CINA

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Tens of thousands (Tongil News reported 45,000, the mainstream media around 20,000/but the organizers expected between 100,000 and 200,000.. "at least") of South Korean workers, farmers, students, anti-war and civil right activists defended today their right to demonstrate on the occasion of the traditional/annually "Nat'l Workers Rally" (western media, such as Reuters and AP, mis-interpreted the demonstration as just an anti-FTA protest..) and clashed - actually were forced to clash - with thousands of riot cops in downtown Seoul.

All streets leading to City Hall Plaza were complete blocked by at least 600 police buses. Almost 25,000 riot cops on the spot used water cannons, botons, shields and fire extinguishers to attack and stop the protesters.

At one location, riot cops beat male and female workers and college students with batons, forcing protesters to the ground and then kicking several of them into submission before dragging them away, one witness said..

According to KCTU at least 125 protesters were arrested. More than 100 demonstrators were injured by the riot cops' excessive violence.

For Dec. 1 the protesters vowed a new, massive demonstration: "We'll fight back! The forces of the people's power will change the world!" (whatever it means..^^)

Police, Protesters Clash Causing Traffic Chaos (Korea Times)
 

About 25,000 laborers and farmers protesting against major government policies clashed with riot police in central Seoul Sunday, causing traffic jams.

On their way to Seoul City Hall plaza, the members of the Korean Alliance of Progressive Movements and the Korean Confederation of Trade Union (KCTU) came across riot police barricading the street. The protestors were calling for the abolishment of temporary worker status, and demonstrating their opposition to the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) and the extension of Korean soldiers' deployment in Iraq.

Buses and large vehicles carrying demonstrators from other regions to Seoul were also blocked by police, who set up checkpoints on highways from the early morning.

In the afternoon, the streets were filled with policemen attempting to control the crowd of protestors trying to make it beyond the barricades. About 25,000 protestors marched to Gwanghwamun, dodging a total of 23,000 policemen, while those who did not make it to Seoul protested in their own way.

Hundreds of demonstrators blocked a lane on the Seohaean Expressway to protest police blockade.

A farmer from Haman, South Gyeongsang Province, tried to set himself on fire in the middle of the Gyeongbu Expressway when police tried to stop him and his compatriots from going to Seoul.

The police action came after the government vowed it would take stern measures against illegal collective action. On Friday, four ministries - justice, labor, construction and transportation, and government administration and home affairs - warned against the rally. They said the police ordered the KCTU not to hold the rally as it would create heavy traffic jams. It later defined the event as an illegal one.

However, the laborers said the right to perform collective action was guaranteed by the constitution and they would not stop. They also said banning it was an infringement of human rights. `` We are gathering to seek for our own rights and what the government is doing is unacceptable. Is this a democracy?'' a farmer from Busan said.

Police blocked nearly all the roads to city hall causing inconvenience to pedestrians. They complained that the police action caused more noise and traffic chaos.

 
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2007/11/117_13497.html

For more please see/read also:

☞ S.Korean protesters clash with riot police (Reuters, slide show)

☞ Massive demonstration causes confrontation.. (Hankyoreh, 11.12)

☞ Police, protesters battle in streets.. (JoongAng Ilbo, conservative daily, 11.12)

☞ How Much Longer Must We Put Up with Such Violence? (Chosun Ilbo.. ^^)

Source: AP

☞ ‘11.11 범국민행동의 날’.. (Tongil News, incl. pics)

☞ 경찰 "총으로 다 쏴죽이겠다" 협박 (KCTU)

☞ 전국 8만 여명 참가...민중총궐기 "승리했다" (VoP, incl. several video docus)

☞ 노무현 정부도 '계엄령'을 아는가? (OhmyNews)

☞ 범국민 행동의 날.. (Chamsesang News, incl. pics)

☞ 아찔했던 경찰헬기 저공비행 (OhmyNews..)

☞ 경찰버스 오르는 노동자-농민에 소화기, 물대포 난사 (..TV)

☞ 2007.11.11. 범민중총궐기대회 광화문 행진 (Chamsesang..)

☞ 집회 불허 뚫고 시청 앞 전차로 점거 (..TV)

☞ 20071111 -- 범국민대회 (땅의 사람, pictures)

"12월 1일 다시 모이자.

민중의 힘으로 세상을 바꾸자"

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11.11 NATIONAL WORKERS' DEMONSTRATION

Well, while the S.K. progressive - workers', anti-war, human right.. - movement is preparing for a massive protest, the gov't is preparing for massive repression measures, i.e. STATE TERROR.. JoongAng Ilbo reported that the gov't will deploy about 45,000 riot cops "to confront the rally".

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Before and during Roh Moo-hyun's visit in the DPRK, on the occasion of of the "N-S Korean Summit" early October, it was highly disputed (mainly) in the S.K. (bourgeois) media if he should attend the Arirang Mass Games performance, scheduled by his N.K. hosts. Well, finally he "enjoyed" the performance.. Actually not surprisingly, not really.. Because, short before his trip to N.K., Roh (f.. stupid as he is!!) told the S.K. public that he sees no difference between the Arirang Mass Games and the participation of S.K. teenagers in TV shows, such as song contests, or stuff like that.

Today's Asia Times (HK) published following impressive report, written by Kim Hyun-sik (*) about the reality of Arirang Mass Games:

Bitter tears behind Pyongyang's games

Among the many tales of North Korea - anecdotes and observations from my own life as a professor at the Pyongyang University of Education for nearly 40 years - is North Korea's internationally famous mass games, a grand spectacle of rigorous gymnastics, elaborate group dance and dazzling flashing cards.

The games - also known as the Arirang mass gymnastics games - represent the sum total of North Korea's ideological and aesthetic expression. The performance, which involves the participation of 100,000 Pyongyang City students, is not only a composite blend of art with gymnastics, but aspires to aesthetic perfection by employing the highest degree of human athleticism and creativity. But beneath the outward grandeur flow the blood, sweat and tears of children...

I wish to tell the world that the Arirang mass games .. is nothing but an elaborate show. It is an act to show off the North Korean people's loyalty, solidarity and iron will in serving their Kim Jong-il...

..(the world) should be keenly aware of the bitter tears that Pyongyang's young students and their parents shed from their participation in these mass games. Almost all the elementary, secondary and college students living in Pyongyang, totaling 100,000, participate in the games.

The background (cards) section alone requires some 20,000 participants. Participation in the mass games is not voluntary; rather, it is unconditional and mandatory, in accordance with the orders of the Workers' Party. The students move together in unison according to the military command system. All students are transported for practices and performances by hundreds of military trucks that are also on call to carry heavy artillery in case of war.

The mass games take place in a stadium in Pyongyang for several months, beginning with Kim Il-sung's birthday (also known in North Korea as "The Day of the Sun", April 15). During this period, all classes are suspended. The participating high school seniors suffer lower scores on their university entrance exam. To remedy this problem, the North Korean authorities have even instituted a system of free additional points to the students' test scores to compensate for their participation in the performance.

The students that physically and mentally suffer the most are the 20,000 who are in the cards section of the performance. These students must quickly fold and unfold the heavy cards at the flag signals with undivided attention for the entire duration of the three-hour performance. Since they must remain alert and cannot go to the bathroom during the performance, the male students urinate into the plastic bags at their seats and the female students have no choice but to wait or to urinate on the floor. As a result, a number of female students suffer from chronic cystitis throughout their lives.

Those students holding the cards containing pieces of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il's faces and body parts on them must be particularly careful throughout the three hours of the performance. Even one mistake results in punishment for the student, as well as his or her parents and classroom teacher. One time, my daughter was the teacher of a student who made a mistake during a performance. The student's parents as well as my daughter were summoned each night to the department of National Security, where they came under fierce ideological criticism for the student's mistake and were forced to write a letter of self-criticism.

From the following day, my daughter was ordered to lie down right below the student bench in the stadium to make sure that the errant student would pay attention throughout the performance. Many students fall to the ground due to the heat from the sun, extreme hunger, and high nervous tension and exhaustion. However, the spirit of the ideological struggle still makes them stand back up on their feet.

It is impossible for the student participants to fill up on the one roll of bread that the authorities distribute for lunch. So their parents can't help but bring home-made vegetable soup and feed their children so that the soup can supplement their sons' and daughters' daily ration of bread.

Since the mass games require tens of thousands of students to move together in unison like a machine, these student participants suffer all kinds of hardship and indignities. The flashy and impressive performance ... is borne with cursing, merciless beatings, harsh ideological indoctrination, self-criticism writings and group punishments meted out by the teacher and the authorities...

 
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IK08Dg01.html

* Kim Hyun-sik, former professor and dean of the Foreign Language Education Research Department, Pyongyang University of Education, North Korea and a former private tutor to the family of leader Kim Il-sung. Kim Hyun-sik was a visiting professor at Yale University from 2003-06 and is currently a research professor at George Mason University.

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Today, exactly 90 years ago, the leadership of the SDPR(B) instructed the revolutionary masses in Petrograd to start the uprising against the bourgeois/civic government in Russia. That day was the beginning of the Great Socialist October Revolution.. For the following 80 years it changed almost everything across the world..

But today, 90 years later, nearly no-one is talking/writing about it anymore (oops, what a surprise!!)..

So, just let's enjoy^^ some few results (of course.. Made in China):

"The International" by Tang Dynasty (唐朝)

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About last Sunday's fascist demonstrations in Moscow today's German (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel reported following:

NEO-NAZIS ON THE MARCH IN MOSCOW
'We Russians Are Part of the White Race'

Thousands of Russian neo-Nazis marched through Moscow on National Unity Day this weekend, joined by pensioners, students and families. Experts believe Russia's far right gives President Vladimir Putin a welcome justification for his authoritarian political style.

Russian skinheads, hooligans, nationalists, fascists and racists gathered on Moscow's Kutosovsky Prospect to mark National Unity Day on Sunday.

They waved flags as they marched in single file along the banks of the Moskva River and to the Ukraina Hotel, across from the White House, the seat of Russia's government.

"Russia for Russians!" the demonstrators shouted in unison, followed by slogans such as "For a Slavic, Russian nation!" or "Slavic, Russian, Powerful!" The demonstrators stretched out their arms in the Hitler salute between slogans. Their loud shouts of "Slavic Russia!" were followed by the sound of drum rolls.

"We are opposed to the immigration of Caucasians and Asians to Russia. Our people must remain pure. Russia belongs to us," 32-year-old Andrey Bukov explains. The trained media expert says he has been "serving" in the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) for four years. He waves its white, yellow and black flag, which features a symbol resembling a swastika.

Nineteen-year-old Sergei carries the red flag of his group -- the "Slavic Union" -- tied around his shoulders. "We Russians are part of the white race," he says. "The blacks -- the Caucasians, the Chechens, the Dagestani -- should stay away," says the Muscovite, a student at the Finance Academy.

Skinheads and Pensioners

The roughly 2,000 demonstrators from the ultra-nationalist scene, who were holding the Russian March for the third year in a row, are a mixed and varied bunch -- a pool of discontented groups and individuals from all classes of society. Elderly women handing out badly photocopied flyers, young female students wearing make-up and high-heeled boots, and parents with small children in colorful snowsuits can all be seen next to skinheads wearing black leather coats, combat boots, SS uniforms or bomber jackets and displaying swastikas. Even young children were giving the Hitler salute.

Pensioner Monika Nikolayeva eagerly passes out flyers portraying oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky as enemies of the people. "These billionaires send their children to school abroad," Nikolayeva, who has a 15-year-old granddaughter, says angrily. "When it comes to our children, there is not even enough money to send them to university in Russia." That is why she believes it is good that young people take to the streets and protest. "Young girls in particular only get limited education!"

The young girls she means are technical university students like Olga and Darya, who are marching beneath the flags. "We're against everything. We're patriots," rants 18-year-old Olga. She and her 19-year-old friend have traveled to Moscow from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia to attend the demonstration. Asked what they are demonstrating against, she is at a loss for a moment. Then she stutters: "Against the anti-Russian policy in the world -- I can't say it any more clearly."

Nazis are Welcome Bogeymen

Andreas Umland, an expert in comparative fascism studies who specializes in Russia, believes these "organized neo-Nazis" are relatively harmless politically. "It's purely a subcultural provocation," he says. Militaristic fascism has been imported to Russia from the Third Reich, he says, and simply adorned with a few Russian and orthodox symbols. "Within wider Russian society, these fascists are stigmatized," he explains. "This Russian March is more of a protest movement."

Nevertheless the Kremlin allows the ultra-right demonstrators to take to the streets on National Unity Day, a public holiday, and dispatches thousands of security forces to keep the aggressive mob under control. "The Nazis are a welcome bogeyman, an occasion for demonstrating the power of the authoritarian state," Umland says, explaining that President Vladimir Putin uses the neo-Nazis to legitimate his authoritarian political style by suggesting that without it, the far right could take power. On the other hand, Russia's Central Election Commission has banned the "Motherland" party from participating in the elections to the Russian parliament, the Duma.

Later on Sunday evening, four hours after the neo-Nazi demonstrations, a second Russian March took place in Moscow. Again, thousands walked from Kutusovsky Prospect to the Ukraina Hotel. This time, the marchers were members of groups and parties such as "People's Union" -- followers of revolutionary fascism whose ideology is not so much racist as imperialist.

Anti-American Screed

Umland says that this group has little to do with the racist nationalists and their overt Nazism. Generally, says the expert on nationalism -- who has been researching Russia's right-wing movements for 15 years -- groups like the "People's Union" rely on anti-American and anti-European screed to attract followers.

They include the Vice Speaker of the Duma Sergey Baburin and other members of parliament. "More or less all the powerful political parties participating in the Duma elections have made use of these anti-Western slogans -- from the Russian Communist Party to Putin's United Russia," Umland says. But, he adds, there is a complete absence of a significant left-wing party or movement in the run up to the Russian elections.

Russia's leading human rights group, the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, still sees the neo-Nazi march as reason to sound the alarm. In its latest report the SOVA Center says it recorded 270 racially motivated violent attacks against a total of 472 people, 53 of whom have died. SOVA's Galina Kozhevnikova is even expecting an increase in xenophobia during the coming weeks, in the run up to the parliamentary elections in December. "Sadly, we are not surprised," she says. The figure increases by between 20 and 25 percent every year, Kozhevnikova explains. "But this year we are seeing a trend towards the targeting of new enemy groups, such as homosexuals," she adds.

Most incidents described in the report involve drunk young men on the prowl after football or ice hockey games. They beat up Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks or Tajikistanis or attack them with weapons. Usually, it is the very same young men who can be seen giving the Hitler salute at the Russian March.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,515380,00.html

Member of the "National Union"..

Related:

☞ Neo-Nazis March in Russia ("Photo Galery", Der Spiegel, 11.06)

☞ Russian Neo-Nazis Strike Again (Der Spiegel, 9.15)

☞ SOVA Center for Information and Analysis

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Yesterday (11.04) Russia celebrated the obscure (national holiday) "Day of National Unity". In Moscow thousands of demonstrators demanded in two separate rallies - one was more fascist and racist, and the other more fascist and pro-imperialist (incl. the "National Bolshevist Party") - "Russia Only For White Russians", "Foreigners/Migrants Out!!", "Death to the Yellow Danger" (i.e. the influence of the Chinese, Koreans.. in the East..), a "Unified Struggle Against the (so-called western) Democracy" and the "Re-establishment of the Russian Empire", etc..

Well, here some few impressions from y'day's (f..) demonstrations in Moscow:

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AVAILABLE SOON
IN PYEONGYANG!!!
 

Yeah, what a "progress"!! Just read following stupid story (well, it must be a bad joke!):

Fried chicken franchise goes North (JoongAng Ilbo, 11.03)

 
..a South Korean fried chicken franchise will open the only foreign-run restaurant in North Korea, targeting family dining on special occasions...
 
Choi Won-ho, who runs Matdaero, a 70-store fried chicken franchise in the South, said yesterday he would open a restaurant in a joint venture with a North Korean state-run trading company, near the Arch of Triumph in central Pyongyang on Nov. 15.
 
The restaurant will both receive walk-in customers and deliver chicken and draft beer to homes. Such places are common in South Korea, but it will be the first chicken joint of its kind in North Korea.

Choi has invested 500 million won ($551,000) in the restaurant’s cooking facilities, interior decoration and delivery scooters. He will split the profit 70-30 with the North Korean firm.

Choi, 48, who has been a chicken entrepreneur for 15 years, said there should be sufficient demand despite North Korea being one of the world’s poorest countries, because he plans to offer lower prices to locals.
 
“I will charge about $3 for a whole chicken for North Koreans (*) and at least $12, the same price as in South Korea, for tourists from the South and other countries,” Choi said yesterday by phone. “One whole chicken will be enough for a four-member family, so the price of $3 will not be too burdensome for special occasions.”

The store will hire about 20 North Koreans to take telephone orders, fry the birds and make home deliveries. It will have seating for 50...

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2882297

☞ Fried Chicken Shop to Debut in NKorea (AP, 11.02)

* According to experts who are familiar with the NK society the average monthly income for "ordinary" workers -  "The Heroes of the Paradise of the Working Class" - is between 3000 and 5000 NK Won.

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Last Monday (10.29) the Swedish magazine The Local published following report:

South Korean hunger striker targets Tetra Pak

A leafy Swiss park is the unlikely setting for a showdown between a South Korean hunger striker and a global corporation he accuses of "gangster" tactics in shutting down a factory.

Chung Janghun, a 41-year-old union official, has been on hunger strike for just over a month in a park in the western city of Lausanne, close to where the processing and packaging company Tetra Pak has its international headquarters.

Tetra Pak was founded in Sweden in 1953 and is famed for its innovative milk and drinks packaging. The Swedish company's registered international headquarters are in Pully, a Lausanne suburb, for tax purposes.

Chung and his comrades from the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers Federation are protesting against Tetra Pak's proposals to close the Yoju plant in South Korea and cut 108 jobs.

"It's very hard, but what keeps me going is the struggle against Tetra Pak," Chung told AFP in an interview.

Since September 26th, he has survived on just water and mineral salts.

Chung also has a twice-weekly check-up at Lausanne's University Hospital and must heed doctors' advice -- one of the conditions imposed by the Swiss city's authorities when allowing his protest.

Tetra Pak announced last March it was shutting the Yoju factory, saying its operations were commercially unsustainable.

However, Chung claimed the factory "had never been in the red," and said the decision to close it down was politically motivated.

All but three of the 76 workers on the factory floor were union members, he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Looking frail but determined in his tent in Lausanne's Parc de Milan, Chung said his aim was to highlight the "immoral and inhumane" methods of Tetra Pak, including hiring what he called "half-gangster" security firms to intimidate union officials.

Tetra Pak also bombarded workers and their families with text messages in a bid to get them to accept a voluntary redundancy package, he added.

Tetra Pak said in a statement that it had offered employees "a significantly more generous redundancy package than required under South Korean employment law."

The two sides have held three meetings since the Korean delegation has been in Europe -- one in Sweden and two in Switzerland.

The unions alleged these amounted to a "monologue, not a dialogue."

Tetra Pak said it wants to continue a dialogue, and "hope(s) that the South Korean Union delegation will soon refocus their campaign onto their health, well being and future."

Switzerland's economy minister Doris Leuthard has rejected calls to become involved in the dispute. Her ministry says that under international directives laid down by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the matter must be settled in South Korea.

Chung Janghun insists the dispute has implications for workers worldwide and not just in his home country.

"I want to make it an international issue to correct the immoral attitudes of multinationals," he said.

He said he had received a "very good impression" of Switzerland during his protest, and that local people had come to the park to voice their support and provide blankets and food to his companions.

The union official said he was grateful to the Lausanne authorities for allowing his protest and admitted he would face an ethical dilemma if doctors advise him to stop his strike on health grounds.

"I am resolute to go to the very end," he said -- but on the other hand, "unlike Tetra Pak, I won't break my promises," Chung added.

http://www.thelocal.se/8936/20071029/

Signature campaign..

..in Lausanne

For more informations please check out:

☞ 테트라팩홍보팀 (Struggle Tour Dairy, many pics and copies of Swiss newspapers)

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JUNTA PROTESTS RETURN
Burmese Monks Venture Back onto Streets (Spiegel, 10.31)

Last month, protesting monks in Burma were being beaten up and detained by the thousands. Now they're are back at it -- in smaller numbers, but with equal conviction.

For the first time since last month's bloody crackdown by the military regime, monks have ventured back onto the streets of Burma. On Tuesday, more than 100 chanting and praying monks marched through the central Burmese town of Pakkoku, about 630 km north-west of Yangon.

People who witnessed the march, which lasted about half an hour, said the monks did not make any overt political statements but that the rally was clearly in defiance of the junta.

Pakkoku, a centre of Buddhist learning, was the scene of clashes between soldiers and monks on Sept. 5, when soldiers had violent confrontations with 600 demonstrating monks.

Since mid-August, hundreds of thousands of Burmese, among them many students and monks, had been protesting rising fuel prices in peaceful demonstrations against the military regime. With the brutal crackdown that began in Pakkoku and continued for weeks, the domestic crisis entered international headlines. Since then, public gatherings of monks have been prohibited, and many monasteries remain deserted.

While the Burmese government claims that only 10 people died in the clashes, diplomats and dissidents set the figure much higher. The Norway-based opposition news organization the Democratic Voice of Burma has estimated that 138 were killed in the violence and around 6,000 detained...

A frame grab taken by a member of the DVB and released 9.01,

shows the body of a dead Buddhist monk floating in a river in Rangoon

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,514596,00.html

Related:

☞ Burmese monks stage first protest since uprising (Guardian/UK, 11.01)

☞ Monks warned against protesting (DVB, 11.01)

☞ Rangoon Diary (Irrawaddy, 11.01)

☞ Myanmar's generals hit where it hurts (A. Times/HK, 11.01)

Latest soli-activities in Seoul/S.K.: 

☞ [10월 30일] ..기자회견

☞ [10월 30일] 버마.. 촛불문화제

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Y'day BWI published following article in solidarity with the struggle of construction workers in Incheon

South Korean Electrician Sacrifices His Life During a Strike

Shouting, "The Incheon electrician's strike is just, arrest Yoo Hae San," 48-year old Jung Hae Jin, member of the Korean Construction Workers Union, KFCITU, set himself on fire at 1:54 p.m. on Saturday, October 27 in front of Youngjin Electrical Company during a march and rally in protest of the employer's refusal to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the union. He would later die from his injuries at 9:00 despite efforts by doctors to save his life.

Close to 400 members of the KFCITU were participating in the demonstration to support the 113 day-old strike of the Branch of Incheon Electricians. The Brach of Incheon Electricians of the Korean Construction Workers Union (KCWU) began negotiations with the 13 subcontractors that hired electricians in the Incheon metropolitan area on Frebruary 28, 2007. However, after repeated union efforts to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement ended in failure, the union began a strike that was supported by 88% of its membership on June 19, 2007. The union's demands included union recognition, 44-hour work week since many electricians had to work 12 to 13 hours a day, and an end to illegal subcontracting. In addition, the union emphasized safety at the work site as many electricians frequently worked under hazardous conditions, particularly since electricians worked on power lines that contained high distribution-level voltages. Should there be a slight mishap during the repairs of these power lines, a worker could easily loose an arm or leg and even worse their life as a result of electrocution.

The rally was part of the annual National Rally in Support of Irregular Workers Rights. At the time of the Jung's self-immolation, the union members were in a confrontation with riot police who had set up blockades to forcefully stop the union from continuing with the rally. Shocked union members rushed to douse out the fire but tragically Jung suffered third and fourth degree burns to at least 40% of his body. While Jung was rushed to the hospital, the riot police refused to allow the union members to leave and threatened throughout the day to arrest them. Eventually, the riot police removed their blockades allowing union members to go to the hospital to pay their respects to Jung Hae Jin.

Throughout the strike, Yoo Hae San, defacto owner of Youngjin Electrical Company even though his wife is the official CEO of the company consistently repressed the union. After obtaining a mandate from the sub contractors to represent them, Yoo Hae San refused to engage in legitimate negotiations with the union. In addition, he hired thugs to intimidate union members participating in the strike and forcefully pull down a tent that was part of a sit-down demonstration in front of Youngjin Electrical Company.

Jung Hae Jin had been an electrician for close to 20 years working for several sub contractors. In recent months, Jung Hae Jin was working as a "day laborer" substituting for contracted electricians due to lack of work and injuries (most recent to his back) that he suffered from two accidents on the job. In both occasions the employers refused to recognize the accidents as work-related and thus he could not receive workers compensation. He joined the union during the recent strike after witnessing the forceful tactics of Youngjin Electrical Company against the union. He had first-hand knowledge of the repressive methods of Youngjin as he had worked from them as a "day laborer" in several occasions. Jung was considered a very kind person and well-liked and respected by everyone.

His tragic death is part of the on-going struggle of South Korean construction workers to be treated like a human being. According to a fellow union member of Jung Hae Jin, "We work 12 to 13 hours a day without being treated as a human being. It is because of this we are calling on the employers to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement so we that they finally honor the labor laws and treat us like human beings."

Both the KCTU and KFCITU leadership have established an emergency committee to discuss how to address this terrible tragedy.

http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=1201&Language=EN

Related:

☞ Song for Comrade Jeong Hae-jin (노동의소리)

☞ 민주노총 "故정해진의 죽음, 좌시 않겠다" (VoP, incl. video)