[KS] South Korea's Rollback of Democratic Rights

[J.Scott Burgeson]

--- On Thu, 5/7/09, george katsiaficas <katsiaficasg at wit.edu> wrote:

> Since last August, I have been waiting for Mr. Burgeson to
> provide us with
> details of his assertion that PSPD organized the initial
> candlelight
> protests a year ago. 

The group which organized the very first mad-cow candlelight vigil was “LMB탄핵투쟁연대" aka "이명박 탄핵을 위한 범국민운동본부" aka "Headquarters of the National Campaign for the Impeachment of Lee Myung-bak" or "Anti Lee Myung-bak" for short. Their name appears prominently on the poster for the event. This is very well known. Other groups quickly joined in later and worked together, as I have repeatedly stated, including PSPD.

Here is a link on People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy's involvement as central organizers of the protests, which I distinctly recall sending to the List last year along with several others:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806130024.html

"The people working at the association's briefing room are mostly affiliated with the PSPD or the Korea Progressive Coalition. A PSPD official heads the association's briefing room and he was the one who stood on the stage during a candlelight vigil on May 25 and shouted 'Let's go to Cheong Wa Dae!'"

As shown in this link from PSPD's own Web site, several of the activists holed up at Chogye-sa last year were either from PSPD or Korea Solidarity of Progressive Movement:

http://blog.peoplepower21.org/English/20798

On Aug. 5th 2008 I personally saw members of the Anti-Lee Myung-bak group physically assaulting ordinary citizens in Chongno during a large anti-LMB demonstration coinciding with Bush's visit here. I personally saw them throwing soju bottles and rocks at the police, physically attacking an ajumma holding up a "Welcome Bush" sign at Ch'onggye Plaza, and I even saw one of the main members of the Anti-Lee Myung-bak cafe repeatedly kick and hit a haraboji from behind in Chongno-3-ga. I know they were members of the Anti-Lee Myung-bak cafe because they were all wearing orange and black bandanas around their face with the name of the group on it.

Several days later, I saw the same man who had kicked and hit the haraboji (a short, squat ajosshi in his 40s) on the grounds of Chogye-sa laughing and chatting with the activists who were holed up there. They appeared to be quite close acquaintances. Remember, Anti-Lee Myung-bak was the group who had organized the very first vigil on 2 May 2008. As I have said repeatedly, these same groups and individuals have been working together from the start, and only a fool would claim otherwise.

--J. Scott Burgeson, Chongno