2254개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
1. Struggle News #8 is "on air" since Tuesday, 7.07 (the script you can read here)!
2. Tomorrow's Protest Rally to Support the Yongsan Struggle
3. Tomorrow's Solidarity Night for Homeless People
In the last week some massive solidarity activities to support the struggle of the striking SsangYong Motor(SYM) workers took place in S. Korea.
Last Saturday(7.04) in the afternoon: About 7,000(according to NewsCham) workers and political activists gathered in Seoul/Yeouido to support the SYM strike in Pyeongtaek(*):
Last Wednesday(7.01): Thousands of workers, mainly organized in the Korean Metal Workers Trade Union, held a solidarity rally in front of the occupied SYM plant in Pyeongtaek (MUST SEE! "Hong Gil-dong's" impressive docu video):
* But to show that solidarity isn't just a "one-way" some relatives of the striking SYM workers joined only few hours later the weekly protest rally at the Yongsan Massacre site:
Latest int'l solidarity(examples):
Related:
☞ [7.04] KCTU report
☞ 7월첫날 '금속노조 전면파업' (KCTU, 7.01)
Last Thursday(7.02) the KTU issued its 2nd statement against the S. Korean gov't, the “Teachers’ Declaration to Protect Democracy”.
But only few hours later, Friday in the early morning hours, the gov't (resp. the cops and prosecutors) retaliated, as you can read in following report, published in y'day's Hankyoreh:
Police raid teachers’ union headquarters and chapter office
Move seen as pressuring the union to abandon plans to release a second statement critical of the government, more raids could follow
Police have nakedly begun to put pressure on the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union, which had been preparing to issue a second statement criticizing President Lee Myung-bak, with riot police raiding their headquarters.
Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station raided the KTU’s headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-dong at around 5:10am Friday. At the same time, Seoul Dongjak Police Station raided the union’s Seoul chapter office in Sadang-dong. In the raid, police confiscated documents related to the teachers’ statement and computer servers that included the union’s organizational communication network.
That the police raided the offices right after their investigation of charges made against the union is believed to be, above all else, in order to pressure the union into stopping plans to release a second statement condemning the government in the middle of the month. One KTU official said it seems the police launched an unreasonably heavy investigation out of concern of a greater stir from the upcoming statement, with the participation of more teachers than expected. The union believes that with the list of items to be seized on the warrant presented by police including a list of teachers participating in the statement, which was not even a subject of investigation, the police intended to shrink the number of teachers participating in the statement through the raid.
It also appears this was a warning to the Korean Government Employees’ Union, which is also moving towards issuing a statement.
The KTU began a signature campaign to issue a second statement right after the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced plans to punish the teachers who participated in the first statement and press charges. The draft of the second statement, entitled “Teachers’ Declaration to Protect Democracy” and released Thursday, includes demands to guarantee freedom of the press and expression and to withdraw the punishments against the teachers who participated in the first statement. The union plans to release the list of participating teachers through its union organ “Education Hope,” after collecting teacher signatures nationwide through the middle of the month.
About this, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology says that like it did with the first statement, it will sternly deal with participants if the union pushes ahead with a second statement. Lee Seong-hee, head of the ministry’s school autonomy bureau, said the ministry needs to get legal advice concerning the content of the second statement, but at least initially, there would be no change in the ministry’s plan to deal sternly with the statement in accordance with the law and principle. It appears the police’s quick raid is in line with the government’s hardline current. In particular, it was confirmed that with the exception of the Gyeonggi-do Office of Education, all city and provincial offices of education filed charges against city and regional officials of the KTU on orders from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, so more raids on the union are expected.
The KTU, meanwhile, is on guard against the possibility that the public security organs may use this investigation for other purposes, too. This means police and prosecutors may use the materials obtained in indiscriminate searches to manufacture a “security incident” aimed at the union. Eom Min-yong, a union lawyer, said they cannot exclude the possibility that the police and prosecutors, when they cannot discover anything illegal about the statement, might make a public security victim of the union by rummaging through all the internal union materials they seized and manufacturing a pretext.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/363911.html
Related:
☞ KTU headquarters raided.. (KTU press release, 7.03)
Previous contributions about the "conflict"(it's class war!!) between the LMB administration and KTU you can read here and here.
1. Struggle News #7 is "on air" since Tuesday, 6.30 (the script you can read here)!
2. Tomorrow's Nationwide Workers Protest:
3. Tomorrow's Protest Rally to Support the Yongsan Struggle:
Two days ago(6.29) the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union(KTU) released following statement:
Entire Union Leadership Arrested!
17,000 teachers face punitive actions for signing petition critical
of Lee Myung-bak Administration
KTU president Jeong Jin-hoo along with 15 members of the central executive were taken by the police today. The union leaders had just finished a press conference near CheongWaDae (the Presidential House) in which they had voiced concern about the government's plans to discipline 17,000 teachers. After the conference, they had begun a march to the civil petition office of CheongWaDae in order to deliver a letter of protest to president Lee Myung-bak. On the way, the police stopped them and took them into custody.
On June 18th the KTU issued an emergency declaration critical of arbitrary state management. Over 17,000 teachers signed the declaration. The KTU published the teachers' names in the KTU newspaper. Since the death of the former president Roh Moo-hyun, there has been a number of similar emergency declarations by professors, students, and citizens. The KTU's declaration expressed the following: We are experiencing the retreat of Korean democracy. As a teacher, we are badly at a loss as to how to teach democracy to students. Under the current administration, the freedoms of the press, expression and assembly are under severe stress. The rights that are fundamental to civil society have been damaged. In the education sector, we have seen a sharp rise in citizens' private education costs, the reinforcement of competitive education, and the destruction of public education. The KTU demands the security of students' basic human rights, the democratic management of schools, and the stop of competition-oriented education policies.
On June 26th the Lee Myung-bak administration announced that it was going to take punitive actions against all the teachers who joined the signature campaign. The government declared the campaign illegal because, it argued, the campaign violated the Civil Servants Law and Teachers Union Act which ban political activities of teachers and collective action. It also said that it was a "clear violation as civil servants" not to follow the government's order. Punitive actions are to include the dismissal of 10 KTU Central Executive members, including the KTU president. 78 KTU provincial leaders and full-time staff will be suspended, the administration said.
The KTU (JeonGyoJo) strongly condemns the arrest of its leadership and urges their immediate release. The freedom to be critical of government policy and the freedom to express one's beliefs are fundamental human rights, protected by The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The KTU feels that the administration is clearly abusing its authority.
The KTU will issue another emergency statement and vows to fight for the freedom of expression, and against the government's unilateral punitive actions. The KTU, alongside teacher organizations throughout the world, will continue to support basic human rights, the freedom of expression, and democracy.
http://english.eduhope.net/news/hwang290609.htm
KTU Activists Arrested!
The cops today detained 17 members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union/KTU who demonstrated near the presidential office in Seoul to denounce a government decision to punish their colleagues who joined a growing anti-government campaign earlier this month.
Scores of teachers, led by KTU Chairman Jeong Jin-hoo, were forcibly blocked by riot cops when they tried to approach to the presidential office, the "CheongWaDae", to deliver a letter of protest to the president.
A video-docu about the "event" you can watch here!
Related articles:
☞ [6.29] VoP Report (incl. video and pics)
☞ Probe of Teachers Starts (K. Times, 6.29)
☞ KTU prepares second emergency declaration (Hankyoreh, 6.29)
☞ 88 teachers face punishment for anti-govt. action (JoongAng Ilbo, 9.27)
☞ Teachers' union slams gov't for undermining democracy (K. Herald, 6.19)
SsangYong Strike: It's (Class) War!
"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class,
that’s making war, and we’re winning.” (Warren E. Buffet)
Well, to cut a long story short: While thousands of riot cops, "security guards" (i.e. mobsters/organized thugs, hired by the SsangYong Motor[SYM] management/in the pics: the black dressed with the white helmets) and incited strikebreakers(in the pics: with the blue headbands), supported by water cannons, police helicopters etc., turned the occupied (by 900 strikers) SYM plant in Pyeongtaek into a war zone for more than 32 hours (between Friday afternoon and last night), the plan to break the resistance failed - once again!
During the repeated attacks - the mobsters, but also the strikebreakers were armed with steel pipes, "gasoline bombs" etc. - at least 30 strikers were injured. At the same time (y'day evening/night) a candlelight rally by relatives of the striking workers and many supporters was also attacked by hundreds of riot cops and mobsters. Dozens of protesters were arrested!
But finally the strikebreakers, according to SYM officials, gave up "their" plan to enter the occupied plant - to avoid further losses.
Today, during a press conference held in the occupied plant, "the union's leaders vowed to work with civic groups and labor organizations to maintain their strike and try to save the company from going bankrupt", according to Yonhap(*).
Following some impressions from the "war zone"(6.26~27):
* Today's (bourgeois) Korea Times reported following:
Union Vows to Continue Fight; Joins Forces With K.M.U.
Striking workers at Ssangyong Motor.. said they will continue to occupy the factory in Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, after clashes with management and fellow employees which led to several injuries.
The workers’ union filed a complaint on Sunday with police against the automaker’s two court-appointed representatives and security guards for a violation of the law governing the latter.
At a press briefing at the plant, the union said, "Security workers hired by the company wielded steel pipes, fire extinguishers and clubs, injuring about 30 union members. They were not supposed to use violence. It constitutes a violation of the security guard law," it said.
The union said it will continue its fight to protect the jobs of workers and join forces with civic groups and other labor organizations to maintain the strike and save the company from going bankrupt.
Ssangyong won bankruptcy protection from a court in February and plans to lay off 36 percent of its workforce as part of restructuring efforts to stay afloat and avoid liquidation. In response, union laborers have occupied the plant since May 22 to protest a massive job-cut plan. About 800 remain inside the troubled plant.
Several injuries, with some victims taken by ambulance to hospitals, were incurred Friday. One clash involved about 900 people, some of whom used clubs and fire bombs. After the outbreak, 3,000 Ssangyong employees and management pulled out of the plant.
The labor union claimed the withdrawal of executives and employees from the facility Saturday night was part of a "ploy" to take definitive steps to close down the carmaker.
Management maintained a tense 32-hour standoff with the union inside the plant. Ssangyong managers said they did not want any violence, but warned that unless the union accepted a proposal issued on Friday, Ssangyong would have no choice but to close its doors.
"If the union continues to strike, the company will go bankrupt and 4,000 workers will lose their jobs," the company said.
However, the Korean Metal Workers Union, a unit of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said tens of thousands of its members will gather at the Ssangyong Motor plant Monday in support of the automaker union’s strike. The metal workers union is also starting a general strike on July 1.
Related reports by:
☞ KCTU
☞ OhmyNews
☞ VoP
More reports/documentaries here!
1. Struggle News #6 is "on air" since Tuesday, 6.23 (the script you can read here)!
2. Latest news:
SsangYong Motor Strike: The Showdown is Under Way!
Pyeongtaek: Since the afternoon(KST) at least 500 riot cops and hundreds of mobsters, hired by the SsangYong management, are attacking the workers who are in sit-in strike since May 21. During the ongoing violent crackdown several workers were already injured and transferred to hospitals. More and detailed informations you'll read here as soon as possible!
3. Tomorrow's Protest Rally to Support the Yongsan Struggle:
SsangYong Strike: Violent Crackdown in Preparation!
Since yesterday hundreds of mobsters, hired by the management of SsangYong Motor(SYM) are trying to break the sit-in strike (occupation) in the SYM Pyeongtaek(70 km south of Seoul) plant - but so far without success.
According to the strike activists(organized in the K.M.W.U./SsangYong Branch) and the media the (final??) showdown is expected for Friday(6.26)..
Large units of mobsters are waiting for the order to storm the occupied plant
First preparations for the planned attack..
..alert watched by the workers' resistance
Related:
☞ Employees Unable to Enter Ssangyong Motor (K. Times, 6.24)
☞ NewsCham Report (6.23)
URGENT! Attack Against the Yongsan Protest Goes On!
Since last Friday(6.19) the cops are attacking every day the protesters and their supporters who are resisting the "redevelopment" project (i.e. the eviction of tenants!) in Yongsan(*).
It seems that the "authorities" are - possibly - preparing for the "final battle" to break the resistance!
For more detailed reports(incl. photos and videos) please check out:
☞ The Attack on Fri.(6.19)
☞ The Attack on Sat.(6.20)
☞ Today's Attack
* IMC S.K. has following report about yesterday's attack:
There was another police's attack on Yongsan strugglers today.
It occurred around 8 pm while the dead's family and protesters were marching to the Yongsan Station after a rally to morn for the dead, whose bodies have been still kept in the hospital for 5 months. While trying to stopp the march, the police broke the pictures of the dead that their wives were holding. When the wives protested strongly about that, the police began to arrest the wives and the supporters. They brutally hit and kicked the protesters and even stamped the people who fell down while struggling. During the police's crackdown, several people got injured including four wives and one Catholic priest, who were consequently brought to the ER. Many other participants also got hurt while resisting against the police.
Now the protesters are confronting the police in the street.
5 months has passed since the police's horrible crackdown killed the 5 evictee strugglers. However, the government and police have not apologized for their violence, and still the evictees' bodies are contained frozen in the mortuary. The mainstream media never pay attention to this issue.
It's a really hard situation.
Now the strugglers get together in front of the Namildang building declaiming desperately against the police. Their voice is full of tears, anger, and desperate hope for their victory.
Related previous editorial in Hankyoreh(6.18):
☞ Gov't responsibility in restoring honor to victims of Yongsan Tragedy
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