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Now Blogging Afresh at Ad Orientem 西儒 - The Western Confucian



Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Labor Run Amok

If you've ever seen footage of a Korean labor demonstration, you will know that it will invariably include stick-fighting, sling-shots, molotov cocktails (petrol bombs), and even air-powered hunting guns. The recipients of these weapons are not even professional policemen, but rather young men in their late teens or early twenties serving their nation in their compulsory military service.

A recent editorial entitled Out to Ruin the Country? asks some important questions:

Why do young riot police have to be hit with your petrol bombs and become targets for your air-powered hunting guns? You say you want to make a "world with worker liberation from oppression and exploitation." But who is oppressing and exploiting labor?

How powerful would the confederation have to be for even the foreign press to note how the Korean government and business are at the mercy of hard-line unions and how the unions are the greatest source of instability for the Korean economy?