[KS] (no subject)

[George Katsiaficas]

Deberniere Torrey raises an issue whose importance in Korea can scarcely be
understated. For years after 1980, participants in the Gwangju People¹s
Uprising (as former people involved in the uprising prefer to name it)
suffered persecution and prosecution. After the June Uprising in 1987, and
even more so after the 1995 Special Law and subsequent imprisonment of Chun
Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, participants in the uprising, beginning with
families of those killed, but also including people wounded, arrested and
otherwise involved, were accorded official honorary status with some
material benefits beyond specific financial compensation.

The struggle between Left and Right to name the events lies at the very core
of the issue about their meaning. While there has been less attention to the
words used to name the uprising in English, differences certainly reflect
analysts¹ political orientation.

I might add that the New Right in Korea has recently been attempting to
portray the uprising as a product of North Korean intervention, something so
absurd that even internal US Embassy documents in 1980 denied it to be the
case.

George Katsiaficas


On 11/12/11 1:51 PM, "DeberniereTorrey" <djtorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Deberniere Torrey

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