KCTU Declares Jihad Against Lee M.B., Scores Meeting With Nancy Pelosi
On Tuesday, I wrote that President-Elect Lee was about to meet with the leaders of South Korea’s largest, most radical, and most violent labor organization — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. There was, however, the matter of KCTU Chairman Lee Sok-Haeng’s outstanding arrest warrant for an “illegal” rally last October. President-Elect Lee, showing more interest in public order than his predecessor, was not willing to let this slide or grant Chairman Lee the special privilege of being questioned at a neutral location. True to form, the KCTU reacted by threatening a general strike “to cut off power and gas supply and halt the operation of railway and flight operations.” President-Elect Lee might have thought he was applying the rule of law to everyone, even those who use threats and violence to get their way. I swear there is a word for this.
“Lee Myung-bak’s decision to cancel his meeting with me is a declaration of war against us,” Lee Seok-haeng, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday. [Joongang Ilbo]
Be merry, comrades, for tomorrow, we march on . . . E.Land!
“We have no choice but to counter his [Lee’s] decision in our own way,” Lee Seok-haeng said of the president-elect’s snub. “The first flash bomb will be shot high into the sky from E.Land.Â
“In our own way.” Which in the recent past has meant (1) , putting at least one of them in the hospital with a serious head injury; (2) leading mass assaults on U.S. military installations while armed with pipes, rocks, and bamboo poles, resulting in hundreds of arrests and injuries; (3) damaging public property during protests and refusing to pay for it; (4) blocking the U.S. Ambassador as he tried to attend a media interview; and (5) arson attacks against strike-breaking truckers. And then there is the KCTU’s juche problem, so eloquently articulated by its then-General Secretary, Kim Tae-Il, in May 2006:
We will unite with the workers of the North to fight against the U.S. [Robert Koehler, via Naver]
And:
During the May 1 North-South Workers’ Rally in Pyongyang, the workers of North and South agreed to unify to carry out the anti-American struggle”¦ The center of that struggle with the United States is Daechu-ri, Pyeongtaek. [ditto]
The KCTU represents over 750,000 workers, including the Korean Government Employees’ Union, which should make the transition interesting. E.Land businesses on the target list include Homever, New Core and Kim’s Club. The friendly folks from the KCTU will be coming to an E.Land outlet near you (if you’re in Korea) to block customers from entering the stores. Not to worry, though. Another KCTU official promises that “[a]ll our actions will be within the framework of law and order.Â
All of this makes you wonder just what kind of people are advising Nancy Pelosi, who has agreed to meet with Chairman Lee to be haragued about the evils of the FTA (I also oppose the FTA for reasons which actually have something to do with workers’ rights. This would be a stealth FTA for Kim Jong Il and an open door for his slave-made wares). Now, I doubt Pelosi knows about the KCTU’s history, but would she care if she did? She’s probably used to referring to specimens no less freakish than this as “constituents.” Still, you wonder what standards she does have. An organization with such a pedigree for violence and allegiance to genocidal fascism out to be beneath them.