South Korea: First-hand report -- Day 1 of the anti-G20 Seoul International People's Conference -- Army of cops prevent march

The G20 does not have the ability or the political will to solve the economic crisis!

The Seoul G20 Summit will go down in history as the international meeting with the worse record on human rights!

Seoul International People’s Conference, Opening Speech

Overseas comrades, Korean people’s movement and civil society activists and fellow union members who have gathered here today to participate in the Seoul International People’s Conference, I give my warmest greetings. I am KCTU President Kim Yeong-hun.

Yesterday I heard some news which inspired in me a great sense of shame and range. 6 union and civil society representatives of Filipino nationality invited to participate in events sponsored by Korean labor, social movement and civil society organizations were turned away at the border without out explanation. Even worse, 5 of them were forced by airport security onto a plane headed for the Philippines and expelled. In this process, they were also the victims of verbal and physical abuse. I cannot hide my extreme shame and anger at these irrational and anti-human rights measures taken by the South Korea government. I am forced to ask if the Lee Myung-bak administration has any right whatsoever to take about improving South Korea’s international image or to speak of ’global standards.’ I believe that real international standing and global standards derive from respect for and adherence to basic human rights. The South Korean government seems not to agree, and has instead shown no hesitation whatsoever in denying entrance to 6 representatives of international civil society. One person among these 6 even participated in the government-sponsored Civil G20 Dialogue in October. Not only this, but the Lee Myung-bak government has, giving no special reason, denied visas to 3 activists fro Nepal, 3 from India and 1 from Pakistan, all of whom had submitted all the required invitation letters and other documents. The Pakistani activist even had to suffer the absurd offense of having his passport defaced.

It appears that the Lee Myung-bak government believes that it is necessary to shut out all critical voices by preventing union and civil society representatives from entering South Korea in order to assure the success of the G20 Summit. The government needs to give up its illusion. It has already completely ruined public perception of the Summit. The Seoul Summit will go down in history as the international meeting with the worst record on human rights. As if the repression of the movement criticizing the G20 in South Korea was not enough, the government is going even further in a ridiculous attempt to completely block out all criticisms from the international community. No international meetings are above human rights. The Lee Myung-bak government will have to apologize to the international community for this violation. Korean labor and civil society forces will not let this act go overlooked.

Comrades!

The G20 Summit is going in the wrong direction. At first the heads of state participating in the G20 seemed to show good intentions, but now they are showing their true face. The calls we heard for strengthening financial regulation are growing weaker and weaker, while instead orders for austerity measures are being revived. It did not take long to find out what the “fiscal health” agreed to at the Toronto Summit last June means. It means the reduction of public spending and social protections such as the weakening of pensions and constriction of the public sector, as can be seen in the austerity measures implemented in France and England.

But, I will ask you, comrades, what is the reason real reason for the fiscal crises governments are facing? Is it because of workers and common people? Is it because of spending on social protections? No. It is because of the massive funds spent to bailout large banks during the financial crisis. Fiscal problems must be solved by imposing a steep tax on banks, other elements of capital and the rich. The G20, however, is not prepared to impose such a tax. It has not come to an agreement about or taking even the slightest steps to make large-scale banks and speculative capital take responsibility. Proposals for a bank tax and financial transaction tax have been left up to each country to deal with as they please—in other words, they have been discarded. As this has happened, yet another cost has been put on the shoulders of workers and common people who are not the ones at fault. How can we be asked to accept the legitimacy of the G20 when it continues to make workers and common people pay for the crisis.

Comrades!

There are 192 member states of the United Nations. The G20 only includes 20 of them. The decision to include these 20 countries had no basis in standards of fairness. In fact, the G20 excludes the majority of the countries of the world, in particular underdeveloped countries and the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, which have suffered the most from the IMF’s neoliberal policies. The G20 is fundamentally illegitimate and unrepresentative. We need to develop a new more universal framework for discussion that can represent the interests of underdeveloped countries and include the voices of workers and common people.

Comrades!

Far from its supposed purpose, the G20 is becoming the political stage of advanced countries. G20 leaders have already shoved aside the question of financial regulation and are instead pouring their hearts and souls into a currency war in order to steal others’ territory. Moreover, the G20 is being approached as a card to play in the South Korean political game. While it looks as if the global economy is making a weak recovery, the crisis is not over. As we can see in Southern Europe, insolvency in the private financial sector has led to public fiscal insolvency, deepening and expanding the crisis. In addition, we cannot forget that the ’weak recovery’ of the global economy has been paid for out of the pockets, not of those who brought it about, but of workers and common people. The only way to truly overcome the crisis is to thoroughly restrict financial capital, create good jobs, protect basic labor rights and strengthen social protections. The G20 has already strayed widely from this path, however. It is time for us to start out on a new path. I hope the next 3 days of the Seoul International People’s Summit will be a chance to share important ideas about how such a path might be forged. The real alternative lies with us!

Thank you.

Kim Yeong-hun, KCTU President

9 November 2010, Seoul, South Korea

 MESSAGE OF SUPPORT FROM NUMSA TO KMWU

 Greetings

On behalf of the 255 000 National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) membership and Numsa National Office Bearers, we bring revolutionary greetings to the membership of the Korean Metalworkers Union (KMWU).

As always, NUMSA is inspired by the militancy and steadfast conviction of the KMWU leadership with its members to confront the logic, exploitation and brutality of Capital on a daily basis.

We want to salute the courageous efforts of KMWU to bring a better life for metalworkers in South Korea. We want to specifically congratulate KMWU in its victory to secure an agreement with Kiryung Electronics on 1 November 2010 whereby precarious workers were permanently employed. This is a victory not only for Korean workers but an important triumph for all casualized and temporary workers across the world.

In our country COSATU with all its affiliates are in a serious engagement with government and business to ban the use of labour brokers. Labour brokers represent modern slavery whereby the unemployed in our society are brought into employment as temporary workers, underpaid, with no benefits and very easily dismissed.

Whilst we are negotiating with our government to ban labour brokers, NUMSA has been able use the 2010 annual wage negotiations with car manufacturing companies to achieve an agreement with industry bosses remove Labour brokers from the car manufacturing industry.

In the battle for improved wages and conditions of employment NUMSA took a conscious decision in our 2010 collective bargaining with employers to demand increases above the country’s inflation rate. Our opening demand was an increase of 20% which employers regarded as unreasonable given the global action in the car manufacturing, tyre industry and motor retail industry which resulted in NUMSA members settling for an average wage increase of 10% in the context of our country’s inflation being at 4.3%.

Capitalist crises:

We are meeting at a time when the G20 are convening in your country to deliberate on how to deal with their own manufactured capitalist crises.

We must salute the South Korean trade union movement under the leadership of KCTU for having brought unions from across the world to act in solidarity to protest and campaign against the exploitation of the working class and the deepening levels of unemployment inequalities and poverty across the world.

Capitalism is inherently a system that produces and re-produces crises. In defining the characteristics of the recent capitalist financial crises, the South African Communist Party analyzed capitalist crises as follows;

“The cyclical pattern of booms and busts are systemically linked to the fact that capitalism – unlike socialism or earlier forms of production – is essentially production for exchange (and therefore private profit) and not for social use. In other forms of production (not least socialism)– over-production of goods would, in principle, usually be a cause for celebration, but under capitalism "over-production" (i.e. more than the market demands – i.e. more than can profitably be sold) triggers a break-down in the system – a crisis of over-accumulation. This, in turn, requires a massive wave of destruction of productive capacity (in the form of retrenchments, factory closures, liquidations, and stock exchange collapses), in order to "clear the ground" for the next round of capital accumulation through growth. It must be stressed that under capitalism "over-production" is not the over-production of products that the mass of the world's population often desperately needs. It is "over-production" relative to "market demand", i.e. relative to what can profitably be sold. Capitalism, for all its dynamism and robustness, is a profoundly irrational system.”

It is in this regard that we join progressive and revolutionary formations of the working class and the poor all over the world to struggle for another world that is possible and that represents an alternative to Capitalism. In NUMSA and COSATU we firmly believe that a Socialist alternative is the answer to the suffering and misery that humanity finds itself in today.

In conclusion:

As NUMSA and COSATU representatives here present we wish you well in your struggles for decent work and a living wage. We shall in solidarity support all your struggles for the emancipation of the working class.

We concur with the demands of the campaign that "Our World is Not for Sale" (OWINFS) which demands;

- a change in the economic model, which implies putting an end to neo-liberalism and moving towards a new model based on systemic change and for the benefit and well-being of all peoples in the world (rather than corporate profits), including the adoption of bold economic strategies to create decent jobs, as well as a new international financial architecture;

- a halt to market based “solutions” for  climate change and the anti-democratic Copenhagen Accord (a clear step backwards from the positive aspects of the Kyoto Protocol), and the immediate adoption of profound changes to our current system of production, distribution and consumption;

- an end to a global food system based on price speculation by agribusiness corporations  and its replacement by a system of food production and distribution that supports  small farmers and promotes  food sovereignty;

- a suspension of trade negotiations at the WTO and of bi-regional or bilateral free trade and investment regimes until a new international agreement has been reached on trade and investment rules based on truly just and sustainable development for all.

Please receive our best wishes in the battle ahead of us.

Loving Live the Spirit of No Surrender

Long Live the Metalworkers of Korea

Contact:

November 11, 2010 -- South Korean labor and civic groups joined with international activists Thursday to stage protests to raise their voice against this week's G-20 summit in Seoul.

The rally ended without anyone being arrested or taken into custody, despite scuffles with the police as the protesters marched through downtown.

Organized by a confederation of 83 civic groups calling itself "Put People First! Korean People's G-20 Response Action," the rally began in front of the Seoul Station. Organizers claimed some 10,000 people showed up, but the police said it counted about 3,500.

The protest, also backed by political campaigners, college students, human rights activists and interest groups, was one of several planned in the city to coincide with the gathering of world leaders for the G-20 summit on Thursday and Friday. Heads of governments and financial chiefs along with leaders from non-G-20 nations have come to Seoul to attend the global economic forum.

Over 3,000 riot police stood guard with water cannons and other protest-quelling equipment.

The protesters scuffled their way past the police to march through downtown, arriving an hour later at a city intersection where they burned a coffin marked as symbolizing G-20 and free trade agreements, causing another physical clash.

Protesters' demands varied from job stability, fair distribution of wealth and scrapping of free trade agreements to the withdrawal of South Korean troops from Afghanistan. Placards read, "G20, Stop making people pay for the crisis," "STOP G20," "Withdraw troops from Afghanistan" and "No FTA."

A South Korean college student, waving a picket that said "G20 chairman = Labor repression champion," told Yonhap that he was protesting against the government's excessive crackdown on migrant workers and labor unions under the guise of the G-20.

Organizers said some 100 international activists also joined Thursday's rally.

Toshsiko Sogame, 64, from Japan, was among those who flew to Seoul to join the anti-20 events.

"I'm here to raise the voice for revision of immigration laws that discriminate against foreigners," Sogame said, flying flags written in Japanese...

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/11/11/8/0302000000AEN20101111011600315F.HTML