Overseas express solidarity with Kim Jin-suk

Posted on : 2011-07-28 14:55 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Kim’s aerial protest has gained international attention, boosting support from prominent overseas individuals and groups
 a Direction Committee member at the Busan office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
a Direction Committee member at the Busan office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

By Lee Moon-yeong

Prominent overseas intellectuals are sending messages of support for Kim Jin-suk, a Direction Committee member at the Busan office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). The intellectuals are also issuing calls for a solution to the situation triggered by the company’s layoffs. Kim is currently more than 200 days into an aerial protest in a Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) crane.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, who recently declared his support for Kim, sent an additional message of support Wednesday. The message of support from Chomsky and eleven other critical intellectuals came in response to a e-mail appear for support in resolving the HHIC situation by the National Association of Professors for Democratic Society, the Korean Professors’ Union, and the Korea Progressive Academy Council.

“I would like to express my support for your courageous and honorable actions in solidarity with Korean workers, and your efforts to support peace and justice generally,” Chomsky wrote in his message.

“I hope and trust that your initiatives will proceed, as they should, without attempts at disruption by the government or anyone else,” he continued.

Progressive labor theorist and director of Germany‘s Social Economic Action Research Institute Holger Heide also expressed his heartfelt support for the battle of the HHIC workers.

Cultural researcher and Professor of Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University Chen Kuan-hsing said, “As a country famed for capturing political democracy through struggle, South Korean is rapidly losing trust by tacitly condoning HHIC‘s secretive layoffs.”

“The South Korean government needs to make efforts to revolve the issue, and Hanjin needs to take concrete actions so that Kim Jin-suk and her colleagues can return to work,” Chen added.

Central University of Finance and Economics professor and Chinese market authority Li Peng said, “I hope the resistance and fight for survival rights and justice can meet with a satisfactory resolution.”

Also expressing messages of support were Simon Fraser University chair professor Michael Lebowitz, a former policy adviser to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez; Jean-Yves Fortand, professor of France’s University of Nancy; Jose Alcides Santos, a professor at Brazil‘s Federal University of Juiz de Fora; Arnulfo Arteaga Garcia, professor at the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico; and Yun Geon-cha, professor of Japan’s Kanazawa University.

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

 

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