CINA

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Let's Get on the 2nd 'Bus of Hope' Trip to Hanjin!

In late last year Hanjin Heavy Industry(ship builder based in Busan) laid off about 400 workers when the company gained hugh profit and distributed large sums of money to its shareholders, with an ovboius intentio to move its shipyard to the Phillipines.

The workers organized a walkout, and the struggle still goes on.

High up on the 85th crane is a famous female labor activist, Kim jin-seok, continuing her 180 days of occupying sit-in struggle allone.

This second 'Bus of Hope' trip from every corner of the country is bound to the shipbuilding factory to join the workers and meet with her.

While every gate of the factory was closed but about 1000 of us, the first 'Bus of Hope' trip to Hanjin participants suceeded in climbing over the wall and made ourselves into the factory.

And now we're organizing the second massive bus of hope trip to hanjin company to put pressure on the company so that it scraps the lay-off paln.

The police issued subpeonas several tens of the organizers to supress the movement but it gets strong day by day.

Now we're trying to charter 185 buses on july 9 to the Busan factory.

If we can pull this off, it's gonna be a huge historical victory, for sure!

To get on the bus, just come to the JEI sit-in struggle place right next to Seouls City Hall on July 9, at noon. The buses will leave at 1pm for Busan, but you can also come to the Youngdo ship-building company main gate by 6:30 pm on satuday, July 9.

Let's spread the hope and join the workers' struggle in solidarity! 
 

Related:
☞ 희망의 무지개 버스, 우리가 가는 이유 (인권오름, 7.06)

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Monday's Guardian (UK) reported the following:

N. Korea cancels university classes for construction drive

Pyongyang calls for 10-month sacrifice for construction projects before centenary of founding leader's birth, says UK diplomat

North Korea has reportedly closed its universities to most students and told them to start building as it ramps up a construction campaign ahead of its planned re-emergence next year as a "great and prosperous nation".

The UK ambassador to Pyongyang, Peter Hughes, told the Guardian that the almost year-long academic sacrifice was deemed necessary to reach production targets for new housing ahead of the centenary of founding president Kim Il-sung's birth.

To mark the occasion, Hughes said the government pledged to build 100,000 accommodation units in the North Korean capital, which has a chronic housing shortage.

"I think they have built maybe 10% of that ... Any country would be stretched to hit that accommodation target in two or three years," he said. "As far as we can tell they are going all out to achieve as much as they can before then."

Building work for such prestigious state events is normally carried out by the military, but construction teams are at full stretch on monuments, residential blocks and other projects.

North Korea has also recommenced work on the 105-storey Ryugong skyscraper, which was started in 1987 and was then halted during the years of starvation and economic hardship. Foreign engineers have been called in for consultation and the authorities have promised to finish the building by 2012.

There has been no mention of the mobilisation in the domestic media. Japan's Kyodo news agency has reported that all universities, except for graduating seniors and foreign students, had to cancel classes until next year.

University World News said universities would be closed for up to 10 months from 27 June while students were dispatched to farms, factories and construction sites.

The last time this is known to have happened for such a length of time was during the famines of the late 1990s. The food situation in the country remains precarious. Earlier this year, the UN launched an appeal for humanitarian aid.

Hughes said the universities remained open, but many students were being shifted to outside tasks.

"They are already out there building things. It's difficult to know exactly what," he said. "This has happened before, but for maybe a month or two. The only unusual thing is that they are out for 10 months."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/04/north-korea-closes-universities-reports

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The S. Korean Migrant Workers Trade Union (MTU, affiliated to the KCTU) published last week(6.28) its latest...

Report on Trial and Detention of Vietnamese Construction Workers in South Korea
 

The following is a report on the outcome of the trial of 10 Vietnamese migrant workers arrested in relation to their participation in two spontaneous strikes in July 2010 and January 2011.
 

*Charges and Verdict

The defendants were all charged with 'obstruction of business'. Seven of them were also charged with acts of 'group violence' or 'mob assault with a deadly weapon'. All defendants were found 'not guilty' of the charge of 'obstruction of violence'. The not guilty verdict was based on the following legal precedent, quoted in the judge's decision:
 

“Workers' basic rights, as protected in the Constitution, included the right to association, collective bargaining and collective action (strike) as a means to improve their working conditions. Foreigners, irrespective of nationality, are also subjects of these basic labor rights. When deciding whether a strike, as a job action, constitutes obstruction of business, strict interpretation is necessary so as to ensure that the basic rights described above are not violated.
 

“As such, it cannot be seen that strikes, as job action, necessarily constitute 'obstruction of business'. Rather, this must be judged after the fact, and only if a review of the specific circumstances shows that the collective refusal of labor provision occurred suddenly at a time that the employer could not predict so as to cause great difficulty to the operation of business, or great losses, and thus impaired the employers' ability to voluntarily continue his/her business can it be considered as constituting the crime of 'obstruction of business' (Supreme Court, 7 March 2011, Refer to sentencing verdict 2007do482, complete panel of judges)."
(This is an unofficial translation.)
 

The judge found that there was not sufficient evidence to show that the employer had suffered the claimed losses, and thus, the strike could not be seen as constituting 'obstruction of business’.
 

With regards to the other charges, five of the defendants were found guilty, but their sentences were waved or they were given light fines. The judge explicitly explained that more severe sentences that would become grounds for deportation were intentionally avoided. Only two defendants were given suspended prison time sentences—sentences severe enough to be grounds for deportation.
 

*The details of the sentencing are as follows:
 

1. aaaaa
-obstruction of business: not guilty
-group violences: guilty
-sentence: 2 million won fine, waved sentence of 8 months prison time (not grounds for deportation)
 

2. bbbbb
-obstruction of business: not guilty
-mob assault with deadly weapon: guilty
-sentence: 2 years prison time, suspended for 3 years (grounds for deportation)
 

3. ccccc
-obstruction of business; not guilty
-group violence, mom assault with a deadly weapon, mob assault: guilty
-sentence: 1 year 6 months prison time, suspended for 2 years (grounds for deportation)
 

4. ddddd
-obstruction of business: not guilty
 

5. eeeee
-obstruction of business: not guilty
-group violence: guilty
-sentence: 2 million won fine (not grounds for deportation)
 

6. fffff
-obstruction of business: not guilty
-mob assault with a deadly weapon, violence: guilty
-500,000 won fine, waved sentence of 8 months prison time (not grounds for deportation)
 

7. ggggg
-obstruction of business: not guilty
-mob assault with a deadly weapon: guilty
-sentence: waved sentence of 8 months prison time (not grounds for deportation)
 

8. hhhhh
-obstruction of business: not guilty
-group violence: guilty
-sentence: 2 million won fine
 

9. iiiii
-obstruction of business: not guilty
 

10. jjjjj
-obstruction of business: not guilty
 

*Detention by Incheon Immigration

Based on the above verdict, all but two of the defendants should have been released. Instead, only two of the three defendants who received not only guilty verdicts were released. The third continued to be detained by the police because of a prior fine he had not paid. The other defendants were taken by immigration officials to the Incheon Immigration office.
 

When they arrived at the court, the immigration officials were unclear about whom they should take custody of or what their sentences were. They did not even refer to the judge's decision in deciding whom to detain, but rather just detained all those with guilty verdicts. They did not have the required detention orders. When supports protests, they simply wrote up 'emergency detention orders' for the seven defendants on the spot in such a rushed manner that they mistakenly recording the same date for the start and termination of the detention.
 

When activists and supporters protested this unfair treatment, the head of the Incheon Immigration Office simply replied with arrogant comments such as, "Our detention center is good, better than other countries. You shouldn't think of detention as imprisonment, ” and "South Korea's immigration system is of high quality."
 

This is a clear case of abuse of authorities granted under the Immigration Control Law. The Incheon Immigration Office's is a racist attempt to increase the number of deportations it carries out without regard for the rights of the individuals involved or the presiding judge's intentions.
 

Labor, civil society and social movement organizations are continuing to call for the workers release and protest the actions of the Immigration Office...

http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=176040#0

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Last week, activists who are supporting the struggle against the "redevelopment" scheme in Seoul's Myeong-dong area founded the 'Myeong-dong Liberation Front'(MDLF).
 

The main aim of the group: particularly 'active solidarity' with the struggle of the tenants in Myeong-dong, who are in danger to be (forcibly) evicted (sooner or later) and in genreral to create a kind of mass movement to fight against the gentrification, i.e. the so-called "redevelopment" projects.

For more info (unfortunately only in Korean) please check out Myeong-dong Liberation Front!
 

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In case you do not know, the 190 day strike by shipbuilding workers for Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction(HHIC) in Busan has come to an end. Last Monday(6.27) the union leadership has made an arrangement with the management to end the strike without the union being liable for "damages" due to the strike. Workers who participated in the strike are also not to be reprimanded for striking. However the agreement does not repeal the company layoffs.

Workers and their families are still angry with the new arrangement between union leadership and management because the settlement does not allow for the reinstatement of the laid off workers. In response to this workers have protested and blockaded the workplace. Workers and their families do not want to accept the deal imposed by management and the union leadership. Workers are calling for a total victory in an end to all layoffs.

Last Tuesday's Hankyoreh published the following editorial referring to the issue:

HHIC union’s unexpected compromise

Yesterday, Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) labor union leaders made the decision to call off its general strike after 190 days and return to work. The union reportedly made the decision after reaching an agreement with the management on four issues. These were offering voluntary resignation to those of 170 terminated employees who are interested, and canceling criminal cases and accusations on both sides. But with no withdrawal of the layoffs, the key demand of the strike, the sense of conflict and crisis is actually greater.

Dozens of union members are now joining the tower crane protest of Kim Jin-suk, a Direction Committee member for the Busan chapter of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). We have even seen the plaintive spectacle of dismissed HHIC workers tying themselves to the crane with rope and crying, “Save us.”

The abrupt decision by the union’s leadership to call off the strike appears to have been motivated by concerns about the possibility of the union’s annihilation with the introduction of government forces if it were to physically resist forcible proxy execution of a court order to vacate the premises. A growing sense of strike fatigue also appears to have been a factor, with some members abandoning the strike as it drew out over six months, and many experiencing extreme hardship.

Nevertheless, it is highly dissatisfying to see the union’s leadership agreeing to call off the strike at a time when political and social interest in the HHIC situation is at a peak, with the National Assembly scheduled to hold a hearing with HHIC Chairman Cho Nam-ho on Wednesday. What this means is that the day was carried by company’s immoral power logic of irresponsibly laying off masses of workers, citing “financial reasons.”

The agreement across party lines to hold a hearing is clear evidence that fundamental responsibility for this situation lies with the company. In particular, Cho drew public indignation by traveling overseas in order to avoid appearing before the National Assembly. Even civil society lent its support for the HHIC workers with an unprecedented deployment of “Hope Buses.” The people of South Korea are likely to be experiencing no small amount of consternation and disappointment to see the union calling off the strike under these circumstances. This is also the reason for the expression of dismay by the KCTU and Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), who contended that union member opinions were not properly gathered.

The union’s leadership may have agreed to call off the strike, but the HHIC situation is not over. The worker layoffs are a present-tense situation that must be withdrawn. The National Assembly should examine the improper nature of the layoffs at Cho’s hearing. If he does not attend, it should lodge an accusation. Cho, for his part, should not come to the mistaken conclusion that the situation was wrapped up with the decision to call off the strike. He needs to put his head together with the workers to reach a solution on the layoffs.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/484847.html

For more (updated) info please check out LabourStart!

 

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Last Sunday(6.26) evening/night(...till Monday morning^^), the 1st SOLIDARITY CONCERT (followed by a really f*cking great party) to support the Myeong-dong Struggle Against the 'Redevelopment' Project took place in Seoul's "Duriban". Here just some impressions from the event:
 

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Last Saturday at least 200 people, incl. some "foreigners"(although only few of them were knowing about the background...) celebrated DURIBAN's victory against the Construction Mafia and Mapo-gu District Office...

Here just some impressions from last Saturday's event:
 

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숲속홍길동 고 이상현동지 원진녹색병원 에서 오늘 저녁 8시 추모제. 내일 오전 10시 발인. 장지는 마석모란공원.

 

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Just one hour ago I got the information that our comrade, video activist Lee Sang-Hyeon (aka "Hong Gil-dong in the Forest") commited suicide four days ago.

Nodong-ui Sori released y'day the following statement:

오늘(6.25)일 오전 인천연수동에서 자취하던 이상현(숲속홍길동)동지가 집에서 목을 매 자살한 상태로 경찰에 발견되었습니다. 경찰이 주변의 신고로 이상현동지의 집에 들어갔을 때 목을 맨 상태였다고 합니다. 이상현동지의 유품에 적힌 영상운동을 하는 동지의 전화번호로 경찰이 전화를 했고, 이 후 동지들에게 소식을 알리게 되었습니다. 인천 연수경찰서로 급히 방문한 노동가수 박준동지에 의하면 이상현동지는 목을 매 숨진 상태로 발견되었고 시간이 며칠 지난상태였다고 합니다. 유서도 발견되지 않았다고 하구요.. 현재 경찰은 이상현동지의 가족을 찾고 있다고 합니다. 월요일 동사무소와 연계하여 가족을 찾아보겠다고 했답니다. 평상시 이상현동지는 누구에게도 가족이야기를 하지 않았다고합니다. 혹시 글 읽으시는 분들중에 이상현동지의 가족을 아시는 분 있으시면 꼭 연락바랍니다.(011-211-8966) 가족이 나타나는대로 가족과 상의하여 이후의 장례일정을 논의할 것입니다. 혹여 가족이 없는 경우엔 빠른 시간내에 지인들과 함께 장례위를 구성할 예정입니다. 안타까운 소식을 전하게 되어 참으로 참담합니다. 고인의 명복을 빕니다.

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*6월 25일 토요일 '두리반 마지막 음악회' 출연진 및 공연 시간표

하헌진 (17:00-17:30) 아홉번째 (17:30-18:00) 멍구밴드 (18:00-18:30) 악어들 (18:30-19:00) 밤섬해적단 (19:00-19:30) 조한석 밴드 (19:30-20:00) 쏭의 빅밴드 (20:00-20:30) 스팀보이즈 (20:30-21:00) 적적해서 그런지 (21:00-21:30) 앵클어택 (21:30-22:00) 다큐멘터리 상영(오후 10시-11시) 두리반과 연대한 사람들이 모두 모이는 뒷풀이 (오후 11시부터)

*6월 26일 일요일 '두리반과 명동의 연대' (명동 향린교회 주차장)

벼룩시장과 바자회 (오후 4시부터 공연이 끝날 때까지 계속됩니다. 누구든 나누고 싶은 물건을 가져오세요!)

연대 공연 출연진 및 시간표 (밴드가 추가될 수 있습니다)

얌얌 (19:00-19:30) 섭섭해서 그런지 (19:30-20:00) 회기동 단편선 (20:00-20:30) 야마가타 트윅스터 (20:30-21:00) 무키무키만만수 (21:00-21:30) 노컨트롤 (21:30-22:00) 머머스룸 (22:00-22:30)