hankyoreh

The candles that lit up the summer of 2008 burned brightly up until the last day of the year. Amid the chaos created by the Grand National Party’s attempt to push through the so-called “MB (Lee Myung-bak) vicious laws,” citizens carried candles and gathered everywhere, including the Bosingak bell tower in Seoul’s Jong-no, where a New Year’s Eve bell-ringing event was being held.

With crowds of over 100,000 citizens gathered at the site of the event Wednesday around the Bosingak area, a candlelight demonstration in opposition to the forcing through of the “MB vicious laws,” including several media-related bills, took place beginning at 7:00 p.m. Among the thousands of participants in Wednesday’s demonstrations were citizens and members of Internet meeting sites such as the Anti-MB Cafe, the Society of Candlelight Demonstration Arrestees and the Citizen Action to Eradicate Traitorous Groups, as well as members of the Seoul chapters of the National Union of Media Workers and the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo). Together with citizens participating in the bell-ringing event, these groups held an event, using candles to write the words “Self-destruct traitorous dictatorship Rat National Party” on the road to criticize the president and the GNP’s legislation drive.

Lee Ho-woo, 32, who said that he came with his girlfriend, who he met during the summer candlelight demonstrations, called 2008 “a year in which, along with the candlelight demonstrations, I came to have a new awareness of issues like irregular workers, the environment and the socially disadvantaged.”

Also gathering at Bosingak was the “Candlelight Walk” procession, which has taken place once a week since November. “Today’s candlelight demonstration is a warning that if they continue to ignore the will of the people, they will be judged for it in due time,” said walk supervisor Reverend Jeong Yeon-gil. Police positioned over 160 squadrons in the Bosingak area Wednesday evening in case of incidents.

Before moving on to join the demonstrators in the Bosingak area, parents and teachers affiliated with the Seoul chapter of the KTU gathered in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to hold a candlelight culture festival decrying the disciplining of teachers who refused to participate in the nationwide ilje gosa scholastic achievement assessment. They heightened the atmosphere by releasing over 1,000 yellow balloons with the words “Give our teachers back” and “Withdraw the MB vicious laws” written on them.

“I’m raising a candle not as a dismissed teacher but as a citizen of this nation,” said Kim Yun-ju, a teacher at Cheongwun Elementary School who was dismissed for permitting students to go on a field trip on the day of the ilje gosa. “Seeing them forcefully pushing through vicious laws like the amendments to the Broadcast Law and the National Intelligence Service Law up until the last day of the year, I felt indignation as a citizen,” Kim added.

The procession of NUMW members, who are on a general strike to stop the government’s seizure of the media, continued into its sixth day on Wednesday. Over 2,000 NUMW members gathered Wednesday afternoon in front of the National Assembly building on Yeouido to hold a “Third General Strike Assembly to Block Seizure of the Media and Protect Democracy.” In the evening, they gathered in front of the Korea Press Center on Sejongno Boulevard to hold a candlelight demonstration and an event informing people about the legitimacy of the strike.

Gang Dong-gu and Choi Jae-hoon, respectively the president-elect and vice president-elect of the KBS labor union, both of whom withdrew from the NUMW in August and have remained at a distance from the general strike, attended Wednesday’s gathering and expressed their opposition to the amendment of the media-related laws currently being pursued by the GNP. “As we launch the new leadership in early January, we are making the decision to shift to a system of struggle, and we are planning specific methods of struggle,” said Choi.

Meanwhile, Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station announced Wednesday that it would summon NUMW President Choi Sang-jae, NUMW policy and disputes office chief Kim Seong-geun, and MBC union head Park Seong-je on January 5 on charges that include violations of the law on assemblies and demonstration alleged to have taken place at the general strike’s first assembly on December 26.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]