The intensified Israeli military operations in Gaza are an attempt by Netanyahu to project strength amid perceived political vulnerability, argues RAMZY BAROUD
Latest editorial
Riot police ambush and arrest South Korean union president
Authorities are trying to scapegoat trade unions for Covid containment failures and to discourage people from protesting
PUTTING THE BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS: Korean Health Workers Union members in front of Seoul City Hall last week call for better treatment of medical personnel
MARK FAIRHURST highlights the main issues facing officers in a long neglected service, and raised by front-line delegates at POA conference last week, including understaffing, violence, bullying and the ongoing denial of workers’ right to strike
A bizarre on-air rant by Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s head of counter-terrorism, shines a light on the present state of transatlantic relations, says NICK WRIGHT
Head of education, campaigns and organising for the General Federation of Trade Unions HENRY FOWLER explains why it is launching a fund to support trades councils and give them access to a new range of courses and resources
While working people face austerity, arms companies enjoy massive government contracts, writes ARTHUR WEST, exposing how politicians exaggerate the Russian threat to justify spending on a sector that has the lowest employment multiplier
ANYA COOK reports from the Newcastle citizens’ assembly, where over 240 people gathered to create a people’s manifesto ahead of next year’s local elections – part of former mayor Jamie Driscoll’s Majority movement
While claiming to target fraud, Labour’s snooping Bill strips benefit recipients of privacy rights and presumption of innocence, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE, warning that algorithms with up to 25 per cent error rates could wrongfully investigate and harass millions of vulnerable people
THE president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), Yang Kyung Soo, was arrested at dawn on September 1 in an ambush involving police squadrons in riot suppression gear and fire trucks surrounding the union headquarters at 5am and smashing their way into the union at 5.30am.
Yang is a member of the autoworkers’ union KMWU through the Kia irregular workers’ branch.
The authorities pre-emptively arrested the president of South Korea’s largest trade union confederation to lock him up under pretrial detention while they investigate into his supposed crimes which they allege are: obstruction of general traffic through demonstration; violation of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration; and acts relating to infectious disease control.
The raid comes ahead of a general strike the KCTU is organising for October.
Though the authorities say they do not aim to intimidate workers or dissuade them from legitimate trade union activities, their actions speak louder than words.
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association Maina Kiai wrote on this in Korea: “Charging assembly participants with certain criminal offences, such as the general obstruction of traffic, de facto criminalises the right to peaceful assembly.
“The choice to prosecute at all, and even more to charge participants with the serious offence of general obstruction of traffic, conveys a desire by the authorities to discourage assemblies on roads.
“The special rapporteur reiterates that assemblies are an equally legitimate use of public space as commercial activity or the movement of vehicles and pedestrian traffic.”
Thus the arrest of the confederation president via storming the headquarters with police conveys the impression they wish to dissuade workers from continued protests about the ongoing employment crisis and safety and health at work crisis.
The alleged crimes for which Yang was arrested relate to a protest rally that unions held on July 3.
Amid continuing industrial disasters and dismissals during the Covid pandemic on working people, the July 3 rally demanded a moratorium on dismissals and urgent action and rights to protect lives and livelihoods.
However, bringing charges relating to infectious disease control and insinuating that the people should blame trade unions for the fourth Covid-19 wave and for the frustrations of the pandemic are unscrupulous scapegoating.
The truth is that no new coronavirus cases were linked to participation at that July 3 rally calling for a moratorium on dismissals and implementation of safety and health at work.
Trade unions are being scapegoated and blamed for the government’s coronavirus containment and vaccination rollout problems ahead of the March 9 presidential elections.
More from this author
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
TONY BURKE says an International Labour Conference next month will try for a new convention to protect often super-exploited workers providing services such as ride-hailing (taxis) such as Uber as well as fast food and package delivery
How underground bands formed a vital part of the struggle against white supremacy
New releases by Samba Touré, Santrofi, and Piers Faccini & Ballake Sissoko
