The author is a leader of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and is the National Coordinator of the anti-imperialist ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism – http://www.answercoalition.org/) He filed this report from outside the site of the U.S.-Korea FTA negotiations in Seoul, South Korea. To read Becker’s statement from the press conference, click here.
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Scuffles broke out between riot police and activists who were steadfastly trying to maintain the stage and press conference area. When the riot police pulled in a huge tow truck to remove the stage that had been set up earlier in the morning, a number of workers, who were protesting their status as “irregular workers”—workers who have lost their health care and other job benefits—laid down in front of the wheels of the flatbed truck to prevent its removal. “Irregular workers” are known commonly in the United States as “temps.”
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At the request of the Korean movement, I attempted to take a message of opposition toward the site of the negotiations. Walking with a small group of other activists from the Korean anti-FTA movement, we were surrounded by scores of riot police and forcibly removed from the site of the negotiations.
Today’s press conference was the kick-off of what will be several days of protests. The fact that the South Korean government sent five hundred riot police to storm a peaceful press conference of 50 activists was a clear sign that it fears the widening opposition to the proposed agreement by a growing number of Korean workers and farmers. It was also a “good faith” sign to the Bush administration by the Korean government, which is under pressure to sign an agreement that not only sacrifices the interests of Korean workers and farmers to U.S. transnationals, but also lays bare the essential neo-colonial character of U.S.-South Korean relations.
