Hello class,
However, you still exist as a class! Remember to turn in your D/R papers. Remember to see me if you have a question about your final paper assignments. I hope you use this time to your advantage to make a good final paper.
There are no more blog assignments.
Final papers are due the last day of the exam week, officially the Thursday the 17th. I will allow you turn them in on Friday the 18th. Remember, I have to turn in grades by the 25th.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Week 9: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week
Post by Sunday at midnight.
[If you want to see Korean social movement collective action after class on Monday, go to Myeongdong Cathedral, May 10, 2010, after 2 p.m. Or every day around 7:30 p.m. next week--indefinitely it seems. The below article describes why:]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Showdown begins: Daily Catholic masses to be held in downtown Seoul (Myeongdong Cathedral) in protest of Pres. Lee's Unpopular River Dredging; Lee Government Moves to Pass Martial Law Legislation (ostensibly for all of downtown Seoul) and Militarize the Canal Dredging
3. Below are several articles. Read them for their mutual implications.
First, this is another good example of something we have talked about in researching social movements: religious organizations as mobilization bases typically being the only brave groups versus a repressive polity. It's a battle for cultural legitimacy that the state is bound to lose if it attacks them.
Second, it's a good example of the ongoing interaction between social movements changing the institutional/symbolic forms of their public action versus the state's repressive actions. As both 'sides' adapt to each other over time, we will talk about this state/movement interaction as the term 'cycles of protest' ideas later. Social movements are always involved in rising or falling cycles of protest involving state/movement interactions as the main dynamic. Movements fail to occur randomly in time in other words.
BACK TO MY FIRST POINT:
For instance, in the 1980s, Catholic and Buddhist churches (particularly Cardinal Kim, the only Korean-born Catholic Cardinal) protected the labor movement and democratization movements against South Korea's dictatorship. Once more the religious movements become the rallying point, as the only brave groups publicly, symbolically, with the "cognitive liberation" (and resources, mobilization networks, and symbolic culture) to protest against Lee Myung-bak's 24-hour-a-day river dredging.
It will be interesting to see if the guiltless use of state violence under President Lee (against the rights of assembly or any democratic opposition) continues to repress this social movement strategy as well. This is the line however beyond which repression may not work anymore? We shall see.
We talked about symbolism 'weapons' that social movements have since they are typically powerless against state violence. Instead, social movements attempt to change the symbolic meanings already loved and juggle symbolism of them with themselves to gain adherence, reassociations, and supporters by association.
It's important to understand the symbolism: to have these daily masses at Myeongdong (which is shrine to religious martyrdom in Korean history against a repressive Chosun Dynasty) is an analogy hardly lost on the current Korean public either since Myeongdong has been a rallying point against dictatorship in the very recent past in Korea--less than 25 years ago: Quote about Myeongdong:
--------------------------------
Daily Catholic masses to be held in protest of Four Rivers project
picture: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/417794.html
The masses, which will be held in a central Seoul location, are expected to have a significant impact on the movement against the Four Rivers project
» Catholic priests and believers hold a mass to protest the Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project at a construction site for the project in Dalseong County, Daegu, April 20."
Catholic priests and believers are planning to hold daily life and peace masses calling for an end to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project at Myeong-dong Cathedral starting on Monday. Since these masses are scheduled to take place daily in the heart of Seoul amid rising religious opposition to the Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, the impact is expected to be considerable.
The Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project announced its decision to hold life and peace masses attended by priests and believers nationwide at Myeongdong Cathedral every day at 7:30pm. After the masses, the priests plan to hold all-night prayer vigils.
The alliance explained the rationale of the masses, saying that priests have continuously demanded the government end the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which runs counter to preserving the order of God’s creation and destroys a wide array of living things, and reconsider the project, but the government has not changed its attitude and pushed through with construction. Accordingly, priests disappointment connected to their faith and conscience, believing they could not longer just sit and watch, they said.
The Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project is an alliance of [different SMI/SMO] groups such as the Justice and Peace Committee and Committee for Environment, both under the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea (CBCK). In March, the alliance issued a position statement by CBCK calling for an end to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. The 15 dioceses plan to convene life and peace masses in an alternating fashion nationwide. The Life and Peace Masses for the Suspension of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and the Preservation of the Paldang Organic Farm masses, which have been held for 68 days at Dumulmoeri, Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, will be held separately.
Alliance executive committee member Kim Jae-wook said since the Lee Myung-bak administration has not extended the courtesy of listening to the bishops’ position statement. Regarding this as a failure of promotional activities, the priests have decided to hold daily masses. He said until the administration changes its attitude, the masses would continue on.
In addition, the Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project has decided to hold a 10,000-person mass, attended by priests and believers from all over the country, at Myeong-dong Cathedral at 2 p.m. on May 10.
Meanwhile, in light of the National Election Commission’s (NEC) recent moves to designate civic groups’ anti-Four Major Rivers Restoration Project events, even placards placed in front of church gates, as violations of election law, attention is focusing on how they will respond to these masses.
In response, an official from the Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project said the church activities to see the project brought to an end are a realization of biblical teachings [our terms: 'frame amplification' and 'frame transformation' very much here], and that there is a good deal of public consensus, as over 100 thousand signatures have been collected from the Seoul archdiocese and Suwon diocese alone.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/417794.html
[2]
And this is, I think Lee's response which is typical and running to true form: if the Catholic Alliance posted their notice on April 26, the Lee Government posted its notice to Koreans by May 5: this it the first time the military will be used on a South Korean construction project since the dictatorship:
Military to be deployed to assist [sic] with Four Rivers construction
Observers cite this as the first large-scale deployment of military labor for a government-led construction project since the time of military dictatorship
» Bulldozers dredge the South Han River near the Iho bridge in Yeoju County, Gyeonggi Province, April 4. [image]
The Lee Myung-bak administration has announced plans to deploy members of the military to assist with the construction for the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which is currently facing strong public opposition.
According to an official document of cooperation between the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM), obtained by Democratic Party Lawmaker Ahn Gyu-back of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee, the ROK Army Second Operations Command and Busan Regional Construction Management Administration concluded an agreement for army engineers to provide support for construction along Area 35 of the Nakdong River. To do this, the Defense Ministry assembled a unit centered on the 1117th Engineer Group of the Second Operations Command, which it will deploy from June to next November. The task of the army engineers will be to take the sediment soil removed during deep dredging of the riverbeds and moving it to a different location.
Some 117 military engineers and 72 units of equipment including 50 dump trucks, will be deployed to the site. Military engineers will billet in a location near the construction site. The Defense Ministry has budgeted some 2.75 billion Won ($2.47 million) for equipment and billeting. The Busan Regional Construction Management Administration will support the costs.
As a display of military labor force being directly deployed to a government-led national construction site, it will be difficult for the move to avoid criticism as an inappropriate military mobilization of the sort that has been difficult to spot since South Korea’s democratization after military dictatorship.
According to a report submitted by the Defense Ministry to Lawmaker Ahn on military deployments to national construction sites, the army was deployed as a major source of construction labor force to national projects during the military dictatorship, such as the construction of the Seoul-Busan Highway (1968 to 1970), Uljin-Hyeon-dong Road (1982 to 1984) and Seoul Beltway (1991 to 1994).
During a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, a Ministry of Defense official said for the purpose of contributing to a national project, the ministry had accepted a request to participate in the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project from the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, and it would also assist in training the army engineers for their own duty.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
[3]
And they are going to plow under a very successful organic farm area outside of Seoul and pave it over. The Catholic Alliance group is opposing this with collective action as well:
[Editorial] Organic farms over bicycle paths
It seems that the Lee Myung-bak administration has at last made the decision about the fate of the Paldang Organic Farm. We are speechless that the government is willing to plow over an organic farm on which fresh vegetables are raised and pave it over with bicycle paths and a park. The Paldang Organic Farm supplies chemical-free vegetables to Seoul-area residents. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) says it is forcing through measures to appropriate land to build a park as a part of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project on the organic farm around Paldang in Gyeonggi Province. One can only be stunned by the never-ending rash behavior of the Lee administration.
To begin, we are shocked by the idea of turning up land being used for environmentally friendly farming to build recreation facilities. It is a vulgar attitude that does not leave nature wholly as it is and digs it up to transform it into artificial structures. Moreover, the Paldang Organic Farming Complex is a central supplier of environmentally friendly vegetables to Seoul and other areas around the capital. The farmers there have spent decades farming without pesticides to turn the land into an organic farm, boosting the soil fertility. We do not know how the idea of destroying this place to build a playground is even possible.
The district the government says it plans to forcefully appropriate is the venue for the IFOAM Organic World Congress that is to be held in September 2011. Paldang is just that symbolic as an organic farm on a worldwide scale. President Lee Myung-bak also visited the farm when he was a presidential candidate in September 2007, and encouraged the farmers, saying organic farming was an alternative of the South Korean agricultural industry. He drove a fertilizer distributor and even showed off his closeness with the farmers. Now he is stubbornly trying to kick them off their land. Does he also intend to break this campaign promise, claiming he is allowed to say anything during an election?
There is also no direct relation between the plan to build a park on the Paldang Organic Farm and the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. They are not dredging the bottom of the Han River as it hugs the farm, and they are not building any new dams. MLTM appears as if it will also appropriate this land under the policy of banning in principle cultivation along the riverbeds of the four major rivers. Completely paving over riverbeds to build eye candy or recreation facilities should not be the main priority. If there is concern about polluting the river water, one should guarantee the living of farmers farming along the riverbeds by properly regulating the pollution.
Even when viewed from a purely utilitarian perspective, it is much more profitable to use this area as a place to produce environmentally friendly produce for people in the capital area and as a place where people can learn about and experience the ecology. There are plenty of places to build bike paths or parks besides this particular location. We hope the Lee administration immediately ends its plan to forcefully appropriate the Paldang Organic Farm and turn it into a park.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/418603.html
[4]
[Editorial] Lawmakers must reject proposal for martial law during G-20 Summit
The upcoming G-20 Summit [in November 2010] is not the first major international event held in South Korea.
Two events hosted by South Korea during which world leaders gathered together include the 2000 Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the 2005 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The only difference is the fact that the G-20 summit is the largest in terms of the international standing of the participant nations and the scale of the meeting.
However, judging from the way the Lee Myung-bak administration and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) have been behaving, you would think it was the first international event held since the founding of the nation, so great is the fuss they have been making. Making matters worse is the apparent attitude that there is no need to concern themselves with fundamental citizens rights or the Constitution when it comes to this event. The government and ruling party created a special law for “G-20 security and safety,” the contents of which constitutes an excessive infringement of the basic rights of citizens, and the GNP independently forced it through the National Assembly’s House Steering Committee a few days ago.
If this legislation passes, major areas of downtown Seoul will come under the control of the chief of the Presidential Security Service (PSS) for a period of close to three months, and assemblies and demonstrations will be limited according to his discretion.
Naturally, the G-20 summit must be carried out securely and successfully, but there is no reason to prepare to the extent of creating a special law limiting citizens’ fundamental rights for the sake of this summit. The success of the event depends on how thoroughly the organizations charged with security and safety prepare and perform their jobs. It is unreasonable to argue that it is impossible to hold the event because of the inadequacy of laws currently in place. We have never heard of any advanced nation creating a special law because it was holding an international summit meeting.
Even more shocking is the fact that the Lee Myung-bak government is freely stating that it wants to mobilize the military to maintain public order. The PSS has even proffered a concrete description, stating, “We will have them wear comfortable clothing, such as civilian clothing, rather than military uniforms.” In essence, they are saying that they plan to hold the summit under a proclamation of martial law. It is frightening even to imagine the sight of soldiers dressed in civilian clothes fomenting an atmosphere of fear among the citizenry. One cannot help being concerned that this summit will not result in the enhancement of South Korea’s standing, but the nation becoming an international laughing stock.
The process of the law’s enactment has also been carried out through nothing but deceit and expediency. Reportedly, the PSS, which prepared the law, carried out a “contracted legislation” process, using ruling party lawmakers in order to skip over the whole process of a Cabinet council deliberation, advance announcement of proposed legislation, and deliberation in the Ministry of Government Legislation. In light of the fact that this legislation will potentially violate the fundamental rights of citizens, it requires hearings and in-depth National Assembly discussions, yet this entire process has been omitted. This legislation should be discarded.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/418406.html
[If you want to see Korean social movement collective action after class on Monday, go to Myeongdong Cathedral, May 10, 2010, after 2 p.m. Or every day around 7:30 p.m. next week--indefinitely it seems. The below article describes why:]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Showdown begins: Daily Catholic masses to be held in downtown Seoul (Myeongdong Cathedral) in protest of Pres. Lee's Unpopular River Dredging; Lee Government Moves to Pass Martial Law Legislation (ostensibly for all of downtown Seoul) and Militarize the Canal Dredging
3. Below are several articles. Read them for their mutual implications.
First, this is another good example of something we have talked about in researching social movements: religious organizations as mobilization bases typically being the only brave groups versus a repressive polity. It's a battle for cultural legitimacy that the state is bound to lose if it attacks them.
Second, it's a good example of the ongoing interaction between social movements changing the institutional/symbolic forms of their public action versus the state's repressive actions. As both 'sides' adapt to each other over time, we will talk about this state/movement interaction as the term 'cycles of protest' ideas later. Social movements are always involved in rising or falling cycles of protest involving state/movement interactions as the main dynamic. Movements fail to occur randomly in time in other words.
BACK TO MY FIRST POINT:
For instance, in the 1980s, Catholic and Buddhist churches (particularly Cardinal Kim, the only Korean-born Catholic Cardinal) protected the labor movement and democratization movements against South Korea's dictatorship. Once more the religious movements become the rallying point, as the only brave groups publicly, symbolically, with the "cognitive liberation" (and resources, mobilization networks, and symbolic culture) to protest against Lee Myung-bak's 24-hour-a-day river dredging.
It will be interesting to see if the guiltless use of state violence under President Lee (against the rights of assembly or any democratic opposition) continues to repress this social movement strategy as well. This is the line however beyond which repression may not work anymore? We shall see.
We talked about symbolism 'weapons' that social movements have since they are typically powerless against state violence. Instead, social movements attempt to change the symbolic meanings already loved and juggle symbolism of them with themselves to gain adherence, reassociations, and supporters by association.
It's important to understand the symbolism: to have these daily masses at Myeongdong (which is shrine to religious martyrdom in Korean history against a repressive Chosun Dynasty) is an analogy hardly lost on the current Korean public either since Myeongdong has been a rallying point against dictatorship in the very recent past in Korea--less than 25 years ago: Quote about Myeongdong:
"The Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Myeongdong, commonly known as Myeongdong Cathedral, is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Seoul, South Korea, located in the Myeongdong neighborhood of Jung-gu, Seoul. It is a neighborhood landmark and a symbol of Christianity in Korea and of political dissidents....In 1900 the relics of the Korean Martyrs who died in the 1866 persecution were moved to its crypt from the seminary in Yongsan-gu.
The initial name of Jonghyeon Cathedral (종현성당, 鐘峴聖堂) was changed to commemorate the 1945 liberation from Imperial Japan and changed to the present Myeongdong Cathedral.
Roman Catholic clergy were among the leading critics of South Korea's military rule in the 1970s and 1980s, and Myeongdong Cathedral became a center of Minjung political and labor protest as well as a sanctuary for the protesters; indeed, it was nicknamed the "Mecca" of pro-democracy activists. Catholic and future President Kim Dae-jung held a rally at the cathedral in 1976 to demand the resignation of President Park Chung Hee, and some 600 student-led protesters staged a hunger strike inside in 1987 after the torture and death of university student Park Jong-chol.
Even in the years since democratization, the government has been reluctant to enter the cathedral to arrest protesters, making Myeongdong too popular a protest spot in the views of some priests and worshipers. The cathedral attempted to ban protesters who did not have prior approval in 2000 after a demonstration in which telecommunications unionists beat female churchgoers and vandalized church property."
--------------------------------
Daily Catholic masses to be held in protest of Four Rivers project
picture: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/417794.html
The masses, which will be held in a central Seoul location, are expected to have a significant impact on the movement against the Four Rivers project
» Catholic priests and believers hold a mass to protest the Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project at a construction site for the project in Dalseong County, Daegu, April 20."
Catholic priests and believers are planning to hold daily life and peace masses calling for an end to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project at Myeong-dong Cathedral starting on Monday. Since these masses are scheduled to take place daily in the heart of Seoul amid rising religious opposition to the Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, the impact is expected to be considerable.
The Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project announced its decision to hold life and peace masses attended by priests and believers nationwide at Myeongdong Cathedral every day at 7:30pm. After the masses, the priests plan to hold all-night prayer vigils.
The alliance explained the rationale of the masses, saying that priests have continuously demanded the government end the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which runs counter to preserving the order of God’s creation and destroys a wide array of living things, and reconsider the project, but the government has not changed its attitude and pushed through with construction. Accordingly, priests disappointment connected to their faith and conscience, believing they could not longer just sit and watch, they said.
The Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project is an alliance of [different SMI/SMO] groups such as the Justice and Peace Committee and Committee for Environment, both under the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea (CBCK). In March, the alliance issued a position statement by CBCK calling for an end to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. The 15 dioceses plan to convene life and peace masses in an alternating fashion nationwide. The Life and Peace Masses for the Suspension of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and the Preservation of the Paldang Organic Farm masses, which have been held for 68 days at Dumulmoeri, Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, will be held separately.
Alliance executive committee member Kim Jae-wook said since the Lee Myung-bak administration has not extended the courtesy of listening to the bishops’ position statement. Regarding this as a failure of promotional activities, the priests have decided to hold daily masses. He said until the administration changes its attitude, the masses would continue on.
In addition, the Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project has decided to hold a 10,000-person mass, attended by priests and believers from all over the country, at Myeong-dong Cathedral at 2 p.m. on May 10.
Meanwhile, in light of the National Election Commission’s (NEC) recent moves to designate civic groups’ anti-Four Major Rivers Restoration Project events, even placards placed in front of church gates, as violations of election law, attention is focusing on how they will respond to these masses.
In response, an official from the Catholic Alliance to Stop the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project said the church activities to see the project brought to an end are a realization of biblical teachings [our terms: 'frame amplification' and 'frame transformation' very much here], and that there is a good deal of public consensus, as over 100 thousand signatures have been collected from the Seoul archdiocese and Suwon diocese alone.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/417794.html
[2]
And this is, I think Lee's response which is typical and running to true form: if the Catholic Alliance posted their notice on April 26, the Lee Government posted its notice to Koreans by May 5: this it the first time the military will be used on a South Korean construction project since the dictatorship:
Military to be deployed to assist [sic] with Four Rivers construction
Observers cite this as the first large-scale deployment of military labor for a government-led construction project since the time of military dictatorship
» Bulldozers dredge the South Han River near the Iho bridge in Yeoju County, Gyeonggi Province, April 4. [image]
The Lee Myung-bak administration has announced plans to deploy members of the military to assist with the construction for the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which is currently facing strong public opposition.
According to an official document of cooperation between the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM), obtained by Democratic Party Lawmaker Ahn Gyu-back of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee, the ROK Army Second Operations Command and Busan Regional Construction Management Administration concluded an agreement for army engineers to provide support for construction along Area 35 of the Nakdong River. To do this, the Defense Ministry assembled a unit centered on the 1117th Engineer Group of the Second Operations Command, which it will deploy from June to next November. The task of the army engineers will be to take the sediment soil removed during deep dredging of the riverbeds and moving it to a different location.
Some 117 military engineers and 72 units of equipment including 50 dump trucks, will be deployed to the site. Military engineers will billet in a location near the construction site. The Defense Ministry has budgeted some 2.75 billion Won ($2.47 million) for equipment and billeting. The Busan Regional Construction Management Administration will support the costs.
As a display of military labor force being directly deployed to a government-led national construction site, it will be difficult for the move to avoid criticism as an inappropriate military mobilization of the sort that has been difficult to spot since South Korea’s democratization after military dictatorship.
According to a report submitted by the Defense Ministry to Lawmaker Ahn on military deployments to national construction sites, the army was deployed as a major source of construction labor force to national projects during the military dictatorship, such as the construction of the Seoul-Busan Highway (1968 to 1970), Uljin-Hyeon-dong Road (1982 to 1984) and Seoul Beltway (1991 to 1994).
During a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, a Ministry of Defense official said for the purpose of contributing to a national project, the ministry had accepted a request to participate in the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project from the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, and it would also assist in training the army engineers for their own duty.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
[3]
And they are going to plow under a very successful organic farm area outside of Seoul and pave it over. The Catholic Alliance group is opposing this with collective action as well:
[Editorial] Organic farms over bicycle paths
It seems that the Lee Myung-bak administration has at last made the decision about the fate of the Paldang Organic Farm. We are speechless that the government is willing to plow over an organic farm on which fresh vegetables are raised and pave it over with bicycle paths and a park. The Paldang Organic Farm supplies chemical-free vegetables to Seoul-area residents. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) says it is forcing through measures to appropriate land to build a park as a part of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project on the organic farm around Paldang in Gyeonggi Province. One can only be stunned by the never-ending rash behavior of the Lee administration.
To begin, we are shocked by the idea of turning up land being used for environmentally friendly farming to build recreation facilities. It is a vulgar attitude that does not leave nature wholly as it is and digs it up to transform it into artificial structures. Moreover, the Paldang Organic Farming Complex is a central supplier of environmentally friendly vegetables to Seoul and other areas around the capital. The farmers there have spent decades farming without pesticides to turn the land into an organic farm, boosting the soil fertility. We do not know how the idea of destroying this place to build a playground is even possible.
The district the government says it plans to forcefully appropriate is the venue for the IFOAM Organic World Congress that is to be held in September 2011. Paldang is just that symbolic as an organic farm on a worldwide scale. President Lee Myung-bak also visited the farm when he was a presidential candidate in September 2007, and encouraged the farmers, saying organic farming was an alternative of the South Korean agricultural industry. He drove a fertilizer distributor and even showed off his closeness with the farmers. Now he is stubbornly trying to kick them off their land. Does he also intend to break this campaign promise, claiming he is allowed to say anything during an election?
There is also no direct relation between the plan to build a park on the Paldang Organic Farm and the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. They are not dredging the bottom of the Han River as it hugs the farm, and they are not building any new dams. MLTM appears as if it will also appropriate this land under the policy of banning in principle cultivation along the riverbeds of the four major rivers. Completely paving over riverbeds to build eye candy or recreation facilities should not be the main priority. If there is concern about polluting the river water, one should guarantee the living of farmers farming along the riverbeds by properly regulating the pollution.
Even when viewed from a purely utilitarian perspective, it is much more profitable to use this area as a place to produce environmentally friendly produce for people in the capital area and as a place where people can learn about and experience the ecology. There are plenty of places to build bike paths or parks besides this particular location. We hope the Lee administration immediately ends its plan to forcefully appropriate the Paldang Organic Farm and turn it into a park.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/418603.html
[4]
[Editorial] Lawmakers must reject proposal for martial law during G-20 Summit
The upcoming G-20 Summit [in November 2010] is not the first major international event held in South Korea.
Two events hosted by South Korea during which world leaders gathered together include the 2000 Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the 2005 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The only difference is the fact that the G-20 summit is the largest in terms of the international standing of the participant nations and the scale of the meeting.
However, judging from the way the Lee Myung-bak administration and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) have been behaving, you would think it was the first international event held since the founding of the nation, so great is the fuss they have been making. Making matters worse is the apparent attitude that there is no need to concern themselves with fundamental citizens rights or the Constitution when it comes to this event. The government and ruling party created a special law for “G-20 security and safety,” the contents of which constitutes an excessive infringement of the basic rights of citizens, and the GNP independently forced it through the National Assembly’s House Steering Committee a few days ago.
If this legislation passes, major areas of downtown Seoul will come under the control of the chief of the Presidential Security Service (PSS) for a period of close to three months, and assemblies and demonstrations will be limited according to his discretion.
Naturally, the G-20 summit must be carried out securely and successfully, but there is no reason to prepare to the extent of creating a special law limiting citizens’ fundamental rights for the sake of this summit. The success of the event depends on how thoroughly the organizations charged with security and safety prepare and perform their jobs. It is unreasonable to argue that it is impossible to hold the event because of the inadequacy of laws currently in place. We have never heard of any advanced nation creating a special law because it was holding an international summit meeting.
Even more shocking is the fact that the Lee Myung-bak government is freely stating that it wants to mobilize the military to maintain public order. The PSS has even proffered a concrete description, stating, “We will have them wear comfortable clothing, such as civilian clothing, rather than military uniforms.” In essence, they are saying that they plan to hold the summit under a proclamation of martial law. It is frightening even to imagine the sight of soldiers dressed in civilian clothes fomenting an atmosphere of fear among the citizenry. One cannot help being concerned that this summit will not result in the enhancement of South Korea’s standing, but the nation becoming an international laughing stock.
The process of the law’s enactment has also been carried out through nothing but deceit and expediency. Reportedly, the PSS, which prepared the law, carried out a “contracted legislation” process, using ruling party lawmakers in order to skip over the whole process of a Cabinet council deliberation, advance announcement of proposed legislation, and deliberation in the Ministry of Government Legislation. In light of the fact that this legislation will potentially violate the fundamental rights of citizens, it requires hearings and in-depth National Assembly discussions, yet this entire process has been omitted. This legislation should be discarded.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/418406.html
Monday, April 26, 2010
Week 8: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week
Post by Sunday at midnight.
[1]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Update on Venezuela Collective Action and Media: Chavez connects to Twitter
Twitter is an international media less under control of his opposition connected with Venezuela's 2004 coup; at least he hopes so--it's a U.S. firm after all and U.S. state 'fingerprints' were all over the Venezuelan coup.
It is interesting that other heads of state have taken up Twittering to legitimate their movement or collective action against media pronouncements involved in countermovements or against media that ignore them entirely.
Now in Venezuela, it is hard to have the surreal situation in the film we watched--a situation where even the President of a country could be cut off from the world or even his own nation...by a mere revolt involving just a handful of people including media organizations that lied Chavez resigned voluntarily and that Venezuela was normal (instead of experiencing a very bloody military coup against him that attacked the Presidential Palace and threatened to bomb it).
Perhaps all countries presidents and any major contentious politicians should have a twitter page as 'protection', just to be on the safe against a media barrage of other social movements framing them in their own way.
--------------------------
Chavez Seeks to Join Obama, Castro in Adding Twitter to His Media Arsenal
By Daniel Cancel - Apr 26, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who already writes a weekly newspaper column, created a radio program and speaks for as many as seven hours every Sunday, plans to add a Twitter Inc. account to his media arsenal.
“Comandante Chavez is going to open his Twitter account soon to wage the battle online,” Diosdado Cabello, head of the country’s telecommunications regulator, said today on state television. “I’m sure he’ll break records for numbers of followers.”
Chavez will join world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama (3.8 million followers), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (3,547 followers) and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (88,978 followers) in reaching out to supporters and opponents alike via the social networking tool that limits users to 140 characters per post.
[In 2004, it would have been enough for Chavez to 'tweet': "I did not resign. We have a military coup involving all TV/radio media organizations. Tell the world." Twitter was started in 2006.]
Chavez, a former paratrooper who wants to convert Venezuela into a socialist state, says his government is waging a media war against conservative news organizations that vilify his presidency and follow orders from the U.S. to overthrow his administration. Chavez was praised last year by his mentor Fidel Castro, who has a Twitter site organized by newspaper Cubadebate.cu, for spending 1,536 hours over 10 years speaking during his “Alo Presidente” show.
‘Revolutionary Idea’
“The case of Hugo Chavez is exceptional in the history of politics,” Castro wrote in a note published last year on the Cubadebate.com website. “Others have gained fame through the written press, radio and television, but never has a revolutionary idea made use of a communications media with such efficiency.”
The announcement comes after Venezuela’s opposition said Chavez, 55, was trying to block social networking sites like Facebook Inc. and Twitter last month after he called for an investigation into a local news site for publishing false information about the death of Cabello, who is also Public Works and Housing Minister.
Chavez rejected the accusations and said that he would soon be setting up his own website to publish news and participate in debates.
“I’m going to have my online trench from the palace to wage the battle,” he said on March 21. “I’ll provide information and even respond to my enemies.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.
---
http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-26/chavez-seeks-to-join-obama-castro-in-adding-twitter-to-his-media-arsenal.html
[2]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. On Wednesday, we continued our examination of explaining why some social movements seem 'immune' to heavy repression. Across many cases, Zald and others (myself in lecture) argue that it is important to look at religious movements as innately forms very suitable for social movement mobilization. We used as cases Nicaragua's Christian/Marxist/Nationalist 'church of the poor' movement under the Sandinista Revolution in 1979. It toppled the Somoza dictatorship.
Some additional films on religion and social movements:
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches.
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Martin Luther King, Jr. on War, video excerpts, 3 min.
video, last speeches of 1967
other excerpts, 5 min, still pictures, audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k5dptjc3LY
This link starts a series of linked films, moving from one to another. It starts with the speech the day before he was assassinated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&feature=PlayList&p=B1FFBA6D82A3794C&playnext_from=PL&index=1&playnext=2
Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" 22 min, Excerpts of a Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U&feature=related
[King assassinated in April 4 1968]
[1]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Update on Venezuela Collective Action and Media: Chavez connects to Twitter
Twitter is an international media less under control of his opposition connected with Venezuela's 2004 coup; at least he hopes so--it's a U.S. firm after all and U.S. state 'fingerprints' were all over the Venezuelan coup.
It is interesting that other heads of state have taken up Twittering to legitimate their movement or collective action against media pronouncements involved in countermovements or against media that ignore them entirely.
Now in Venezuela, it is hard to have the surreal situation in the film we watched--a situation where even the President of a country could be cut off from the world or even his own nation...by a mere revolt involving just a handful of people including media organizations that lied Chavez resigned voluntarily and that Venezuela was normal (instead of experiencing a very bloody military coup against him that attacked the Presidential Palace and threatened to bomb it).
Perhaps all countries presidents and any major contentious politicians should have a twitter page as 'protection', just to be on the safe against a media barrage of other social movements framing them in their own way.
--------------------------
Chavez Seeks to Join Obama, Castro in Adding Twitter to His Media Arsenal
By Daniel Cancel - Apr 26, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who already writes a weekly newspaper column, created a radio program and speaks for as many as seven hours every Sunday, plans to add a Twitter Inc. account to his media arsenal.
“Comandante Chavez is going to open his Twitter account soon to wage the battle online,” Diosdado Cabello, head of the country’s telecommunications regulator, said today on state television. “I’m sure he’ll break records for numbers of followers.”
Chavez will join world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama (3.8 million followers), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (3,547 followers) and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (88,978 followers) in reaching out to supporters and opponents alike via the social networking tool that limits users to 140 characters per post.
[In 2004, it would have been enough for Chavez to 'tweet': "I did not resign. We have a military coup involving all TV/radio media organizations. Tell the world." Twitter was started in 2006.]
Chavez, a former paratrooper who wants to convert Venezuela into a socialist state, says his government is waging a media war against conservative news organizations that vilify his presidency and follow orders from the U.S. to overthrow his administration. Chavez was praised last year by his mentor Fidel Castro, who has a Twitter site organized by newspaper Cubadebate.cu, for spending 1,536 hours over 10 years speaking during his “Alo Presidente” show.
‘Revolutionary Idea’
“The case of Hugo Chavez is exceptional in the history of politics,” Castro wrote in a note published last year on the Cubadebate.com website. “Others have gained fame through the written press, radio and television, but never has a revolutionary idea made use of a communications media with such efficiency.”
The announcement comes after Venezuela’s opposition said Chavez, 55, was trying to block social networking sites like Facebook Inc. and Twitter last month after he called for an investigation into a local news site for publishing false information about the death of Cabello, who is also Public Works and Housing Minister.
Chavez rejected the accusations and said that he would soon be setting up his own website to publish news and participate in debates.
“I’m going to have my online trench from the palace to wage the battle,” he said on March 21. “I’ll provide information and even respond to my enemies.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.
---
http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-26/chavez-seeks-to-join-obama-castro-in-adding-twitter-to-his-media-arsenal.html
[2]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. On Wednesday, we continued our examination of explaining why some social movements seem 'immune' to heavy repression. Across many cases, Zald and others (myself in lecture) argue that it is important to look at religious movements as innately forms very suitable for social movement mobilization. We used as cases Nicaragua's Christian/Marxist/Nationalist 'church of the poor' movement under the Sandinista Revolution in 1979. It toppled the Somoza dictatorship.
Some additional films on religion and social movements:
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches.
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Martin Luther King, Jr. on War, video excerpts, 3 min.
video, last speeches of 1967
other excerpts, 5 min, still pictures, audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k5dptjc3LY
This link starts a series of linked films, moving from one to another. It starts with the speech the day before he was assassinated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&feature=PlayList&p=B1FFBA6D82A3794C&playnext_from=PL&index=1&playnext=2
Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" 22 min, Excerpts of a Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U&feature=related
[King assassinated in April 4 1968]
Monday, April 12, 2010
Week 7: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week
Post by Sunday at midnight.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Beyond Satire? Cracking down on Non-Candidates/Citizens Attempting to "Influence Elections" Now in South Korea: Who is allowed to "Influence Elections" at all, anymore? No one? SK's Repression keeps raising costs for all collective action--even for democratic participation; Maybe South Korea is heading back for dictatorship--which still would fail to stop collective action it would just change it character once more ; and a second article about repressing Twitter, another 'arena' of the Internet unmentioned in our previous articles on media arenas and collective action
3. SK law is being stretched to demote collective action favoring democratic election appeals in elections. Aren't the election laws are exclusively for candidates' being regulated, this is the first time I have seen them applied to non-candidates! Rarely do you see states worldwide encouraging voting, because voting tends to make a state more representative, and most state elites dislike that. (The U.S. has some really repressive voting day rules to minimize turnout still.)
Currently, the crackdown moves into social movement strategies that attempt even democratic voting redress of grievances. However, SK represses this as well.
I predict this will only lead toward more people taking more violent actions and more instability, instead of people sitting through Lee's presidency quietly. Lee's regime is demoting all forms of democratic redress of grievances. His regime is labeling social movements as part of 'electioneering' (which before was a charge against candidates only!) and Korea has some very severe laws on election management. Perhaps President Lee is working on Korean unification by making South Korea a one-party totalitarian police state run by fear as well. Though I sarcastically digress...
We will talk about different classification attempts of repression later. (Particularly the article "Tanks, Tear Gas, and Taxes"--It's a digital article, look it up if you are interested in what she is saying.)
That author describes contexts where most repression is far from overt and visible. Sometimes the attempt to simply apply the law--in areas where it seldom applied before, in a "conceptual stretching"--is a way for state elites to expand repression legally against collective action.
The danger of course is that state repression seldom creates a repressed society entirely (as we have seen in some articles so far).
The Lee government could make everything even more unstable and encourage collective action, since grievances against him are at record levels according to his own polls.
This idea of 'repression of democracy' backfired in 1960. That was the 'social movement frame' that encouraged more collective action as legitimate instead of demoted it. The South Korean government fell in 1960 after a particularly open vote fraud rigged election: repression "didn't work" and instead led toward massive protests and the end of the Rhee regime. I'll talk about this later.
I'm curious about the outcome of regional elections and what will happen if they come up so "pro-Lee" that no one believes it.
---------------------
Police continue crackdowns on regional election events
Both the police and election commissions have been accused of violating freedom of expression
Photo: Members of a civic organization wear baseball umpire and football referee uniforms during a protest to ask for fair management from the Central Election Management Committee, April 19. [to get in the media this way, we talked about the powerless and how sometimes framing symbols in a novel way is a major cultural power of change.]
Amid the campaign season for the June 2 regional elections, regional election commissions and police have prohibited or forcibly dispersed events related to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and green free school lunches, major issues in this election season, as violations of the Public Official Election Act.
Some are charging that the election commissions and police are applying excessively strict standards and curtailing the freedom of expression.
On April 15, election commissions for Seoul’s 25 districts sent notices stating that green free school lunch signature campaigns taking place in the 25 districts are potentially in violation of election law. In response, campaigns taking place in the districts of Jungnang and Gwangjin were canceled entirely.
This is not the first time election commissions have given notice that the free lunches for elementary and middle school students campaign is potentially in violation of election law. Previously, the Goyang City Election Commission gave notice to civic organizations banning a signature campaign calling for green free school lunches, including the Goyang Citizens’ Council, while the Seoul City Election Commission gave a similar notice to the Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo), which is also participating in the free school lunches campaign. On both occasions, the commissions charged that the campaigns violated election law.
In addition to the free school lunches issue, election commissions have also been imposing sanctions in relation to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. On April 3, the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission launched a crackdown on Four Major Rivers photo exhibitions by Buddhist monk and environmental activist Jayul, held at three locations in downtown Suwon, claiming that these are in violation of election law. And on March 28, the National Election Commission (NEC) gave notice that radio spots recruiting members for the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) and the Four Major Rivers Watchdog group is potentially in violation of election law.
[What public, peaceful strategies of collective action or democratic election pressure from voters are left?]
Meanwhile, police have been forcibly dispersing or arresting participants in assemblies, press conferences and one-person protests in connection with the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and free school lunches issues, categorizing them as “illegal demonstrations.” On April 19, police forcibly dispersed or restricted one-person protests by members of the 2010 Voter Hope Alliance, held at locations throughout Seoul to call on voters to vote against the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and in favor of free school lunches.
[Even the collective action strategy of press conferences are repressed.]
On April 5, the police notified Citizens’ Alliance for Environmentally Friendly Free School Meals standing committee chairwoman Bae Ok-byeong that she must report to police on charges of violating on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration in connection with a press conference. That same day, police confiscated a ribbon bearing the name of President Lee Myung-bak and even broke a flowerpot, saying, “The press conference itself is not illegal, but the situation in which comedy is put on mentioning a specific politician’s name is illegal.”
[Comedy is illegal even? In other words...?--using comedy to shame the government and make them look silly? It is unclear to me what symbolic collective action the article is describing.]
Bae said, “All you have to do is have an event in connection with green free school lunches and the election commission will block it as a violation of election law, while the police will block it as a violation of the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Bae continued, “The green school lunch movement has been going on since the early 2000s.” She added, “I cannot understand why police officers are saying it is now illegal.”
[Because it's winning massive support according to polls I have seen, so repression is occurring to intimidate people from public support. Perhaps the election may be rigged as a last ditch effort: things like this happen in countries all the time.]
KFEM Secretary General Kim Jong-nam said, “It is a violation of fairness that they do not say a word about publicity or advertisements in favor of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, but only block the opposition.” Kim also said, “It seems as if they are afraid that opinions critical of the government are becoming organized and widespread, so they are shutting them off at the source.”
[The Lee Government knows from its own polls that only 20% of Koreans trust their current National Assembly. They aren't in power with a huge mandate for such changes in any of their policies.]
In response, NEC information officer Kim Dae-nyeon said, “These decisions are not the application of arbitrary standards toward specific events by specific groups, but determinations made according to election law.” Kim added, “Insofar as election law exists so that elections can take place fairly, we hope that civic groups will respect enforcement according to election law.”
[Of course the goverment is consolidating its opposition unfortunately into one very effective strategy, perhaps one of the few left for Koreans: intentionally breaking the law and going to jail in huge numbers. This was done in the Black Civil Rights movement. This was done in the move for independence in India from the British Empire as well. This was to shame both governments for their repressive actions, and to generate forms of media symbolism difficult to delegitimate, creating much "sympathy adherents."]
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) public relations officer Kim Jae-won said, “This is not a case of all events being branded illegal.” [Well, which ones are still legal? Stop feigning ignorance.] Kim continued, “It only refers to instances that violate the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Kim also said the actions were “taking place according to procedure based on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.”
Ahn Jin-geol, director of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) Public Welfare Hope Team, said that election commissions have recently been visiting or contacting groups like his own and the School Meal Network and persuading or ordering them not to hold events. “Because of this, freedom of expression on social issues is being continuously curtailed, including the cancellation of actual events.”
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/416883.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Attempt to Close the Internet "Media Arena": The War on Twitter by the Lee Government Regarding Elections, whether you are a candidate or just a citizen
3. Look back at the article on 'media arenas.' The internet was left out. Interesting on how social movements are left with using this media arena when all others are very tightly closed to political discussion or open debate in South Korea.
------------------
04-21-2010 19:23
Twitter [Or Citizens Using Twitter?] Under Tighter Scrutiny Before Election
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors are investigating a number of suspected unlawful [sic?] political activities carried out through Twitter, Web portals and other online-based media ahead of the June 2 local elections.
After a meeting of 58 high-ranking prosecutors, [just one more than the 57 'high prosecutors accused of high corruption for over 30 years continuously^^] presided over by Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu, Wednesday, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced that it will mobilize all possible resources to crack down on illegal election activities on the Internet, stressing it will impose steep financial penalties against gains earned through illegal election campaigns.
[Court battles over refusing to pay fines may be a form of collective action soon. It was used in a very famous battle between food activists and the McDonald's corporation in the U.K.]
It also said prosecutors will make every effort to prevent unlawful rallies and politically-motivated industrial strikes that are aimed to influence election outcomes, adding it will prosecute those responsible for such unlawful activities.
“Elections should take place in a fair and neutral manner. [Without anyone's input at all?^^] Prosecutors should not take political considerations into account when investigating illicit campaign activities. Additionally, investigations should be conducted in a way not to influence political outcomes,” Kim said. [Which, er, I fail to see occurring in SK.]
The prosecutors’ office has setup a “cyber crime monitoring team,” consisting of 36 investigators, to sniff out those who engage in unauthorized election campaigns on the Internet.
With a growing number of Koreans getting information online, politicians are increasingly turning to cyberspace to get their message out and rally support. However, law enforcement authorities are concerned that Twitter and other online tools may become a hotbed for illegal election campaigns.
In February, the National Election Commission (NEC) said it would prevent politicians and their supporters from using Twitter for promotional activities ahead of the elections.
But with the rising cases of possible illegal election activities in cyberspace as elections draw near, investigators have begun looking more closely into messages posted on online media sites and are ready to prosecute those responsible for spreading false rumors about certain candidates. [If you think any government is a fountain of truth automatically without public input, it is the height of gullibility.]
Prosecutors said a 51-year CEO of a shipping firm, only identified by his surname Lee, has been under questioning for posting several messages on Twitter, falsely claiming that a candidate he supports tops many public opinion polls. Twitter, which combines the strengths of blogs and instant messaging services, enables users to send and receive short messages on personal computers and mobile devices.
Additionally, a 35-year old CEO of an advertizing agency, identified by his last name Kim, is also under investigation for stealing IDs from a number of Internet users to post promotional messages on portal sites, on behalf of candidates running for ward offices.
With 40 days left to go before the election, prosecutors said a total of 616 people have been booked and 23 have been taken into custody, lower than corresponding figures from four years ago. But the cases of illicit campaigns increased at a faster pace in April.
With many public officials running for mayor, governors and council members, 231 civil servants, including 61 incumbent heads of municipal governments, were booked. Of the 616, 330 were booked for giving and receiving money, while 43 were charged with the illegal promotion of certain candidates.
On Monday, Yeoju County head, Lee Ki-su was arrested for providing 200 million won in bribes to a Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker in an attempt to secure a party nomination in the upcoming election.
[I note the Korea Times entirely ignores police crackdown of citizens, thereby keeping its readers in the dark about what is going on--which of course is one of the purposes of a private media, to keep people in the dark. Read the argument in the 'media arenas' article. If it's unreported, it 'fails to happen' as something that could generate concern/sympathy or other mobilization for or against collective action.]
leehs@koreatimes.co.kr
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/04/117_64611.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Beyond Satire? Cracking down on Non-Candidates/Citizens Attempting to "Influence Elections" Now in South Korea: Who is allowed to "Influence Elections" at all, anymore? No one? SK's Repression keeps raising costs for all collective action--even for democratic participation; Maybe South Korea is heading back for dictatorship--which still would fail to stop collective action it would just change it character once more ; and a second article about repressing Twitter, another 'arena' of the Internet unmentioned in our previous articles on media arenas and collective action
3. SK law is being stretched to demote collective action favoring democratic election appeals in elections. Aren't the election laws are exclusively for candidates' being regulated, this is the first time I have seen them applied to non-candidates! Rarely do you see states worldwide encouraging voting, because voting tends to make a state more representative, and most state elites dislike that. (The U.S. has some really repressive voting day rules to minimize turnout still.)
Currently, the crackdown moves into social movement strategies that attempt even democratic voting redress of grievances. However, SK represses this as well.
I predict this will only lead toward more people taking more violent actions and more instability, instead of people sitting through Lee's presidency quietly. Lee's regime is demoting all forms of democratic redress of grievances. His regime is labeling social movements as part of 'electioneering' (which before was a charge against candidates only!) and Korea has some very severe laws on election management. Perhaps President Lee is working on Korean unification by making South Korea a one-party totalitarian police state run by fear as well. Though I sarcastically digress...
We will talk about different classification attempts of repression later. (Particularly the article "Tanks, Tear Gas, and Taxes"--It's a digital article, look it up if you are interested in what she is saying.)
That author describes contexts where most repression is far from overt and visible. Sometimes the attempt to simply apply the law--in areas where it seldom applied before, in a "conceptual stretching"--is a way for state elites to expand repression legally against collective action.
The danger of course is that state repression seldom creates a repressed society entirely (as we have seen in some articles so far).
The Lee government could make everything even more unstable and encourage collective action, since grievances against him are at record levels according to his own polls.
This idea of 'repression of democracy' backfired in 1960. That was the 'social movement frame' that encouraged more collective action as legitimate instead of demoted it. The South Korean government fell in 1960 after a particularly open vote fraud rigged election: repression "didn't work" and instead led toward massive protests and the end of the Rhee regime. I'll talk about this later.
I'm curious about the outcome of regional elections and what will happen if they come up so "pro-Lee" that no one believes it.
---------------------
Police continue crackdowns on regional election events
Both the police and election commissions have been accused of violating freedom of expression
Photo: Members of a civic organization wear baseball umpire and football referee uniforms during a protest to ask for fair management from the Central Election Management Committee, April 19. [to get in the media this way, we talked about the powerless and how sometimes framing symbols in a novel way is a major cultural power of change.]
Amid the campaign season for the June 2 regional elections, regional election commissions and police have prohibited or forcibly dispersed events related to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and green free school lunches, major issues in this election season, as violations of the Public Official Election Act.
Some are charging that the election commissions and police are applying excessively strict standards and curtailing the freedom of expression.
On April 15, election commissions for Seoul’s 25 districts sent notices stating that green free school lunch signature campaigns taking place in the 25 districts are potentially in violation of election law. In response, campaigns taking place in the districts of Jungnang and Gwangjin were canceled entirely.
This is not the first time election commissions have given notice that the free lunches for elementary and middle school students campaign is potentially in violation of election law. Previously, the Goyang City Election Commission gave notice to civic organizations banning a signature campaign calling for green free school lunches, including the Goyang Citizens’ Council, while the Seoul City Election Commission gave a similar notice to the Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo), which is also participating in the free school lunches campaign. On both occasions, the commissions charged that the campaigns violated election law.
In addition to the free school lunches issue, election commissions have also been imposing sanctions in relation to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. On April 3, the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission launched a crackdown on Four Major Rivers photo exhibitions by Buddhist monk and environmental activist Jayul, held at three locations in downtown Suwon, claiming that these are in violation of election law. And on March 28, the National Election Commission (NEC) gave notice that radio spots recruiting members for the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) and the Four Major Rivers Watchdog group is potentially in violation of election law.
[What public, peaceful strategies of collective action or democratic election pressure from voters are left?]
Meanwhile, police have been forcibly dispersing or arresting participants in assemblies, press conferences and one-person protests in connection with the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and free school lunches issues, categorizing them as “illegal demonstrations.” On April 19, police forcibly dispersed or restricted one-person protests by members of the 2010 Voter Hope Alliance, held at locations throughout Seoul to call on voters to vote against the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and in favor of free school lunches.
[Even the collective action strategy of press conferences are repressed.]
On April 5, the police notified Citizens’ Alliance for Environmentally Friendly Free School Meals standing committee chairwoman Bae Ok-byeong that she must report to police on charges of violating on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration in connection with a press conference. That same day, police confiscated a ribbon bearing the name of President Lee Myung-bak and even broke a flowerpot, saying, “The press conference itself is not illegal, but the situation in which comedy is put on mentioning a specific politician’s name is illegal.”
[Comedy is illegal even? In other words...?--using comedy to shame the government and make them look silly? It is unclear to me what symbolic collective action the article is describing.]
Bae said, “All you have to do is have an event in connection with green free school lunches and the election commission will block it as a violation of election law, while the police will block it as a violation of the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Bae continued, “The green school lunch movement has been going on since the early 2000s.” She added, “I cannot understand why police officers are saying it is now illegal.”
[Because it's winning massive support according to polls I have seen, so repression is occurring to intimidate people from public support. Perhaps the election may be rigged as a last ditch effort: things like this happen in countries all the time.]
KFEM Secretary General Kim Jong-nam said, “It is a violation of fairness that they do not say a word about publicity or advertisements in favor of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, but only block the opposition.” Kim also said, “It seems as if they are afraid that opinions critical of the government are becoming organized and widespread, so they are shutting them off at the source.”
[The Lee Government knows from its own polls that only 20% of Koreans trust their current National Assembly. They aren't in power with a huge mandate for such changes in any of their policies.]
In response, NEC information officer Kim Dae-nyeon said, “These decisions are not the application of arbitrary standards toward specific events by specific groups, but determinations made according to election law.” Kim added, “Insofar as election law exists so that elections can take place fairly, we hope that civic groups will respect enforcement according to election law.”
[Of course the goverment is consolidating its opposition unfortunately into one very effective strategy, perhaps one of the few left for Koreans: intentionally breaking the law and going to jail in huge numbers. This was done in the Black Civil Rights movement. This was done in the move for independence in India from the British Empire as well. This was to shame both governments for their repressive actions, and to generate forms of media symbolism difficult to delegitimate, creating much "sympathy adherents."]
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) public relations officer Kim Jae-won said, “This is not a case of all events being branded illegal.” [Well, which ones are still legal? Stop feigning ignorance.] Kim continued, “It only refers to instances that violate the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Kim also said the actions were “taking place according to procedure based on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.”
Ahn Jin-geol, director of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) Public Welfare Hope Team, said that election commissions have recently been visiting or contacting groups like his own and the School Meal Network and persuading or ordering them not to hold events. “Because of this, freedom of expression on social issues is being continuously curtailed, including the cancellation of actual events.”
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/416883.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Attempt to Close the Internet "Media Arena": The War on Twitter by the Lee Government Regarding Elections, whether you are a candidate or just a citizen
3. Look back at the article on 'media arenas.' The internet was left out. Interesting on how social movements are left with using this media arena when all others are very tightly closed to political discussion or open debate in South Korea.
------------------
04-21-2010 19:23
Twitter [Or Citizens Using Twitter?] Under Tighter Scrutiny Before Election
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors are investigating a number of suspected unlawful [sic?] political activities carried out through Twitter, Web portals and other online-based media ahead of the June 2 local elections.
After a meeting of 58 high-ranking prosecutors, [just one more than the 57 'high prosecutors accused of high corruption for over 30 years continuously^^] presided over by Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu, Wednesday, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced that it will mobilize all possible resources to crack down on illegal election activities on the Internet, stressing it will impose steep financial penalties against gains earned through illegal election campaigns.
[Court battles over refusing to pay fines may be a form of collective action soon. It was used in a very famous battle between food activists and the McDonald's corporation in the U.K.]
It also said prosecutors will make every effort to prevent unlawful rallies and politically-motivated industrial strikes that are aimed to influence election outcomes, adding it will prosecute those responsible for such unlawful activities.
“Elections should take place in a fair and neutral manner. [Without anyone's input at all?^^] Prosecutors should not take political considerations into account when investigating illicit campaign activities. Additionally, investigations should be conducted in a way not to influence political outcomes,” Kim said. [Which, er, I fail to see occurring in SK.]
The prosecutors’ office has setup a “cyber crime monitoring team,” consisting of 36 investigators, to sniff out those who engage in unauthorized election campaigns on the Internet.
With a growing number of Koreans getting information online, politicians are increasingly turning to cyberspace to get their message out and rally support. However, law enforcement authorities are concerned that Twitter and other online tools may become a hotbed for illegal election campaigns.
In February, the National Election Commission (NEC) said it would prevent politicians and their supporters from using Twitter for promotional activities ahead of the elections.
But with the rising cases of possible illegal election activities in cyberspace as elections draw near, investigators have begun looking more closely into messages posted on online media sites and are ready to prosecute those responsible for spreading false rumors about certain candidates. [If you think any government is a fountain of truth automatically without public input, it is the height of gullibility.]
Prosecutors said a 51-year CEO of a shipping firm, only identified by his surname Lee, has been under questioning for posting several messages on Twitter, falsely claiming that a candidate he supports tops many public opinion polls. Twitter, which combines the strengths of blogs and instant messaging services, enables users to send and receive short messages on personal computers and mobile devices.
Additionally, a 35-year old CEO of an advertizing agency, identified by his last name Kim, is also under investigation for stealing IDs from a number of Internet users to post promotional messages on portal sites, on behalf of candidates running for ward offices.
With 40 days left to go before the election, prosecutors said a total of 616 people have been booked and 23 have been taken into custody, lower than corresponding figures from four years ago. But the cases of illicit campaigns increased at a faster pace in April.
With many public officials running for mayor, governors and council members, 231 civil servants, including 61 incumbent heads of municipal governments, were booked. Of the 616, 330 were booked for giving and receiving money, while 43 were charged with the illegal promotion of certain candidates.
On Monday, Yeoju County head, Lee Ki-su was arrested for providing 200 million won in bribes to a Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker in an attempt to secure a party nomination in the upcoming election.
[I note the Korea Times entirely ignores police crackdown of citizens, thereby keeping its readers in the dark about what is going on--which of course is one of the purposes of a private media, to keep people in the dark. Read the argument in the 'media arenas' article. If it's unreported, it 'fails to happen' as something that could generate concern/sympathy or other mobilization for or against collective action.]
leehs@koreatimes.co.kr
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/04/117_64611.html
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Week 4: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week Post
Post by Sunday at midnight.
A NOTE TO ALL POSTERS: SOME OF YOU ARE DOING THIS CORRECTLY, SO IGNORE THIS NOTE. HOWEVER, THE REST OF YOU: PLEASE POST SOMETHING DEALING WITH COLLECTIVE ACTION. DISCUSSIONS OF ESTABLISHED STATE POLITICAL PARTIES, GEOPOLITICS, OR POLITICS IN GENERAL WILL NOT COUNT AS A COMPLETED ASSIGNMENT. THIS IS A SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND COLLECTIVE ACTION COURSE. FIND STORIES ABOUT THAT--HOW GROUPS THAT ARE OUTSIDE THE FRAMEWORKS OF CURRENT ARRANGEMENTS OF POWER ATTEMPT TO GET INVOLVED IN THE DEBATE ABOUT POWER, AND HOW CURRENT ARRANGEMENTS OF POWER INTERACT WITH THEM.
FROM THIS POINT ON, I WILL NOT GRANT POINTS TO POSTS THAT SIMPLY DISCUSS LEGISLATION, POLITICAL PARTIES, ELECTIONS, OR OTHER ESTABLISHED FORMS OF CONFLICT--UNLESS IT DISCUSSES SOME FORM OF COLLECTIVE ACTION OPPOSITION AS WELL.
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR ARE EMERGENT PHENOMENA: THEY SET THEIR OWN RULES, IN THE ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE NOVEL ARRANGEMENTS OF POWER.
Discussions of LEGISLATION, POLITICAL PARTIES, ELECTIONS, OR OTHER ESTABLISHED FORMS OF CONFLICT are fine if they include how social movements on the outside work with or against them.
As Oliver says, social movements have a required form of non-institutional crowd actions and collective behavior in public. Please concentrate on stories concerning this.
There are plenty of stories across East Asia and Europe to choose from. Collective action is a very common thing.
------------------
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Continuing Story of Repression of Collective Action in the Lee Administration
3. Last week, I posted many comments connected to Tilly's "polity model"--the idea that forms of social movements evolve in reflection and interaction with state actions of selective encouragement and repression of collective action. Thus social movements themselves are related to more than the desires of the social movement organizations or desires of social psychology of the actors involved.
This story shows that government is turning illegal itself, in attempt to use repression to stop collective action and defend its policy.
Of course repression, as we have seen, has a 'differential recruitment' effect: sometimes it works for some groups, sometimes it fails to work and only animates more collective action.
If anything, social movements and collective action have regrouped after the heavy repression of the 2008 opposition to President Lee's policies--already calling for his impeachment after only 100 days in office for him then.
Some things to watch in the news over the next few weeks, I suggest:
1. the collective action of multiple minority parties working together like SMO's getting together for a common mobilization in the regional elections against the river dredging. Previously these parties were highly counter-oppositional. Now they stand together. We shall see what happens by the June 2 regional elections.
2. the repression of the regional MBC administration heads. 14 of them are meeting collectively soon in Seoul to discuss potential collective action.
3. The Lee government's firing of the leaders of the now organized all governmental workers union--that the government currently refuses to consider legal. Of course social movements organize to redefine the basis of what is legal and illegal, what is moral and immoral.
4. the multi-religious collective actions against the river dredging of the Lee administration.
5. huge amount of union repression under the Lee administration everywhere it appears.
6. The scale of grievances in South Korea is perhaps at an all time high against President Lee's policies and actions--see his own government's poll below. And social organizations are finding novel ways to mobilize in the very repressive and state-media dominated framework that his party has imposed. Only 3% think his GNP dominated National Assembly is trustworthy--80.4% say they mistrust the National Assembly, and only 20% trust the court system to return just verdicts.
------------------------
Editorial] On Lee administration’s application of law and order
“Law and order” is one of the Lee Myung-bak administration’s most frequently emphasized expressions. In a report to President Lee yesterday, the Justice Ministry announced its intent of making 2010 a year of “establishing advanced law and order” and that it would be rooting out the source of all violent protests and politically-motivated illegal group activity. The president himself has said, “For all citizens, regardless of status, gender and age, law and order must become a part of daily life if we are to enhance the nation’s prestige and become an advanced state.”
No one would dispute the idea that we should create a peaceful society where all citizens observe the law. But in reality, a distorted form of law and order is running rampant. What is gaining force is not the proper kind of law and order where all people are considered equal before the law, but a false kind of law and order exercised discriminately according to inclinations of those in power. In such a situation, the public has only grown more cynical the more law and order has been emphasized.
On December 22, the Seoul Central District Court began its trial of a case that clearly shows how much contempt for the law the police, one of the principal players in maintaining law and order, now demonstrate. The case was filed by Lee Mi-na, a 23-year-old student in Seoul National University’s Korean music department who suffered multiple injuries during a candlelight vigil demonstration in June 2008, including having her head stomped on with military boots. Lee has sought damages, and despite the repeated orders of the presiding judge, the police are refusing to present information about any disciplinary measures being taken against the individual responsible. The judge has insisted that the information is critical in determining responsibility for the damages, yet the police have stubbornly refused to cooperate. Even when the frustrated judge visited the National Police Agency in August to investigate the documents firsthand, the police reportedly refused to comply and said it was impossible to know the documents’ whereabouts.
At this point, the police seem more like mobsters who protect their cronies by any means necessary rather than an institution responsible for enforcing the law.
Police authorities are not the only body in charge of maintaining law and order that is ignoring the law. In fact, it would be more appropriate to say that a trend of ignoring the law has drifted down to the police from above. Prosecutors have been ordered to submit trial records for the Yongsan tragedy, yet still refuse to present more than 3,000 pages of records.
[Yongsan was a collective action of residents to avoid the destruction of their building--in an area the Lee Adminstration wanted to have redeveloped. They ended up dead after heavy police SWAT team attacks on their building led to an out of control fire that burned many alive. This type of heavy state repression on current residents of real estate and the resident's collective action occurs widely in China.]
Moreover, the Lee administration has been applying arbitrary legal standards in its war of annihilation against forces critical against its policies, including public servant unions like the Korean Teachers and Education Workers‘ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) and the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU).
When legal standards have been called into question, all the talk about law and order amounts to nothing more than naught. Before going on about law and order, the administration needs to first look at how fairly it is applying the law. When law and order is pertains to the public and not the government and police authorities, it is simply a tool for a dictatorship parading as democracy.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/395242.html
2.
03-22-2010 18:30
Loss of Public Trust
Korea's Parliamentary Democracy in Deeper Crisis [Well, I would say that the current party rule is what is causing the crisis]
You could lose everything [and facilitate much more collective action mobilization and conscience mobilization to support social movements] if you lose the trust of others. No one can let this simple saying go in one ear and out the other.
In particular, politicians, policymakers, businesspeople and other noted figures should make concerted efforts to win people's trust. But in South Korea, many elected post holders seem to care less about this valuable virtue in their political life. Regrettably, one of the least trustworthy groups in our society is lawmakers and their political parties.
According to a recent survey commissioned by the Presidential Committee on Social Cohesion, only 3 percent of 2,012 adults said they trust the National Assembly, while 80.4 percent gave the opposite answer. The executive branch and the judiciary also received poor support, if not worse. Less than 20 percent of those polled said they trust the government and the courts, while about 40 percent said they cannot trust these institutions. What a shocking finding this is!
The survey undoubtedly sent a message that the nation has been thrown deeper into a crisis [by the current administration] of the democratic system. The loss of trust more or less negates the existence of the three pillars of a democracy ― the legislature, the administration and the judicature. How can the National Assembly find its raison d'etre for representative parliamentary democracy? The deep-rooted distrust in the Assembly apparently stems from rampant corruption and incompetence of its members. [The two main parties the GNP and DP both only have around 30% support in polls. That is why the social movement coordination of all the minority parties against them in the regional elections is so interesting to me as collective action.]
Legislators must realize how much the people are fed up with ceaseless cases of illegal political fund scandals, influence peddling, bribery, frequent violent conformations among members of rival parties in the Assembly halls and their dog-eat-dog partisan struggles. Voters have no other choice but to feel only frustration and anger at lawmakers who renege on their mandate to legislate laws as the representatives of the people. It is almost impossible to expect the members of the Assembly to bide by laws they have made.
In the eyes of voters, most legislators of both governing and opposition parties are seen as trying to stand above the law and reign over the people. During their electioneering period, candidates usually churn out empty promises only to clinch Assembly seats. Once elected, they take no time to turn their backs on voters and forget their campaign pledges. They often tell countless lies that they would work hard to protect the interests of the people and the nation. But they are all preoccupied with partisan struggles, while neglecting their legislative activities.
Against this backdrop, it is hard to see the democratic checks and balances functioning properly. Government officials are also mired in negligence, incompetence, bureaucracy and corruption. Judges are no different although they shout judicial reform. There will be no future for the nation unless revolutionary measures are taken immediately. A society without trust among its members is doomed to fall apart. It's time for creative destruction [I don't know what he means to say by 'creative destruction'--social movements?] to restore trust and rebuild democracy.
---
http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2010/03/137_62798.html
3.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Cutting out public space and time options for collective behavior by Lee Administration
3. The polity options in Korea for redressing grievances grows ever thinner. Additional to this is the banning of public squares in Seoul from being 'public' use (i.e., only government allows certain uses) instead of as a source for collective behavior crowds.
This was found unconstitutional to have such a law banning rallies at night (introduced under the dictatorship), so what does the current GNP dominated National Assembly do? They attempt to pass a stronger law against the ruling of SK's own Supreme Court!
------------------------
[Editorial] GNP bill is an unconstitutional infringement of freedom of assembly
The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) introduced a bill yesterday that would amend the Assembly and Demonstration Law to ban nighttime outdoor assemblies from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. This is a follow-up measure in response to the Constitutional Court decision in September ruling the law’s ban on nighttime outdoor assemblies unconstitutional and calling for the law’s revision, but it is questionable whether the bill accords with the intention of the court’s decision. [to put it mildly!]
More than anything, the GNP bill runs counter to Paragraph 2, Article 21 of the Constitution, which bans requiring permits for demonstrations.
[Political Opportunity for collective behavior:] In last year’s Constitutional Court decision, five justices handed down the majority opinion that the article bans not only permits based on the nature of the assembly, but also permits based on time and place of assembly. As they agreed that refusing to permit all outdoor assemblies after sunset runs directly counter to the Constitution, the bill proposed by the GNP to establish the times in which nighttime assemblies are banned also runs counter to the Constitution.
Fundamentally, because the Constitution bans the permit system for assemblies, it is improper to propose a law that establishes times in which protests are banned.
Moreover, the GNP bill is a regressive form of the current Assembly Law. Even the current law has room to allow nighttime protests as long as protesters maintain order, but the suggested bill would ban all demonstrations from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Arbitrary crackdowns by police would grow more serious. As it would result in comparatively greater restrictions of the freedom of assembly, a basic right of the people, the bill runs directly counter to the meaning of the Constitutional Court’s decision.
In this regard, it is not desirable to limit the discussion over the Assembly Law revision bill to discussing the set times to ban assemblies. Rather, it would be better to consider a diverse number of plans to broaden the right to assemble.
A plan must be formulated to harmonize public safety and order with the freedom to assemble, for example, by creating a semi-judicial and independent committee to decide assembly-related matters in order to block the police from overstepping their authority to virtually grant permits for assemblies.
The GNP must not insist on passing its own bill, but rather must work to faithfully attain a social agreement. As the Constitutional Court set June as the deadline to amend the Assembly Law, sufficient time remains to discuss a desirable alternative. If the GNP rushes to railroad the bill in February according to its own wishes, more controversy and protests regarding its constitutionality will occur as a result.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/405082.html
4.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. SMOs that opposed the pre-1987 SK dictatorship now getting back together in common 'target' of Lee Administration
3. Remember what Zald/Mayer argued: the organizational basis of collective action instead of the psychological view of it alone. Interesting that the same SMOs from different walks of life are now appealing to each other in what Zald/Mayer called the common 'target' for mobilization
-----------------------
[Editorial] Reviving the democracy movement
Eight groups associated with the democracy movement, including the Korea Democracy Foundation, gathered together yesterday in what was said to be their first such meeting.
Together, they made plans to declare 2010, the 50th anniversary of the April 19 Revolution and the 30th anniversary of the May 18 democracy movement, as the “year for carrying on the spirit of the democratization movement,” and to carry out various related efforts.
This plan to encourage people to remember that South Korea’s history of democratization has more than just ceremonial significance.
It demonstrates a refusal to allow history to be reduced to a stuffed specimen and a determination to carry on that spirit in a new day. Its significance can be viewed as even greater in times such as today, when denigration of the democratization movement is rampant.
Some conservatives disparage democratization as a political movement divorced from reality, but this is nothing more than a distortion of history. The movement for democracy has had the specific goal of creating a society where all people are treated as true human beings. The core of the democracy movement is in guaranteeing everyone the political, economic and social rights to express their will and determination. This is not mere superficial political sloganeering, but an issue that touches upon all aspects of our lives. In spite of this, certain conservatives are hard at work separating democratization from industrialization and casting aspersions on the history of democratization.
Democracy in South Korea is currently faced with a serious crisis. The government is unilaterally pushing its own agenda, with a total disregard for adhering to even a minimal level of procedure and principle. A clear demonstration of this can be seen in the results announced yesterday for a Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice poll on the first two years of the Lee Myung-bak administration. Sixty-seven percent of respondents gave a negative assessment, and the first problem they pointed to was “one-sided and self-righteous behavior.” Furthermore, the gap between the rich and poor is growing wider by the day, under a government that took office with claims that it would save the economy. The government treats even the concept of “economic democratization” as some type of outdated slogan.
The opposition parties also bear a large part of the responsibility for the situation reaching this point. They have been unable to rein in a government that presents a threat to democracy, nor have they presented any alternative measures closely connected with people’s lives in order to carry on and expand upon the original meaning of democratization. In this regard, neither progressive political forces nor reformist ones have had anything special to offer.
The government needs to humbly reflect upon why moves to revive the spirit of the democracy movement have been gaining force once again. Opposition parties, for their part, should feel the weight of their responsibility to revive hopes for and faith in democracy. The traditions of the democracy movement, where the people pursue direct action when politicians fail to live up to their expectations, are still alive and well.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/406200.html
5.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Lee Administration fires 18 government workers for taking part in collective action
3. The stakes for this form of union mobilization are very extreme in Lee's Korea, after just two years in power. States can provide incentives or costs for different kinds of collective action.
--------------------
18 government employees fired for KGEU launch ceremony
Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS) is banning all KGEU activities in an effort to prevent the union from functioning
» Members of the now-united Korean Government Employees Union (KGEU) hold their launching ceremony at Seoul National University, March 20. [interesting symbolic location, right?]
The Lee Myung-bak administration has decided to dispense heavy-handed punishments to the government employees who attended the launching ceremony of the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) and a rally of union leaders on March 20 and expel union leaders who actively participated from public office.
The KGEU said the launching ceremony is an event that has been held annually since 2003, and that the Lee administration is misusing its authority to hand out heavy punishments without asking questions in order to repress government employee unions critical of the government.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS) said Wednesday that KGEU, which had its foundation notification documents returned on two occasions by the Ministry of Labor, had violated the law by pushing though with a launching ceremony after issuing protests.
MOPAS said it has made the decision to fire 18 union leaders, including 13 headquarters heads including KGEU Vice Chairman Park Yi-jae (an employee at Masan City Hall) and Secretary General Ra Il-ha (an employee at Anyang City Hall).
It also plans to punish all government employees who attended the rally after confirming their identities.
Union Chairman Yang Seong-yun (an employee of Seoul’s Yangcheon-gu Office) was fired by Seoul City Hall in November of last year for violating the legal ban on civil servants engaging in collective actions by taking part in a rally to “condemn government repression of government employee unions” in July of the same year.
MOPAS regards the KGEU as an illegal group [despite meeting since 2003?] and is not allowing any activities to take place under that name.
Lee Song-ok, head of MOPAS’s Civil servant Association Policy Division, said MOPAS plans to block KGEU branches from establishing offices and said union offices currently using the KGEU name must take down their signs.
It also banned government employees from hanging banners or posters with the KGEU name, distributing so-called “propaganda materials” using the KGEU name, or holding picket demonstrations using the KGEU name.
If the union homepage is run under the KGEU name, it will be blocked at offices. If a government employee does violate one of these regulations, MOPAS has decided it will levy up to 5 million Won ($4,384) in fines in accordance with the Labor Union and Labor Relations Mediation Law. By banning all activities under the KGEU name, the ministry has virtually rendered the union unable to function.
In response, KGEU spokesman Yun Jin-won said the Lee Myung-bak government’s attempt to kill the government employees union has reached an extreme level.
Yun said a launching ceremony is a right of the union, and to regard this as illegal and severely punish participants is unjust.
In response to MOPAS’s decision to designate KGEU as illegal, Yun said KGEU is not illegal, but rather a union currently preparing to be founded. He said the union filed a suit on March 9 in an administrative court to overturn the Labor Ministry’s atypical decision to return KGEU’s foundation notification documents, and until the court issues a decision, the union is legal.
The notification system was created as part of a system to recognize that workers were forming unions as part of their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. No one is required to obtain permission from the government to exercise his or her Constitutional rights, and prior to the Lee administration, notifications of new unions have been accepted, as long as there have been no serious problems.
Meanwhile, the Labor Ministry, which twice returned the KGEU’s foundation notices in December of last year even though the notices are not supposed to undergo fierce scrutiny, returned its foundation notification documents a third time on Wednesday, saying KGEU could be disqualified because previously fired employees and duty managers are eligible to sign up and participate. [so categorically if government members were fired, they are seen by the current administration of actually being denied their collection action rights of organization and complaint for their whole life!]
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/412231.html
A NOTE TO ALL POSTERS: SOME OF YOU ARE DOING THIS CORRECTLY, SO IGNORE THIS NOTE. HOWEVER, THE REST OF YOU: PLEASE POST SOMETHING DEALING WITH COLLECTIVE ACTION. DISCUSSIONS OF ESTABLISHED STATE POLITICAL PARTIES, GEOPOLITICS, OR POLITICS IN GENERAL WILL NOT COUNT AS A COMPLETED ASSIGNMENT. THIS IS A SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND COLLECTIVE ACTION COURSE. FIND STORIES ABOUT THAT--HOW GROUPS THAT ARE OUTSIDE THE FRAMEWORKS OF CURRENT ARRANGEMENTS OF POWER ATTEMPT TO GET INVOLVED IN THE DEBATE ABOUT POWER, AND HOW CURRENT ARRANGEMENTS OF POWER INTERACT WITH THEM.
FROM THIS POINT ON, I WILL NOT GRANT POINTS TO POSTS THAT SIMPLY DISCUSS LEGISLATION, POLITICAL PARTIES, ELECTIONS, OR OTHER ESTABLISHED FORMS OF CONFLICT--UNLESS IT DISCUSSES SOME FORM OF COLLECTIVE ACTION OPPOSITION AS WELL.
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR ARE EMERGENT PHENOMENA: THEY SET THEIR OWN RULES, IN THE ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE NOVEL ARRANGEMENTS OF POWER.
Discussions of LEGISLATION, POLITICAL PARTIES, ELECTIONS, OR OTHER ESTABLISHED FORMS OF CONFLICT are fine if they include how social movements on the outside work with or against them.
As Oliver says, social movements have a required form of non-institutional crowd actions and collective behavior in public. Please concentrate on stories concerning this.
There are plenty of stories across East Asia and Europe to choose from. Collective action is a very common thing.
------------------
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Continuing Story of Repression of Collective Action in the Lee Administration
3. Last week, I posted many comments connected to Tilly's "polity model"--the idea that forms of social movements evolve in reflection and interaction with state actions of selective encouragement and repression of collective action. Thus social movements themselves are related to more than the desires of the social movement organizations or desires of social psychology of the actors involved.
This story shows that government is turning illegal itself, in attempt to use repression to stop collective action and defend its policy.
Of course repression, as we have seen, has a 'differential recruitment' effect: sometimes it works for some groups, sometimes it fails to work and only animates more collective action.
If anything, social movements and collective action have regrouped after the heavy repression of the 2008 opposition to President Lee's policies--already calling for his impeachment after only 100 days in office for him then.
Some things to watch in the news over the next few weeks, I suggest:
1. the collective action of multiple minority parties working together like SMO's getting together for a common mobilization in the regional elections against the river dredging. Previously these parties were highly counter-oppositional. Now they stand together. We shall see what happens by the June 2 regional elections.
2. the repression of the regional MBC administration heads. 14 of them are meeting collectively soon in Seoul to discuss potential collective action.
3. The Lee government's firing of the leaders of the now organized all governmental workers union--that the government currently refuses to consider legal. Of course social movements organize to redefine the basis of what is legal and illegal, what is moral and immoral.
4. the multi-religious collective actions against the river dredging of the Lee administration.
5. huge amount of union repression under the Lee administration everywhere it appears.
6. The scale of grievances in South Korea is perhaps at an all time high against President Lee's policies and actions--see his own government's poll below. And social organizations are finding novel ways to mobilize in the very repressive and state-media dominated framework that his party has imposed. Only 3% think his GNP dominated National Assembly is trustworthy--80.4% say they mistrust the National Assembly, and only 20% trust the court system to return just verdicts.
------------------------
Editorial] On Lee administration’s application of law and order
“Law and order” is one of the Lee Myung-bak administration’s most frequently emphasized expressions. In a report to President Lee yesterday, the Justice Ministry announced its intent of making 2010 a year of “establishing advanced law and order” and that it would be rooting out the source of all violent protests and politically-motivated illegal group activity. The president himself has said, “For all citizens, regardless of status, gender and age, law and order must become a part of daily life if we are to enhance the nation’s prestige and become an advanced state.”
No one would dispute the idea that we should create a peaceful society where all citizens observe the law. But in reality, a distorted form of law and order is running rampant. What is gaining force is not the proper kind of law and order where all people are considered equal before the law, but a false kind of law and order exercised discriminately according to inclinations of those in power. In such a situation, the public has only grown more cynical the more law and order has been emphasized.
On December 22, the Seoul Central District Court began its trial of a case that clearly shows how much contempt for the law the police, one of the principal players in maintaining law and order, now demonstrate. The case was filed by Lee Mi-na, a 23-year-old student in Seoul National University’s Korean music department who suffered multiple injuries during a candlelight vigil demonstration in June 2008, including having her head stomped on with military boots. Lee has sought damages, and despite the repeated orders of the presiding judge, the police are refusing to present information about any disciplinary measures being taken against the individual responsible. The judge has insisted that the information is critical in determining responsibility for the damages, yet the police have stubbornly refused to cooperate. Even when the frustrated judge visited the National Police Agency in August to investigate the documents firsthand, the police reportedly refused to comply and said it was impossible to know the documents’ whereabouts.
At this point, the police seem more like mobsters who protect their cronies by any means necessary rather than an institution responsible for enforcing the law.
Police authorities are not the only body in charge of maintaining law and order that is ignoring the law. In fact, it would be more appropriate to say that a trend of ignoring the law has drifted down to the police from above. Prosecutors have been ordered to submit trial records for the Yongsan tragedy, yet still refuse to present more than 3,000 pages of records.
[Yongsan was a collective action of residents to avoid the destruction of their building--in an area the Lee Adminstration wanted to have redeveloped. They ended up dead after heavy police SWAT team attacks on their building led to an out of control fire that burned many alive. This type of heavy state repression on current residents of real estate and the resident's collective action occurs widely in China.]
Moreover, the Lee administration has been applying arbitrary legal standards in its war of annihilation against forces critical against its policies, including public servant unions like the Korean Teachers and Education Workers‘ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) and the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU).
When legal standards have been called into question, all the talk about law and order amounts to nothing more than naught. Before going on about law and order, the administration needs to first look at how fairly it is applying the law. When law and order is pertains to the public and not the government and police authorities, it is simply a tool for a dictatorship parading as democracy.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/395242.html
2.
03-22-2010 18:30
Loss of Public Trust
Korea's Parliamentary Democracy in Deeper Crisis [Well, I would say that the current party rule is what is causing the crisis]
You could lose everything [and facilitate much more collective action mobilization and conscience mobilization to support social movements] if you lose the trust of others. No one can let this simple saying go in one ear and out the other.
In particular, politicians, policymakers, businesspeople and other noted figures should make concerted efforts to win people's trust. But in South Korea, many elected post holders seem to care less about this valuable virtue in their political life. Regrettably, one of the least trustworthy groups in our society is lawmakers and their political parties.
According to a recent survey commissioned by the Presidential Committee on Social Cohesion, only 3 percent of 2,012 adults said they trust the National Assembly, while 80.4 percent gave the opposite answer. The executive branch and the judiciary also received poor support, if not worse. Less than 20 percent of those polled said they trust the government and the courts, while about 40 percent said they cannot trust these institutions. What a shocking finding this is!
The survey undoubtedly sent a message that the nation has been thrown deeper into a crisis [by the current administration] of the democratic system. The loss of trust more or less negates the existence of the three pillars of a democracy ― the legislature, the administration and the judicature. How can the National Assembly find its raison d'etre for representative parliamentary democracy? The deep-rooted distrust in the Assembly apparently stems from rampant corruption and incompetence of its members. [The two main parties the GNP and DP both only have around 30% support in polls. That is why the social movement coordination of all the minority parties against them in the regional elections is so interesting to me as collective action.]
Legislators must realize how much the people are fed up with ceaseless cases of illegal political fund scandals, influence peddling, bribery, frequent violent conformations among members of rival parties in the Assembly halls and their dog-eat-dog partisan struggles. Voters have no other choice but to feel only frustration and anger at lawmakers who renege on their mandate to legislate laws as the representatives of the people. It is almost impossible to expect the members of the Assembly to bide by laws they have made.
In the eyes of voters, most legislators of both governing and opposition parties are seen as trying to stand above the law and reign over the people. During their electioneering period, candidates usually churn out empty promises only to clinch Assembly seats. Once elected, they take no time to turn their backs on voters and forget their campaign pledges. They often tell countless lies that they would work hard to protect the interests of the people and the nation. But they are all preoccupied with partisan struggles, while neglecting their legislative activities.
Against this backdrop, it is hard to see the democratic checks and balances functioning properly. Government officials are also mired in negligence, incompetence, bureaucracy and corruption. Judges are no different although they shout judicial reform. There will be no future for the nation unless revolutionary measures are taken immediately. A society without trust among its members is doomed to fall apart. It's time for creative destruction [I don't know what he means to say by 'creative destruction'--social movements?] to restore trust and rebuild democracy.
---
http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2010/03/137_62798.html
3.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Cutting out public space and time options for collective behavior by Lee Administration
3. The polity options in Korea for redressing grievances grows ever thinner. Additional to this is the banning of public squares in Seoul from being 'public' use (i.e., only government allows certain uses) instead of as a source for collective behavior crowds.
This was found unconstitutional to have such a law banning rallies at night (introduced under the dictatorship), so what does the current GNP dominated National Assembly do? They attempt to pass a stronger law against the ruling of SK's own Supreme Court!
------------------------
[Editorial] GNP bill is an unconstitutional infringement of freedom of assembly
The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) introduced a bill yesterday that would amend the Assembly and Demonstration Law to ban nighttime outdoor assemblies from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. This is a follow-up measure in response to the Constitutional Court decision in September ruling the law’s ban on nighttime outdoor assemblies unconstitutional and calling for the law’s revision, but it is questionable whether the bill accords with the intention of the court’s decision. [to put it mildly!]
More than anything, the GNP bill runs counter to Paragraph 2, Article 21 of the Constitution, which bans requiring permits for demonstrations.
[Political Opportunity for collective behavior:] In last year’s Constitutional Court decision, five justices handed down the majority opinion that the article bans not only permits based on the nature of the assembly, but also permits based on time and place of assembly. As they agreed that refusing to permit all outdoor assemblies after sunset runs directly counter to the Constitution, the bill proposed by the GNP to establish the times in which nighttime assemblies are banned also runs counter to the Constitution.
Fundamentally, because the Constitution bans the permit system for assemblies, it is improper to propose a law that establishes times in which protests are banned.
Moreover, the GNP bill is a regressive form of the current Assembly Law. Even the current law has room to allow nighttime protests as long as protesters maintain order, but the suggested bill would ban all demonstrations from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Arbitrary crackdowns by police would grow more serious. As it would result in comparatively greater restrictions of the freedom of assembly, a basic right of the people, the bill runs directly counter to the meaning of the Constitutional Court’s decision.
In this regard, it is not desirable to limit the discussion over the Assembly Law revision bill to discussing the set times to ban assemblies. Rather, it would be better to consider a diverse number of plans to broaden the right to assemble.
A plan must be formulated to harmonize public safety and order with the freedom to assemble, for example, by creating a semi-judicial and independent committee to decide assembly-related matters in order to block the police from overstepping their authority to virtually grant permits for assemblies.
The GNP must not insist on passing its own bill, but rather must work to faithfully attain a social agreement. As the Constitutional Court set June as the deadline to amend the Assembly Law, sufficient time remains to discuss a desirable alternative. If the GNP rushes to railroad the bill in February according to its own wishes, more controversy and protests regarding its constitutionality will occur as a result.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/405082.html
4.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. SMOs that opposed the pre-1987 SK dictatorship now getting back together in common 'target' of Lee Administration
3. Remember what Zald/Mayer argued: the organizational basis of collective action instead of the psychological view of it alone. Interesting that the same SMOs from different walks of life are now appealing to each other in what Zald/Mayer called the common 'target' for mobilization
-----------------------
[Editorial] Reviving the democracy movement
Eight groups associated with the democracy movement, including the Korea Democracy Foundation, gathered together yesterday in what was said to be their first such meeting.
Together, they made plans to declare 2010, the 50th anniversary of the April 19 Revolution and the 30th anniversary of the May 18 democracy movement, as the “year for carrying on the spirit of the democratization movement,” and to carry out various related efforts.
This plan to encourage people to remember that South Korea’s history of democratization has more than just ceremonial significance.
It demonstrates a refusal to allow history to be reduced to a stuffed specimen and a determination to carry on that spirit in a new day. Its significance can be viewed as even greater in times such as today, when denigration of the democratization movement is rampant.
Some conservatives disparage democratization as a political movement divorced from reality, but this is nothing more than a distortion of history. The movement for democracy has had the specific goal of creating a society where all people are treated as true human beings. The core of the democracy movement is in guaranteeing everyone the political, economic and social rights to express their will and determination. This is not mere superficial political sloganeering, but an issue that touches upon all aspects of our lives. In spite of this, certain conservatives are hard at work separating democratization from industrialization and casting aspersions on the history of democratization.
Democracy in South Korea is currently faced with a serious crisis. The government is unilaterally pushing its own agenda, with a total disregard for adhering to even a minimal level of procedure and principle. A clear demonstration of this can be seen in the results announced yesterday for a Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice poll on the first two years of the Lee Myung-bak administration. Sixty-seven percent of respondents gave a negative assessment, and the first problem they pointed to was “one-sided and self-righteous behavior.” Furthermore, the gap between the rich and poor is growing wider by the day, under a government that took office with claims that it would save the economy. The government treats even the concept of “economic democratization” as some type of outdated slogan.
The opposition parties also bear a large part of the responsibility for the situation reaching this point. They have been unable to rein in a government that presents a threat to democracy, nor have they presented any alternative measures closely connected with people’s lives in order to carry on and expand upon the original meaning of democratization. In this regard, neither progressive political forces nor reformist ones have had anything special to offer.
The government needs to humbly reflect upon why moves to revive the spirit of the democracy movement have been gaining force once again. Opposition parties, for their part, should feel the weight of their responsibility to revive hopes for and faith in democracy. The traditions of the democracy movement, where the people pursue direct action when politicians fail to live up to their expectations, are still alive and well.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/406200.html
5.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Lee Administration fires 18 government workers for taking part in collective action
3. The stakes for this form of union mobilization are very extreme in Lee's Korea, after just two years in power. States can provide incentives or costs for different kinds of collective action.
--------------------
18 government employees fired for KGEU launch ceremony
Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS) is banning all KGEU activities in an effort to prevent the union from functioning
» Members of the now-united Korean Government Employees Union (KGEU) hold their launching ceremony at Seoul National University, March 20. [interesting symbolic location, right?]
The Lee Myung-bak administration has decided to dispense heavy-handed punishments to the government employees who attended the launching ceremony of the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) and a rally of union leaders on March 20 and expel union leaders who actively participated from public office.
The KGEU said the launching ceremony is an event that has been held annually since 2003, and that the Lee administration is misusing its authority to hand out heavy punishments without asking questions in order to repress government employee unions critical of the government.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS) said Wednesday that KGEU, which had its foundation notification documents returned on two occasions by the Ministry of Labor, had violated the law by pushing though with a launching ceremony after issuing protests.
MOPAS said it has made the decision to fire 18 union leaders, including 13 headquarters heads including KGEU Vice Chairman Park Yi-jae (an employee at Masan City Hall) and Secretary General Ra Il-ha (an employee at Anyang City Hall).
It also plans to punish all government employees who attended the rally after confirming their identities.
Union Chairman Yang Seong-yun (an employee of Seoul’s Yangcheon-gu Office) was fired by Seoul City Hall in November of last year for violating the legal ban on civil servants engaging in collective actions by taking part in a rally to “condemn government repression of government employee unions” in July of the same year.
MOPAS regards the KGEU as an illegal group [despite meeting since 2003?] and is not allowing any activities to take place under that name.
Lee Song-ok, head of MOPAS’s Civil servant Association Policy Division, said MOPAS plans to block KGEU branches from establishing offices and said union offices currently using the KGEU name must take down their signs.
It also banned government employees from hanging banners or posters with the KGEU name, distributing so-called “propaganda materials” using the KGEU name, or holding picket demonstrations using the KGEU name.
If the union homepage is run under the KGEU name, it will be blocked at offices. If a government employee does violate one of these regulations, MOPAS has decided it will levy up to 5 million Won ($4,384) in fines in accordance with the Labor Union and Labor Relations Mediation Law. By banning all activities under the KGEU name, the ministry has virtually rendered the union unable to function.
In response, KGEU spokesman Yun Jin-won said the Lee Myung-bak government’s attempt to kill the government employees union has reached an extreme level.
Yun said a launching ceremony is a right of the union, and to regard this as illegal and severely punish participants is unjust.
In response to MOPAS’s decision to designate KGEU as illegal, Yun said KGEU is not illegal, but rather a union currently preparing to be founded. He said the union filed a suit on March 9 in an administrative court to overturn the Labor Ministry’s atypical decision to return KGEU’s foundation notification documents, and until the court issues a decision, the union is legal.
The notification system was created as part of a system to recognize that workers were forming unions as part of their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. No one is required to obtain permission from the government to exercise his or her Constitutional rights, and prior to the Lee administration, notifications of new unions have been accepted, as long as there have been no serious problems.
Meanwhile, the Labor Ministry, which twice returned the KGEU’s foundation notices in December of last year even though the notices are not supposed to undergo fierce scrutiny, returned its foundation notification documents a third time on Wednesday, saying KGEU could be disqualified because previously fired employees and duty managers are eligible to sign up and participate. [so categorically if government members were fired, they are seen by the current administration of actually being denied their collection action rights of organization and complaint for their whole life!]
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/412231.html
Monday, March 15, 2010
Week 3: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week Post
Post by Sunday at midnight.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Three Different versions of 'why people mobilize and ally with each other: Weberian, Marxist, or social movements theory from the 1970s to the present; The Thai example of states and social movements is hardly that simple; Avoid making a theoretical assumption without evidence, look at the country first, and THEN theorize.
3. In a post about the Thai social movement in the past week, I remembered someone posting something about their Marxist assumption of mobilization (merely rich versus poor). Actually, social movements typical DO NOT happen among the poor so readily as based on class issues, as described in the Gaventa book excerpt. We will discuss mobilization issues in the next few sessions and different EMPIRICAL issues about mobilization that call into question such simple presumptions of class conflict as the basis of mobilization, collective action, and grievances.
In the Thai example, it's hardly class warfare. It's different factions of the elite versus each other, each having their own association of grassroots 'lower class' SMOs in their following. A more complicated picture of Thailand emerges from this Thai journalist (in this 2008 article below). It helps explain some of the background of the context of the 'red shirts' mobilization you see now there.
If you want a short summary about ANY country, I recommend this website:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html
After you view the summary for Thailand, you could look into the different polity model implications for social movements anywhere.
For instance, that report reads of two ongoing social movements: between one party against the state, and another social movement in this country of the Muslim separatists denied equal rights in Thailand's political culture. None of these are clearly class based mobilizations in the Marxist sense.
-------------------------
09-03-2008 15:42
여성 음성 듣기 남성 음성 듣기
Continuing Crisis in Thailand
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Asia Sentinel
For the past two or more years [now three or four years...], especially since the September 2006 coup, Thai society has been hypnotized into forgetting about the real social and political issues. Instead, the whole of society, and most tragically the social movements, have been entranced by a fight between two factions of the Thai ruling class.
On the one side is deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, his disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party, and its successor, the Peoples Power Party and the government.
Opposing them are [the current state regime:] a loose collection of authoritarian royalists comprising the People's Alliance for Democracy, the pro-coup royalist military, the pro-coup judiciary and the Democrat Party.
The [state regime] authoritarian royalists are not a unified body. They only share a collective interest in wiping out Thaksin's party.
The two sides mirror each other. Both are firmly in the camp of the Thai capitalist elite. They are both nationalistic and are prepared to abuse human rights.
While the (ex-)Thaksin government and Samak's Peoples Power government support extra-judicial killings and a hard-line murderous position on the Muslim insurrection in the south, the opposing side [is the same; it] cares little about such killings and counts the former Thai commando and assassin who took part in several coups and is called the butcher of Krue Sae Mosque, where Muslims were massacred, among its leadership.
[In other words the Muslim group is demoted and in the position of the 'second face of power' of both main political groups that are highly opposed to them equally instead of divided on the issue; thus the Malay-Muslim ethnic group waits for social movements openings without much political opportunities for their grievances, and since 2004 have started an insurgency, resorting to violence against whatever faction has been in power, since both reject them in a 'double repressive' context where split elites fail to actually ally with these grievances at all. It reminds me of the U.S. "two party system" that failed to integrate Black American interests or grievances at all from the 1870s through the 1950s.]
Both factions are associated with people who have a record of corruption. It is common knowledge that all Thai politicians are engaged in corrupt practices. The military have a long record of corruption and the 2006 junta were no exception. After the illegal coup in 2006, they appointed themselves to boards of state enterprises and forced through increased military spending. [echoes of Myanmar/Burma mentioned in the Schock reading I discussed on Monday.]
Yet the [mobilization of bias in the] courts have clearly been used to single out [only] Thaksin's faction on corruption and ``abuse of power" charges. While Thaksin was still in power, the courts bent to his wishes. There is no justice in Thailand.
The judiciary is not accountable to the electorate and always support the rich and powerful. In labor courts they always rule against trade unions [social movement mobilization]. No jury system exists in Thailand.
The [culture and collective identity] differences between the two factions are there too. While the Thaksin faction are committed to their strategy of winning power by elections, parliamentary democracy [mass mobilizations] and money politics, the PAD and their friends are in favor of military coups, reducing the number of elected parliamentarians and senators and increasing the power of non-elected bureaucrats and the army.
The justification for this is the belief that the poor majority in the country is too stupid to be given the vote.
The PAD faction is also composed of fanatical royalists. They want a new coup and were happy to whip up hatred of Cambodia and risk a war over an ancient Khmer temple. The PAD strategy, as outlined by Pipop Thongchai, a core leader of the party, is to create enough political chaos that institutions and parties are destroyed and a ``new order" arises from the ashes. Needless to say, this new order will not be democratic nor committed to social justice and equality.
In terms of economic policy, the Thaksin faction tries to use a dual-track strategy of mixing neo-liberalism with grassroots Keynesianism. They believe that the poor must not be left out and have a record of real pro-poor policies, such as the health care scheme. However, they are not remotely socialist and are against taxing the rich and building a welfare state.
The PAD/Democrats/royalists are hard-line monetarists. They propose interest rate hikes to cut down spending on the poor and to squeeze wages. The king is one of the richest monarchs in the world and he supports this economic policy and has also advocated the ``sufficiency economy" where everyone needs to curb their spending according to their means. Income redistribution is ruled out. That is why the poor have consistently voted for the Thaksin faction [even though it has little redistribution goals or progressive taxation goals, either].
The major reason why democracy and social justice have fallen off the political agenda into the stinking canals of Bangkok is the total disarray of the social movements, NGO networks and trade unions. After the collapse of the Communist Party in the mid-1980s, the new slogan of the Peoples Movements was ``the answer is in the villages."
This was an [depoliticized non-socical movements] NGO strategy to turn to rural development along single-issue lines. The slogan reflected a respect for villagers which contrasted greatly with the attitude of the government. Now the slogan of those People's Movement networks supporting the PAD has changed to ``the villagers are stupid and don't deserve the vote!" and ``the answer is with the military, courts and the king."
Sections of the NGO-Coordinating Committee, some Thai staff in Focus on Global South, Friends of the People and some farmer groups have lined up to support the PAD and the demand to decrease democracy. The Railway Workers Union and the Thai Airways union have also shown support. [so here, some workers and unions support the monarchist, anti-worker, anti-socialist faction]
The Thai Airways union has ignored military corruption in the airline and in the Airports Authority. Both unions have turned their backs on serious attacks on trade unions in the private sector and are only prepared to take action when people in high places give them the green light.
Other activists who cannot stand the PAD have allowed themselves to be pulled into supporting the government. This is just as bad as those supporting the PAD. Some even cheered when the police tried to break up PAD protests.
The lack of independent class politics in the Thai Peoples' Movement is a result of years of rejecting overall ``politics" and ``political organization." It is a result of the anarchistic ideas that were popular after the collapse of the Communist Party, a reaction to the party's Stalinist authoritarianism.
The problem is also a result of the [social movement organizational strategies of] ``lobby politics" of NGOs. Neither strategy leads to building an independent position for the trade unions and social movements. They reject ``representative democracy" but have no concrete democratic proposals to put in its place.
Even today, at this late hour, we can still build political independence. We must campaign for more democracy and more control of institutions from below. We must advocate a root and branch reform of the justice system, a reduction in the role of the military and the building of a welfare state through cuts in the military budget and progressive taxation of the rich.
Yet there are still those who say we must take sides in the current elite dispute and leave such reforms until later. The problem with that is that the dispute will not be quickly settled and if it is settled on the terms of one or other elite group it will result in a smaller democratic space and less bargaining power for social movements.
This article is distributed by Asia Sentinel (www.asiasentinel.com).
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2008/12/160_30474.html
So, how do you explain mobilization here? Is it Marxist, Weberian, 1970s political process model (Schock's additions), or is it just Thai? ^^
2.
Another example:
10-09-2008 16:44 여성 음성 듣기 남성 음성 듣기
Chaos in Thailand
By Giles Ji Unphakorn
Asia Sentinel
Since late in the evening of October 6, the ultra right-wing mob that calls itself the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has laid plans to lay siege to the Thai parliament. They came prepared with iron bars and crash helmets.
Their plan, as always, was to create chaos in the hope that the military would stage a coup or that the ruling party would once again be dissolved by the courts. [they are not interested in seizing power, they are interested in making the government unable to rule, and for a demotion of their whole movement toward military dictatorship.]
Their claim is that the present government led by the Peoples Power Party or PPP ― ex-Premier Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai in another name ― is illegitimate.
The PPP and the previous Thai Rak Thai have consistently won large majorities in elections, proving that they are popular with the poor, who make up the majority of the population.
This support from the poor is not surprising, since the party was the first elite party in 30 years to offer a universal health care scheme and public funds to develop the rural economy.
The PAD's claim that the government is somehow ``illegitimate" is based on the belief that the poor do not deserve the right to vote because they are too stupid. This belief is shared by the opposition Democrat Party, which supported the 2006 military coup and is now supporting the actions of the PAD by boycotting parliament.
Previously the Democrats boycotted the 2006 elections because they knew that the poor would not vote for their monetarist and neo-liberal policies. The Democrats when in office set police dogs on peaceful protestors from the Assembly of the poor.
That protest was nothing like the PAD riots of the past few weeks. The Democrats also used public funds to bail out the banks in the 1997 crisis. The poor were told to fend for themselves.
The PAD is calling for the defense of the military constitution of 2007, which has already restricted the electorate's right to vote for the Senate. They want to bring about a Suharto-style ``New Order," in which only half of the parliament will be elected and the Prime Minister need not be an elected MP.
On the morning of October 7, the police cleared one side of parliament using tear gas. This was to allow MPs to enter the building. The police made it clear that the PAD would continue to be allowed to protest outside the other entrance to parliament.
However, the PAD responded by attacking the police with sharpened flagpoles, homemade guns and their own tear gas grenades. In any other parliamentary democracy, the PAD leaders and their rioting supporters would have been arrested.
They have been illegally occupying Government House for over a month. Yet the [anti-Thaskin/current government, pro-coup] police [fail to support the elected government and] have been told to ``lay off the [anti-government] protestors" by people in high places [to let their mobilization expand and endure without repression.].
Every public institution and organization in Thailand is now compromised by this inter-elite conflict and the losers, as usual, are the poor: workers and small farmers. The monarchy has failed to defuse the situation.
The queen has openly sided with the PAD mob. The courts are practicing double standards, attacking Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai/People's Power Party corruption while ignoring illegal coups, mob violence and corruption by opposition politicians and the military.
The military as always is on the side of the conservative royalists. The police are unable to act and the government lurches from crisis to crisis. The majority of academia is hopelessly compromised by its support for the coup and their support for decreasing the democratic space.
Democratic principles have been thrown out the window by professors who teach ``democratization" and the need for ``the rule of law."
Even the People's Movement has shown itself not to be up to the job. Instead of building an independent political position at the side of the poor and oppressed, sections of the NGO movement supported the coup, the military constitution and the PAD.
Rosana Tositrakul, the so-called NGO senator, elected from Bangkok, has joined ultranationalist fanaticism, especially over the ancient Khmer temple on the border with Cambodia that was almost conflated into a border skirmish.
These people must bear responsibility for the recent injuries of both Thai and Cambodian troops in a needless border dispute. Rosana also disrupted parliament, working with military-appointed senators. She believes that the poor are too stupid to be allowed to vote.
Yet all these people bang on about the need for ``good governance" and ``accountability." Who are they themselves accountable to?
The Thai economy is facing the full force of the global economic meltdown. It needs measures to protect the poor, income redistribution and a welfare state and peace for the three southern provinces.
Thaksin and his top military men should have been clapped into prison long ago over human rights abuses in the south and the so-called war on drugs, in which hundreds of people, many of them innocent, were killed.
Yet this is never mentioned and Thaksin and his wife are seeking asylum in Britain while poor people from all over the world are sent home to die by the British government.
We need to reform society to bring about progressive changes. This means expanding democracy, not allowing Thailand to slide back into the dark ages of dictatorship.
But the task will only take place by forces in the Peoples' Movement ― the left, the NGO networks, social movements and trade unions coming together to outline our own reform strategy.
We cannot rely on the corrupt human-rights abusers in the government, nor the fascists of the PAD and their allies to achieve these aims.
This article is distributed by Asia Sentinel (www.asiasentinel.com).
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/12/160_32408.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Three Different versions of 'why people mobilize and ally with each other: Weberian, Marxist, or social movements theory from the 1970s to the present; The Thai example of states and social movements is hardly that simple; Avoid making a theoretical assumption without evidence, look at the country first, and THEN theorize.
3. In a post about the Thai social movement in the past week, I remembered someone posting something about their Marxist assumption of mobilization (merely rich versus poor). Actually, social movements typical DO NOT happen among the poor so readily as based on class issues, as described in the Gaventa book excerpt. We will discuss mobilization issues in the next few sessions and different EMPIRICAL issues about mobilization that call into question such simple presumptions of class conflict as the basis of mobilization, collective action, and grievances.
In the Thai example, it's hardly class warfare. It's different factions of the elite versus each other, each having their own association of grassroots 'lower class' SMOs in their following. A more complicated picture of Thailand emerges from this Thai journalist (in this 2008 article below). It helps explain some of the background of the context of the 'red shirts' mobilization you see now there.
If you want a short summary about ANY country, I recommend this website:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html
After you view the summary for Thailand, you could look into the different polity model implications for social movements anywhere.
For instance, that report reads of two ongoing social movements: between one party against the state, and another social movement in this country of the Muslim separatists denied equal rights in Thailand's political culture. None of these are clearly class based mobilizations in the Marxist sense.
"A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US treaty ally following the conflict. A military coup in September 2006 ousted then Prime Minister THAKSIN Chinnawat. The interim government held elections in December 2007 that saw the former pro-THAKSIN People's Power Party (PPP) emerge at the head of a coalition government. [Originally, the other side, now the ruling side, took to the streets first to protest AGAINST the people's power movement:] The anti-THAKSIN People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in May 2008 began street demonstrations against the new government, eventually occupying the prime minister's office in August. Clashes in October 2008 between PAD protesters blocking parliament and police resulted in the death of at least two people. The PAD occupied Bangkok's two international airports briefly [i.e., a novel social movements strategy aimed at getting international attention and immediately state response], ending their protests in early December 2008 following a court ruling that dissolved the ruling PPP [i.e., the court sided with the social movement occupying the airports!] and two other coalition parties for election violations. The Democrat Party then formed a new coalition government with the support of some of THAKSIN's former political allies, and ABHISIT Wetchachiwa became prime minister. Since January 2004 [long before the coup], thousands have been killed as [social movement nationalist/ethnic] separatists in Thailand's southern ethnic Malay-Muslim provinces increased the violence associated with their cause."
-------------------------
09-03-2008 15:42
여성 음성 듣기 남성 음성 듣기
Continuing Crisis in Thailand
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Asia Sentinel
For the past two or more years [now three or four years...], especially since the September 2006 coup, Thai society has been hypnotized into forgetting about the real social and political issues. Instead, the whole of society, and most tragically the social movements, have been entranced by a fight between two factions of the Thai ruling class.
On the one side is deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, his disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party, and its successor, the Peoples Power Party and the government.
Opposing them are [the current state regime:] a loose collection of authoritarian royalists comprising the People's Alliance for Democracy, the pro-coup royalist military, the pro-coup judiciary and the Democrat Party.
The [state regime] authoritarian royalists are not a unified body. They only share a collective interest in wiping out Thaksin's party.
The two sides mirror each other. Both are firmly in the camp of the Thai capitalist elite. They are both nationalistic and are prepared to abuse human rights.
While the (ex-)Thaksin government and Samak's Peoples Power government support extra-judicial killings and a hard-line murderous position on the Muslim insurrection in the south, the opposing side [is the same; it] cares little about such killings and counts the former Thai commando and assassin who took part in several coups and is called the butcher of Krue Sae Mosque, where Muslims were massacred, among its leadership.
[In other words the Muslim group is demoted and in the position of the 'second face of power' of both main political groups that are highly opposed to them equally instead of divided on the issue; thus the Malay-Muslim ethnic group waits for social movements openings without much political opportunities for their grievances, and since 2004 have started an insurgency, resorting to violence against whatever faction has been in power, since both reject them in a 'double repressive' context where split elites fail to actually ally with these grievances at all. It reminds me of the U.S. "two party system" that failed to integrate Black American interests or grievances at all from the 1870s through the 1950s.]
Both factions are associated with people who have a record of corruption. It is common knowledge that all Thai politicians are engaged in corrupt practices. The military have a long record of corruption and the 2006 junta were no exception. After the illegal coup in 2006, they appointed themselves to boards of state enterprises and forced through increased military spending. [echoes of Myanmar/Burma mentioned in the Schock reading I discussed on Monday.]
Yet the [mobilization of bias in the] courts have clearly been used to single out [only] Thaksin's faction on corruption and ``abuse of power" charges. While Thaksin was still in power, the courts bent to his wishes. There is no justice in Thailand.
The judiciary is not accountable to the electorate and always support the rich and powerful. In labor courts they always rule against trade unions [social movement mobilization]. No jury system exists in Thailand.
The [culture and collective identity] differences between the two factions are there too. While the Thaksin faction are committed to their strategy of winning power by elections, parliamentary democracy [mass mobilizations] and money politics, the PAD and their friends are in favor of military coups, reducing the number of elected parliamentarians and senators and increasing the power of non-elected bureaucrats and the army.
The justification for this is the belief that the poor majority in the country is too stupid to be given the vote.
The PAD faction is also composed of fanatical royalists. They want a new coup and were happy to whip up hatred of Cambodia and risk a war over an ancient Khmer temple. The PAD strategy, as outlined by Pipop Thongchai, a core leader of the party, is to create enough political chaos that institutions and parties are destroyed and a ``new order" arises from the ashes. Needless to say, this new order will not be democratic nor committed to social justice and equality.
In terms of economic policy, the Thaksin faction tries to use a dual-track strategy of mixing neo-liberalism with grassroots Keynesianism. They believe that the poor must not be left out and have a record of real pro-poor policies, such as the health care scheme. However, they are not remotely socialist and are against taxing the rich and building a welfare state.
The PAD/Democrats/royalists are hard-line monetarists. They propose interest rate hikes to cut down spending on the poor and to squeeze wages. The king is one of the richest monarchs in the world and he supports this economic policy and has also advocated the ``sufficiency economy" where everyone needs to curb their spending according to their means. Income redistribution is ruled out. That is why the poor have consistently voted for the Thaksin faction [even though it has little redistribution goals or progressive taxation goals, either].
The major reason why democracy and social justice have fallen off the political agenda into the stinking canals of Bangkok is the total disarray of the social movements, NGO networks and trade unions. After the collapse of the Communist Party in the mid-1980s, the new slogan of the Peoples Movements was ``the answer is in the villages."
This was an [depoliticized non-socical movements] NGO strategy to turn to rural development along single-issue lines. The slogan reflected a respect for villagers which contrasted greatly with the attitude of the government. Now the slogan of those People's Movement networks supporting the PAD has changed to ``the villagers are stupid and don't deserve the vote!" and ``the answer is with the military, courts and the king."
Sections of the NGO-Coordinating Committee, some Thai staff in Focus on Global South, Friends of the People and some farmer groups have lined up to support the PAD and the demand to decrease democracy. The Railway Workers Union and the Thai Airways union have also shown support. [so here, some workers and unions support the monarchist, anti-worker, anti-socialist faction]
The Thai Airways union has ignored military corruption in the airline and in the Airports Authority. Both unions have turned their backs on serious attacks on trade unions in the private sector and are only prepared to take action when people in high places give them the green light.
Other activists who cannot stand the PAD have allowed themselves to be pulled into supporting the government. This is just as bad as those supporting the PAD. Some even cheered when the police tried to break up PAD protests.
The lack of independent class politics in the Thai Peoples' Movement is a result of years of rejecting overall ``politics" and ``political organization." It is a result of the anarchistic ideas that were popular after the collapse of the Communist Party, a reaction to the party's Stalinist authoritarianism.
The problem is also a result of the [social movement organizational strategies of] ``lobby politics" of NGOs. Neither strategy leads to building an independent position for the trade unions and social movements. They reject ``representative democracy" but have no concrete democratic proposals to put in its place.
Even today, at this late hour, we can still build political independence. We must campaign for more democracy and more control of institutions from below. We must advocate a root and branch reform of the justice system, a reduction in the role of the military and the building of a welfare state through cuts in the military budget and progressive taxation of the rich.
Yet there are still those who say we must take sides in the current elite dispute and leave such reforms until later. The problem with that is that the dispute will not be quickly settled and if it is settled on the terms of one or other elite group it will result in a smaller democratic space and less bargaining power for social movements.
This article is distributed by Asia Sentinel (www.asiasentinel.com).
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2008/12/160_30474.html
So, how do you explain mobilization here? Is it Marxist, Weberian, 1970s political process model (Schock's additions), or is it just Thai? ^^
2.
Another example:
10-09-2008 16:44 여성 음성 듣기 남성 음성 듣기
Chaos in Thailand
By Giles Ji Unphakorn
Asia Sentinel
Since late in the evening of October 6, the ultra right-wing mob that calls itself the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has laid plans to lay siege to the Thai parliament. They came prepared with iron bars and crash helmets.
Their plan, as always, was to create chaos in the hope that the military would stage a coup or that the ruling party would once again be dissolved by the courts. [they are not interested in seizing power, they are interested in making the government unable to rule, and for a demotion of their whole movement toward military dictatorship.]
Their claim is that the present government led by the Peoples Power Party or PPP ― ex-Premier Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai in another name ― is illegitimate.
The PPP and the previous Thai Rak Thai have consistently won large majorities in elections, proving that they are popular with the poor, who make up the majority of the population.
This support from the poor is not surprising, since the party was the first elite party in 30 years to offer a universal health care scheme and public funds to develop the rural economy.
The PAD's claim that the government is somehow ``illegitimate" is based on the belief that the poor do not deserve the right to vote because they are too stupid. This belief is shared by the opposition Democrat Party, which supported the 2006 military coup and is now supporting the actions of the PAD by boycotting parliament.
Previously the Democrats boycotted the 2006 elections because they knew that the poor would not vote for their monetarist and neo-liberal policies. The Democrats when in office set police dogs on peaceful protestors from the Assembly of the poor.
That protest was nothing like the PAD riots of the past few weeks. The Democrats also used public funds to bail out the banks in the 1997 crisis. The poor were told to fend for themselves.
The PAD is calling for the defense of the military constitution of 2007, which has already restricted the electorate's right to vote for the Senate. They want to bring about a Suharto-style ``New Order," in which only half of the parliament will be elected and the Prime Minister need not be an elected MP.
On the morning of October 7, the police cleared one side of parliament using tear gas. This was to allow MPs to enter the building. The police made it clear that the PAD would continue to be allowed to protest outside the other entrance to parliament.
However, the PAD responded by attacking the police with sharpened flagpoles, homemade guns and their own tear gas grenades. In any other parliamentary democracy, the PAD leaders and their rioting supporters would have been arrested.
They have been illegally occupying Government House for over a month. Yet the [anti-Thaskin/current government, pro-coup] police [fail to support the elected government and] have been told to ``lay off the [anti-government] protestors" by people in high places [to let their mobilization expand and endure without repression.].
Every public institution and organization in Thailand is now compromised by this inter-elite conflict and the losers, as usual, are the poor: workers and small farmers. The monarchy has failed to defuse the situation.
The queen has openly sided with the PAD mob. The courts are practicing double standards, attacking Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai/People's Power Party corruption while ignoring illegal coups, mob violence and corruption by opposition politicians and the military.
The military as always is on the side of the conservative royalists. The police are unable to act and the government lurches from crisis to crisis. The majority of academia is hopelessly compromised by its support for the coup and their support for decreasing the democratic space.
Democratic principles have been thrown out the window by professors who teach ``democratization" and the need for ``the rule of law."
Even the People's Movement has shown itself not to be up to the job. Instead of building an independent political position at the side of the poor and oppressed, sections of the NGO movement supported the coup, the military constitution and the PAD.
Rosana Tositrakul, the so-called NGO senator, elected from Bangkok, has joined ultranationalist fanaticism, especially over the ancient Khmer temple on the border with Cambodia that was almost conflated into a border skirmish.
These people must bear responsibility for the recent injuries of both Thai and Cambodian troops in a needless border dispute. Rosana also disrupted parliament, working with military-appointed senators. She believes that the poor are too stupid to be allowed to vote.
Yet all these people bang on about the need for ``good governance" and ``accountability." Who are they themselves accountable to?
The Thai economy is facing the full force of the global economic meltdown. It needs measures to protect the poor, income redistribution and a welfare state and peace for the three southern provinces.
Thaksin and his top military men should have been clapped into prison long ago over human rights abuses in the south and the so-called war on drugs, in which hundreds of people, many of them innocent, were killed.
Yet this is never mentioned and Thaksin and his wife are seeking asylum in Britain while poor people from all over the world are sent home to die by the British government.
We need to reform society to bring about progressive changes. This means expanding democracy, not allowing Thailand to slide back into the dark ages of dictatorship.
But the task will only take place by forces in the Peoples' Movement ― the left, the NGO networks, social movements and trade unions coming together to outline our own reform strategy.
We cannot rely on the corrupt human-rights abusers in the government, nor the fascists of the PAD and their allies to achieve these aims.
This article is distributed by Asia Sentinel (www.asiasentinel.com).
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/12/160_32408.html
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Week 2: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week Post
Post by Sunday at midnight.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Week 1: Opening Thread: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week
Post Comments like this:
1. Your Name
2. A Title
3. A short personal commentary what you learned from it or what made you curious about it given the week's class content. However, it doesn't have to be about the week's content, only something related to human-environmental interactions.
4. Then put a long line ('-------------------)'.
5. Then cut/paste A SMALL PART of the article or topic you found. (This is because blogger.com now has a limit of "4096 characters" in blog comments. However, that should be enough to concentrate on your own comments, and provide an excerpt and a link to the original article. If you do want more space, and I encourage it, post a second time to get another "4096 characters".)
6. Then a small line '---'.
7. Then, finally, paste the URL (link) of the post.
Post for the first week on this thread. I'll set up a new main post each week, and then we will do the same.
1. Your Name
2. A Title
3. A short personal commentary what you learned from it or what made you curious about it given the week's class content. However, it doesn't have to be about the week's content, only something related to human-environmental interactions.
4. Then put a long line ('-------------------)'.
5. Then cut/paste A SMALL PART of the article or topic you found. (This is because blogger.com now has a limit of "4096 characters" in blog comments. However, that should be enough to concentrate on your own comments, and provide an excerpt and a link to the original article. If you do want more space, and I encourage it, post a second time to get another "4096 characters".)
6. Then a small line '---'.
7. Then, finally, paste the URL (link) of the post.
Post for the first week on this thread. I'll set up a new main post each week, and then we will do the same.
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