Dear Friends and Allies,
You have already received an email urging you to join protests against the G20 Summit, which will be held in Seoul, South Korea from November 11 to 12 [1]. As you know, the G20, originally formed to respond to the global financial crisis, is attempting to set itself up as the authority responsible for directing the world economy and defining world governance. While completely excluding most nations from decision-making, the G20 is attempting to make the world ‘safe’ for neoliberal capitalism by forcing emerging economies to shoulder part of the burden of the crisis, promoting trade and investment liberalization dressed up ’in new robes’, negotiating weak financial reforms that largely allow financial speculation to go on unchecked, and reviving the ailing IMF and other IFIs. This agenda is being pursued despite the fact that neoliberal capitalism is clearly a failed model, which only increases poverty and inequality around the globe.
As if this was not enough, the Lee Myeong-bak administration is using the upcoming Summit as an excuse to strengthen repression of common people and social movements in South Korea. To fight this attack we need your support, even before November.
On October 1st tell the South Korean government and the world that the G20 Summit is NO EXCUSE for Repression by participating in the International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea.
Background
The government is carrying out its attack on democratic and human rights on many fronts. Claiming they are “establishing public order to support the successful opening of the G20 Summit,” the Immigration Service and other government agencies have been conducting a massive crackdown on undocumented migrants, during which migrants are brutally arrested, imprisoned and then deported. Proclaiming to be “preemptively responding to foreigner crime,” the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department has been carrying out blatantly illegal and racist stop and search procedures, questioning anyone they think looks ‘suspicious’, which generally means anyone who looks foreign and dark-skinned.
The government has also formed a “special road maintenance crew” to “clean up the streets” before the G20 by cracking down on street vendors. The police have been patrolling areas where homeless people usually spend time, such as subway stations and neighborhoods where service organizations and temporary boarding houses are located. These measures are brutally destroying the livelihoods and wiping out the resting places of South Korea’s poor.
At the same time, the government has been carrying out a devastating attack against South Korean workers and labour unions, even going so far as to ignore commitments made at previous G20 meetings. At the 3rd G20 Summit held in Pittsburgh in September 2009, national leaders agreed that, "the current challenges [posed by the crisis] do not provide an excuse to disregard or weaken internationally recognized labour standards.” Despite this fact, the government has repeatedly defied ILO Committee of Freedom Association recommendations by repressing unionization by teachers and public employees, applying the Article 314(Obstruction of Business) of Penal Code to prosecute union officers, and attempting to control union activities through implementation of the ‘time-off’ system, which drastically limits the number of union staff that can paid on company salaries. The government is also violating the G20’s stated principle of putting the creation of ‘decent jobs’ at the center of economic recovery by pursuing labour flexiblisation policies including the weaken of restrictions on mass lay-offs and expansion of the industries in which agency workers can be legally employed.
To top all of this off, in May the ruling conservative Grand National Party forced the passage of a “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit,” which legalizes tools for the repression of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. This law, which goes into effect on October 1, allows the government to mobilize the army “if necessary” to maintain public order. It also established ‘Safe Escort Zones’ around the G20 meeting site, the hotels where representatives will stay, the routes they will travel to the Summit, and other G20 related areas. Public officials are authorized to stop people from entering these zones and to carry out indiscriminate stop and search procedures within them. What is more, they are not required to publically announce which areas during what times are designated ‘Safe Escort Zones’. This law is clearly meant to squash all forms of criticism and protest against the G20.
On October 1st tell the South Korean government that the G20 is NO Excuse for Repression!
If we do not resist these measures, repression in South Korea will only grow stronger. This will have a devastating effect on the lives of common people and the people’s movement’s ability to fight for more equitable alternatives to the G20’s neoliberal agenda. We need your support and solidarity now more than ever.
This is way we have proclaimed October 1st, the day before the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit” goes into effect, an International Day of Action against the pre-Summit attack on Democratic and Human Rights in South Korea.
We are asking allies around the world to organize solidarity actions on this day and deliver the following demands to the South Korean government.
1. The G20 Summit is NO excuse! Stop the crackdown on migrants, street vendors and homeless people!
2. Honour international labour standards and ILO recommendations! Stop labour repression and labour flexibilisation policies!
3. Repeal the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit” and end repression of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly!
Solidarity actions may take the following forms:
1. Rallies or other actions in front of South Korean consulates and embassies
2. Meetings with consulate and embassy representatives to deliver protest statements
3. Press conferences
4. Rallies or other actions in public areas
5. Any creative action you wish to organize
Attached is a sample protest statement [see below], which can be used in meetings with embassy and consulate representatives and/or as the basis for press statements.
Please let us know about actions you have planned and send reports of completed actions.
News about solidarity actions, as well as any questions or requests for additional materials may be sent to: Peoplesg20action.seoul gmail.com
Endorsed by
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
National Association of Professors for Democratic Society (NAPDS)
Citizen’s Movement for Environmental Justice
Korean Federation of Medical Groups for Health Rights
Korean Women’s Association United (KWAU)
Global Call to Action against Poverty Korea (GCAP-Korea)
Korean Peasants’ League (KPL)
Civil Society Network for Financial regulation and taxation on speculative capital
Civil Society Organisation Network in Korea
People’s Solidarity for Social Progress (PSSP)
People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
Korea Alliance of Progressive Movements
National Students March
Korean Women Peasant Association
Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea (JCMK)
All Together
Green Korea United
Korean Urban Poor Association
Alternative Forum of University Students
National Democratic Association of Street Vendors
Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice
Institute for Global Political Economy
Imagine Institute
Corea Institute for New Society
New Community Institute
Institute for New World
SpecWatch Korea
Korean Clerical and Financial Workers Association
NANUMMUNHWA_ Global Peace Activities
Korean People’s Solidarity against Poverty
Energy & Climate Policy Institute for Just Transition (ECPI)
Action for Energy Justice
Migrant Workers Rights Watch, Korea
Solidarity for Street Vendors and Informal Workers
Korea Progressive Academy Council
Progressive Strategy Council
Center for Energy Politics (CEP)
Korea Federation for Environment Movement (KFEM) / FOE Korea
The Committee for a Socialist Workers’ party (CSWP)
Democratic Labor Party-Korea (DLP-Korea)
New Progressive Party-Korea (NPP-Korea)
Socialist Party-Korea (SP-Korea)
Transparency International_Korea
People not Profit
Workers Institute of Social Science, South Korea
Korea Labor&Social Network on Energy
Korea NGO’s Energy Network
Revolutionary Workers’ Front
Students’ Alliance against G20
Ryu, Mikyung
International Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU)
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9118 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
14nd Fl. Kyunghyang-Shinmunsa BLDG. 22, Jeong-dong, Jung-gu, SEOUL, 100-702, KOREA
Sample Letter
To the Honourable Ambassador of the Republic of Korea,
We are conscientious residents of________ (name of the country you live in). We have
heard that the 5th G20 Summit will be held in Seoul, South Korea from November 11 to 12.
We have been voicing our criticisms of the G20’s agenda, which we believe will do more to
increase the suffering of common people during the current economic crisis than relieve it. We
will continue to make these criticisms known in the media and on the streets. However, today
we wish raise a different issue—that of the situation of democratic and human rights in South
Korea.
We are gravely concerned that the administration of Lee Myeong-bak is using the G20
Summit as an excuse to carry out an attack on common people and progressive movements.
This attack is taking many forms:
The government has been pursuing a brutal crackdown on undocumented migrant workers,
claiming to be “establishing public order to support the successful opening of the G20 Summit.”
Under the pretext “preemptively responding to foreigner crime” before the G20, the Seoul
Metropolitan Police have been using blatantly illegal and racist procedures to stop and search
anyone officers deem ‘suspicious’ (those who look foreign and dark-skinned). The police are also
cracking down on street vendors and patrolling the areas where homeless people gather, saying
they are “cleaning up the streets.” These measures are brutally destroying the livelihoods and
wiping out the resting places of South Korea’s poor.
The government has been repressing public employee unionization and attempting to control
union activities through the time-off system in violation of ILO Committee on Freedom of
Association recommendations and the G20’s agreement that “the current challenges [posed by
the crisis] do not provide an excuse to disregard or weaken internationally recognized labour
standards.” It is even ignoring the G20’s stated commitment to put ‘decent work’ at the center
of economy recovery and instead pursuing labour flexibilisation policies such as weakening of
restrictions on mass lay-offs and expansion of the industries in which agency workers can be
legally employed.
We are particularly concerned about the passage of the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of
the G20 Summit,” which goes into effect on October 1. We believe this law provides the
government with tools for the repression of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly
by allowing it to mobilize the army to maintain public order and establish ‘Safe Escort Zones’
around the G20-related sites.
We urge you to recognize that these measures are grave violations of human and democratic
rights. What is more that will only harm the international reputation of the Republic of Korea.
We therefore urgently request that you convey the following demands to your government and
do everything in your power to see that they are met.
1. The G20 Summit is NO excuse! Stop the crackdown on migrants, street vendors and
homeless people!
2. Honour international labour standards and ILO recommendations! Stop labour
repression and labour flexibilisation policies!
3. Repeal the “Special Law on the Safe Escort of the G20 Summit” and end repression of
the rights to freedom of expression and assembly!
We will be paying close attention to the situation in South Korea in the days leading up to the
G20 Summit.
Sincerely,
Name(s)
Organization(s)