CINA

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Appeal for Global Solidarity with the Turkish People's Uprising

Calling on people of all cities of the world! Come out this weekend and reclaim your public spaces to show solidarity with #OccupyGezi and the many waves of protests in Turkey!

 
What began as a small occupation to protect Istanbul’s Gezi Park erupted within a matter of days into massive protests that spread like wildfire across Turkey. A key trigger was the disproportionate use of force by the police. Just as Gezi Park crystallized the struggle over an ever-shrinking public space hijacked by neoliberal authoritarianism, the pepper gas that security forces doused on Istanbul literalized the desparate need for breathing space. Hundreds of thousands of people streamed into the streets in support of the Gezi Park occupation despite a total media blackout, defying police brutality. Now we have reclaimed not only Gezi Park but also Taksim Square, the very heart of Turkey’s public sphere, where mass expressions of discontent have repeatedly been banned throughout the republic’s history. As Taksim and Gezi swell every night with thousands of people who come to celebrate their solidarity, victory and power, our resistance in other parts of Istanbul and other cities across Turkey continues. Of one thing we are certain: Nothing will ever be the same again.

 
Show your support and solidarity this weekend, 8-9 June 2013. Reclaim Tahrir, Syntagma, Zuccotti (& Gwanghwamun!!)... your local streets, squares and parks! Be a part of the movement for freedom and democracy.

Updated articles, reports etc., related to the current situation in Turkey, you'll find here on LabourStart!

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Turkey:

LABOUR UNIONS IN STRIKE TO SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY

Tens of thousands of public sector workers in Turkey are now on a "warning strike" in support of anti-government protests...

The strike was y'day(6.03) called by the Confederation of Public Workers Unions(KESK) in response to "state terror implemented against mass protests across the country". It said that "Erdogan's islamist clerical fascist regime" had "shown once again its deep rooted enmity to democracy"...
 

KESK, which has an estimated 240,000 members in 11 unions, said the strike would last for two days and will send the message, that "this is not just about youth on the streets, this is not just about a park or individual demands - this is about something bigger, about democracy".
 

The strike comes in the wake of five days of mass protests against the Islamic-rooted government of Erdogan. At least two people have died in the demonstrations and more than 1,700 were injured. Meanwhile the Turkish Human Rights Foundation stated that more than 1,000 protesters were subjected "to ill-treatment and torture" by police and secret service agents.

Related article:
☞ Turkey: the triple strike that could change everything (ROARMAG, 6.04)

For more updated info about the current situation in Turkey, please check out LabourStart!
 

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Turkey:

PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS & STATE TERROR

Y'day morning(6.01, AM07:30 CET) I got the following e-mail:
"Attention comrades! Turkish movement for democracy needs you! After a series of peaceful demonstrations for preserving a recreational area in Istanbul city center which is planned to demolished for the construction of a shopping mall, Turkish police attacked the protesters violently with tear gas and water cannon, directly targeting their faces and bodies. Dozens of protesters are hospitalized and access to the park is blocked without any legal basis. Turkish media, directly controlled by the government or have business and political ties with it, refuse to cover the incidents. Press agencies also blocked the information flow. Please share this message for the world to become aware of the police state created by AKP of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which is often considered to be a model for other Middle Eastern countries. Turkish democracy expects your help. Thank you!"

Protests in Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park started on Monday. Initially over authorities' plan to "redevelop" the park into a shopping mall, the demonstrations rapidly gained momentum and became a mass protest against Erdogan and his AKP party's Islamist policies.

Over the weekend the protests spread across the country, and hundreds of thousands took to the streets and were attacked by riot police, who used excessive violence(incl. tear gas, water cannons...) in attempt to end the demonstrations.(*)

 
According to Amnesty International, two protestors died and at least 1,000 were injured in protests' focal point in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

A lot of impressing(and depressing) pics you can see here!

* Related, but more detailed reports:
☞ Istanbul Taksim Gezi Park is not about trees (LibCom, 5.30)
☞ Turkey: Thousands of protestors, police clash in fierce demos (Ynet/Reuters, 5.31)
☞ Occupy Gezi/Istanbul Protests (CNN iReport, 5.31)
☞ Fresh anti-government clashes hit Turkey (al-Jazeera, 6.01)
☞ Turkey protests spread after violence in Istanbul... (Guardian, 6.01)
☞ Istanbul Protests Grow In Size As Demonstration Enters 5th Day (HuffPost, 6.01)
☞ Turkey counts cost of mass protests (al-Jazeera, 6.02)
☞ Turkish protest takes root in Istanbul square... (Guardian, 6.02)


 

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As today's "weekend reading" I would like to suggest following article, published in last Monday's Guardian(UK):

Korean unification: dreams of unity fade into past for young South Koreans

South Koreans questioning goal of union with poor neighbours reared on different values as even the shared language diverges

Unified Korea is a desperate, dystopian country, beset by police tyranny, ravaged by organised crime and roamed by a growing underclass of destitute northerners.

Lee Eung-jun paints a chilling portrait of 2016 for readers in prosperous, ordered South Korea. But perhaps the most striking aspect of his novel The Private Life of a Nation is its rarity: portrayals of a unified Korea are unusual enough – never mind such a bleak challenge to the rosy official image of the future.

Periodic crises and North Korean sabre-rattling frequently fix the world's attention on the divided peninsula, yet scant consideration is given to what might one day emerge from such tensions – an oversight, said Lee, that impelled him to write the book.

"The North Korean nuclear weapons [programme] is a scary problem, but it is a one-time issue; the more frightening problem is what would happen afterwards," he declared.

The peaceful pursuit of unification is inscribed in South Korea's constitution. Questioning it would be political suicide for public figures, say analysts, because ethnic nationalism is a key element of political belief across the spectrum.

But there is growing indifference, doubt and even opposition among ordinary citizens who fear the cultural, social and economic impact could crush their society. "It's still strong as an ideal," said Stephen Epstein, an expert on South Korean society and its images of the North at the University of Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand.

"If you ask them: 'How about tomorrow?' Everyone backs off … When confronted with it as something that might happen, people are a lot less sanguine."

In 1994, 92% of South Koreans considered unification "necessary"; by 2007 that had fallen to 64%, according to research by Seoul National University. Support is lowest among the young: a 2010 survey found that only 49% of twenty-somethings judged it necessary, compared with 67% of over-50s.

For many, the peninsula's crude division by foreign powers remains a traumatic historical anomaly. "As a foreigner perhaps you can think of other options, but unification is so natural to me," said Kim Seok-hyang, a professor at Ewha Women's University in Seoul. "No one really asked any Koreans, do you want to be divided and stay like that for over 60 years? With your family members separated?"

But fewer and fewer have close relatives across the border. Not many remember life before the split: less than a tenth of South Koreans were born before 1940.

The differences between North and South are ever starker. In the early decades after the division, South Korea repeatedly fell under military rule and lagged behind the North economically. Now it is a technologically advanced democracy with cultural clout and powerful economic ties across the region.

"I think young Koreans these days feel they have more in common with an American or European student than with North Koreans," said Kim So-young, a 21-year-old student in Seoul. She grew up at the height of the "sunshine era" of engagement with the North, when unification was more easily imaginable.

Her friend, 22-year-old Park Min-jin, said: "I thought it would come by the time we were in high school or university … I imagined running around with [North Korean] children in their uniforms."

Kim has moved from indifference to outright opposition. Unification is impractical, she said: "There will be a lot of costs and problems. What should we do to help North Korea with cultural and economic issues? It's not just the financial cost. They have had such a different education."

Park acknowledges the problems, but believes South Korea's responsibilities cannot be dodged. "I might be a little bit naive, but I wish the younger generation was not so preoccupied with economic priorities and would think in a more historical and humanitarian context."

Even the way people speak has diverged, leaving new arrivals in the South puzzled by differences in the vocabulary: as the old joke has it, they are divided by a common language.

Epstein believes growing knowledge of the North has increased rather than bridged perceptions of difference.

"There are almost 25,000 North Koreans in the South. The North is no longer anywhere near as mysterious as it was," he said. "Because of the famine and malnutrition, the difference between the two is not just linguistic, it's been inscribed physically at this point."

Many refugees struggle to adapt; research three years ago found high unemployment rates and an average income of roughly half the average South Korean salary.

They lack the social networks for career success. Their manners and mores are different."There's no longer this mystic idea of 'we are one' … They think: they are really different, [this is] a pain in the ass and why do we have to deal with all these sorts of issues economically just to bring them back into the fold?" Epstein added.

The gulf stretching between North and South dwarfs the gap between East and West Germany before reunification. There, the difference in per-capita income was 1:2 or 1:3; in Korea it is at best 1:15 and some think closer to 1:40, Andrei Lankov writes in his book The Real North Korea. This year, Seoul's finance ministry estimated that unification could cost the South up to 7% of annual GDP for a decade, although it would benefit from cheap labour and the North's natural resources.

Earlier research commissioned by the Unification Ministry suggested the cost would be between 371.5tn won (£215bn) and 1,253.5tn won if it happened by 2020. That unification would almost certainly be born of a crisis increases its difficulties. Attempts to manage the transition – such as controlling population movement while the North developed – could quickly be overtaken by events. Yet unification might prove equally traumatic for northerners, even if it brought a rise in living standards.

"A better option might be: 'You go your way, we go ours; let's do business with you and see you treat your own people better,'" suggested Epstein, who otherwise foresees rampant exploitation and an underclass.

Tellingly, Lee's protagonist is a North Korean – a former army hero who has turned to crime – and his novel highlights the marginalisation and exploitation of northerners. He believes his compatriots should face unification head-on instead of seeking to avoid it. He thinks they have avoided discussion of the issue because of its complexity.

"Unification will come soon. I would say before 10 years and we need to prepare," he said. "Let's say it is understandable that ordinary people don't want to talk about it but this is a problem at the political and administrative level, with structural problems in that the government is not ready either.

"We need to know what to do when we are living next to each other."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/27/south-north-korea-unification

Have a nice, relaxing weekend!!

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Since almost ten days residents of Miryang were clashing with "officials"(workers and hired thugs) from Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and riot cops in their protest against the power company’s resumption of the construction of 52 transmission towers...

Today's Korea Herald reported the following:

Construction of Miryang power-line towers halted

Korea Electric Power Corp. agreed to halt work on high-voltage transmission towers in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday while a group of experts reviews alternative plans.

The company and residents accepted the parliamentary Trade, Industry and Energy Committee’s mediation measures.

The nine-member group ― consisting of experts picked by the residents, KEPCO and the National Assembly ― will review various alternatives for 40 days.

The panel will give priority to plans for circumventing the Miryang area, but will also be allowed to analyze the feasibility of building underground power lines and other possible alternatives.

The group will be required to submit a report on their findings, including issues on which consensuses have not been reached, to the parliamentary Trade, Industry and Energy Committee.

The committee will then draw up solutions to the problem based on the report, which KEPCO and the Miryang residents will be required to follow.

The construction on the 52 transmission towers, which are part of a 161-tower, 90.5-kilometer line connecting the Shin-Kori nuclear power plant in Ulsan to a substation in Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, resumed on May 20 after being stalled eight months due to opposition from residents of the area.

Of the 161 towers, 109 in other areas have been completed.

Miryang residents have opposed the towers from the outset, citing a 2003 World Health Organization report warning of the possible carcinogenic effects of such facilities.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130529000861