Fwd (GLW): SOUTH KOREA: Seoul joins the global anti-corporate rage

["Alan Bradley" <alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following article appears in the current issue of Green Left Weekly
(http://www.greenleft.org.au):

SOUTH KOREA: Seoul joins the global anti-corporate rage
BY IGGY KIM

SEOUL ? In a series of lively demonstrations here on October 20 ? dubbed
O20 ? against the Asia-Europe Meetings (ASEM), South Koreans linked up with
the worldwide people's movement against corporate tyranny.

The first ASEM, opened in Bangkok in 1996, represented attempts by European
imperialism to gain a greater foothold in Asia and gain economic leverage
against the United States. As economic liberalisation in South Korea and
other industrialised Asian economies has escalated following the late-1990s
economic crisis, European multinationals have been eyeing Korean firms put
up for sale.

O20 was organised by a coalition of workers, farmers, urban poor, students
and a host of civic groups, represented by the People's Rally Committee,
Citizens Action and the Min-gan Forum. The coalition focused on the impact
of local and global capitalist attacks on South Korea's working people,
which took a ferocious turn following the International Monetary
Fund-imposed structural adjustment program implemented after the crisis.
These include privatisation, mass layoffs, job casualisation, the
bankruptcy of farmers exposed to global markets, ?efficiency?-driven
education policies, and the dismantling and sale to overseas companies of
South Korean industry.

On the eve of O20, 5000 people attended a ?People's Rally? at Sungshil
University. A significant theme was the 30th anniversary of the death of
Jun Tae-il, a young worker, which sparked the first wave of the democratic
labour movement in the early 1970s. A delegation of Thai women workers gave
solidarity greetings to enthusiastic applause.

Early the next morning, as ASEM was about to open, a crowd of nearly 1000
gathered outside the conference venue to support movement leaders' attempts
to go inside to deliver a ?people's declaration?. This was followed by a
protest of 5000 people in the centre of Gangnam, the wealthy suburb where
ASEM was held.

The crowd, mainly metalworkers and students, denounced South Korean
President Kim Dae-jung's attacks on workers and the government's bilateral
investment treaties being negotiated with Japan, the US and other
governments.

The protest was convened without police approval and when it began
marching, police tried confine it to one traffic lane. The police
eventually succeeded in stopping the march altogether, after following
violent clashes.

At 2pm, about 10,000 people mobilised for the main protest at Olympic Park.
It was a colourful event in the tradition of the South Korean movement.
Speakers from France and Ireland were warmly welcomed. In particular,
Pierre Rousset from the French organisation ATTAC (Action for a Tobin Tax
to Assist the Citizen) struck a chord with his message that workers in
Europe and South Korea are fighting the same struggle, against corporate
globalisation.

The spirit of internationalism was strong. There were repeated statements
by all speakers that O20 was a continuation of the anti-capitalist protests
in Seattle, Washington, Melbourne and Prague. Many placards and banners
were written in English for the benefit of international media. The rally
ended with a march to Jamshil Stadium via the World Trade Centre.

A large number of the O20 protesters were young people. There were gay and
lesbian activists, disabled activists, environmentalists and feminist
organisations. These issues have been hitherto untouched by the South
Korean left.

The leaderships of the civic groups ? which act largely within a Kim
Dae-jung-friendly lobbying framework, but include many genuine activists
prepared to tackle capitalism's social and environmental ills ? opposed the
illegal O20 morning protest.

The class-struggle left organisations concentrated on building the October
19 People's Rally and the O20 morning protest. They pushed for them to also
try to stop the ASEM opening ceremony.

In the end, the influential Korean Confederation of Trade Unions' leaders
refused to throw their weight behind the radical left and supported all the
protests, making a special effort to moderate the morning march.

The final, official demonstration at Olympic Park symbolised this division
and the absence of a strong radical left. It took place in a relatively
isolated part of Seoul, several kilometres from the ASEM venue.

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SOUTH KOREA: `Another world is before us'

The following is a statement, slightly abridged, from the coalition of
Korean unions and radical groups protesting against the October 20 summit
of the Asian-European parliamentary meeting, ASEM, in Seoul.

Today, the United States, the World Trade Organisation, the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank insist that ?there is no alternative? and
force neo-liberal globalisation on the world.

Right now, government officials from all over Europe and Asia are meeting
in the conference halls of the palatial ASEM Tower, a tower that cost 1.5
trillion won to build, to talk about pushing neo-liberal globalisation.

But we know. We know that neo-liberal globalisation is the deliberate
project of capitalists facing a crisis of falling profits. They'll channel
the majority of profits back into financial speculation. We know that the
grave reality is that this neo-liberal globalisation will bring about the
?globalisation of poverty?.

Neo-liberal globalisation wreaks havoc, and we have seen the results of
that globalisation.

First, exploitation of workers has intensified, and working conditions are
determined by the race to the bottom. In the name of ?flexibilisation of
labour?, redundancy dismissals are ruthlessly underway, unemployment rates
have shot up, and irregularisation of work has advanced.

In many Asian nations, it is nearly impossible to even establish a trade
union and even in countries where laws allow trade union activity,
government repression of trade union activities has grown intense.

Second, in the course of neo-liberal globalisation, exploitation of women
workers has increased. In most countries, when companies hit hard times,
the logic of profit and patriarchy rules, and women workers are the first
to be sacked.

Sexual harassment in the workplace and sexual assault have increased and,
with trafficking of women, prostitution has also increased.

Third, because of transnational capital's pursuit of profit, destruction of
the ecology has proceeded rapidly. Genetically modified crops have reduced
the diversity of plant species and the damage from ecological destruction
will now boomerang back to the human race.

Fourth, under the WTO regime, agriculture has become the target of
liberalisation and small farms are going bankrupt. Small-scale farmers are
sinking into extreme poverty, burdened with heavy debt. Agribusiness
dominates food production, food security is under serious threat, and
consumers' right to health is thrown to the wind.

Fifth, because of neo-liberal globalisation, most Third World nations
undergo cyclical debt crises, and are pretty much in a state of bankruptcy.
National sovereignty is under serious attack.

Sixth, although the cold war system has been dismantled, conflict between
regions, states, and ethnicities has not decreased. The arms race, although
temporarily halted, has begun to escalate again, and the National Missile
Defence plan promoted by the US and Japan is none other than this
escalation.

We, who take part in the ?ASEM 2000 Anti-neoliberalism Seoul Action?,
demand the following of the governments of Asia and Europe:

?Regardless of whether one is a woman or male worker, migrant or local
worker, regular or irregular worker, all workers should be guaranteed
workers' rights. To pursue this, each country's laws and international
agreements must be reformed. Restructuring that undermines workers' rights,
a restructuring carried out under the excuse of Third World debt crisis,
should be withdrawn.

?Ecological systems should be preserved and when development takes place,
it must not be controlled by the government and big capital but rather the
democratic consensus of the people in those communities.

?To remove the instability resulting from transnational financial
speculation and to ensure the stable development of the Third World,
currency trading should be taxed and Third World debt should be totally
cancelled.

?ASEM discussions on trade and investment liberalisation, such as the
removal of currency controls and privatisation of public enterprises that
give advantage to only transnational capital, should be immediately
stopped.

?The government of each country should try to democratise fundamentally or
abolish international institutions that promote neo-liberal globalisation,
such as the WTO, IMF and the World Bank, and each government should oppose
bilateral and regional investment liberalisation treaties that give total
freedom to transnational capital and sacrifice workers' rights and the
ecological system.

?The NMD-TMD plan, driven by the USA and Japan, places the world in a new
arms race and makes the lives of the people more difficult. The NMD-TMD
plan should be immediately scrapped.

If the governments of Asia and Europe don't listen to our above demands and
instead accelerate neo-liberal globalisation and intensify the exploitation
and exclusion of the people, we who are gathered here today from all over
Asia and Europe will struggle in solidarity through every means possible.

The torch of the people's international solidarity struggle that has come
here today from Seattle, Davos, Bangkok, Washington DC, Millau, Melbourne,
and Prague will be passed on to Dakar, Paris, and Porto Alegre.

We are confident! Another world is before us. Let's change the world.

Preparatory Committee of ASEM 2000 Anti-neoliberalism Seoul Action, October
20, 2000.
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