Korean workers return from Seattle protests to raids, prison

[pnorman]

Local Seattle delegates to join Korean protests, general strike

Seattle labor and community leaders denounced the South Korean government’s violent attack on trade union members at a news conference Tuesday, and prepared to send off a delegation traveling to Seoul in support of popular protests.

Some 55 delegates from South Korean unions and organizations who helped lead September protests in Seattle against the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS-FTA) are facing a massive wave of government repression against labor unions, according to Dave Freiboth, Executive Secretary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Labor Council.

"Two months ago, Korean and US workers and farmers joined together in our city to protest undemocratic trade deals like the proposed KORUS-FTA," Freiboth said. "While we successfully delivered our message that secret agreements dismantling worker protections hurt the vast majority of people in each country, the South Korean government’s actions have revealed some of the true intentions behind KORUS-FTA -- to help crush the movement for workers’ human rights."

After a week of high-profile protest marches Sept. 4-9 in Seattle -- which included the arrests of 15 Korean and U.S. protesters outside the convention center opposing KORUS-FTA -- U.S. and Korean trade officials gave up on signing the deal until negotiations could reconvene at a later date in Korea. Within 12 days of protestors returning home, South Korean police launched raids against and shut down more than 80 union halls, jailed more than 100 union members, and used violent tactics resulting in the death of at least one worker, Ha Joong Keun.
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http://www.wslc.org/reports/2006/11/16.htm#Thursday

pnorman

[Parche]

1. korea

Sounds like they have a lot of Seoul!!!

[Sturmrabe]

2. That'll learn em!