AMRC: How does your organization work to promote solidarity of Korean workers with people in other countries affected by Korean corporations? What kinds of groups in Korea do you work with – which unions or associations/organizations (political parties, churches too?) promote Korean support for workers and people affected in other countries?
One question that continues to baffle us in the Asian labour movement is why any talk about occupational safety and health always seems to meet with a muted response in Asia. One would think there is something wrong in the manner that governments in Asia works, when about 1.1 million deaths, out of a global death toll of 2.3 million remain surprisingly un-noticed, except for their ritualistic mention in ILO reports.1
The world’s peoples rallied in support of the failed Burmese people’s uprising in 2007. Footage of dignified, serious-faced burgundy-clad monks taking to the streets in a peaceful protest against the increasingly untenable living conditions in Burma captured the world’s imagination and sympathy. People were increasingly angered as the images changed to those of the ruling junta beating and arresting hundreds of protesters, monks included.