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Today is the 7th day of the Railway Workers Strike in S. Korea. According to K. Times "it has already become the longest strike waged by the union".

But meanwhile the gov't does it's utmost(^^) to escalete the situation!

Already yesterday it declared:

"THE STRIKE IS ILLEGAL!"

 
At the same time dozens of cops raided the head quarter of the KRWU in Seoul's Yongsan District to arrest union activists (on charges of "masterminding an nationwide illegal strike and disrupting Korail operations") and confiscated "incriminating evidence", incl. the unions computers. The cops also formed a special division to hunt the "leaders behind the strike" and set out to locate 15 executive members of the KRWU for whom arrest warrants have been issued, incl. Kim Ki-tae, the chairperson of the union.

But the efforts by the gov't are confronted with resistance!

While about 5,000 workers rallied in Seoul/Yeouido today afternoon, calling for the government and KORAIL to stop oppressing legitimate labor activities...

...many representatives of different civic groups gathered at the same time in front of the Central Gov't Complex in downtown Seoul (near Gwanghwamun) and called for the termination of the government's crackdown on KRWU.

But while, according to JoongAng Ilbo, KRWU publicly asked today for negotiations or talks with the KORAIL management without “preconditions”, ultimately KORAIL CEO Hu Joon-yeong, a former national police chief, reaffirmed his hard-line policy, saying the management is not going to give in to current demands by the KRWU.

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Since last Thursday(11.26): Railway Workers Strike in S. Korea

While thousands of unionized railway workers, organized in the Korean Railway Workers’ Union/KRWU, went today on strike for the fifth day, the S.K. "President orders crackdown on railway strike"(AFP, 11.29) - i.e. "Unionists Face Arrest"(K. Times, 11.30).

At least 16,000 KRWU members are joining the general strike in protest against the company's unilateral annulment of the labor collective agreement(*).
KORAIL CEO Hu Joon-yeong, however, has signaled no hint of compromise unless the union ends the stoppage first, pledging to punish all participants in the collective action(K. Herald, 11.30).

Meanwhile, unionized truck drivers, organized in the Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union/KCTWU, decided today they will refuse to provide alternative transportation for Korea Railroad's (KORAIL) freight service.

"KORAIL may be limited in dealing with the situation on its own. We will block the company's attempt at road transport," a KCTWU official stated today in the morning. "We have to join forces to win the fight for all of us. We have also decided to stage our strike following the schedule of the KRWU."

Today's Hankyoreh reported following:

Lee administration takes heavy-handed response to Korean Railway Workers’ Union strike

Police open KORAIL Union leaders investigation as union members continue to demand restoration of their collective bargaining rights

The police opened an investigation into the leaders of the Korean Railway Workers’ Union on Sunday, the fourth day of the strike that was launched in response to the unilateral announcement by the Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) regarding the termination of the collective bargaining agreement.

Observers say the Lee administration’s emphasis on a firm response to the Korean Railway Workers’ Union’s strike is only escalating matters.

An official of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said on the same day, “The police have opened an investigation into 182 union members, including the union’s leaders, in response to charges filed against them by the Korea Railroad Corporation.” The official added, “The police will conduct an investigation in as timely a manner as possible in spite of the fact that the union members have not yet responded to a summons.”

KORAIL has filed charges against five members of the “Committee for Reinstatement” on Sunday, in addition to charges already filed against 182 union members.

In response to a question about the situation raised during the “Advancement of Public Corporations Workshop” held at the Central Officials Training Institute located in Kwacheon City, Gyeonggi Province on Nov. 28, President Lee Myung-bak said, “Citizens are having a difficult time understanding the decision to strike by members of a public corporation while hundreds of thousands of young people are experiencing unemployment.” President Lee added, “We should not compromise with the striking union members.”

A dialogue between the Korean Railway Workers’ Union and KORAIL has yet to take place. The union sent an official letter to KORAIL to request resumption of the collective bargaining agreement, however, as of Nov. 29 it has received no response. Paek Nam-hee, public relations official for the Korean Railway Workers’ Union, said, “The government should not deny our Constitutionally-guaranteed rights and should instruct KORAIL CEO Huh Joon-young to restore collective bargaining rights to the union.”

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/390570.html

* More past and updated news reports about the strike you can find on LabourStart!

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For more please check out:
☞ 1인시위음악회 합니다

1인시위...

2인시위...

3인시위...

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Coming Monday(11.9) the "entire freedom-loving world" (Chosun Ilbo^^) will "celebrate"(??) the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall...

Already today 20 years ago at least 500,000 people took the streets in the center of East Berlin to demonstrate against the autarchy of the ruling Socialist Unity Party and for democratic reformations.

Well, the main reasons for the (final) collapse of the East German (as well as the entire East European) "socialism" were the inner (mainly insoluble) contradictions in the society... and of course the competitive pressure by the "real capitalism".

But don't forget the inner opposition movement! At least since the late 1970s/early 1980s the oppositional - mainly bourgeois/petit bourgeois - "civil right", peace and environmental movement played a important role...

But on the other hand - an often neglected - radical alternative oppositional youth movement played an important role in the resistance against the ruling oppressive "socialist" Babbitt System. And some of the "activists" - similar to their "comrades" in the West - were influenced by redical left ideas, such as Anarchism, Maoism...

But the existence of the GDR(*) Section of the Communist Party of Germany/Marxist-Leninist(**) - KPD/ML in German - is one of the most weird chapters of the East German political underground resistance movement:

At the end of 1975 and beginning of 1976, the foundation by the KPD/ML of its own section in the GDR was made public.

The corresponding declaration was published in Roter Morgen on February 7, 1976

While the KPD/ML had already been formed in 1968 in the FRG, the nucleus of the GDR Section emerged within the GDR itself.

In the beginning of the 1970s, some students in the eleventh and twelfth grades at an Extended Secondary School (Erweiterte Oberschule; EOS) in Berlin got together to study the texts of the classical authors of Marxism-Leninism independently of the official version propagated by the Socialist Unity Party. They were not the only ones in the GDR doing this at that period.

Other interested people among their friends and families joined them, so that, in the course of time, a little circle of employees (in the education and technical fields) and students (of medicine, language and literature) was formed. In reading the basic texts of Marxist-Leninist social theory they came more and more to the conclusion that a deep gap existed between theory and practice in "actually existing socialism".

 
In Magdeburg, during 1969-70, pupils, students and apprentices got together to form the Progressive Youth (Progressive Jugend), inspired - among other things - by the Black Panthers. Besides the classical authors of Marxism-Leninism, various forbidden texts (of Mao, Stalin, the Black Panthers, etc.) were read and discussed by this youth group, whose activities were GDR-wide and which was composed of around 100 young people.

After the Progressive Youth had been disintegrated and destroyed, in 1976 the "hard core" of the Progressive Youth formed a KPD/ML cell.

In Rostock, too, an autonomous circle of students was formed with a similar political orientation. Being interested in further ideological inspiration, many of these groups and circles - by themselves - got in touch with various left organizations in West Berlin and with the Albanian embassy in East Berlin.

Besides the young people, who were the majority within the GDR Section, some older, battle-hardened comrades joined the Section. For instance, Heinz Reiche, who had spent 11 years in Nazi prisons and concentration camps, took part in activities in Weisswasser (a township south of Cottbus). Reiche had already come into conflict with the SED in the 1950s.

During the following years, the KPD/ML was successful in gaining supporters and organizing them into party cells in the GDR. These cells were inspired by the cell system of the illegal KPD during the Nazi dictatorship.

Until 1980, according to information from Stasi files, almost a dozen such cells were formed. The total number of members or supporters of the KPD/ML in the GDR amounted to three dozen people. In addition, there were about 50 to 60 sympathizers who were in direct personal contact with the above-mentioned circle.

[Excerpt from ☞ The Unknown Opposition (MUST READ!!!)]

* German Demoratic Republic, i.e. East Germany
** The Communist Party of Germany/Marxist-Leninist (German: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands/Marxisten-Leninisten, KPD/ML), established on December 31, 1968, was an anti-revisionist (Maoist) party in West Germany that was later supportive of communist leader of Albania Enver Hoxha after the Sino-Albanian split...

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Today's Hankyoreh reports following:

Seoul Central District Court finds

Yongsan Tragedy defendants guilty
 
The Seoul Central District Court has found all nine defendants in the Yongsan redevelopment tragedy case guilty for the deaths of six people.

The 27th Criminal Negotiations Division of Seoul Central District Court sentenced two protesters, including Lee Chung-yeon, 36-years-old and a leader of an association of Yongsan residents who were refusing eviction, to six years in prison and another five protesters, including a Mr. Kim, to five years on charges of killing a SWAT officer by tossing a Molotov cocktail at flammable materials. Another defendant was sentenced to three years in prison with a four year suspended sentence, and the last one was sentenced to two years in prison with a three year suspended sentence. Three of the nine defendants, including Mr. Kim, who had been indicted without detention, were remanded into custody upon receiving prison sentences.

The core point of contention between prosecutors and defendants was the cause of the fire that took the lives of the six victims. Prosecutors have said they are unable to name a specific person, but a Molotov cocktail thrown by one of the protesters was the cause of the fire. They charged all of the protesters with joint principal conspiracy to obstruct the SWAT officers. Joint principal conspiracy is an offense that imputes responsibility on all those who planned a crime, and is typically applied in seeking punishment against organized crime rings.

In response, the defendants’ attorney challenged that since the inside of the guard tower was at the time so full of flammable mist from the fuel additive Cenox that even the SWAT officers were in a hallucinatory state, the fire could have been caused by static electricity. He said that not one SWAT officer witnessed a Molotov cocktail at the time of the fire, and to impute responsibility for the fire on the defendants was excessive.　

The Seoul Central District Court, however, was satisfied with all of the material presented to ground all of the prosecutors’ charges, including the description of how one of the protesters threw Molotov cocktails inside the guard tower when the first SWAT team attempted to enter the building, prior to the blaze, and video footage showing a spark, seemingly from a Molotov cocktail, dropping from the third floor to the first. The court also accepted photographs from the National Institute of Scientific Investigation (NISI) showing that electrical switches were off at the time, and results from an on-sight inspection that states slivers of glass melted into the guard tower stairs and substantiates singling out a Molotov cocktail as the cause of the fire.

The court also gave police officers a pass on their operation to quell the protest. The defendants’ attorney argued that for the SWAT officers to raid the site the morning after the protest started without even a single round of negotiations was unjust, but the court reiterated the logic of prosecutors and police, and said that the actions to quell the situation that was unraveling in the middle of the city were justified. The court also imputed responsibility for the lack of negotiations on the residents by saying they put forth unacceptable conditions such as a police withdrawal while the police offered to negotiate.

In a press conference, Jo Hee-ju, the joint chairperson of the association of Yongsan residents refusing eviction, said the Seoul Central District Court’s acceptance of not just the charge of obstructing SWAT officers, but all of the prosecutors’ charges was an abandonment of legal justice, and that they would immediately appeal and do their best to reveal the facts of the case in a court room once again.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/384689.html

The court adds fuel to Yongsan inferno (Hankyoreh cartoon)

The banner on the building reads “Secure redevelopment profits”

The S.K. bourgeois press writes following:

☞ Protesters found guilty in Yongsan fire incident (JoongAng Ilbo)

☞ Yongsan protesters guilty: court (Korea Herald)

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Today's Hankyoreh published following incredible piece:

MFAFF enlists NIS and police to suppress farmers’ protests

 
Document from MFAFF shows plans to use harsh techniques to suppress protesting farmers, which observers say will be equated with past authoritarian period

It was confirmed on Tuesday that the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MFAFF) has put together a plan to take countermeasure against farmers who have taken part in demonstrations to address the plummeting price of rice. These countermeasures include a request to National Intelligence Service (NIS) and police officers to use harsh treatment against farmers who participate in demonstrations.

According a document entitled “Countermeasures for the Current Situation with Farmers Associations Regarding Rice Prices,” MFAFF plans to divide a progressive and moderate farming associations, and plans to isolate progressive one with the help of the NIS and police officers. The MFAFF designated Korean Peasant League (KPL) as a progressive farming association. MFAFF plans to ask Nonghyup, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, to cut off funding for KPL. The writing on the document also indicated that the document’s contents had already been reported to the Cheong Wa Dae (presidential office in South Korea or Blue House).

If the contents of the document prove to be true, the Lee administration will face criticism in the future for using suppression similar to crackdowns during South Korea’s authoritarian period.

An MFAFF official addressed KPL demonstrations in saying, “The demonstration led by KPL had little to do with the price of rice.” The official added, “KPL’s aim was to make humanitarian aid to North Korea an issue and to secure funding for an anti-government struggle.” Regarding the special request made to the police, another official said, “We will treat the participants in violent demonstrations without mercy with the help of the police.”

In response, a senior member of KPL said, “This is first time the government has requested NIS assistance regarding farmers’ demonstrations.” The KPL member continued, “We think that the government is trying to suppress our preparation for the national farmer demonstration planned to be held on Nov. 17.” The KLP member added, “We should be prepared for a huge amount of suppression from the government.”

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/384414.html

For more info please check out:

☞ 전국농민회총연맹

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Somehow related report:

☞ Public Workers’ Union Under Siege (K. Times, 10.23)

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Editorial in today's Hankyoreh:

How can prosecutors blame residents

for Yongsan fire tragedy?

During the “Yongsan Tragedy” trial yesterday, prosecutors asked for a heavy sentence of five to eight years against the protesters. Prosecutors argued that protesters spread paint thinner and threw Molotov cocktails, directly causing the fire that hurt police officers and caused the loss of six lives. This claim runs both counter to the facts revealed during the course of the trial and demonstrates sheer stubbornness on the part of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the facts revealed during the course of the trial alone, the prosecutors’ logic which imputes all the blame for Yongsan tragedy on the individuals protesting against eviction no longer holds. In announcing their initial investigation results, prosecutors explained that the fire broke out when the Molotov cocktails thrown by the protesters set alight thinner on the watchtower floor. Yet among the SWAT officers, not one testified that they witnessed Molotov cocktails being thrown while they were entering the building. Moreover, there was testimony from one SWAT officer that the protesters had not spread any thinner, but rather a barrel of thinner got knocked over as the officers took the guard tower. Civilian experts and specialists from the National Institute of Scientific Investigation (NISI) said they could not conclude where the fire had started and why. In fact, it is said that in a place full of flammable vapors, there is a higher probability that fire was caused by an electric generator or the police’s electric cutting machine. Experts and firefighters agree that if the police had not entered the building, the fire could have been prevented.

It was also revealed during the course of the trial that the police were unaware of these hazards. The police command on the ground at the time testified that they did not know that the guard tower was full of flammable materials. They did not expect the possibility of an explosive fire. It was basically a confession that they launched a operation in haste. There was even police testimony that prior to the operation, that they did not negotiate or meet face-to-face with protesters even once. As a result, it appears the excessive crackdown is the cause of the tragedy which took the lives of five of the residents and one police officer. Prosecutors, however, said this was an instance of exercising official duties, and cleared police officials of misuse of authority. They have in effect shut their eyes in order to not hold the party that should be assuming responsibility for this tragedy accountable.

There are many other reasons for the prosecutors’ argument to be thrown out. One is the fact that prosecutors continued to refuse to reveal some 3,000 pages of investigation notes, despite an order from the court. It makes sense that suspicions are growing that suggest prosecutors are taking the side of the police and trying to cover-up the excessive crackdown and misuse of authority of police officials. This is not just an instance where the defendants’ right to a proper defense has been denied, but also a case where the legal system is failing. We hope for a wise and brave judgment from the court.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/383302.html

Related article:
☞ S.K. President Lee Myung Bak Found Guilty of Murder (IMC S.K., 10.22)