The fights and Solidarity of People of the world leading to Seoul!
Right now, stop the engines of Neo-Liberal globalization!!"
Speech Draft by Dan Byung-Ho(President, KCTU)
(*This speech will be given at the "O20 Seoul Action Day against Neoliberal
Globalization")
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
abolishment of the 'screen quarter' raised to the U.S. show the true nature
of the investment teaty that does not allow cultural diversity and
social needs.
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 of real 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
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