LAST WEEK’S STRUGGLE REPORT (Seoul, 11.08)

"Our struggle is continuing", was the motto of yesterday’s culture festival, organized by the Nepalese Struggle Alliance (NSA), the partner group who is an active member of Myeong-dong Sit-in Struggle Collective (MSSC).

Let’s say, that the event was just great, but later more about that.
Let’s start with the beginning!
Last Monday like not usual the “Every Monday Solidarity Concert” had to be cancelled, because it was raining cats and dogs.
On Wednesday in the early afternoon National Federation of Street Vendors called for a mass rally.

About all “events”, and there were some strange, on that day it was already reported here

On Thursday the activists who are defending their homes in Jongno-gu/Cheongjin-dong were attacked by criminal gangster groups, backed by Jongno-gu district officers and several units of the riot cops.

An article about that you can read here

Of course on Thursday MSSC also held their weekly night struggle rally.
On Friday in the afternoon in Yeouido Park a ceremony took place to remember the bomb attack against Korean Air Line flight 858 in November 1987 carried out by North Korean agents in order of the North Korean Secret Service – so the official historical story. But the organizers of the ceremony see that a little different (here you can read their point of few).

On Yeouido, in the sight of the National Assembly, the S. Korean parliament, nowadays several groups are in sit-in strike. Two groups are demonstrating for to abolish the National “Security” Law, now since 7 days and another group is now since 14 days in hunger strike. Disabled activists are demanding basic human rights, such as the right of mobility. For example here in S. Korea for disabled persons it is very hard to move in the public – they can’t use the busses and the most of the subway stations are not proper equipped for disabled people.

On Saturday afternoon a rally for to achieve full labor rights, organized by KCTU and the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, took place on Yeouido, near the National Assembly. More than 1000 people gathered there, but the atmosphere was very relaxed, more like a oversized family picnic.

Meanwhile the protest against N'S"L is going on. He is living in his own created one man prison cell

But in the beginning of the following demonstration large units of the riot cops behaved like the world revolution is short before the outbreak – just a little uncomfortable.

After a short time, because the route was not long, the demonstration ended in front of KCTU’s headquarter in Yeongdeungpo, where the final rally finished the event. An Korean article about it you can read here.

Yesterday’s culture festival… Such a beautiful we hadn’t since our 300 days sit-in struggle jubilee (just remember here). The audience, about 400 people gathered in Seoul’s Dongguk University, reached from Buddhist monks over many Nepalese migrant workers to Korean political activists.
Several Nepalese folk dances were performed, but also Korean struggle songs and dances.
On the stage Park Joon, Yeon Yeong-seok, Nore Gongdang, Deul Ggot, Stop Crackdown Band and many Nepalese artists presented their performances.
On the end of the the festival NSA handed over in gratitute to about 60 groups and individuals who were supporting our struggle in the last year a beautiful memory plate.

The whole event, more than 4 hours with impressive different Asian cultures, was just a fantastic end of a hard struggle week. THANKS A LOT COMRADES!

Here just some impressions from the culture festival

RELEASE ALL MIGRANT WORKERS FROM DETENTION CENTERS!
FREEDOM FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN S. KOREA… AND EVERYWHERE!
LET’S FIGHT TOGETHER FOR A WORLD WITHOUT EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION!
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE, ONLY IF YOU WANT AND FIGHT FOR IT!