December 31st, 2003
Today at a rally held in front of the mok-dong immigration office, about 40 immigration officers tried to seize and arrest migrant demonstrators. The rally was nearing an end when the police barricade was widened to allow the immigration thugs through. Bursting into the crowd, their initial strategy was to seize ETU leaders first as well as the women migrant workers present at the rally. Courageous student supporters reacted quickly, haranguing the officers and engaging them in tussles so that they couldn't reach their targets. And for their part, the targeted migrants, well trained to handle arrest attempts, were awe inspiring in their unified, cool headed and organised defense of themselves and each other. On numerous occasions during the chaotic scene that lasted less than 10 minutes, migrants fearlessly "de-arrested" each other and fought effectively against the hapless suited officials. Running through the crowd wielding handcuffs, the officers were, in the end, unable to catch a single migrant. As for the migrants, they "captured" 2 sets of handcuffs and an officer's cell phone as souvenirs. As many officer's faces were "egged" and spray painted by migrants as they were wrestling with them, the scene took on a rather bizarre, comical look as angry rainbow faced officers dripping with egg frantically sought their prey. All the migrants made it safely onto the bus in the nick of time, successfully foiling immigration cops' attempts to pull those near the door of the bus out.
Two student supporters were arrested but were successfully "de-arrested" later by fellow students.
This incident happened the day after an unofficial report that the Ministry o f Justice is planning a precision attack on the ETU-MB, focused on it's leaders, in an effort to destroy the fledgling union.
Today's events corroborate this report.
With spirits high after today's successful battle, and back safely at their temporary home at Myong-dong cathedral, the sit-in struggle team is planning a festive celebration to celebrate the coming New Year and to fortify their staunch determination to make 2004 a victorious year that will see their efforts at fighting for migrant's worker and human rights in Korea surge ahead.
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Letter of protest about Dec. 31 demonstration 
