CINA

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Today in the int'l media(NO COMMENT!)...

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Last Friday/Saturday: While the world commemorated/celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the WWII, resp. the annihilation of the fascist tyranny(in Europe)...

...Kim Jong-un tested his newest WMD/made the last arrangements for WWIII...

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For more than 3000(!!) days, S. Korean guitar manufacturing workers have protested against their illegal mass firing(more detailed info about the struggle you'll get here/my previous contributions, related to the issue you'll get here) by Cort/Cor-tek Guitars...

Y'day afternoon @Bosingak in central Seoul: About 100 labour activists joined a "Solidarity Festival" to support the dismissed Cort/Cor-tek workers'(콜트콜텍+문화행동) ongoing struggle. Here're just some impressions...
 

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And last but not least... the batshit insane repressive measures by the S. Korean "authorities" are (always)"perfect tools" for the N. Korean state propaganda: Yesterday's Rodong Shinmun("up-to-date", as usual^^)...

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Supplement

Today's (bourgeois)Korea Times reported the following: A group of relatives of victims and survivors of the ferry Sewol tragedy filed a petition with the Constitutional Court, Wednesday, to prevent police from using water cannons containing hazardous chemicals against protesters.

According to the relatives and the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (LDS), they suffered from health problems after being hit by water cannons containing a 0.3 percent solution of pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA), a chemical incapacitant, during recent rallies.

"Water cannons containing the substance infringe on citizens' basic rights such as the right to life and health, and the freedom of assembly," an official from Minbyun said. "Police use the cannons without legal grounds in violation of the Constitution."

PAVA is known to cause distress to the lungs and airways, and studies show overexposure to the chemical can cause serious long-term damage to internal organs and even death.

One of the family members, Jang Dong-won, who is the father of one of surviving students of the ferry sinking, was hit by a water cannon on his right cheek during an overnight rally in central Seoul on May 1, according to the LDS.

He claimed that police kept firing the cannon at him although he had already collapsed in the street, causing him to swallow a lot of water. After the rally he went to a hospital suffering from a sore throat, and was diagnosed with laryngitis...(more you'll get here)
 

Evidence:

Related articles:
☞ Demonstrators injured by police water cannon bring case to CC (Hankyoreh, 5.06)
☞ 물대포 맞은 기자들, “경찰이 카메라에 조준해서 쐈다” (미디어오늘, 5.06)
☞ 'Lethal substance used against protesters' (K. Times, 5.04)
☞ Police stepping up violent crackdowns on protestors (Hankyoreh, 5.04)

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Last Friday(5.01) afternoon: About 50,000 KCTU members gathered in front of Seoul's City Hall to celebrate the Int'l Struggle Day of the Working Class(more info in English and Korean you'll get here and here)...

Afterwards thousands of KCTU members carried out a march from City Hall Plaza to Euljiro and Jongno in central Seoul...

Along the way - again and again - they were attacked by riot cops...

Here you can watch real-time recordings, depicting KCTU's 'MayDay' demo:
☞ KCTU demo @Euljiro, Jongno...
☞ KCTU demo in Insa-dong

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Today's Hankyoreh reported the following: A “Two-day Nationwide Overnight Action”(범국민 철야 행동/here you'll get an detailed report in Korean, incl. lots of pics) organized by the April 16 Sewol Solidarity Network to demand the immediate scrapping of the enforcement decree for the special Sewol Law was launched on the evening of International Workers’ Day on May 1 at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul. At around 10 pm, participants attempted a march from Anguk intersection to the Blue House, only to clash with police who had erected a long barricade of buses.

Mobilizing three sprinkler trucks in an attempt to disperse the marchers, police resorted to a water cannon containing a mixture of PAVA, an incapacitant spray using a synthetic form of capsaicin...

Lee Won-jun, head of security at Jongno Police Station, explained the reason for the use of a tear gas cannon: “The participants in the demonstration were behaving violently late at night...  so we used [the water cannons] because it was possible that [the participants] might set fire to Gyeongbok Palace or attempt to enter the Blue House...”

Jesus! The cops assumed that the Sewol victims' family members and their supporters were planning to BURN DOWN GYEONGBOKGUNG(PALACE)...

Of course... activities of that kind are justifying the S. Korean cops to use whatever is possible(next time they'll use machine guns or barrel bombs??) to prevent it!

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On May 1, 125th International Workers’ Day, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)...

...and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) organized the largest ever gathering for the holiday - with around 150,000 people attending - and expressed their opposition to government plans to restructure the labor market.

At 3 pm, about 50,000 members of the KCTU gathered for the main struggle rally at Seoul City Hall Plaza. They urged the government to stop its unilateral restructuring of the labor market that only asks workers to sacrifice without any sacrifices from the business world and called for the minimum wage, which is currently 5,580 won (US$5.17), to be increased to 10,000 won (US$9.26)...

One and a half hours later thousands of KCTU members carried out a march(related Korean reports, incl. lots of pics, you'll get on LabourStart/please check out today's[5.03] links!!) from City Hall Plaza to Euljiro and Jongno in central Seoul... 

Along the way, they clashed with riot cops when they moved toward the Insa and Anguk neighborhoods...

The police immediately blocked Insadong-gil, a narrow street(Seoul's unique pedestrian zone/tourist area) connecting Jong-no with Angguk-dong, by setting up vehicle barricades held in readiness and fired capsaicin-based tear gas at the demonstrators. The police mobilized 190 companies, around 15,000 people strong. A struggle broke out when some of the union members tied ropes to the barricades in an attempt to clear them out of the way...

Later on, fierce clashes between the constantly attacking riot cops - now using water cannons to fire capsaicin-based tear gas - and the predominantly peacefully activists took place until the early morning hours(5.02)...

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