The
fights and Solidarity of People of the world leading to Seoul! Speech by Dan Byung-Ho(President, KCTU) at the
O20 Rally All of you will remember the Seattle fight that decorated the end of the last century. This struggle was even condemned as being a 'riot' by the media. But we know why 50,000 of the world's citizens gathered in that place. That was an act of opposition against the unfair and inequal WTO system and a struggle against the brutal neo-liberal globalization. The fight has not ended. It has continued onto Swiss Davos, Washington USA, Melbourne Australia and Prague Czecho. The people's rage against the neo-liberal globalization that has taken away completely their democracy and livelihood right has now come down to Korea where the 1997 financial crisis has swept everything. On this day we support and aim to succeed the people's struggle against the neo-liberal globalization. Today we wish to go hands in hands with the struggling people all over the world. The neo-liberal globalization is destroying the outcomes that the people all over the world have been fighting for centuries to achieve, such as democracy, the people's livelihood right, ecology, cultural and sexual diversity and human rights. It has destroyed the lives of labors simply for the interest of transnational capital and is devastating Third world countries. The policy of complete employment has already become a relic of history and labors are being thrown onto streets in the name of 'flexiblization of labor market'. What about the third world countries? Those nations that have had everything including their natural resources exploited are now caught in the trap of foreign debt and are being stripped of their democratic sovereignty and their right to live. In 1997 the tides of 'financial and foreign currency crisis' have swept the Eastern Asia that has been praised as the model for third world economical development. And the IMF has stood upon the people of East Asia as it has done in South America and Africa. The IMF prescribed and applied its medicine in order to overcome the crisis to the East Asian countries but with three years having passed already, the results are devastating. The structural reform policy that the IMF and the East Asia governments have tried to propel have magnified and reproduced, instead of overcoming, the financial crisis. The second and third foreign currency-financial crisis has now come to follow us everywhere we go. The stock market and financial market has long since been the speculating field of trans-national capital and local institutional investors, and the phenomenon where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer has become intensified. Matters are the same here in Korea. The neo-liberal structural reform of the IMF and the Kim Dae Jung administration has now put Korean economy into a state of no return. For the last three years that the IMF structural reform has been implemented, the trans-national capital has gained command over more than 30% of the domestic stock market, moving Korean economy according to their will and the difference in income has reached the highest point since statistics were available. Public corporations that have been providing service to the people have been accused of being 'tax thieves' and are being sold to monopolist capital in and out of the country. The increased number of the unemployed are on the verge of starvation and labors are screaming in agony of increased work load. As if this is not enough, the Kim Dae Jung administration
is securing rights for exploitation of trans-national capital, is
intensifying the national economy, and is trying to conclude
the Korean-U.S.. Korean-Japanese bilateral investment treaties that
will threaten the lives of the laborers and the ordinary people.
Also it is on the verge of concluding the Korean-Chille Free Trade
Agreement that will add more strain to the agricultural society
already in crisis through the WTO. The Korean people affirm that
these treaties and agreements will strengthen the political and
economical power of the trans-national capital and trample on the
lives of the people. The 'Serious Treatment Clause' raised in the
Korean-Japanese investment treaty is very significant. It is nothing
more than an attempt to block the fundamental right of laborers
to raise strikes. Also the The Korean people, the people of Asia and furthermore the people of the world affirm once again. The neo-liberal structural reform driven by the IMF and the governments of each nations is definitely not a solution to overcome the economical crisis and it is nothing more than selling the national economy and its social, popular rights in the hands of imperialism and the trans-national capital. But all of us who are gathered here today cannot but show deep concerns toward the ASEM conference. According recent documents the European Commission is mentioning abolition of foreign currency control and liberation of the transfer of surplus profit. Also it is suggesting that each governments need to abolish regulations against privatization and foreign ownership ofreal estates in order to attract foreign capital. What's more surprising is that it is asking for lesser taxation to companies and block strikes in order to provide better investment conditions. Such measures do not differ completely from structural reforms forced by the WTO and the IMF or the Korean-U.S., Korean Japanese Investment Treaties. Also in this year's Seoul summit, the governments of the two regions have chosen as official agenda, the discussion for the early launch of the WTO Millenium Round. This shows that ASEM works for the strengthening of the free trade system called the WTO. In such conditions we witness the ASEM turning into an organization propelling for another neo-liberal globalization. We cannot but show serious concerns on the fact that ASEM is trying to accelerate neo-liberal globalization and structural reform. Comrades who are gathered here. The struggle of the people against neo-liberal globalization is continuing without rest. Far away from Mexico to Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Europe and all over the world the flame of resistance is burning hot. In Korea also, the struggle against neo-liberal globalization is unfolding restlessly. The laborers who are trying to fight the 2nd phase of structural reform and the privatization of public corporations, the fight of people in the film industry who are trying to defend the screen quarter and the diversity of culture, the rage of the farmers who cannot but throw their hard raised water melons, garlic and other crops, the struggle of contingent workers which heatened this year's summer... and the fight of the poor people whose life base is wiped out every time there is an international conference...The Korean people's will against the neo-liberal globalization is being shown in action. Today's fight will not end as a one-day event. We know very well. In order for a significant 'one-day common act' to be accomplished, it must be developed into a continuous mass struggle. The Korean people will not only unite with the struggle against neo liberal globalization but also continue it onto the anti-Korean-U.S., Korean-Japanese Investment treaties, Korean-Chille free trade agreement and the WTO that is currently in negotiation by the Korean government. We affirm that Neo-liberal globalization is definitely not an 'unavoidable general trend' but a highly political project aiming to gain more profit and destroy the third world nations and the lives of working people by the imperial states and the trans-national capital. Also we are sure that the hopes of the world people wide for a different world, over the neo-liberal globalization will not give way. 20th October. 2000 |