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Wednesday saw the biggest labor protests since the Roh Moo-hyun administration took office when some 72,000 demonstrators took to the streets in 13 cities around the nation. They included farmers against a planned free trade agreement with the U.S. and members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) who went on general strike on the day. Violence and arson attempts were the order of the day as demonstrators armed with wooden and bamboo sticks launched well-coordinated attempts to break into city and provincial government offices. Police, unable to mobilize more than 25,000 officers, were overwhelmed, saying it was the first protest on such a scale under this government and complaining of restrictions in dealing with it.
Some 1,000 farmers, laborers and college students engaged in a pitched battle with police when they tried to break into the municipal building in Gwangju, Jeolla Province. About 300 of them brandished wooden and bamboo sticks and hurled paving stones at the building, breaking 40 windows. They seized riot shields and helmets from police and set them on fire.
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Farmers brandish torches in a clash with police after a failed attempt to break into a Gangwon Province local government building on Wednesday.
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Protestors in Daejeon set fire to trees in the South Chungcheong Province government office complex and broke sections of the wall surrounding the building. Ten members of the KCTU were injured in clashes with police during an attempt to break into the Gangwon provincial government. Protestors burnt funeral biers in protest against the trade pact and broke down the main gate of the provincial government building. Police seized some 1,000 improvised weapons nationwide.
Traffic in downtown Seoul came to a standstill as members of the teachers' union, the KCTU and anti-globalization protestors rallied there. Protestors initially promised that some 1,000 would march along only one lane on the road, but as their numbers swelled to 2,300, they occupied up to four lanes in some parts. Sixteen municipal and provincial educational authorities said 2,956 teachers took part in protests on the day. The KCTU, which had declared an indefinite strike, gathered in 13 parts of the capital including Seoul Plaza and demanded the government scrap a roadmap for better labor relations, guarantee rights for non-regular workers, and stop FTA negotiations with the U.S.
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The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions staged a demonstration Wednesday at Seoul Square in front of City Hall and then blocked four lanes of traffic as the group pushed towards Jongno, causing a massive traffic congestion.
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Commentators said the protests went too far. Kwak Dae-Kyung, a professor of police administration at Dongguk University, said, "People use violence in a bid to make their case more strongly, but this damages their cause and just provokes resistance from the public. This way they simply fail to get their message across and gain nothing in practice."
In terms of numbers, the demonstrations were only overshadowed by the 130,000 who took part in a candlelight vigil opposing the impeachment of President Roh in March 2004 and the 100,000 who marched to uphold the National Security Law in October that year. "There have been rallies attended by 10,000-20,000 from provincial areas, but this is the first time that such organized and violent demonstrations took place in many corners of the nation,Ħħ a police official in Seoul said. "We will take legal action against everyone involved in illegalities during the protests.Ħħ
The Korean Alliance Against KORUS FTA is to go ahead with a second and a third nationwide rally against the trade pact on Nov. 29 and Dec. 6. The second is to be attended by some 10,000 farmers from around the nation and police fear this may turn violent. "There needs to be policy measures by the government to persuade farmers to agree to the planned FTA,Ħħ the police official said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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