CINA

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BURMA: 
"Monks Are Calling For UPRISING AGAINST THE JUNTA"..

..today's German magazine Der Spiegel headlined. Channel NewsAsia: "That's the beginning of the end!"..

  Today about 20,000 people led by Buddhist monks demonstrated in Rongoon (aka Yangon) against Burma's military junta, in what has quickly become the largest anti-government demonstrations since the failed democratic uprising in 1988.
   The latest protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but has its basis in long pent-up dissatisfaction with the repressive military regime.

State terror against protesting monks, Pakokku (Sept. 2007)

Using arrests and intimidation, the government had managed to keep demonstrations limited in size and impact - but they gained new life when the monks joined. But since the beginning of last week the demonstrations were continuously increasing.

Last Thursday Burmese Buddhist monks called on students and civilians to join hands with them in public protests against the military regime which has ruled the country for almost 20 years.
   The Federation of All Burma Young Monks Unions issued a statement saying, “It is time for the Burmese people to work with monks and courageously demonstrate their genuine aspirations.” 

This was the first official call by protesting monks for the public to take part in their demonstration marches which have spread across the country during the past week. Previously, the monks asked the public not to join their protests..

For more detailes about..:

☞ The last days of the protest - a chronology (daily updated!!)

Related articles:  

☞ Emboldened Myanmar monks challenge junta rule (Channel NewsAsia, 9.23)

☞ 20,000 March Against Myanmar Government (AP, 9.23)

☞ 10,000 Protest Against Myanmar Gov't (AP, 9.22)

☞ Timeline: Myanmar fuel protests (al-Jazeera)

☞ The Irrawaddy

☞ Democratic Voice of Burma

☞ BurmaNet

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WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA

A Documentary Film
by P. Tetteroo and R. Feddema (NL, 2001)

Related:

☞ A Daily Life in NK (al-Jazeera documentary video)

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Already y'day (9.19) Yonhap reported that the "South Koreans are becoming increasingly negative toward labor unions largely because of their militant and sometimes violent way of pushing through their demand for pay raises and other benefits.." (yeah, "don't believe the hype"!!).

Now - today - the "left"-liberal  Hankyoreh published following article about the same issue:

S. Korea’s labor movement on the decline after 20 years

 
Though expectations on unions are high, union membership has fallen and public opinion is increasingly negative

How has South Korea’s labor movement changed over the past two decades? A forum marking the 19th anniversary of the Korea Labor Institute and held on Sept. 19 looked at a variety of aspects of the labor movement in an attempt to answer this and other questions.

The outcome of an analysis conducted at the forum revealed that the union membership rate has fallen and an increasing number of people have negative opinions about union activities, demanding that unions concentrate on protecting the rights of contract-based workers and other underprivileged colleagues, instead of excessively pursuing material gains. Due to the instability in the job market, income disparity is greater than it was in the early 1980s and the number of poor laborers who appeared after the financial crisis in 1997 has also increased.

Korean people have increasingly expressed their objection to the labor movement by remaining silent, Lee Soo-bong, the policy coordinator for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said at the forum. Figures confirmed the sense of crisis.

At the forum, Oh Gae-taek, a Korea Labor Institute researcher, unveiled a survey of 2,000 people, which was conducted to see how they view the nation’s labor activities. Of those polled, 16 percent of the respondents thought that strengthened labor activities would contribute to the nation’s economic growth, far less than the 53.3 percent holding this opinion in a similar survey done in 1989. Only 41.3 percent saw labor unions’ demands as just, compared with 67 percent in 1989.

Of note is that only 5.4 percent of those surveyed cited labor unions as the most reliable organizations, far less than civic groups (41 percent), the media (15.2 percent), the government (11.9 percent) and conglomerates (7.2 percent).

Nevertheless, people still have high expectations for labor unions. Of those polled, 34.4 percent wanted labor organizations to play a role in political democratization, while 40.2 percent called for an improvement in social inequality.

In the meantime, the union membership rate has dropped dramatically for the past two decades. The ratio peaked at 18.5 percent at the end of 1987 before it fell to 10.3 percent in 2005.

Cho Sung-jae, a KLI researcher, said, “Following the financial crisis in the late 90s, the number of unionized workers has not changed a lot, but the efforts of labor unions to organize workers have failed to catch up with the increase in the number of salaried workers.”

Data showed that the ratio of workers in the manufacturing sector has decreased from 43.1 percent to 27.6 percent, while that of the service sector surged from 11.9 percent to 30.4 percent.

While the nation has enjoyed rapid income growth due to compressed economic growth from 1987-1996, the income disparity between the haves and have-nots has widened since 2003 as the poorest people took the brunt of high unemployment. The relative poverty ratio among urban households also rose to 10.8 percent in 2006 from 10.2 percent recorded in 1982.

A more serious problem is that the number of underprivileged workers is rapidly increasing. Of them, 59.9 percent are able to work and those working but remaining poor stood at 30.6 percent. This shows that it is more important to provide better-paying jobs rather than decreasing the unemployment rate.

In addition, it is not easy to overcome poverty. According to Lee, of the KCTU, the possibility of irregular workers obtaining regular worker status is 13.8 percent, less than half of the 30.5 percent average in the 15-member European Union.

The nation’s job market has undergone significant change over the last 20 years. The employment rate has decreased most distinctly among young men, according to the Korea Labor Institute. Though young women have been relatively successful in joining the job market, women in their 30s and 40s ranked the lowest in job recruitment rates among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations.

There have also been changes in the wage system. Until 1996, only 5 percent of companies with more than 100 employees adopted the annual salary system. After the financial crisis hit the nation, the ratio surged to 35 percent with one out of five companies providing dividends based on job performance to their workers.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/237750.html

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Just few hours ago the Israeli..

..Cabinet voted Gaza a 'hostile entity' (Yedioth Ahronoth)

Security cabinet approves economic sanctions against Gaza in response to incessant Qassam attacks, ministers in consensus against retaking Gaza. Hamas: This is a declaration of war

 
The security cabinet voted on Wednesday to declare the Gaza Strip a hostile political entity..

The unanimous vote also authorized the imposing of economic sanctions against Gaza, so long as they do not affect the civilian population. The measures to be taken against Gaza include cutting back on the supply of electricity and fuel..

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said that Israel's decision constituted a "declaration of war."

"This is a dangerous escalation of the attempt to legitimize destroying Palestinian land, criminal behavior and bringing a humanitarian disaster on the Palestinian people. This is Israel attempting a knock-out blow against Hamas following its successes in taking control of Gaza.

"I find the silence and cooperation of the man in Ramallah (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) with the enemy to be very curious indeed," said Barhoum..

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3451149,00.html

Related article:

☞ Ministers declare Gaza 'enemy entity', vote to disrupt power, fuel (Haaretz)

☞ ANALYSIS: Gaza as a 'hostile entity' - a decision in the dark  (Haaretz)

Meanwhile, (not only) since the last days, the military thread by the US and EU Imperialists against Iran is increasing. "France threatens Iran.. unmistakably with war" today's German daily newspaper Der Tagespiegel wrote. Fears of a military conflict with Iran rose a notch after comments on Sunday night by the French foreign minister Kouchner, who said: "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war."

For more please read:

☞ French-kissing the war on Iran (A. Times/HK, 9.19)

☞ Bush setting America up for war with Iran (Telegraph/UK, 9.17)

☞ US crafting Iran bombing plan (Ynet/IL, 9.12)

☞ UK troops are sent to Iranian border (The Independent/UK, 9.12)

US wants war with Iran (Yedioth Ahronoth, 9.16)

Senior intelligence source tells Sunday Telegraph most defense officials believe diplomacy failing, White House likely fine-tuning escalation program to lead to military confrontation with Iran

 
The United States Department of Defense has developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

According to the report, senior CIA and US defense officials believe that the White House was taking steps to ensure military confrontation with Iran, for fear that diplomatic efforts to slow the country’s nuclear weapons program are doomed to fail.

According to a senior US intelligence officer, the escalation to military confrontation could begin with a public denunciation of Iran’s suspected meddling in Iraq, the report said. The US claims Iran is arming and training Shiite militants; a denunciation of such activity could lead to cross-border raids on Iranian training camps and bomb factories.

The official told the Sunday Telegraph that a prime target for such a raid would be the Fajr base run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force in southern Iran, where Western intelligence agencies say armor-piercing projectiles used against British and US troops are manufactured.

The report said according to the theory, which was “gaining credence in Washington security circles”, US action could provoke a major Iranian response, possibly in the form of cutting off Gulf oil supplies, a move that could trigger air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and even its armed forces.

According to the report, the intelligence officer said the US military had "two major contingency plans" for air strikes on Iran.

"One is to bomb only the nuclear facilities. The second option is for a much bigger strike that would - over two or three days - hit all of the significant military sites as well. This plan involves more than 2,000 targets," he said.

"A strike will probably follow a gradual escalation. Over the next few weeks and months the US will build tensions and evidence around Iranian activities in Iraq," the US intelligence official explained.

The intelligence source added that no one outside a tight circle knew what was going to happen. However, he said that within the CIA "many if not most officials believe that diplomacy is failing" and that "top Pentagon brass believes the same".

 
A source in the US State Department told the Sunday Telegraph that pressure from senior counter-proliferation officials have caused US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to acknowledge that military action might be necessary in order to stop Iran’s nuclear plan.

The source added that Rice had begun working with Vice President Dick Cheney to find a way to reconcile their positions and present a united front to President George W Bush.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3449757,00.html#n

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"Inside North Korea", a short documentary video by J. Watts, has been published last week (9.11) in The Guardian (UK).

You can watch it here:

☞ Inside North Korea

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According to international news reports, Israel on September 6 bombed alleged nuclear facilities in Syria, close to the Euphrates River in a border region between Syria and Turkey. The bombing occurred three days after a North Korean ship entered a Syrian port. The North Korean ship was registered as carrying cement, but Israeli intelligence authorities reportedly believed it was carrying nuclear equipment (last Thursday I wrote the first time about it..).

Last weekend especially the media in Israel, the US and UK published articles about it as a top issue (But we should realize that only very few parts of these reports are based on real facts!! For example until today the Israeli gov't/military establishment is complete silent about the IAF attack..).

Here's a kind of "collection" of some of these articles:

☞ Israel targeted N. Korean nuclear equipment (Yedioth Ahronoth/IL)

☞ Secret raid on (North) Korean shipment (Sunday Times/UK)

☞ IAF attacked N. Korean nuclear shipment to Syria (J'Post/IL)

☞ Syria had planned 'devastating surprise' for Israel (Haaretz/IL)

☞ Suspected nuclear shipment prompted IAF raid over Syria (Y. Ahronoth)

☞ ..The IAF attack was 'rehearsal' for attack on Iran (Ynet/IL)

☞ Was Israeli raid practice for Iran war? (The Observer/UK)

Updated 9.18:

☞ N. Korea dismisses suspicions over nuclear link to Syria (Yonhap/SK)

☞ North Korean bust-up over Syrian 'links' (Asia Times/HK)

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Well, as announced two days ago the struggle of the E.Land/Homever "irregular" workers is (of course!!!) continuing!!
But in the night from yesterday to today (once again) the trade union activists were attacked by large units of the riot cops and at least 56 workers were arrested..

A more detailed article you can read here:

☞ More on the E-Land Struggle (TwoKoreasBlog)

Please watch following documentary video about last night's struggle:

☞ 이랜드 일반노조 비정규 노동자 56명 강제연행 (made by comrade "Hong Gil-dong")

Some more pics you can see here:

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Related:

☞ 뉴코아노동조합 파업 84일차 소식지

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Last week, four Israeli warplanes invaded Syrian airspace after midnight on September 6, breaking the sound barrier, and reaching as far as the village of Tal Abyad in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour, about 160 kilometers north of the city of Raqqa.

9.06, IAF attack against Syria

After the "incident",  in the beginning, the int'l media mentioned it - if at all - just in short notices. But now, since the beginning of the week at least the US, Israeli and surprisingly the North Korean (*) media is reporting repeatedly about the subject.

Well, finally the "incident" in fact was an IAF attack against possibly very sensitive targets in Syria, connecting likely Israel, Syria, Iran and the DPRK - if we want to believe the int'l bourgeois media (!!??).

One of the latest articles about the entire issue was published in today's online edition of the Israeli daily Haaretz:

U.S. warned N. Korea not to help Syria with nukes

On Thursday, a U.S. official was quoted as saying Damascus may be building a nuclear facility with North Korean assistance, a week after Syria claimed Israeli aircraft violated its airspace and dropped munitions within its territory..

Israel has refused to comment on Syria's allegations, but a former Israeli official had said he had heard the attack had been carried out against a facilitiy capable of producing unconventional weapons.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that U.S. officials had confirmed that the Israel Air Force launched air strikes against Syria last week, but would not discuss the intended targets.

"The strike I can confirm. The target, I can't," said one U.S. official, adding that there had been more than one strike. Another official called reports on the likely targets "confused."

While Israel remained silent, media reports began surfacing Tuesday of U.S. officials confirming the Israel Air Force had indeed carried out an air strike last Thursday..

Israeli officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the claims, however the CNN television network reported Tuesday that the Israeli government is "very happy with the successful operation."

Senior CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, citing Middle Eastern and Washington sources, said aircraft and possibly even ground forces, who may have directed the planes to their target, took part in the operation.

The attack left "a big hole in the desert," the report said. CNN quoted U.S. government and military sources as saying they were "happy to have Israel convey to both Syria and Iran the message that they can get in and out and strike when necessary." ..

Well, please read the entire article here:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/903398.html

* Israel Condemned for Intrusion into Syria's Territorial Air (KCNA, 9.11)

A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Tuesday in connection with the fact that Israeli warplanes invaded Syria's territorial air space: Early in the morning of Sept. 6 Israel's warplanes illegally intruded into the territorial air above Syria and dropped bombs in the desert in its northeastern area before fleeing.

This is a very dangerous provocation little short of wantonly violating the sovereignty of Syria and seriously harassing the regional peace and security.

The DPRK strongly denounces the above-said intrusion and extends full support and solidarity to the Syrian people in their just cause to defend the national security and the regional peace. (**)

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2007/200709/news09/12.htm#1

Related articles:

☞ ANALYSIS: The air strike in Syria is a secret that cannot be kept

☞ 'IAF targeted Iranian weapons in Syria'

☞ Israel spots nuclear installations in Syria

☞ NY Times: IAF recently photographed nuclear facilities in Syria

☞ Syria, N. Korea building nuclear site together

☞ N. Korea, Syria May Be at Work on Nuclear Facility

☞ Syria and Israel flirt with war

** 외무성대변인 이스라엘의 수리아령공침범 규탄 (조선중앙통신, 9.11)
 
 
조선민주주의인민공화국 외무성 대변인은 최근 이스라엘군용기들이 수리아령공을 침범한것과 관련하여 11일 조선중앙통신사 기자가 제기한 질문에 다음과 같이 대답하였다.

지난 6일 새벽 이스라엘군용기들이 수리아령공을 불법침범하여 동북부 사막지역에 폭탄을 던지고 도주하는 사건이 발생하였다.

이것은 수리아의 자주권을 란폭히 침해하고 지역의 평화와 안전을 엄중히 파괴하는 극히 위험천만한 도발행위로 된다.

우리는 이스라엘의 수리아령공침범행위를 강력히 규탄하며 나라의 안전과 지역의 평화를 수호하기 위한 수리아인민의 정의의 위업에 전적인 지지와 련대성을 표시한다.

☞ "北,시리아에 핵물질 판매"...美'현실성 적다'  (Vop)

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Well, here just two pics from y'day's MTU (small and short) protest against the ongoing crackdown against un-documented migrant workers in general and the wave of arrests of MTU activists/members especially (like last week's Tuesday the rally was held in front of Seoul's Immigration Center in Mok-dong):

The next MTU protest will be on coming

Tuesday (9.18), 11AM at the same place!!