CINA

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Scene of the Gureombi Rock(bed), May 21, between 5:20 and 5:40am/Gureombi, vorgestern am fruehen Morgen:

 Source of the pics: 구럼비야 사랑해

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Gangjeong: Pictures of the Resistance

 Photos by Min Kim

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Yesterday(5.19) afternoon in downtown Seoul: About 5000 workers(mainly organized in the KCTU), activists of people's resistance organisations and members of solidarity groups gathered in front of Central Railway Station to commemorate the 22 fatal victims of the mass layoff at SsangYong Motors.

In the following protest demonstration, a short while after the beginning blocked by thousands of riot cops, all attendees vowed to fight untill all dismissed SsangYong workers are re-employed.

While yesterday's protest was only the preliminary climax of a campaign which started already five month ago (see also: "Solidarity tents for dismissed SsangYong workers'), the organizers announced a "Nationwide Action Day" to be held in the next month (6.16), to enforce the campaign's demands.

Here just some impressions from yesterday's rally and demo:

Related reports:
☞ 쌍용차 희생자 추모 범국민대회...“추모는 끝났다” (NewsCham, 5.19)
☞ 쌍용차 범국민대회 열려...“죽음에게 죽음을 선언한다” (VoP, 5.19)
☞ “쌍용자동차 해고자복직, 살인진압 책임자처벌 즉각 실시하라!” (KCTU, 5.20)

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No comment^^

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Seoul's Metropolitan Gov't, led by the new mayor Park Won-soo,  announced almost three month ago that it will re-evaluate its “New Town" projects through a series of feasibility studies that could "ultimately determine their fate"...

And now it seems that, possibly, this wasn't just an empty promise - as far as the following report, published in yesterday's (conservative) JoongAng Ilbo, reflects the reality:

Seoul delists 18 sectors in ‘New Town’ development

The Seoul Metropolitan Government began its re-evaluation processes to decide the fate of 265 regions in Seoul that are designated as the city’s “new town” redevelopment project, a large scale project to redevelop old residential areas which began in 2002.
 

The city government decided to remove 18 sectors from the project, including the Dongdaemun 1 and 2 sectors in Dongdaemun District in central Seoul, Eunpyeong 7 sector in Eunpyeong District, and Hongje 4 sector in Seodaemun District, both in northern Seoul, as more than 30 percent of the residents or landlords are opposed to the new town project.

City officials said they will discuss details with residents about the necessary process to withdraw the project in the coming months, expecting to notify them if they are removed from the list by the second half of the year.
 

The large-scale reconstruction project will be replaced with smaller-scale residential environment improvement projects, including remodeling old structures.
 

In January, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon declared that the city will re-evaluate the project through a series of feasibility studies over the designated areas’ business potential and capital requirements. Park said that the studies will be conducted in two different ways, based on whether an area has formed a committee to represent each region’s landlords and residents. Currently, a total of 610 sectors are designated for the project.
 

Studies will be conducted of the 265 regions that do not have a committee on two separate occasions. The city will conduct studies on 163 sectors with severe conflicts between residents in June and will start studying the remaining 102 in October.

“We expect the information that will be gathered from the studies to provide clear information on each sector’s business potential so it can resolve the conflicts that have occurred among residents,” Lee Geon-ki, the director of the city’s housing policy department, said during a press briefing held yesterday at City Hall.

The studies will be led by district officials in each region in conjunction with civic experts and civil servants and will provide estimated payments that each household will have to pay to participate in a new town project.
 

There will also be a series of briefing sessions with residents to introduce the purpose of the study in order to facilitate cooperation between landlords and residents.

http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2952867&cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1

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Despite meaningless farces like that (Kang Gi-gap, the new leader of the United 'Progressive' Party emergency measures committee, bows seeking forgiveness for his party’s recent misdeeds during yesterday's press conference at the National Assembly)...

...KCTU already decided to end its support for the U'P'P.

Well, even it's a dramatic development, the dicision is only logical and justified!!(*)

Today's Yonhap reported the following:

The head of Korea's militant trade union said Tuesday his union has withdrawn support from a left-wing political party mired in infighting over alleged primary fraud.

"It is impossible for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to continue to support the Unified Progressive Party," Kim Young-hoon, president of the labor umbrella group, in an interview on local radio.

The trade union forged an alliance with the UPP and its predecessor in previous elections in an apparent bid to boost their chances of winning elections.

Kim said recent violent clashes between the party's rival factions at the UPP's central committee conference have raised a fundamental question over whether the party plays its political role.

However, he suggested his union members would not bolt from the party en masse.

The trade union is a key backbone of the five-month-old party as some 35,000 union members have voting rights in the party, accounting for 46 percent of party officials who are eligible to vote in the party's internal elections.

The union boasts about 700,000 members who work in vehicle plants, shipyards, subways and other public transportation systems, according to union spokesman Park Song-shik.

Kim's comment came a day after a non-mainstream faction set up an interim emergency committee to reform the minor party torn apart by the primary fraud. The move triggered a strong protest from a mainstream faction loyal to the East Gyeonggi Coalition, an alleged pro-North Korean bloc that some say was dissolved a decade ago.

The factional division has deepened since earlier this month when the party announced after an internal investigation that its primary to select the party's proportional representation candidates for the April 11 elections had been rigged.

Seven UPP candidates were elected through direct elections and six others won parliamentary seats under the proportional representation system, which allocates seats to parties according to the numbers of votes they receive.

The UPP, which was created just five months ago, has become the third-largest party in the 300-seat National Assembly.

Related articles:
☞ Labor unions withdraw support for UPP (K. Times, 5.15)
☞ Umbrella union calls off allegiance to UPP (K. Herald, 5.15)
☞ UPP votes down 14 candidates for proportional reps (JoongAng Ilbo, 5.15)
☞ How can we expect such people to lead progressive politics? (Hankyoreh, 5.14)

 
* But if KCTU (in fact the creator of the former 'Democratic' Labour Party, the main part of U'P'P) really wants to make a new beginning... it needs to rethink its own domocratic - or rather undemocratic(!!) - structure(almost the same like in 'D'LP/U'P'P), still ruling the union!!

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Last Wednesday(5.09) in several cities, mainly in the US and EU, activists gathered to show their solidarity with the struggle against the Jeju Naval (Pirate) Base, already under construction - despite massive resistance by residents and their supporters - near the village of Gangjeong.
 

Here just some impressions from Germany's capital Berlin:

                                                                      Pics by Tsukasa Yajima