CINA

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Yesterday's Migrant Workers' Rally in Seoul

Here just some impression in pictures (made by "채널만호"):

The entire report:

☞ 4.1, 여수참사 희생자 49재 맞아 정부 규탄 대집회 열려 (MTU)

Ralated:

☞ “네덜란드 보호소 화재 사건으로 두 명의 장관이 사임” (Chamsesang)

Tomorrow (Tuesday, 4.03, 8pm) there will be a open discussion meeting between MTU and MW activists from Holland in the MTU office (Jung-gu, Yegwan-dong, MediCenter Building 70-27, 3rd fl./its near Uljiro 4-ga subway stn).

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While the activists in Seoul were fighting against ROK-US FTA, against the oppression of MTU, the exploitation of migrant workers... "All Together" (다함께) was practice the unification between the S.K. (so-called)  "socialist" movement and the Islamic-fascist movement in the M.E. (incl. the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas and Jihad al-Islamiya in "Palestine", the Rev. Guards of Iran, Hizbullah, the Iraqi "resistance"...) during the "Cairo Conference Against Imperialism and Zionism"

'Progressive" of all countries - UNITE!

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Among the (final??/hopefully NOT!!!) battles against the planned ROK-US FTA [☞ Anti-FTA Protests Escalating in Seoul/K. Times, "이 협상은 원천 무효! 가자, 청와대로!"/VoP (*)] this weekend (Sunday) once again a rally/demo, organized by migrant workers will take place in downtown Seoul:

STOP CRACKDOWN!!

SHUT DOWN ALL IMMIGRATION

DETENTION CENTERS!

HUMAN AND LABOR RIGHTS FOR

ALL MIGRANT WORKERS!

PROTEST RALLY

SUNDAY, 4.01, 2 pm

Seoul Stn.

여수외국인보호소 화채 참사 희생자 49재
미등록 이주노동자 단속 중단! 반인권적 보호소 폐쇄! 공동 행동의 날

일시 : 4월 1일 (일) 오후 2시
장소 : 서울역
주최 : 여수외국인보호소 화재 참사 공동대책위원회

For more informations:

☞ MTU

☞ 여수보호소 화재참사 공대위

Related article:

☞ In undocumented worker debate.. (Hankyoreh, 3.31)

* "4월 1일 저녁 7시, 모이자 서울시청 앞으로"  (VoP, 3.31)

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It was reported that last Saturday(2.24) the final candlelight vigil was held in Daechuri. So it seems that the struggle to save the villages of Daechuri and Doduri is "over"...

But finally, in my opinion, I think that the govt's decision to relocate the USFK base, the decission to force the inhabitans of Daechuri and Doduri out off their homes and field, is - simply said - complete nonsense. You just should read following: Doug Bandow, a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, wrote few days ago that "Even if GNP wins, U.S. should pull troops out". Read it and you will find out how stupid it was/is to tear down the two villages!!

BTW.. in my opinion the decision to kick out the inhabitans of Daechuri.. was/is an CRIMINAL ACT!!

Ha, and I would not wonder when - at the very end, perhaps in five years or so - the area will be used to build a new finance center or expensive appartment skyscrapers..

Here two reports about the final candlelight vigil in Daechuri:

Daechuri and Doduri, Forever! (VoP, 3.27)

The final candlelights in Daechuri were held up last weekend.

The residents in Daechri and Doduri have had a meeting every day, demanding to stop the Pyeongtaek U.S. base extention, with candlelight since Sep. 1st, 2004.

However, the Korean government kept them in submission by the policemen and soldiers.
The residents in both villages concluded to give up and leave their houses, farms and memories before April at all.

About 400 village keepers and activists who fought with the residents also joined the final candlelight meeting.
They held others' hands and tried to make a smile. But Their eyes were filled with tears.

The minister Han Sangyeol said that he was so sorry that all of the activists failed to stop the U.S. base extention and keep the residents to live in their home.

However, Sin Jongwon the delegation of residents in Daechuri village answered that they could come back to their home because the U.S. troops couldn't stay longer than 10 years.

People put their most valuable things in one big pot would be buried in somewhere in Daechuri village. It means that they would never forget those villages, residents and their struggle. And it also means that they will recover those villages and lands.

http://www.vop.co.kr/english/news_view_eng.html?serial=67568

Last candlelight vigil in Daechuri, but the fight against base expansion goes on (Days in Daechuri, 3.27)

Daechuri residents held their last candlelight vigil on March 24. Saturday's vigil was the 935th since the villagers began the nightly gathering to protest their expulsion from their land. Last month, villagers were forced into an “agreement” to leave their land by the end of March. (see previous articles).

 
Several hundred supporters came to Daechuri for the last vigil, to honor the residents' struggle and continue the fight against the base expansion. During the vigil, residents celebrated and remembered their village and the amazing community that has grown to fight alongside them, and denounced and mourned the impending destruction of their homes. The mood was not the satisfaction and peaceful resolution that has been presented in the mass media. When the vigil ended with a long wordless shout, as it has every night for two and a half years, the shout lasted much longer than usual, and some residents and supporters cried when it finally ended.

Residents expect to actually leave sometime in April. They will stay in temporary housing until their new homes, in a new village, are ready. One of the villagers' main demands, once they accepted the governments' final ultimatum to leave or be forced out with nothing, was to be able to live together in a new village.

Some activists who have made Daechuri and neighboring Doduri their homes will continue to live in the villages. These activists have the support of Daechuri villagers and will continue their fight against the base expansion. The activists, and supporters from around Korea, will hold their third meeting in Daechuri on Saturday, April 7. The KCPT coalition of Korean social movements will also continue to oppose the base expansion.

http://saveptfarmers.org/blog/2007/03/last_candlelight_vigil_in_daec.html

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Iraq, Palestine, Israel:

PEACE & LOVE..

..just everywhere (^^):

Following is just a small "collection" of today's "news" about the M.E.:

Iraqi police shoot Sunnis in 'revenge attack' (Guardian/UK)

At least 45 Sunni men have been killed by off-duty police officers enraged at bombings targeting the Shia community, police and security officials said today.
The shootings in Tal Afar, a city in the north-west of Iraq, were an apparent revenge attack for yesterday's bombings that killed at least 63 people in a Shia district.

The officers were said to have started roaming around Sunni neighbourhoods on foot early in the morning, shooting at Sunni residents and homes, the Associated Press reported.

The shootings continued for more than two hours, officials said, before Iraqi army troops moved into the Sunni areas to stop the violence.

Police said dozens of Sunnis were killed or wounded, but they had no precise figures. A senior hospital official in Tal Afar said at least 45 men aged 15 to 60 were killed with shots to the back of the head, and four others were wounded.

"I wish you can come and see all the bodies. They are lying in the grounds. We don't have enough space in the hospital," a doctor at Tal Afar's main hospital told the Reuters news agency.

The Iraqi army has placed a curfew on the entire town, according to Wathiq al-Hamdani, the provincial police chief and his head of operations, Brigadier Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri.

"The situation is under control now," said Mr Hamdani. "The local Tal Afar police have been confined to their bases and policemen from Mosul are moving there to replace them."

Brig Jibouri said he was heading to Tal Afar to take charge of the situation.

Two truck bombs hit markets in Tal Afar yesterday killing at least 63 people and injuring some 150 more. The attacks were part of an upsurge in violence in Baghdad and outside the capital in recent days.

Tal Afar is 260 miles north-west of Baghdad and is in the province of Ninevah, of which Mosul is the capital.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2044532,00.html

Haha, just yesterday a high-ranking official of the US Army (aeh~, I mean the occupation forces) told CNN Int'l TV: "Civil war in Iraq? There is no civil war, not at all.."

*****

'Islam will enter every house' (Ynet/Israel News)

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar: Religion of Islam will take over entire world

Islam will enter "every house" and become the dominant religion across the entire planet, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said during a mass rally in Gaza this week.

Zahar was previously the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister. He spoke at a rally held for the late Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, and his comments were translated by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) organization. 

"The prophetic foundation is the message of the prophet Muhammad, that Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world," Zahar was quoted as saying.

"The divine promise made in the 'Al-Israa Sura' is that we will liberate the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque, and we will enter it as we have entered it the first time," he added.

 
"Our position is the liberation of Palestine," Zahar declared, adding: "All of Palestine. This is the final and strategic solution for us. There is a Quranic message for us, that we will enter the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the entrance to the mosque means the entrance into all of Palestine. This is the message, no one can deny it. Anyone who denies it must check his faith and his Islam."

Commenting on Zahar's comments, PMW Director Itamar Marcus and Associate Director Barbara Crook wrote: "While the Hamas goal of destroying Israel is well known, its aspiration for Islamic subjugation of the entire world is just as basic to Hamas dogma."

 
"Both aims appear in the Hamas Charter as God's irrepressible will, and both aims were reiterated this week by senior Hamas leader and former PA foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar," they added.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3381932,00.html

*****

‘Marriage to an Arab is national treason’ (Ynet)

Recent poll reveals steep rise in racist views against Arabs in Israel; many participants feel hatred, fear when overhearing Arabic, 75 percent don’t approve of shared apartment buildings

 
Over half of the Jewish population in Israel believes the marriage of a Jewish woman to an Arab man is equal to national treason, according to a recent survey by the Geocartography Institute.

 
The survey, which was conducted for the Center Against Racism, also found that over 75 percent of participants did not approve of apartment buildings being shared between Arabs and Jews. Sixty percent of participants said they would not allow an Arab to visit their home.

Five hundred Jewish men and women participated in the poll, which was published Tuesday.

According to the survey, racism against Arabs in Israel has seen a sharp rise since a similar survey was conducted two years ago.

In 2006, 247 racist acts against Arabs were reported, as opposed to 225 one year prior.

About 40 percent of participants agreed that “Arabs should have their right to vote for Knesset revoked”. The number was 55 percent lower in the previous survey. Also, over half of the participants agreed that Israel should encourage its Arab citizens to immigrate from the country.

Over half of the participants said they would not want to work under the direct management of an Arab, and 55 percent said “Arabs and Jews should be separated at entertainment sites”.

‘Arab culture inferior’

Participants were asked what they felt when they overheard someone speaking Arabic. Thirty-one percent said they felt hatred, while 50 percent said they felt fear.

Over 56 percent of participants said they believed that Israel’s Arab citizens posed both a security and a demographic threat to the country.

When asked what they thought of Arab culture, over 37 percent replied, “The Arab culture is inferior.”

 
“The Center Against Racism has set itself a goal to monitor all racial incidents against Arab citizens, and to fight racism as much as possible under the law through public action,” the center’s annual report said.

Bachar Ouda, the center's director, said the survey’s findings were worrisome, and urged the government to intervene in the situation.

“We call on the education minister to take the gloves off and deal with the issue seriously, because it is dangerous to coexistence. We call on the state prosecutions office, and the attorney general to take action,” Ouda said.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3381978,00.html

To learn more about some "ideas" in/about Israel/Pal. just check out the "talkbacks" to this and the previous report!

*****

And the very latest news (5:30 pm, CET):

'Talking is over'

IDF strikes in Gaza..

Army attacks target in northern Strip from air, hits Qassam launching cell. Palestinian report civilians hurt in strike, one of them sustaining critical wounds. Military sources say no change in policy, targeted killings will not be resumed..

Please read the entire stuff here:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3382435,00.html

I'm sorry that there are no better news.. 

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Tomorrow evening (7 pm, Seoul City Hall Plaza) another (hopefully massive and powerful) protest against the US-ROK FTA is scheduled..

But finally in the case of the struggle against the FTA, as well as the peace/anti-war struggle, the issue of migrant workers.. the exploitation and opression in general..

..THE ONLY SOLUTION

(yeah, exactly, you already know) is..

THE REVOLUTION!

(*)

* Ha, that's not a joke, not really!!! 

♠ ∴범국민∴
┏┓∴ 촛불 ∴
*♡*∴문화제∴
┃┃3/28,7시
┗┛안돼!FTA

^=^

 Ton Steine Scherben

"Die letzte Schlacht gewinnen wir"

(The last battle we will win)

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It seems that the (f.. reactionary) S.K. daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo is really hating (haehae~ what a surprise!!) the Democratic Labour Party..!

Following editorial was published in Chosun Ilbo's today's English editon:

No Wonder Nobody Likes the DLP

 
Downtown Seoul was a mess once again on Sunday. The Korean Alliance Against KorUS FTA, as it bills itself, held a rally in front of City Hall and hundreds of protesters marched into the streets waving banners and disrupting traffic. The police had informed the alliance that their request to hold a rally had been rejected. The police response was only natural, considering the fact that in November of last year, protesters from the anti-FTA group attacked city halls and provincial government buildings in seven locations across the country, setting some on fire. But the group was able to hold the rally downtown thanks to the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), which had applied for a permit allowing its own members to hold an anti-FTA rally in front of City Hall. They held a short rally and then handed over the microphone to the anti-FTA alliance. The same thing happened in December last year and in January this year. Using its National Assembly status, the DLP gained police permission to hold a rally and the anti-FTA alliance used that gathering to launch an illegal protest.

 
In authorizing the DLP rally, the police said they expected the party to be responsible in managing the gathering in a manner befitting a public political group. When the DLP leaders applied for permission to visit North Korea last October, the Unification Ministry authorized it on the condition that they would be careful in their conduct, since they were members of a South Korean political party. But as soon as they arrived in the North, the LDP(*) leaders issued a statement saying the U.S. and Japan, which have no qualms about starting a war on the Korean Peninsula, were continuing their mischievous maneuvers. Then they visited the birthplace of former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. All this took place while two people from their party were indicted on espionage charges.

In the 2004 general elections(**), the DLP was able to win 10 seats in the National Assembly. There were expectations that the DLP would play a role in finding solutions to a wide range of social problems through the enactment of new regulations. On the contrary, the DLP has instigated illegal protests and violence by leftwing groups. Among the 520 people detained by police after an anti-U.S. protest in May last year, 30 were DLP members.

The DLP saw their approval rating rise to 21.9 percent just after the general elections in 2004. But according to a Gallup Korea poll last week, their approval rating fell to just 5.7 percent. Only the DLP members seem to have no idea why the public’s view of them has changed so drastically.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703260024.html

* ??

** ?????

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1. MTU's Solidarity Night (3.24)

According to a report on MTU's web site about 500 people - migrant workers and Koren activists - joined the event!!

For a report in Korean, incl. more pics:

☞ 3.24 이주노조 연대.후원의 밤 성황리에 치뤄

*****

2. Rally against the current RSOI (3.25)

About 700 activists joined the rally..

☞ 용산 미군기지 앞서 'RSOI/FE연습 규탄' 범국민대회

☞ 2007 RSOI/FE 연습 오늘부터 시작, 서울 한반도 평화실현 국민대회

Related article:

☞ S. Korea, U.S. start annual military drills (Yonhap)

*****

3. Mass protest against RUK-US FTA (3.25)

According to several Korean reports between 15,000 and 20,000 people joined it. And - if I remember well - took over for the first time since years the area in front of the US embassy for a final protest rally!!

"On Sunday, about 10,000 South Korean farmers, workers and supporters rallied and marched in downtown Seoul, asking their government to stop the FTA talks.

"No to S. Korea-U.S. FTA," the protesters shouted, as they marched several blocks toward the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

The protesters sporadically clashed with riot police blocking their march near the U.S. Embassy. There were no reports of arrests or injuries.

Opponents said they will continue protests throughout this week's Seoul talks." (Yonhap)

☞ 2만여 한미FTA 반대 시위대, 미대사관 앞 점거 (VoP)

☞ '한미FTA 반대' 시위대, 경찰과 충돌 없이 해산 (OhmyNews)

☞ 20070325 -- 한미 FTA를 반대합니다 (pics by "땅의 사람")

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TOMORROW: MTU'S SOLIDARITY NIGHT

Uhuu, I'm sorry that I'll not be able to join the event..^^

When I was active in ETU-MB, our labour union before MTU was established in spring 2005, I had the possiblity to join several Solidarity Partys..

Solidarity Night, 2005.3.12

About that event I reported following: 

"Actually it needs not many words to describe the atmosphere on our - migrant workers' - yesterday's solidarity night (perhaps, when you see the following pictures, you can imagine...). Since the afternoon hundreds of sympathizers and supporters of our struggle came to the Korea University to join the event.
Beside many cultural highlights, such as the protest singers Yeon Yeong-seok and Park Joon, several student expression dance groups, a song group from Burma and a mixed - migrant workers and Koreans together - "agit-prop" group from Ansan.."

If you want to get some more impressions about previous events you should check out:

☞ Solidarity Night 2005

☞ Solidarity Night 2004

☞ Solidarity Night 2003

ETU-MB's Solidarity Night 2004

Soli-Night 2003

PS:

But (of course) MTU's Soli-Night is not all what's going on this (coming) weekend in Seoul:

(가칭)한반도 전쟁위협 RSOI/FE 전쟁연습 반대와 평택미군기지 전면재협상 촉구 대회
일시 : 3월 25일 오후1시부터  
장소 : 서울 용산미군기지 앞

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier U.S.S. R. Reagan

now in Busan

Related articles:

☞ 07' RSOI/FE연습 美 증원군 6천명 참가 (Tongil News)

☞ US Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier to Join Drills (K. Times)

☞ U.S. to Mount Military Exercises with S.Korea (Chosun Ilbo)

And just a short while later (also Sunday) following will be happen:

And last but not least:

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India: The Ongoing People's War

It's (likeley) well-known that in India since decades - at least since the late 1960's - several communist organisations, guided (of course) by M/L, but also more or less by the Mao Zedong-ideas (the so-called Naxalites are the most known..) are fighting, also armed, for the liberation - some just simply for democracy (because in many regions of this country still the feudalism is ruling). But while during the 1970's/80's many leftwing groups, especially in the west, were reporting about the struggle in India, nowadays - even the People's War (P.W.) is continuing/partly increasing - it's very quiet about that issue.

Last Tuesday (3.20) Asia Times (China/HK) published following interresting article about the recent developments on the front line of the P.W. in India:

India's Maoists take their war to a new level
 

India's Maoist rebels, known as Naxalites, have scored a series of successes in recent weeks in their insurgency, underscoring their growing ambitions and changing strategy, and stoking fears of attacks on high-profile and urban targets in coming months.

Last Thursday, they attacked a police post in the central state of Chhattisgarh, killing 55 people. A fortnight earlier they assassinated member of Parliament (MP) Sunil Mahato in neighboring Jharkhand state.

Last week's attack, described as among the deadliest in decades of Maoist insurgency, was carried out by some 350 heavily armed Maoists. It took place in Rani Bodli police outpost, in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada region, some 525 kilometers from the state capital, Raipur. The rebels surrounded the police post and lobbed grenades and gasoline bombs before setting the camp ablaze.

They blocked roads to the village by felling trees to prevent police reinforcements from reaching the heavily outnumbered police at Rani Bodli. Of the 55 killed in the attack, 16 were members of the Chhattisgarh Armed Police. The rest were Special Police officers - tribals who were part of the government-sponsored civil militia, the Salwa Judum.

The assassination of Mahato and the attack on the Rani Bodli police outpost signal a sharp escalation in the Maoist insurgency. In the past, high-ranking victims of the Maoists included legislators and ministers, but these were at the local and state levels. Mahato was the first sitting federal MP to fall victim to the Maoists.

Again, while police outposts have been routinely targeted by the Maoists, the attack at the outpost at Rani Bodli was noteworthy for the number of victims it claimed. The death toll at Rani Bodli is by far the largest among recent Maoist attacks.

The frequency of such spectacular attacks has grown over the past two years. In November 2005, more than 1,000 Maoists participated in an attack on Jehanabad jail in Bihar and freed about 350 of their jailed comrades. Last March, they hijacked a train in Jharkhand that was carrying some 300 passengers. In June, at least 400 Maoists participated in an attack on a camp of the Central Reserve Police Force in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.

The scale and frequency of attacks are one concern. Another is the vast area across which Maoists wield influence. In the early 1990s, the number of districts affected by varying degrees of Maoist violence stood at just 15 in four states. This figure rose to 55 districts in nine states by the end of 2003 and shot up to 156 districts in 13 states in 2004. Today, at least 170 of a total of 602 districts in the country are said to be under Maoist influence.

The Maoists have been able to strike with considerable energy because of the unification of the two main groups. The Maoist Communist Center and the People's War Group merged in September 2004 to form the Communist Party of India (Maoists). From operating as scattered localized cells, they have been able to operate as a stronger and unified force along a vast swath of territory often described as the "red corridor" running from Nepal down to Andhra Pradesh state.

Experts warn that the recent attacks signal a widening and intensification in Maoist violence in the country. According to Bibhu Prasad Routray, research fellow at the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, "Mahato's killing could just be the starting point for the escalation of the Maoist 'people's war' throughout the country."

Maoist documents and statements provide pointers to their growing ambitions and changing strategy. In 2004, Maoists, who had hitherto focused their operations in rural India, spoke of a new strategy to target urban centers. Their Urban Perspective Document lay down guidelines for working in towns and cities and for mobilizing support among students and urban unemployed. They identified two belts as targets for urban mobilization: Bhilai-Ranchi-Dhanbad-Kolkata and Mumbai-Pune-Surat-Ahmedabad.

More pointers to their growing ambitions were provided in statements issued at their "Unity Congress" this year. "The Unity Congress ... resolved to advance the people's war throughout the country, further strengthen the people's army, deepen the mass base of the party, and wage a broad-based militant mass movement against the neo-liberal policies of globalization, liberalization [and] privatization pursued by the reactionary ruling classes under the dictates of imperialism," said a statement issued at the meeting last month.

"No more hit and run," Muppala Lakshman Rao (also known as Ganapathi), who was re-elected general secretary of the organization, is reported to have said at the meeting. "Now the time has come to spread in the towns and identify specific targets, hit them precisely and with impunity."

Attacks in urban centers and on high-profile targets can be expected in the coming months.
 

An important trigger and target of Maoist attacks over the past year has been civilians who are part of the Salwa Judum - the Chhattisgarh government's initiative to arm villagers to fight Maoists on behalf of the state. Salwa Judum was initially thought to be a voluntary initiative of villagers in Maoist areas, who were fed up with the Maoist violence and wanted to fight the rebels themselves. It was touted by the government as a peace movement.

However, soon it became apparent that while some people in these villages might indeed be weary of violence, Salwa Judum was in fact government-sponsored and a civil militia, and tribals were being forced to join it. While a part of Salwa Judum's work involved political work, ie, propaganda against the Maoists, it also had an armed wing, which was seen as the tribal face of the police fighting the Maoists.

Soon, Maoists started targeting members of the Salwa Judum. Camps in which Salwa Judum members lived or buses in which they traveled were targeted by the Maoists. Hundreds of Salwa Judum members have been killed in the 18 months since it was formed.

The counterinsurgency strategy of the Chhattisgarh government, with Salwa Judum at its core, has unleashed civil strife in the state. Tribals have gotten caught in the crossfire between Maoists and the state. In the past, the Maoists targeted forest officials and police. Now it is tribals seen to be members of Salwa Judum who have become targets of Maoist ire. The 39 Special Police officers who were killed in last week's attack on the Rani Bodli police outpost were part of the Salwa Judum.

Entire villages have been emptied as tribal communities flee from the burnings, lootings and killings. The civil war in Chhattisgarh has driven more than 50,000 people out of their homes and into camps. Government authorities claim that the tribals are seeking refuge in the camps; tribals tell a different story. They maintain that they are forced into the camps.

The land on which the tribals live is rich in minerals and other resources. Human-rights activists say companies backed by the government that are keen to extract the area's mineral wealth want the tribals to leave the land. Salwa Judum has become a convenient way to drive the tribals out of their land and into camps.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IC20Df01.html

For more infos:

☞ Naxal Revolution

☞ CPI(M)

☞ CPI(ML)

☞ CPI(ML) People's Power