Since several days I wanted to write a reply for the text of NOHAK
http://go.jinbo.net/commune/view.php?board=cool&id=22976&page=9

...but after the Maseok standoff last Monday I got some new thoughts...
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If I understood it right, in Maseok on Monday the first time it was happen that ordinary community Korean community members wanted to liberate 31 by immigration officers arrested Migrant Workers (MW). If this is true, this might be a real new quality... AND WE SHOULD USE IT! But later more about it.
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Now to the text from NOHAK

First of all: of course our main enemy is the capitalism.
But the capitalist class is trying to make maximum profit from everyone, especially from the supposed weak parts of the working class.
And in fact the majority of the S.K. working class is still a kind of weak. Just remember that there are 8.000.000 irregular workers in S.K., many of them in nearly the same terrible working conditions like MW (no health insurance, salaries bellow the official minimum wages, violent treatments against activists...)... But for instance in KCTU just around 700.000 workers and employees are organized... So, except some branches, such as the metal workers (Hyundai, Kia Motors...) or in the public sector, there is no real struggle power. You can see it every day how many organized workers in small or middle sized companies (often also in companies such as Samsung) struggling or even striking since years. But in fact nobody is listen to them. Many of them are just ignored by the capitalists and from time to time they just send the riot cops...
And the majority of the S.K. working class don’t care, they just want to have their livelihood, calmness and, if possible, a good career...
This is, in my opinion (maybe I’m wrong...??), the present situation of the working class - and not only in S.K. (By the way, even in KCTU just a small minority is real active, want a real change of the society... Am I right?)

Migrant Workers (MW):

First of all, MW are also just a product of this society, they are, like nearly everyone else educated in and during this (capitalist) society. Also in the MW community only few people want to be really active. Just remember the time when we made the sit-in strike in Myeong-dong: even in our best days maximum 100 MW were fighting for the rights for more than 150.000 MW in S.K. Many of the 150.000 had no jobs anymore, had nothing to lose anymore - even many of our friends and comrades - but they were not able (of course many were afraid) to make the step to become an activists.
But on the other side this is nothing special - the entire society is acting like that.

Another major problem for our, the MW struggle: the most of the MW - IF they have any job - are working in real small factories (you can call them family businesses). So MW are complete divided. Even they are organized inMTU/KCTU they can't have a significant struggle power. But on the other side, because the most of the MW are so-called undocumented - so they are all the time under extreme pressure of blackmail by their employers.

And here we come back to the first part of the text (the Maseok standoff)

Especially in  areas like Ansan, Maseok, Uijeongbu..., entire regions are depend on MW - employers, merchants, small landlords... And slowly – as you can see on the example of Maseok last Monday - they feel it more and more.
If they lose the MW, many Koreans there will lose a lot. The factories, the businesses, shops and many special restaurants will go bankrupt. They will lose the money to send their children to the universities in Seoul, they have to sell their houses, cars... Finally they will lose their basis existence!


DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN??!!

After some more thoughts I will continue this text... Please be patient!