You know if it's Saturday in Seoul, there are a lot of demonstrators out. I hoped to gather the best screen shots I could, but something changed, and I'm having inordinate difficulty with pics today. So Tim made this first demonstration picture easy.
A rally of 200,000 TEACHERS to protest recent suicides from abuse and push for worker rights is pretty amazing. https://t.co/1xJEOxObSt
— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) September 3, 2023
Reported estimates ranged from 200 to 300,000 teachers demonstrating in Yeoido outside the national assembly building. Very impressive and well organized teachers making their voices heard about recent suicides of young teachers caused by family harassment of teachers trying to control their misbehaving children in school. Their demos have been the largest I've seen in some time. Unfortunately, they are basically one issue workplace issues.
These were a couple of other demonstrations. There was an opposition led demonstration against the Fukushima reactor waste water release. Started at 3pm Seoul time and lasted a few hours. Democratic Party National Assembly members were present including the party leader Lee Jae-myung. Also present were a few representatives of the Justice Party and Basic Income Party. Lee started a hunger strike 3 days ago. He didn't limit his dissent to the Fukushima issue but went down the extensive list of shortcomings and failures of the current authoritarian Yoon administration. The media coverage was not extensive.
The later demonstration was the 55th Candlelight movement parade, opposed to just about everything concerning South Korea's current direction. They basically want Yoon impeached or to step down. The parade was led by demonstrators carrying pictures of Korean independence movement heros who opposed Imperial Japan's colonization of South Korea. Recently, the Defense Ministry proposed removal of the busts of some of these leaders from the front of the Military Academy building where officers are trained. This represents an ideological move to change the historical perspective to one beginning with the US post WWII occupation and Korean conflict rather than a national foundation based upon Korean resistance to Japanese domination. This is consistent with President' Yoon's submission to US and Japanese foreign policy goals. It is also consistent with his hard line anti North Korean and anti-communist approach to domestic politics. All domestic opposition is implicitly labelled as communist in nature, or communist sympathizers. The removal of independence fighter busts from the military academy grounds is viewed as an extreme move even by conservatives who are not a part of the Yoon/Lee Myung-bak clique ruling South Korea currently.
Another example of this ideological trend is the gutting of the Unification Ministry by the brand new Yoon appointee, Kim Yung-ho. Who needs exchange or dialogue with North Korea?
(Source 빨간아재 youtube 9.2.23) Candlelight movement demonstrators, Saturday, Sep. 2, carrying placards with images of famous independence fighters who resisted Japanese Imperial rule of Korea. (edit) Korean independence hero General Hong Beom-do (placard fourth from the right) was the focus of the controversy. Kim Ku, the founder of the Provisional Republic of Korea in exile (in China) during the Japanese colonial period is far right. Ahn Joong-geun, (second from the right) was the assassin of Ito Hirobumi, the former Resident General of Korea, and former Japanese Prime Minister.
From the poem General Hong Beom-do's Cry, by Lee Dong-soon.
While experiencing this humiliation and contempt,
I no longer wish to remain here.
The fatherland I yearned for so greatly,
Since when did it become the land of the Japanese?
At all times, a country currying favor with Japan,
I can't bear it any longer.
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