Politicians and Textbooks

Both Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea are pushing to have high school history textbooks in their countries rewritten to reflect their political views.

Mr. Abe has instructed the Education Ministry to approve only textbooks that promote patriotism. He is primarily concerned about the World War II era, and wants to shift the focus away from disgraceful chapters in that history. For example, he wants the Korean “comfort women” issue taken out of textbooks, and he wants to downplay the mass killings committed by Japanese troops in Nanking. His critics say he is trying to foster dangerous nationalism by sanitizing Japan’s wartime aggression.

Ms. Park is concerned about the portrayal of Japanese colonialism and the postcolonial South Korean dictatorships in history books. She wants to downplay Korean collaboration with the Japanese colonial authorities and last summer pushed the South Korean Education Ministry to approve a new textbook that says those who worked with the Japanese did so under coercion. (A majority of professionals and elite civil servants today come from families that worked with the Japanese colonizers.) Academics, trade unions and teachers have accused Ms. Park of distorting history.

Mr. Abe and Ms. Park both have personal family histories that make them sensitive to the war and collaboration. After Japan’s defeat in the war, the Allied powers arrested Mr. Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, as a suspected class A war criminal. Ms. Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, was an Imperial Japanese Army officer during the colonial era and South Korea’s military dictator from 1962 to 1979. In both countries, these dangerous efforts to revise textbooks threaten to thwart the lessons of history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/opinion/politicians-and-textbooks.html?_r=0

Angry Workers Swarm Seoul's Streets, Demand President Resign

South Korea may best be known for slick electronics and saccharine pop tunes, but less of that stereotypical effervescence was present in Seoul in December. Instead, the streets were filled with throngs of angry union workers, facing down riot police in a show of defiance against a government plan that they say would lead to layoffs and privatization.

On December 28, workers staged a one-day general strike that capped about three weeks of intense smaller protests involving thousands of workers and activists and causing sharp service reductions. The establishment of a parliamentary committee to resolve the railway dispute has paused the demonstrations for now. But unions, who see the fight as a broader labor struggle beyond the rail issue, are not giving up and have vowed to keep protesting. On Friday, theydemanded the president's resignation.

In recent months, the government has proposed subdividing and commercializing the national railway, Korail--supposedly a cost-saving measure to deal with the railway's debt burden and financial losses. Recently, tensions escalated when the government announced plans to split Korail services into separate segments and to create a subsidiary to run part of the high-speed rail service under a separate corporation, which would purportedly stay primarily state-controlled.

Labor activists suspect the claims of financial concerns mask the government's underlying aim to incrementally privatize the vital public institution, in turn triggering job losses and pay cuts. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Korean Railway Workers' Union (KRWU) have also argued President Park Guenhye's administration pushed through the plan without adequate public or opposition consultation. In response to the government's railway proposal, rail union workers voted to go on strike on November 22, launching a wave of public rallies and pickets that grew to flood the streets of downtown Seoul. In mid-December, after the Prime Minister declared the strike "illegal," police began clamping down on union leadershipby issuing arrest warrants and confiscating equipment and documents from several local union offices.

When police then moved on to targeting the headquarters of the umbrella labor organization KCTU, which represents a multi-sector membership of more than 690,000 workers, union activists struck back. Eric Lee of LabourStart reported at OpenSecurity that the activists "formed a defensive cordon but eventually riot police charged the building, smashing down glass doors and firing pepper gas, causing several injuries. There were reports that some of the trade unionists responded with improvised water cannons."

After the blockade of the KCTU building resulted in 138 arrests of protesters, as Lee put it, "An enraged KCTU leadership issued a call for a million-worker strong general strike." Internationally, meanwhile, labor activists garnered about 14,500 signatures online on astatement of solidarity.

For union advocates, the key goal of the protests now going forward is not to push one particular alternative plan for the railway overhaul, but simply to ensure an accountable decision-making process. On the eve of the general strike day, Wol-san Liem, International Affairs director for the Korean Federation of Public Services and Transportation Workers' Unions (KPTU), which, like the KRWU is part of the KCTU, told Working In These Times, "We're just saying: Halt what you're doing now, so we can have a real debate where all of the parties involved--the workers, the employer, the government and the traveling public--can have their voices heard, put forth their proposals" and then develop a plan through deliberations before seeking the review of the National Assembly. Though the new parliamentary committee may pave the way for such debates, more union actions are planned to keep the focus on broader issues of labor equity and government accountability.

This isn't the first time militant union campaigns in South Korea have clashed with the government. Last January, KCTU issued several demands for the incoming Park administration, calling for the reinstatement of union members allegedly fired in retaliation for organizing and demanding "enforcement actions against anti-union retaliation by employers and the establishment of company unions." KCTU has also criticized the widespread exploitation of "dispatch" workers--temporary workers nominally hired by the company through outsourcing, but who essentially do the same work for less pay, without the job security of regular workers.

The unions got a legal boost last March when the Supreme Court upheld a ruling against General Motors Daewoo, declaring that subcontracted auto manufacturing work was actually illegal dispatch work. The violation carried millions of dollars in fines for both the employer and the subcontracted firm.

Of course, sometimes bosses don't feel like heeding the courts or the unions. In 2012, after a court found that Hyundai Motors had illegally misclassified a full-time employee as a  subcontractor, the company refused to reclassify him, instead hitting back with its own lawsuits against several of its plants where protests had broken out.

And the government has taken to simply refusing to recognize some troublesome unions. The Korean Government Employees Union staged a sit-down strike last year before the National Assembly, after the government repeatedly rebuffed its attempts to register as an official union and fired more than 100 members, including the union's president and secretary general, alleging they were leaders of an "illegal" organization. Similarly, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology threatened in January 2013 to de-register the teachers union unless it amended its bylaws to exclude from its membership retired and dismissed teachers. When the union balked, it was decertified in late October, despite protests from members and international labor activists.

Beyond Korail, the general strike was an explosion of long-brewing resentment from many sectors of Korean civil society, particularly workers who feel left behind by the country's breakneck development and right-wing regime.

Now that the Korail issues has newly highlighted the government's anti-union activity and authoritarian tactics, Liem says, there has been a groundswell of public solidarity from students and civil society groups. The protests might even have the potential to bubble into a broader populist movement, paralleling the anti-austerity campaigns that swelled in Europe in 2012.

"There has always been, for the last several years, an alliance between civil society and the labor movement, and that is continuing of course, and I think it will get stronger," Liem says. Though, like Occupy Wall Street, the movement currently lacks a single agenda or formal political leaders, she adds, "there is potential for that to become the basis of something much larger and hopefully a political leadership will emerge through that process."

Originally published at In These Times

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-chen/angry-workers-swarm-seoul_b_4547508.html

Underground Nuclear Explosion at Crippled Japan Atomic Plant Shocks World

Underground Nuclear Explosion at Crippled Japan Atomic Plant Shocks World

• 

TEHRAN (FNA)- An edict issued from the Office of the Russian President said a series of underground nuclear explosions occurred at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Aomic plant on 31 December.

The edict issued to all Ministries of the Russian Government ordered that all “past, present and future” information relating to Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster now be rated at the highest classification level “Of Special Importance”, stressing that this condition is “immediately and urgently needed” due to a series of underground nuclear explosions occurring at this crippled atomic plant on 31 December as confirmed by the Ministry of Defense (MoD).

“Of Special Importance” is Russia’s highest classification level and refers to information which, if released, would cause damage to the entire Russian Federation, Whatdoesitmean.com reported.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a catastrophic failure at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on 11 March 2011. The failure occurred when the plant was hit by a tsunami triggered by the 9.0 magnitude Tōhoku earthquake.

The plant began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials beginning on 12 March 2011 becoming the largest nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the second (with Chernobyl) to measure at the highest Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).

According to the report, MoD “assests” associated with the Red Banner Pacific Fleet detected two “low-level” underground atomic explosions occurring in the Fukushima disaster zone on 31 December, the first measuring 5.1 magnitude in intensity, followed by a smaller 3.6 magnitude explosion moments later.

The MoD further reports that the 5.1 magnitude event corresponds to the energy equivalent in megatons of TNT of 0.0005, while the 3.6 magnitude event equals 0.0000005.

As a comparison, the MoD states that the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 by the United States released the equivalent of 16 Kilotons = 0.016 megatons of TNT, about the energy equivalent of a magnitude 6 earthquake, and the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated was the Tsar bomb, a device exploded by the Soviet Union on 30 October 1961, with an energy equivalent of about 50 megatons of TNT.

Important to note, this report continues, was that the architect of Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 3, Uehara Haruo, warned on 17 November 2011 warned that a “China Syndrome” (aka: Hydrovolcanic Explosion) was “inevitable” due to the melted atomic fuel that had escaped the container vessel and was now burning through the earth.

The MoD further reports that evidence that these underground nuclear explosions were about to occur began after mysterious steam plumes were first spotted on 19 December for a short period of time, then again on 24, 25, 27 December, and confirmed by a report Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) published on its website.

Most curious to note, this report continues, is that the United States appears to have had a more advanced notice of these underground nuclear explosions as evidenced by their purchase earlier this month (6 December) of 14 million doses of potassium iodide, the compound that protects the body from radioactive poisoning in the aftermath of severe nuclear accidents, to be delivered before the beginning of February 2014.

With experts now estimating that the wave of radiation from Fukushima will be 10-times bigger than all of the radiation from the entire world’s nuclear tests throughout history combined, and with new reports stating that dangerous radiation levels have been detected in snows found in Texas, Colorado and Missouri, this MoD report warns the US, indeed, is going to face the severest consequences of this historic, and seemingly unstoppable, nuclear disaster.

And not just to human beings either is this nuclear disaster unfolding either, this report grimly warns, but also to all biological systems as new reports coming from the United States western coastal areas are now detailing the mass deaths of seals, sea lions, polar bears, bald eagles, sea stars, turtles, king and sockeye salmon, herring, anchovies, and sardines due to Fukishima radiation.

As to the American people being allowed to know the full and horrific mass death event now unfolding around them, this report warns, is not be as the Obama regime has, in effect, ordered all of their mainstream news media organs not to report it, and as recently confirmed by former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur who was told not to warn the public about the danger posed by the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant during his time as a host on the cable network.

And with Russian experts now warning that as Fukushima pollution spreads all over Earth (as large amounts of fish, seaweeds, and everything in ocean has been already been polluted, and these products are the main danger for mankind as they can end up being eaten by people on a massive scale) this report warns that Putin’s order to classify all information relating to this nuclear mass death event “Of Special Importance” is vital to protect the economic and social stability interests of the Russian Federation as this global catastrophe continues to worsen by the day.

Seoul , man who set himself on fire to demand Park’s resignation dies

 01/02/2014 11:46
SOUTH KOREA
Seoul , man who set himself on fire to demand Park’s resignation dies
by Joseph Yun Li-sun
The victim, identified only as Lee, held his demonstration on a flyover in the capital. In his last message before killing himself he asked the government to "tell the truth " about the electoral fraud of 2011 and the South Korean people to " stand up " for democracy .

Seoul ( AsiaNews) - After less than a day in the hospital , the man who set himself on fire to demand the resignation of South Korean President Park Geun - hye is dead. The victim, identified only by the surname Lee (pictured), left a message before killing himself in which he asked the government for " justice and truth " about the electoral fraud of 2012 and the South Korean people to " stand up for democracy" .

The suicide took place in the afternoon of 31 December. Lee, who had joined the nationwide strike called for the end of the year, was demonstrating on a flyover in Seoul near the central station. He had posted two placards calling for the resignation of the Park and the creation of a team of investigation on Secret Service interference in national politics. In addition, he had his hands tied behind his back by a chain.

A store clerk in Seoul, Lee had studied for the entrance examination for the civil service. Before setting himself on fire , he wrote his last message . The text reads: "Although Park's government has intervened in the general election through NIS, the truth was hidden while only regarded as personal deviation. This is clear infringement upon democracy. I will bear all the fears on behalf of the public. Everyone, please stand up for it "

The funeral will be held this afternoon at the Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital , where Lee was hospitalized after his self- immolation. The family , however, has also decided to allow a public celebration to be held at the railway station in Seoul on January 4: more than 286 civic groups have announced their intention to attend the funeral .

Rallies held nationwide to oppose railway privatization

Protestors from the 1st General Strike Resolution Assembly for Blocking Privatization, Crushing Labor Oppression, and Achieving Victory in the Railroad Strike, block the road in front of Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul in subzero temperatures, Dec. 28. (by Kim Bong-gyu, staff photographer)

Striking railway workers are getting support from students and regular people tired of the government’s uncommunicative style 

By Song Ho-kyun, Bong Jun-ho and Lee Jae-uk, staff reporters

“Do you hear the people sing? / Singing a song of angry men? / It is the music of a people / Who will not be slaves again! / When the beating of your heart / Echoes the beating of the drums / There is a life about to start / When tomorrow comes!”

At 3 pm on Dec. 28, about 300 students gathered in front of Hyundai Department Store in Sinchon, Seoul, and began singing in unison. Most of them were university students, but there were also some younger faces that might have belonged to high school students. Members of the group were wearing similar outfits - red gloves and scarves over black clothing.

As red flags flapped in the breeze, the students sang the song “Do You Hear the People Sing?” in Korean. The song, which is featured in the musical Les Miserables, is about the French revolution.

The idea for the flash mob came to Lee Ji-eun, 17, a student at Balgok High School in Uijeongbu. She wanted to support the general strike by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). The event took place simultaneously in five cities around the country: Seoul, Busan, Daejeon, Daegu, and Gwangju.

At the event that took place in front of the Daegu Department Store in Daegu, someone even held a placard that said, “This song is dedicated to Marie Antoinette, who is from Daegu but lives in Seoul.” Marie Antoinette (the French queen who was killed during the French Revolution) is a nickname that netizens have given Korean President Park Geun-hye. It is a play on words, as the queen’s name sounds similar to a Korean expression meaning a failure to communicate.

“We are told that between 700 and 800 netizens took part in the event altogether. In addition to Seoul there were about 150 people in Busan and 100 people in Daegu,” Lee said. After singing the song for about three minutes with joyful expressions on their faces, the participants in the Seoul event headed to Seoul Plaza outside City Hall.

According to KCTU estimates, around 100,000 people took part in the 1st General Strike Resolution Assembly for Blocking Privatization, Crushing Labor Oppression, and Achieving Victory in the Railroad Strike, which was held at Seoul Plaza. What made it possible for the union to mobilize so many people was the wide base of popular support, which included students and regular citizens, as the flash mob showed.

“While we are not able to provide an official estimate, our understanding is that approximately half of the people attending the rally were not union members but ordinary people,” said KTCU spokesperson Jeong Ho-hee.

Korean citizens from various segments of society including lawyers and students held pre-rallies and chanted slogans expressing their support for the railroad strike and their desire for democracy to be restored.

At about 2 in the afternoon, around 120 lawyers who are members of MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society gathered in front of the Bosingak belfry in Seoul’s Jongno district, and held up a banner that said, “There is no injustice that can defeat justice.” They also had placards that said, “From the Courtroom to the Street.”

“I believe that MINBYUN’s activity - advocating the basic human rights in the constitution and calling for the restoration of democracy - is the way to carry out the mission of a lawyer, which is to bring about social justice,” said MINBYUN Chairman Jang Ju-young. “We have come to this meeting in order to connect with people who want democracy to be restored.”

Pre-rallies were held by about 300 university students - the leading players in the “How are you nowadays?” craze - in front of the Korea Development Bank at Cheonggye 2-ga Street and by around 500 members of the Korea Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) at Tapgol Park. Next, the groups converged on Seoul Plaza.

“The Park Geun-hye administration is treating a legal railway workers’ strike as illegal and rashly issuing arrest warrants for the leaders of the labor union,” said KTU General Secretary Byeon Seong-ho. “If the administration does not take its knife from the necks of the workers and the people, we will have to become knives and bring this administration down.”

Holding placards saying “Teachers Aren’t Okay Either,” “Stop the Disaster of Privatization,” and “Down with the Uncommunicative President,” teachers shouted the slogan, “Stop repressing the KTU! Victory for the railroad strike!”

The ordinary citizens that the Hankyoreh reporter met at the rally at Seoul Plaza were unanimous in their criticism of President Park’s my-way-or-the-highway management style. “Before, I wasn’t very interested when labor unions went on strike, but this time I think the union has a valid reason for the strike. It wants to provide the Korean people with safe, cheap railroad service,” said homemaker Jeong Seong-mi, 47. “I don’t understand why the Park administration keeps trying to privatize the railroads even though the Korean people don’t want this to happen.”

　

[Editorial] Pres. Park can’t use summit transcript to hide from NIS scandal

The National Intelligence Service decided to go all out with its surprise release yesterday of 2007 inter-Korean summit minutes that had previously been classified. The whole ordeal was carried out like a military operation, without any decorum toward a former president, the late Roh Moo-hyun, without any of the conventional legal reasoning on designated presidential records, and without any concern for a process of bipartisan political consensus.

There is no need to reiterate just how illegal this kind of political interference by the NIS is. This is yet another example of scandalous behavior after its meddling in last year’s presidential election, only this case is far more ostentatious. This kind of brazen, overt move would be impossible without the approval - or even order - of the Blue House. That is why President Park Geun-hye must be held accountable for the NIS’s actions.

The reigniting of the controversy over remarks made at the 2007 summit is inextricable from the efforts to head off any questions over the legitimacy of Park’s election. The Saenuri Party’s desperate attempts to prevent a parliamentary audit of the NIS’s election-time actions and the NIS’s own disclosure of the records both have the basic goal of shielding her. In view of the seriousness of the situation, the relationship between the president and the NIS, and the Blue House’s micromanagement of affairs, it is impossible to believe the Blue House was not involved.

Also noteworthy is the timing of the disclosure, which came right after Park first broached the possibility of a parliamentary investigation. Yesterday, she declared that she had “not given the NIS any kind of help or received any help from it during the last election.” She also waved off questions about an investigation, saying it was “a matter for the National Assembly to discuss, not the President.” Far from denouncing the NIS’s political interference, she actually seemed to be throwing her support behind it. This contrasts sharply with her behavior at a June 24 meeting of the Blue House senior secretariat, when she called the improper payment of government subsidies a “criminal act” and demanded that comprehensive steps be taken in response. She apparently considers the NIS’s interference in a presidential election to be a less important issue than wrongful payment of subsidies.

Not only do Park’s statements not reflect the facts, they also make no sense at all. With their charges of violation of the Public Official Election Act, prosecutors have already affirmed that the aim of the NIS’s online operation during the election was to help Park’s chances for the presidency. It doesn’t matter how much help they gave, or how much it contributed to her win. What the public wants from Park now is an answer on just how she sees this case as the country’s leader, and what she plans to do to put a stop to this kind of political meddling by the NIS. Her response was a total non sequitur.

Her argument that an investigation is a matter for politicians to decide and not something for the Blue House to intervene in is also poorly founded. The logic may seem sound, but it is merely a way of trying to squeeze the administration out of its tight spot. It’s also cowardly to pass everything on to parliament as though she weren’t there, when the very issue of her election’s legitimacy is posing an obstacle to an investigation.

Park really should have resolved the election meddling and inter-Korean summit transcript issues before she visits China on June 27. Instead, she made the mind-boggling choice to release the transcript of a former President’s summit. It’s hard to imagine what kind of serious dialogue she can now expect to have with the leadership in Beijing. Past administrations that abandoned reason and common sense tended to face a rocky road. The black cloud of this huge misjudgment may well continue to follow Park even after she leaves office.

　

To cling to power, Park administration resorts to force

Police arrest one member of the striking Korean Railway Workers’ Union who was resisting the police’s advance at the offices of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions in the Kyunghyang newspaper building in central Seoul, Dec. 22. (by Kim Bong-gyu, staff photographer)

Umbrella trade union KCTU sets Dec. 28 for a general strike

By Jeon Jong-hwi, Im In-tack and Lee Jung-gook, staff reporters

The Park Geun-hye administration, which has maintained an “uncommunicative and proud of it” approach on contentious social issues, is ramping up its use of force and rejecting dialogue.

In the latest development, police stormed the offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) on Dec. 22, the fourteenth day of an ongoing strike against railway privatization. It was the first time authorities had been sent into the KCTU since it was legalized in 1999.

The police were there to execute arrest warrants for nine members of the leadership for the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU), but the individuals in question weren’t there. Instead, the 136 KCTU officials and members who fought back against the police were rounded up and arrested.

After convening an emergency meeting of its central committee, the KCTU declared a “genuine campaign to bring down the Park administration,” with a general strike to start on Dec. 28.

The government’s attack on the KCTU was a signal of how anxious it is to end the KRWU strike, which has drawn out to become the longest in South Korean railway history. As popular support for the anti-privatization strike remains high, the situation appears poised to escalate into a more general anti-privatization campaign in areas like healthcare and education. With the “front lines” of the privatization furor now parked on the railway, the government appears to be trying to break them down as quickly as possible.

Previously, Park called the strike a “groundless action that shows a lack of trust in the government’s promise not to privatize.” Police and prosecutors promised to enforce the law rigorously.

“There seems to have been a strategic decision by the hard line bureaucrats in the Blue House,” said Cho Hee-yeon, a professor at Sungkonghoe University’s graduate school of NGO studies. “Crushing the privatization strike is the only way to keep the unions in check, and they would also be able to push the next phase of their policy.”

“In short, they see it as a great opportunity,” Cho said.

Indeed, unions are among the best organized areas in South Korean society for speaking out on social issues.

Another of the government’s aims is to draw a clear line that extends beyond the KRWU to all members of the labor community who oppose the administration’s policies. While the KCTU, KRWU, and civil society in general have proposed setting up a “social dialogue” framework to address the key issue in the privatization furor - the establishment of a KORAIL subsidiary - the government’s response has instead been an ostentatious use of force. In effect, it has shown that it intends to respond to the debate by putting physical force ahead of dialogue.

“The government should be the ones initiating dialogue,” said a KRWU source on condition of anonymity. “Instead, they’ve issued what amounts to a declaration of war. They refuse to even recognize the body that is the supreme representative of unions, viewing it as an enemy instead.”

Some are saying the administration’s militant response is a reaction to having its legitimacy called into question. From this position, the actions are intended to break a deadlock that has been going for nearly a year since Park took office.

It’s a year that has seen one problem after another for the administration. Already facing a challenge to its legitimacy due to the election interference by the National Intelligence Service and the military’s Cyber Command, it has had to deal with a backlash over backpedaling on its basic old age pension election pledges, the privatization controversy, and charges of “targeting” former Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook.

“These actions come in the context of questions about the administration’s legitimacy, after it emerged that the election that brought it into office was unfair, along with a loss of popular support over the backpedaling on election pledges,” said Catholic University of Korea professor Cho Don-moon.

“They can’t win the people over, and they’re trampling on the right to pursue stability and happiness,” Cho added. “What happened today shows just how weak the administration’s legitimacy is.”

The KCTU’s declaration of a campaign to “bring down the administration” comes two years and one month after the ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) single-handedly pushed the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement through the National Assembly in Nov. 2011. All that’s left now is a clash between giants.