min Cheong Hak Nyeon). The 9th set of measures, announced in May 1975, also allowed no freedom whatsoever to disparage or even discuss the circumstances surrounding the establisment of the Yusin Constitution.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s analysis found that about half of those who were punished for violating the Emergency Measures were ordinary citizens from all walks of life, including shop owners, salary workers, and farmers, rather than entrenched dissidents aimed at unseating the government.
Mr. Jeong, unemployed at the time, had a conversation with his neighbors in January 1974. During their talk, Jeong stated his opinion that the adoption of the Yusin Constitution and the Emergency Measures were both signs of the government’s falling apart. He said that "the current government is so rotten that the ruling party and the Park administration will soon be ruined. If you enlist in the military [right now], you will probably end up dying in a war somewhere in the Middle East." Jeong’s neighbors informed the police about his comments, and he was arrested for violation of the 1st Emergency Measures and sentenced to a 12-year prison term. His sentence was reduced to seven years by the Supreme Court. The official charges were "the creation of a groundless rumor."
Three college students were arrested for violation of the 4th Emergency Measures when they "conspired" to walk out in the middle of a midterm examination in protest of the announcement of that set of emergency measures in April 1974. The students were sentenced to a ten-year prison term.
Mr. Park, a farmer, was sentenced to a 12-year term for saying to his neighbor in May 1974 that "Park Chung-hee used to be an underboss during the Yeosu-Suncheon Revolt. He was lucky enough to become president."
The Yeosu-Suncheon Revolt was committed by troops stationed in the South Jeolla Province cities of Yeosu and Suncheon in October 1948. The soldiers had been ordered to clamp down on an uprising transpiring on Jeju Island, the so-called April 3 Incident. At that time, people on Jeju organized rallies in opposition to setting up a government that only included what is now South Korea at the exclusion of Korea’s northern half. But the troops refused to carry out their orders, and were crushed by another set of troops sent by the government under Syngman Rhee. After the incident, Park Chung-hee, then a military officer, was arrested under suspision of being behind the uprising. The military intelligence agency questioned him for being a communist, but he was released. Because it was rare at that time for anyone suspected of being a communist sympathizer to be released without charge, there is speculation that he agreed to inform on other communists hiding in the military in exchange for his freedom.
Mr. Sin, an actor, was starring in a propaganda film funded by the Ministry of National Defense when he had a chat with other actors off-camera and said, "The president’s son is having an affair with an actress." He was arrested for the creation and circulation of "groundless gossip."
Mr. Lee, a Choongnam University student, wrote in a letter to his girlfriend that "college students in Seoul and Daejeon are protesting in the streets. They have started monitoring the students, and no can talk because of the Emergency Measures." The letter was intercepted by the police at the post office and censored by the government before reaching its destination. Mr. Lee was arrested and sentenced to prison.
In fact, it was the strict censorship placed on the media and all other channels of communication at that time that resulted in widespread rumors. One incident took place in which an entire truck full of people was arrested for "spreading rumors person-to-person" after the group had a conversation about political matters. Citizens who made an errant comment about Park Chung-hee or any of his government officials having affairs with actresses, for example, were locked up or given suspended sentences, forced to bear the stigma of being an "ex-convict."
One high school ethics teacher was lucky, however. He told his class that "there are many scandals involving President Park and members of the cabinet having affairs with actresses and female singers." He was indicted in March 1979, but as the Emergency Measures were cancelled in December that year, he was acquitted before having to serve any time.
A junior high school teacher, Mr. Choi, was not so fortunate. He served eight months for saying that "the Yusin Constitution was created to ensure a prolonged one-man rule. An indirect presidential election by delegates from the Unified Citizen’s Conference the National Conference for Unification is an undesirable system."
Another school teacher told students that "Park is a dictator. The capitalists are abusing workers, and workers cannot claim their rights. After [labor activist] Cheon Tae-il burned himself to death, the treatment got better. But the government raised the price of fertilizer by a whopping 60 percent, worsening the lives of farmers." The teacher was sent to prison for three years.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/186453.html
LATE JUSTICE FOR SOME VICTIMS OF
S.K.'S (FORMER) TERROR REGIME
8 men, executed as spies, are found innocent (Hankyoreh, 1.24)
Widows weep as their husband’s names are cleared 30 years after death
On April 9, 1975, Lee Yeong-gyo, a mother of five, was headed for Seodaemun Prison in western Seoul where her husband, Ha Jae-wan, then 42, was on death row. He had been sentenced for his involvement in the so-called "Inhyeokdang Jaegeonwi" incident, charged for allegedly trying to reorganize that once-disbanded People’s Revolutionary Party to overthrow the authoritarian Park Chung-hee government.
About a year ago, her husband had gone out to take a dip at a public bath, but never returned home. Lee had tried to find her husband, but her efforts were in vain. The next time he appeared before her, three months had passed and he was wearing prisoner’s garb, sitting in the defendent’s chair in a martial court.
Lee could not imagine her husband would die, even though he had received a death sentence. But upon her arrival at Seodaemun prison on April 9, she was told that he had been hanged at dawn. It happend not even a day after his sentencing. When she was told, she went out of her mind.
The Inhyeokdang Jaegeonwi incident has been cited as one of the major conspiracies premeditated by the Park Chung-hee government, which took office through a military coup. In 1974, a pro-democracy organization distributed fliers on campus opposing Park’s autocracy. It prompted the government to take "emergency measures" in April next year, arresting those who were reportedly involved in the organization on charges of attempting to overthrow the government with the help of North Korea.
Eight were sentenced to death for violating the National Security Law and conspiring to overthrow the government. Their executions were carried out in an unprecedentedly swift fashion, just 18 hours after the sentencing.
The eight defendants stand before the court on April 8, 1975,
a day before their execution.
On January 23 of this year, Lee showed up in a Seoul court, where a retrial of her husband was to take place. It was 32 years after his execution; she is now well over 70 years old. Presiding judge Mun Yong-seon posthumously acquitted all of the eight men of all charges brought against them, ruling that their confessions had been coerced or tortured out of them and that the conspiracy plot never existed. Lee burst into tears.
After the ruling, she didn’t avoid talking to reporters about her long, difficult life. After her husband’s death, she said, "I have kept myself alive, taking meals just as one would chew on sand."
Lee has had to suffer the weight of being stigmatized as a wife of a pro-communist sympathizer. She moved many times, but the rumor of her husband being a famous communist agent always caught up with her quickly. Lee could endure the suffering, but she could not bear to see her children being taunted as "sons and daughters of a pro-communist agent."
"At first, we managed to make a living by selling our house and depending on savings. But that money didn’t last long. I had to go out to make money by peddling and making clothes day and night," Lee recalled. "But what hurt me the most was the cold shoulder given all the time by my neighbors, rather than the dire poverty."
Even relatives cut off their visits to her one day. it was as if she were on an island without any human beings to communicate with. Her neighbors’ attidude toward her family was so toxic that the children around the neighborhood staged a mock trial, trying to string up her seven-year-old son by his neck. Add to all of this the constant watching by agents from the national security agency, "overseeing" the family of a convicted communist agent. Strange men lingered around her home. Her family was barred from leaving their home any time the U.S. president visited South Korea.
But Lee and her family survived. She could not be complacent while trying to raise her children properly. She decided to clear the air surrounding her family’s name. She began to meet the families of the other executed men, and they sought the help of lawyer Kim Hyeong-tae and Reverend Moon Jeon-hyeon. In 2005, the widows were finally given the chance to see their husbands retried.
Several of the deceased men’s families also appeared at the court sentencing; several collapsed after the acquittal was read.
Sin Dong-uk was fired as a elementary school teacher after her husband, Lee Su-byeong, was among those executed in the Inhyeokdang Jaegeonwi incident. "I had not have many chances to talk to other people after my husband was ruled as being a pro-North Korea agent, so now I have problems even communicating with others," she added.
Sin said that the acquittal would be a chance to shed light on all dubious deaths during the 1970s-80s authoritarian rule, and hoped that "first and foremost, the reunification of Korea, which my husband so wanted, will be realized as soon as possible."
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/186213.html
About the same issue, but in S.K.'s bourgeois (reactionary) newspapers:
☞ Court Clears Defendants in 1975 Summary Execution (Chosun Ilbo)
☞ Acquitted 32 years after execution (K. Herald)
☞ Executed Prisoners Vindicated At Last (Dong-A Ilbo)
☞ Executed for treason, activists are posthumously acquitted (JoongAng Daily)
Later, possibly tomorrow, I'll write more about the issue..
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