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If the conference launched the fight against the Yoon administration’s militarization of space, it also remained connected to frontline struggles against militarization in South Korea, the United States’s first line of attack against China. In particular, presenters spoke about the construction of airports with dual military functions. Kim Yeon-tae president of the People’s Action to Nullify The New Saemangeum Airport, noted the absurdity of spending over 40 trillion won ($30 billion) to build 10 more airports in an area as small as South Korea, where 11 out of 15 airports are running at a loss. Constructing new airports only made sense when taking into account their dual military use. More specifically, Saemangeum International Airport—right across from China and connected to the US Kunsan Air Force Base—would allow the Air Force Base to launch more jets. Soon-ae Kim, chair of the Operating Committee of Jeju’s Green Party, explained how building a second airport on the island as well as prospects of its military use violate Jeju’s official designation as an island of peace.
Conference speakers and attendees made clear that their movement was rooted in frontline struggles against profiteering from human and environmental destruction and that it would continue. Yong-woon Hwang, a journalist and activist against the Jeju Naval Base, proposed building public awareness around AI and the militarization of space through the annual Whistler Film Festival. Ultimately, the activists gathered to build a better world we can live in and leave behind for our children.
December 3, 2024 marks the 32nd International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which was officially designated in 1992 to commemorate the adoption of the global disability action plan by the 37th United Nations General Assembly (December 3, 1982). 31 years ago, the first International Day of Persons with Disabilities began with people with disabilities all around the world seizing the microphone from politicians on the stage and trying to make their voices heard. It was meant to reproach politicians for having looked the other way in relation to the rights of the disabled and to resist widespread attitudes embodying mere pity taking.
On December 3, 2024, the Korean disability movement will have a 2-day long protest. December is a crucial political month in Korea because this is customarily when important discussions around the government budget and legislation happen. They call for the enactment of seven disability rights laws (Act on Guarantee of Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Act on Promotion of the Transportation Convenience of Mobility Disadvantaged Persons, Special Act on Supporting Jobs Focusing on Disability Rights, Act on Persons with Developmental Disabilities, Act on Guarantee of Rights of Independent Life of Persons with Disabilities, Act on Life-long Learning of Persons with Disabilities, Act on Special Education) to achieve institutional changes, and demand a commensurate budget for those laws to ensure their full implementation.
As the American presidential elections approach, it is timely to deepen our reflection on the political landscape of the United States, understand the predominant mindset among Americans, and analyze recurring patterns in local political thought. Three major ideological currents stand out in America: social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and liberals. Of these three, the latter warrant closer scrutiny as they are frequently mistaken for progressives or leftists. Yet, addressing humanity's crises requires correcting this misconception. True progress necessitates a break from the frameworks of capitalism and imperialism, which liberals refuse to do.
US Military Alliances: The United States is using its post-World War II military alliances to contain China, leading to regional instability and the formation of a China-Russia-North Korea bloc.
Regional Hotspots: The US is involved in various regional conflicts, including the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula, and the South China Sea, often through military exercises and defense agreements.
Taiwan Tensions: Taiwan’s separatism, influenced by historical US and Japanese interventions, is a major point of conflict, with the US pushing Taiwan towards a potential war with China.
Peace Movements: Activists advocate for peace through inter-regional solidarity and oppose US military actions that destabilize East Asia.
The only way to stop the ongoing genocide is for the citizens of the world to stand together in solidarity and fight for Palestinian freedom, and this is an important task for all those who stand in solidarity with Palestine.
We are approaching the one-year anniversary of the Israeli offensive that devastated Gaza. Civil society in South Korea is also planning a national action on October 5. Let's work together to end the colonization and liberation of Palestine, for freedom and justice in Palestine, and for the future of Palestinian children.
The writer traveled to Venezuela from July 23-29 as an international observer for the presidential election. The writer received an overview of the election process and visited five polling stations in Caracas to observe the voting process in person. Voting was taking place in a free and peaceful environment. After the election, the writer participated in the announcement of the results and witnessed the Venezuelan people gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in Caracas to celebrate the results. The writer also saw the violent protests that took place in Caracas the day after the election.
On July 28, Venezuela's presidential election was held, and the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that total voter turnout was 59%, with President Nicolas Maduro receiving 51.95% of the vote (6.4 million votes) and Edmundo Gonzalez receiving 43.18% (5.3 million votes) of the nine opposition candidates. As a result, incumbent President Nicolas Maduro will begin his third term in January 2025. However, the results of Venezuela's presidential election have been under debate for a month now, both within the country and around the world.
Venezuela is currently undergoing a revolution that challenges the U.S. unipolar order in favor of a multipolar world. Despite facing issues like corruption and economic difficulties, the Bolivarian Revolution—a 25-year-old initiative of direct democracy that empowers the people—has bolstered communes and continues to secure basic human needs through social programs, including free healthcare and housing missions.
Moreover, the Bolivarian process encourages regional cooperation in Latin America. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America—The People's Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) remains committed to promoting trade and cooperation based on solidarity. This commitment explains why the majority of Venezuelans have supported the current government for 25 years and why Latin American and Caribbean nations stand in solidarity with Venezuela.
As South Korea strengthens its alliance with the U.S., Venezuelan news is often reported through the lens of mainstream Western media. For instance, the media labels Nicolas Maduro as a “dictator” simply because he is serving his third term. Nonetheless, it is crucial to observe the Bolivarian Revolution as it continues to foster direct democracy, social programs ensuring basic needs, and solidarity-based trade. These efforts symbolize hope for a society distinct from one dominated by capitalism, which exacerbates the wealth gap, views basic needs as individual burdens, and disregards the people's will in politics. I am writing from Venezuela, serving as an international observer for the presidential election, and I am keenly anticipating the results on Sunday (July 28).
This striving to be the best intensifies when you mix the West’s hyper-individualism–leading to societies that become free-for-alls. Individuals become obsessed with self-recognition and recognition from others in our Achievement Society which values titles, awards, and status. According to Han, the same obsession with increasing one’s “worth” is how positive power drives us to self-exploit into depression and burnout. Han particularly emphasizes that “freedom itself, which is supposed to be the opposite of constraint, is producing coercion”. When you combine the self-monitoring of positive power with capitalism’s "unlimited potential" ideology, you essentially self-exploit to achieve your goals. Symbolically, a pair of eyeballs that invade your psyche for productivity is bound to lead to burnout, shame, or depression. The inevitable “shortcomings” or “failures” will undermine your “value” or belief in accomplishing the impossible.
Credit: Lee Nallalingham
When this incessant push for achievement and success becomes too much, individuals burn out and fizzle into depression. Understandably, nearly half (48%) of 18-to-29-year-olds said they feel drained compared with 40% of their peers aged 30 and up, while women (46%) reported higher levels of burnout than men (37%). To fail in this Achievement Society or otherwise not prosper is to “see themselves as responsible for their (shortcomings) and feel shame instead of questioning society or the system”. Because we operate as individual “projects” to be constantly improved upon, the self-exploitation of positive power turns our aggression against ourselves– leaving many of us inclined towards depression rather than demands for a social project for real change.
Nearly 200 years after Marx called for “workers of the world to unite,” internationalism is still a secondary priority for most of the left, rarely moving beyond handshakes between trade union leaders or statements by progressive parties. It’s ironic then that peasants, a class often denigrated as provincial and backward, have built the most successful international movement of the 21st century. La Via Campesina or “The Peasant Way'' started as a declaration by 31 peasant organizations and has now grown to 182 national affiliates and 200 million members. In her book, “La Via Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants,” Annette Aurelie Desmarais reveals peasant activists used international solidarity to fortify—rather than detract from—local and national struggles.
As of April 2023, 18,997 pieces of space debris orbit the Earth. This debris includes spent rocket stages, defunct satellites, and other fragments from various space activities. The increasing number of satellite launches raises the likelihood of collisions between debris and active satellites. Such collisions would generate even more debris, which could significantly increase the risk of further collisions and potentially disrupt the satellites we rely on for communication, navigation, weather forecasting, and other essential services.
During the colonial era, communists were the most targeted and repressed group in the peninsula, but everything changed after Japan’s defeat in the Second World War. The soon-after freed communists would hold positions in at least half of the people's committees that were prepared to govern a post-colonial Korea. While the Comintern advised communists to build support among the masses, right-wing nationalists continued to lose relevance in exile and the local elite discredited themselves through colonial collaboration.
Unfortunately, the US military occupation and the Korean War would eradicate the Korean Left (the first casualty of the Cold War). Nevertheless, Communism represented the radical hope for an equally nationalist and cosmopolitan Korea, a dream kept alive by the Soviet Union's strong commitment to the colonized world. The Comintern’s guidance may have been heavy handed but they provided the resources and connections Korean communists needed to survive persecution and showed us what we can achieve when the left combines international solidarity with local organizing.
We thank Jun and Yolanda for sharing home care workers struggle to end sweatshop labor in New York City. Homecare workers are arguing that the attack on their rights will spread to other industries, but it’s also true that it’s spread to other countries, as we are seeing with the South Korean government’s attack on migrant care workers rights. Home care workers have shown that we must move beyond trade union consciousness to a genuine mass movement that organizes workers where they live and where they work, grounded with an analysis of US imperialism and global capitalism.
Every year on May 15, we commemorate the atrocities of the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, during which more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homelands as a result of the Zionist pursuit of a Jewish ethno-state atop their homes in 1948. As Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, Zionist militias had been laying the groundwork for this ethnic cleansing by carrying out campaigns of terror against villages and cities across historic Palestine, leaving devastation and massacres in their wake, from Deir Yassin to Tantura. Those who fled this violence would become one of the largest refugee populations in the world, a population that continues to endure displacement today. As we mark these events amidst the backdrop of a seven-month-long genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it’s more clear than ever that the Nakba never ended; its violence has persisted over the decades in the form of continued Israeli aggression and occupation, ethnic cleansing campaigns, house demolitions, the imprisonment of children, women, and men, and the persistent efforts to deny Palestinians any semblance of dignity, justice or self-determination.
On the hundredth anniversary of Lenin’s death, the Tricontinental Institute of Social Research released a 21st-century update to Lenin’s monumental pamphlet, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. In its latest dossier, “Hyper-Imperialism,” Tricontinental explores how the United States, desperate to reverse its decline, is aggressively dragging the whole world into war, both conventional and economic. On March 9th, No Cold War hosted a panel of intellectuals, activists, and journalists from around the world to discuss how hyperimperialism has affected the Global South, from blockades in Latin America, to a militarized island chain in the Indo-Pacific, and bankrolling genocide in the Gaza Strip.
58th 'Commute by Subway' protest underway at Seoul Station Sound equipment confiscated, press conference dismissed before even beginningDirector Park Kyung-seok chains himself to an activist "to avoid being dragged away "Police and Seoul Metro employees strangle Park while attempting to cut chains
In a future where the world seems more hopeless than today, unemployment, fascism, and forever wars have metastasized beyond what states can manage. In a desperate bid to stay in power, the United States invades Iran, triggering a global famine. However, in M.E. O’Brien’s novel, “Everything for Everyone,” desperate and hungry New Yorkers launch an insurrection at Hunts Point Market, the world’s largest food distribution center. The rebels turn Hunts Point into the New York Commune, which sparks a worldwide revolution that finally takes down capitalism.
On January 19, 150 people protested in front of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) office in the city of Daejeon, demanding the South Korean government stop arming Israel. While Palestine may seem like a distant conflict to South Koreans, the South Korean military-industrial complex is a key pillar in the Israeli war machine. According to Peace Momo, Hanwha, South Korea’s leading defense company, signed a major technology cooperation and export deal with Israeli weapons company, Elbit Systems, at the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) in 2021.
This summer, after two decades, I finally made the trip back to Palestine to visit my extended family, to connect with the land, and renew my understanding of what life is like on the ground for the millions of Palestinians who continue to live under Israel’s unjust and illegal occupation.
July 27th marked the 70th year anniversary of the 1953 ceasefire to the Korean War. In the three years leading up to the anniversary, South Korean peace movements organized the international campaign Korean Peace Appeal to end the Korean War with a peace treaty. Yet, the anniversary has come and gone and peace is nowhere on the horizon. In fact, rather than working towards defusing tensions in the Korean Peninsula, the Biden Administration is using North Korea as a cover for building a NATO-level trilateral alliance with South Korea and Japan against China.
Upon taking office, when South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol sidestepped claims for historical accountability of Japanese colonialism, he cleared the way for the US’s regional “cornerstone” (Japan) and “linchpin” (South Korea) to connect with each other. In the process, they overcame the US’s roughshod San Francisco system, which had sacrificed justice against Japanese colonialism at the altar of anti-communism. On Aug. 18, to immunize the trilateral alliance from changes in administration, at Camp David, Biden, Yoon, and Kishida announced the “Spirit of Camp David” which would institutionalize annual trilateral summits, meetings, and consultations.
On Aug. 28th, to explore the state of South Korea’s peace movement and the tasks ahead for it, I met with Francis Dae-hoon Lee, a long-time peace activist and veteran of Korea’s democratization movement and a Professor of Peace Studies at Sungkonghoe University and Director of Peacemomo, a research institute for peace and education. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
eishi Hinada is a National Executive Committee member of ZENKO (National Assembly for Peace and Democracy). ZENKO emerged in 1970 out of the student movement in the 1960s. He joined in 1981 as a university student activist in the anti-nuclear peace movement in Hiroshima.
On May 1, May Day, a construction worker set himself on fire. The crackdown of the construction union by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration drove Yang Hoi-dong to his death. His death is the social murder of the Yoon Suk-yeol government.
Illegal multi-level subcontracting is rampant, and delayed/unpaid wages ongoing. Construction workers who have struggled to change construction sites, which relegate worker safety to the background, demanding to be treated with respect as workers and technicians, are being cornered as/ turned into criminals accompanied by extortion threats at regular intervals. Since January of this year, there have been 13 seizures and searches, 15 arrests, and 950 union members subpoenaed for investigation. The massive crackdown against the construction union has taken the life of the martyr.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, journalist, and editor. He has written over 20 books including ‘The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World’, ‘Red Star Over the Third World’, and ‘Washington Bullets’, which was translated by the ISC. He is director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research that recently published another work that was translated by the ISC, ‘Washington’s New Cold War: A Socialist Perspective’.
Vijay came to Korea for three days in early December to give a series of talks about the new cold war and other issues affecting the world. We met Vijay on his third afternoon in Seoul for a conversation about organizing and the importance of growing the left domestically and internationally.
Accidents can occur in any form in our shared spaces of life and work. However, in cases where the accident could have been prevented in advance, yet people are killed from the neglect of corporations or the state, those cases are not accidents but murder. And if there are a large number of victims of the disaster, how is it any different than a massacre?
On Sept. 4th, 62% of voters rejected a new Constitutional proposal that would have replaced the existing Pinochet era one. To examine why the constitutional proposal was rejected and the tasks ahead for Chile’s left, on Oct. 27th, Dae-Han Song interviewed activist, politician, and journalist Taroa Zúñiga Silva for the ISC Progressive Forum.
Taroa Zúñiga Silva is a journalist for Globetrotter. She is also the co-editor of "Venezuela, Vortex of the War of the 21st Century" and a coordinating committee member of Argos, Observatory for Migration & Human Rights, and the co-founder of the Venezuelan Faldas-r collective for women's sexual and reproductive rights. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Ever since World War II, the US has waged war on countries and the world’s people to build its global capitalist empire. The US spends more on its military than the next 7 countries combined.
On June, Seoul’s High Court ordered Japanese companies to pay reparations to forced laborers under Japanese colonization. In response, in July, Japan imposed restrictions on export of three chemicals crucial to the manufacture of Korean semiconductors.
On Aug. 20, as part of the International Progressive Politics Forum at the Seoul Justice Party, we had a video conversation with Vijay Prashad, author of several books and articles, notably “Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World” and “The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South.”
It was eerily beautiful as we walked along the fortress wall of the Democracy and Human Rights Memorial building. It was peaceful standing beneath trees that hung over the security gate as we were introduced to the place where we stood.
I had the opportunity to attend two back to back events by the ISC about democracy and human rights in downtown Seoul, South Korea. Sounds boring right? However, these events were engaging and new for two reasons.
With the backing of the United States and the IAEA, it is only a matter of time before the wastewater dump begins. Once the discharge starts, the Pacific ocean will be contaminated with radiation for the next three decades. With no clear prediction on how the radioactive discharge might disrupt the ecosystem of the ocean and the planet, what choices should we make? It is time for the people around the world to come in solidarity with the people of Fukushima and international environmental organizations to engage in a sweeping campaign to fight against the wastewater dump. Such a global ecological catastrophe must be stopped.
In order to see the intentions behind the Korea-Japan and Korea-US summits, we need to look at their various contexts. Yet, it appears that the highest priority for these various contexts is the US strategy for global dominance, and in particular the East Asian strategy. As for the Korean society’s attitude towards Japan, anti-Japanese sentiment is still strong. Despite this, the improvement of relations between Korea and Japan or the act of emphasizing future partnership can be seen as being in line with the US Northeast Asian strategy. Japan is the primary partner in the US strategy to contain China. Japan is also working hard to be faithful to this position. Under these circumstances, it is reasonable to view the improvement of Japan-Korea relations in Northeast Asia as a reflection of the will to realize a strong united front centered on the US strategy for Northeast Asia.
In the end it is a policy that represents the interest of the capitalists. From a global perspective, the Korean work hours are already very long, so it would not be feasible to formally extend them further. As a result, the government presented their flexibilization as a workaround. The government presented “mutual consent on working conditions”, but without a labor union’s power to defy the employer, this would obviously be a consent in name only. According to the information released by the Ministry of Labor last December, the union membership rate in Korea is only 14.2%, with 2.93 million members. It is only clear that working hours would increase under paper-thin consent in smaller, non-unionized workplaces. This increase in working hours serve only to increase the profit of capitalists. The availability of profit is limited under currently allowed working hours, and in the cutthroat competition between capitalists, securing additional working hours would be a godsend.
Beyond an economic problem, the issue of food is a matter of survival. In a world, where global factors, outside our control, amplify volatility, government policy to manage this is important. This is why agriculture should not be approached simply from an economic perspective especially in the age of climate crisis. Unlike industrial products, food should not be considered a product that can simply be imported if we do not have enough.
Korea has no choice but to raise interest rates in line with the global trend of interest rate hikes, but the situation in Korea is a little different from other countries. Hence the burden caused by the interest rate hike, even when taking into account some speculative elements, is causing financial difficulties to households and businesses.
SADD's "taking the subway at rush hour" is an act of disobedience toward a non-disabled-centered society, which does not guarantee the rights of the disabled as citizens as stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Korea. The responsibility lies with Korean politics and the government, who do not listen unless the disabled resort to screaming.
People’s movement rapidly decreased as more people began working from home and many restaurants and cafes closed due to the lack of customers. In order to overcome the crisis, each country has injected huge amounts of money to restore the economy, but workers, ordinary people, small and medium-sized business owners and the self-employed are still experiencing much hardship.
"The movement for disability rights in Korea has been full-fledged since the 2001 struggle for the right to mobility. That year, the death of a person on a wheelchair after falling off a subway station lift sparked fierce protests and struggles demanding elevators at subway stations and low floor buses. Activists chained themselves to subway tracks and placed themselves in front of buses. The movement fought, often enduring insults, to expose society’s hypocrisy and change a society centered on the non-disabled towards one in which no one is marginalized."
Let us examine social housing in Korea. The Korean Social Housing Association was founded in 2015, and has supplied 4,389 (3,316 in Seoul, 883 in Gyeonggi-province) housing units in the Seoul metropolitan area as well as the Jeollabuk-do province, and the city of Busan. With cooperatives, schools, small and medium enterprises and non-profit organizations participating, the Association provides social housing appropriate to Korea’s conditions (revitalizing empty homes, collective housing etc.). However, still in its nascent stage, it is financially dependent on local government funding, thus leading to a very low supply. The current data casts doubt over the future sustainability of the Association, and a new direction of improvement must be sought.
How Dutch social housing reached such a high distribution
The Netherlands’social housing started in the 19th century to solve the housing crisis of urban workers. Through the World Wars, the urban housing shortage worsened, and the government supported the establishment of cooperatives to provide workers with social housing. However, unlike Korean public housing, which is limited to low-income households, Dutch social housing was universal, available to everyone. In addition, the Netherlands’ social housing is operated not by the government but by housing associations (80% non-profit, 20% for-profit). Currently, the Netherlands has 2.25 million units of social housing. And in its capital, Amsterdam, nine housing associations under the Amsterdam Federation of Housing Associations own and operate 190,000 housing units.
Like the rest of the world, South Korea is also experiencing economic difficulties due to COVID-19. In Korea, resentment among self-employed shopkeepers is increasing. This is because the government's measures for self-employed shopkeepers are not enough while the latter have to bear great financial losses due to the government's social distancing measures. The government’s compensation for the shopkeepers remains paltry and its social distancing measures are sacrificing them again.
The International Strategy Center (ISC) spent June and July hosting events and study groups on queer issues. We have had movie nights and book clubs centered around media representation, queer theory in the context of leftism, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US. On July 28th, we concluded these two months with our Progressive Forum interviewing Holic, the president of the Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center.
The interview was part of the International Strategy Center’s Progressive Forum where we interviewed James Mudoon, a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Exeter, a research association at the Oxford Internet Institute, and head of digital research at the Autonomy think tank. The interview was conducted by Mariam Ibrahim and edited for clarity and brevity by Matthew Phillips.
On April 28th, the International Strategy Center and Progressives for All of the Justice Party invited Nick Srnicek, lecturer at King’s College London and author of Platform Capitalism to its monthly Progressive Forum to talk about the political-economic of platforms. The interview was conducted by Norbert Morvan and edited for clarity and brevity by Matthew Phillips.
Ana Cha is a member of MST’s National Coordination and does work at the national school with the International and political education collectives. She has been a member of the MST for the past 20 years and became involved in the northeast part of Brazil. We interviewed her for our monthly ISC Progressive Forum on Sunday Feb. 19th. The interview was carried out by the International Strategy Center’s Zoe Yungmi Blank and Mike Cannon.
On Aug. 28, the International Strategy Center (ISC) and the Seoul Women’s Association held a Progressive Forum entitled “Post Roe v. Wade: Reproductive Rights Through a US Lens.” The following is the interview (conducted by ISC’s Zoe Yungmi Blank) with Joyce Chediac, a Redstockings member in the 1970s and currently an editor with the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Liberation News and a staff member with its women’s publication Breaking The Chain. This is an abridged version edited for clarity and brevity.
On April 10, the International Strategy Center held its monthly Progressive Forum on “How NATO and Sanctions Perpetuate War and Suffering.” It hosted Reiner Braun (executive director of the 131 year old International Peace Bureau, a founder of the No to NATO Network, and author of Einstein - Peace Now); and Vijay Prashad (journalist, author, and director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Change). The event involved presentations, followed by questions from the ISC and audience members. Below is a synthesis of the presentations and Q&A.
![[April Progressive Forum] How NATO & Sanctions Perpetuate War & Suffering](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1649816191584-5BYVDVA702S0M9DCJFEB/photo_2022-04-13_11-06-19.jpg)
On April 10, the International Strategy Center held its monthly Progressive Forum on “How NATO and Sanctions Perpetuate War and Suffering.” It hosted Reiner Braun (executive director of the 131 year old International Peace Bureau, a founder of the No to NATO Network, and author of Einstein - Peace Now); and Vijay Prashad, journalist, author, and director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Change. The event involved presentations, followed by questions from the ISC and audience members.
“...Even the prominent US diplomat George Kennan, who authored the post Second World War American foreign policy towards the Soviet Union, warned, in 1998, that NATO expansion was not a good idea. Russians would "gradually react quite adversely, and it will affect their policies." It was a strategic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anyone else.
Now, there is an interesting dynamic in NATO expansion. We, of course, also have the agency of the countries between NATO and Russia. Most of these countries historically felt a threat from the east. And that's why their elites (in Poland, or Czech Republic, etc) wanted to be part of the NATO security structure. So there is also that local agency there. It's not only about two big powers.
However, when the expansion came closer and closer to the Russian border, that of course increased the tension. And so if American policy played a role that would be opening the door of NATO to Georgia and Ukraine. If we had a time machine and went back to 1991, and defined Ukraine, Belarus as neutral states, as happened with Finland and Austria, we wouldn't be experiencing many issues we are experiencing now. But that's, of course, a missed opportunity. Now, we have a completely different reality and dynamics…”
To help explain the crisis in Ukraine, the International Strategy Center (ISC) interviewed Volodomyr Ishchenko (Ishchenko), a Research Associate at Osteuropa-Institut Berlin and a member of PONARS Eurasia. Ischenko’s work on deficient revolutions and Ukrainian protest movements have made him a sought out left wing voice on Ukrainian politics, including interviews and articles with the Jacobin Magazine, Al Jazeera, and Truthout. Below is an excerpt of an interview with Ischenko by the International Strategic Center for our monthly Progressive Forum.
![[December Progressive Forum] How Vaccine Inequity Created Omicron](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1639881176118-RBE7O7R5MHWOIWXMZTQK/12%EC%9B%94%EC%A7%84%EB%B3%B4%ED%8F%AC%EB%9F%BC.jpg)
We invite Fatima Hassan, co-founder and director of Health Justice Initiative and discuss how to dismantle justice inequity and injustice and finally resolve the COVID19 pandemic.
![[ISC Progressive Forum] Berlin Historic Vote for Housing for All: Referendum Victory to Expropriate and "Socialize" Housing](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1639880736750-R4PDYOZU8V6NIP1EETSS/11%EC%9B%94+%EC%A7%84%EB%B3%B4%ED%8F%AC%EB%9F%BC.jpg)
The ISC, the Yongsan Citizens' Alliance, Justice Party of Seoul, the South Korean Network for Housing Rights and Solidarity for Housing Rights talk with Volkan Sayman (sociologist and researcher with the Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.) about the organizing that achieved the victory, the challenges and tasks ahead, and their vision of social housing.
On October 7th, at 7pm, the International Strategy Center welcomed Vijay Prashad to the Progressive Forum monthly series. Vijay Prashad -- author, journalist, international solidarity activist, and director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research -- educated and engaged with us about Afghanistan's past, present, and future.
On June 19, 2019, the International attended the Justic Party’s World Progressive Politics Forum and World Advancement Politics Forum’s video interview with journalist David Perejil.
4월 25일 국제전략센터가 참여하는 정의당서울시당 세계진보정치포럼에서 대만의 진보정당 시대역량과의 화상간담회를 진행했습니다.
1월 23일 국제전략센터가 참여하고 있는 정의당 세계진보정치포럼에서 스페인의 진보정당 바르셀로나엔꼬무와의 화상간담회를 진행했습니다.
We seldom hear about modern Africa from an African perspective. As part of his second of three parts in “Understanding Africa,” a Kenyan organizer writes about how a changing global order after World War II and African people’s collaboration and resistance shaped modern Africa.
This enlarging cache of U.S.-led anti-China coalitions in the region, and the intensification of joint and multinational war games—such as the live-fire “Combined Annihilation drills” this May, the “largest U.S.-South Korea military drills in 70 years,” or Ulchi Freedom Shield this August, which involved the use of nuclear assets—raises the threat of regional or even global war. To prevent war and build peace in Northeast Asia, and join forces with activists and groups working toward a growing non-aligned movement within and beyond the region, the Seoul-based International Strategy Center organized a two-day online forum on October 28, focused on frontline anti-war struggles in Northeast Asia, and the 29th, focused on peace and non-aligned movements around the world. This article details the key topics and discussions from the October 28th forum.
The United States, Japan, and South Korea will fully operationalize a missile warning system “by the end of December.” While justified as a means to counter North Korea’s missile launches, more worrisome, it escalates tensions in the region with China through the “NATOification” of all three countries, agreed upon in the “Spirit of Camp David” agreement.
The Kishida government has ramped up military buildup in preparation for a potential war in Taiwan, including upgrading civilian airports for military use. The most vocal protests to the Japanese government’s militarism have come from Okinawa, who would bear the brunt of the cost of war. A 2022 study revealed that 83 percent of Okinawans believed that Okinawa’s bases would be targeted during a conflict.
Those that call China an enemy of the U.S. have yet to tell us how and why that is so. The Western media repeatedly fails to uphold the basic tenets of good journalism when painting China as a global threat: China’s last armed conflict was the four-week Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979; in contrast, since 1945, when it “cast itself as the global peacekeeper,” the US has been in a state of endless war and invasion , not to mention its 20-year wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And yet based on media portrayals, Russian or Chinese spy balloons are flying all around us. Why does the US conjure imaginary enemies? For armaments to be manufactured and generate profit for the war industry, public consent also needs to be manufactured. Without such an enemy, real or perceived, maintaining military budgets ten and a hundred times the size of most countries would be impossible.
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As conflicts and tensions rise in Northeast Asia, intellectuals and activists working on the front lines for peace will gather to foster solidarity. Please check out our speakers and disccussants of the forum and sign up NOW!!
Yoshikawa says that peace movements are responding by working to “create a larger, more cohesive peace movement” that is organizing events and rallies to which peace groups from mainland Japan and abroad are invited. The growing US-Japan-South Korea trilateral alliance has “sparked a counter-alliance among peace movements” in each country. If Okinawa is an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the US to wage war, it can also become a bastion for movements to wage peace.
July 27 marked the 70th anniversary of the 1953 ceasefire to the Korean War. In the three years leading up to the anniversary, South Korean peace movements organized the international Korea Peace Appeal campaign to replace the armistice agreement with a peace treaty to conclude the 70-plus-year Korean War. The anniversary has come and gone, but, instead of peace, the Joe Biden, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Fumio Kishida administrations are stoking tensions in the Korean Peninsula as a smokescreen to build a NATO-level U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral alliance against China.
2023 ISC International Forum Online Event
Building Peace: Preventing War in Northeast Asia
Day 1 - Struggles on the Frontlines
Korea: Oct. 28th 10am-noon ㅣBerlin: Oct. 28th 3-5am ㅣNYC: Oct. 27th 9-11pm
Day 2 - Peace and the New Non-Aligned Movements
Korea: Oct. 29th 5-7pm ㅣBerlin: Oct. 29th 9-11am (Daylight Savings) ㅣNYC: Oct. 29th 4-6am
July 27 marked the 70th anniversary of the 1953 ceasefire to the Korean War. In the three years leading up to the anniversary, South Korean peace movements organized the international Korea Peace Appeal campaign to replace the armistice agreement with a peace treaty to conclude the 70-plus-year Korean War. The anniversary has come and gone, but, instead of peace, the Joe Biden, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Fumio Kishida administrations are stoking tensions in the Korean Peninsula as a smokescreen to build a NATO-level U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral alliance against China.
If the conference launched the fight against the Yoon administration’s militarization of space, it also remained connected to frontline struggles against militarization in South Korea, the United States’s first line of attack against China. In particular, presenters spoke about the construction of airports with dual military functions. Kim Yeon-tae president of the People’s Action to Nullify The New Saemangeum Airport, noted the absurdity of spending over 40 trillion won ($30 billion) to build 10 more airports in an area as small as South Korea, where 11 out of 15 airports are running at a loss. Constructing new airports only made sense when taking into account their dual military use. More specifically, Saemangeum International Airport—right across from China and connected to the US Kunsan Air Force Base—would allow the Air Force Base to launch more jets. Soon-ae Kim, chair of the Operating Committee of Jeju’s Green Party, explained how building a second airport on the island as well as prospects of its military use violate Jeju’s official designation as an island of peace.
Conference speakers and attendees made clear that their movement was rooted in frontline struggles against profiteering from human and environmental destruction and that it would continue. Yong-woon Hwang, a journalist and activist against the Jeju Naval Base, proposed building public awareness around AI and the militarization of space through the annual Whistler Film Festival. Ultimately, the activists gathered to build a better world we can live in and leave behind for our children.
December 3, 2024 marks the 32nd International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which was officially designated in 1992 to commemorate the adoption of the global disability action plan by the 37th United Nations General Assembly (December 3, 1982). 31 years ago, the first International Day of Persons with Disabilities began with people with disabilities all around the world seizing the microphone from politicians on the stage and trying to make their voices heard. It was meant to reproach politicians for having looked the other way in relation to the rights of the disabled and to resist widespread attitudes embodying mere pity taking.
On December 3, 2024, the Korean disability movement will have a 2-day long protest. December is a crucial political month in Korea because this is customarily when important discussions around the government budget and legislation happen. They call for the enactment of seven disability rights laws (Act on Guarantee of Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Act on Promotion of the Transportation Convenience of Mobility Disadvantaged Persons, Special Act on Supporting Jobs Focusing on Disability Rights, Act on Persons with Developmental Disabilities, Act on Guarantee of Rights of Independent Life of Persons with Disabilities, Act on Life-long Learning of Persons with Disabilities, Act on Special Education) to achieve institutional changes, and demand a commensurate budget for those laws to ensure their full implementation.
As the American presidential elections approach, it is timely to deepen our reflection on the political landscape of the United States, understand the predominant mindset among Americans, and analyze recurring patterns in local political thought. Three major ideological currents stand out in America: social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and liberals. Of these three, the latter warrant closer scrutiny as they are frequently mistaken for progressives or leftists. Yet, addressing humanity's crises requires correcting this misconception. True progress necessitates a break from the frameworks of capitalism and imperialism, which liberals refuse to do.
US Military Alliances: The United States is using its post-World War II military alliances to contain China, leading to regional instability and the formation of a China-Russia-North Korea bloc.
Regional Hotspots: The US is involved in various regional conflicts, including the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula, and the South China Sea, often through military exercises and defense agreements.
Taiwan Tensions: Taiwan’s separatism, influenced by historical US and Japanese interventions, is a major point of conflict, with the US pushing Taiwan towards a potential war with China.
Peace Movements: Activists advocate for peace through inter-regional solidarity and oppose US military actions that destabilize East Asia.
The only way to stop the ongoing genocide is for the citizens of the world to stand together in solidarity and fight for Palestinian freedom, and this is an important task for all those who stand in solidarity with Palestine.
We are approaching the one-year anniversary of the Israeli offensive that devastated Gaza. Civil society in South Korea is also planning a national action on October 5. Let's work together to end the colonization and liberation of Palestine, for freedom and justice in Palestine, and for the future of Palestinian children.
![[Deepfake Sex Crime OUT Statement] “You Can’t Put Us Down”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1725596450516-8HFL8IKA3A397V1JRXA3/%EB%94%A5%ED%8E%98%EC%9D%B4%ED%81%AC+1.JPG)
The shock of real-life sex crimes in our everyday lives is shaking the country as the full extent of the spread of deep-fake pornography is coming to light. Deep-fake sex crimes have been exposed everywhere in women's lives: in universities, middle and high schools, the military, clubs, and families.
The writer traveled to Venezuela from July 23-29 as an international observer for the presidential election. The writer received an overview of the election process and visited five polling stations in Caracas to observe the voting process in person. Voting was taking place in a free and peaceful environment. After the election, the writer participated in the announcement of the results and witnessed the Venezuelan people gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in Caracas to celebrate the results. The writer also saw the violent protests that took place in Caracas the day after the election.
On July 28, Venezuela's presidential election was held, and the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that total voter turnout was 59%, with President Nicolas Maduro receiving 51.95% of the vote (6.4 million votes) and Edmundo Gonzalez receiving 43.18% (5.3 million votes) of the nine opposition candidates. As a result, incumbent President Nicolas Maduro will begin his third term in January 2025. However, the results of Venezuela's presidential election have been under debate for a month now, both within the country and around the world.
Venezuela is currently undergoing a revolution that challenges the U.S. unipolar order in favor of a multipolar world. Despite facing issues like corruption and economic difficulties, the Bolivarian Revolution—a 25-year-old initiative of direct democracy that empowers the people—has bolstered communes and continues to secure basic human needs through social programs, including free healthcare and housing missions.
Moreover, the Bolivarian process encourages regional cooperation in Latin America. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America—The People's Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) remains committed to promoting trade and cooperation based on solidarity. This commitment explains why the majority of Venezuelans have supported the current government for 25 years and why Latin American and Caribbean nations stand in solidarity with Venezuela.
As South Korea strengthens its alliance with the U.S., Venezuelan news is often reported through the lens of mainstream Western media. For instance, the media labels Nicolas Maduro as a “dictator” simply because he is serving his third term. Nonetheless, it is crucial to observe the Bolivarian Revolution as it continues to foster direct democracy, social programs ensuring basic needs, and solidarity-based trade. These efforts symbolize hope for a society distinct from one dominated by capitalism, which exacerbates the wealth gap, views basic needs as individual burdens, and disregards the people's will in politics. I am writing from Venezuela, serving as an international observer for the presidential election, and I am keenly anticipating the results on Sunday (July 28).
This striving to be the best intensifies when you mix the West’s hyper-individualism–leading to societies that become free-for-alls. Individuals become obsessed with self-recognition and recognition from others in our Achievement Society which values titles, awards, and status. According to Han, the same obsession with increasing one’s “worth” is how positive power drives us to self-exploit into depression and burnout. Han particularly emphasizes that “freedom itself, which is supposed to be the opposite of constraint, is producing coercion”. When you combine the self-monitoring of positive power with capitalism’s "unlimited potential" ideology, you essentially self-exploit to achieve your goals. Symbolically, a pair of eyeballs that invade your psyche for productivity is bound to lead to burnout, shame, or depression. The inevitable “shortcomings” or “failures” will undermine your “value” or belief in accomplishing the impossible.
Credit: Lee Nallalingham
When this incessant push for achievement and success becomes too much, individuals burn out and fizzle into depression. Understandably, nearly half (48%) of 18-to-29-year-olds said they feel drained compared with 40% of their peers aged 30 and up, while women (46%) reported higher levels of burnout than men (37%). To fail in this Achievement Society or otherwise not prosper is to “see themselves as responsible for their (shortcomings) and feel shame instead of questioning society or the system”. Because we operate as individual “projects” to be constantly improved upon, the self-exploitation of positive power turns our aggression against ourselves– leaving many of us inclined towards depression rather than demands for a social project for real change.
Nearly 200 years after Marx called for “workers of the world to unite,” internationalism is still a secondary priority for most of the left, rarely moving beyond handshakes between trade union leaders or statements by progressive parties. It’s ironic then that peasants, a class often denigrated as provincial and backward, have built the most successful international movement of the 21st century. La Via Campesina or “The Peasant Way'' started as a declaration by 31 peasant organizations and has now grown to 182 national affiliates and 200 million members. In her book, “La Via Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants,” Annette Aurelie Desmarais reveals peasant activists used international solidarity to fortify—rather than detract from—local and national struggles.
As of April 2023, 18,997 pieces of space debris orbit the Earth. This debris includes spent rocket stages, defunct satellites, and other fragments from various space activities. The increasing number of satellite launches raises the likelihood of collisions between debris and active satellites. Such collisions would generate even more debris, which could significantly increase the risk of further collisions and potentially disrupt the satellites we rely on for communication, navigation, weather forecasting, and other essential services.
During the colonial era, communists were the most targeted and repressed group in the peninsula, but everything changed after Japan’s defeat in the Second World War. The soon-after freed communists would hold positions in at least half of the people's committees that were prepared to govern a post-colonial Korea. While the Comintern advised communists to build support among the masses, right-wing nationalists continued to lose relevance in exile and the local elite discredited themselves through colonial collaboration.
Unfortunately, the US military occupation and the Korean War would eradicate the Korean Left (the first casualty of the Cold War). Nevertheless, Communism represented the radical hope for an equally nationalist and cosmopolitan Korea, a dream kept alive by the Soviet Union's strong commitment to the colonized world. The Comintern’s guidance may have been heavy handed but they provided the resources and connections Korean communists needed to survive persecution and showed us what we can achieve when the left combines international solidarity with local organizing.
We thank Jun and Yolanda for sharing home care workers struggle to end sweatshop labor in New York City. Homecare workers are arguing that the attack on their rights will spread to other industries, but it’s also true that it’s spread to other countries, as we are seeing with the South Korean government’s attack on migrant care workers rights. Home care workers have shown that we must move beyond trade union consciousness to a genuine mass movement that organizes workers where they live and where they work, grounded with an analysis of US imperialism and global capitalism.
Every year on May 15, we commemorate the atrocities of the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, during which more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homelands as a result of the Zionist pursuit of a Jewish ethno-state atop their homes in 1948. As Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, Zionist militias had been laying the groundwork for this ethnic cleansing by carrying out campaigns of terror against villages and cities across historic Palestine, leaving devastation and massacres in their wake, from Deir Yassin to Tantura. Those who fled this violence would become one of the largest refugee populations in the world, a population that continues to endure displacement today. As we mark these events amidst the backdrop of a seven-month-long genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it’s more clear than ever that the Nakba never ended; its violence has persisted over the decades in the form of continued Israeli aggression and occupation, ethnic cleansing campaigns, house demolitions, the imprisonment of children, women, and men, and the persistent efforts to deny Palestinians any semblance of dignity, justice or self-determination.
On the hundredth anniversary of Lenin’s death, the Tricontinental Institute of Social Research released a 21st-century update to Lenin’s monumental pamphlet, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. In its latest dossier, “Hyper-Imperialism,” Tricontinental explores how the United States, desperate to reverse its decline, is aggressively dragging the whole world into war, both conventional and economic. On March 9th, No Cold War hosted a panel of intellectuals, activists, and journalists from around the world to discuss how hyperimperialism has affected the Global South, from blockades in Latin America, to a militarized island chain in the Indo-Pacific, and bankrolling genocide in the Gaza Strip.
58th 'Commute by Subway' protest underway at Seoul Station Sound equipment confiscated, press conference dismissed before even beginningDirector Park Kyung-seok chains himself to an activist "to avoid being dragged away "Police and Seoul Metro employees strangle Park while attempting to cut chains
In a future where the world seems more hopeless than today, unemployment, fascism, and forever wars have metastasized beyond what states can manage. In a desperate bid to stay in power, the United States invades Iran, triggering a global famine. However, in M.E. O’Brien’s novel, “Everything for Everyone,” desperate and hungry New Yorkers launch an insurrection at Hunts Point Market, the world’s largest food distribution center. The rebels turn Hunts Point into the New York Commune, which sparks a worldwide revolution that finally takes down capitalism.
On January 19, 150 people protested in front of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) office in the city of Daejeon, demanding the South Korean government stop arming Israel. While Palestine may seem like a distant conflict to South Koreans, the South Korean military-industrial complex is a key pillar in the Israeli war machine. According to Peace Momo, Hanwha, South Korea’s leading defense company, signed a major technology cooperation and export deal with Israeli weapons company, Elbit Systems, at the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) in 2021.
Ultimately, the ceasefire is necessary, but that is just the beginning. As Dr. Gilbert states, "The root causes of all that we see is the occupation of Palestine…the colonial apartheid policies of Israel need to be addressed." Stopping at simply demanding a ceasefire would make us “complicit in only mopping the blood up from the floor and patching the wounds.”
In other coconut growing areas outside of Thailand, coconuts are harvested using people or machines. Moreover, a group of Indian researchers developed coconut picking robots in 2020 though they still have a long way to go for the commercialization of the technology. Since the use of animal labor in agriculture has been around for a long time, we may be able to understand the use of monkeys as a traditional Thai farming method. However, looking at the scale and intensity of the labor, it is clear that this is exploitation rather than traditional farming methods. Why should it be seen as exploitation? Behind this, in addition to the animal rights issue, there is the systemic problem called capitalism.
So, what should we do for the survival of all humanity and the preservation of our ecosystems? There seem to be only two possible approaches. Either we gather our collective strength, engage in a struggle to wrest political power from the privileged, and invest capital to save the environment ourselves, or, even if we can't take away their power, we must at least compel the privileged to invest capital in saving the environment. In whatever form, we must stop the unbridled pursuit of capital for the sake of the survival of all humanity. Otherwise, we cannot guarantee the right to survival for all.
What's even more frightening is the possibility that even if the Earth's environment is severely destroyed in the future, to the point where humanity is almost wiped out, some of the giant capitalists may continue to exist, utilizing the artificial intelligence and other technologies they monopolize. In other words, the colossal wealth may choose to ignore the existential crisis we feel.
The International Strategy Center (ISC) spent June and July hosting events and study groups on queer issues. We have had movie nights and book clubs centered around media representation, queer theory in the context of leftism, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US. On July 28th, we concluded these two months with our Progressive Forum interviewing Holic, the president of the Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center.
This summer, after two decades, I finally made the trip back to Palestine to visit my extended family, to connect with the land, and renew my understanding of what life is like on the ground for the millions of Palestinians who continue to live under Israel’s unjust and illegal occupation.
July 27th marked the 70th year anniversary of the 1953 ceasefire to the Korean War. In the three years leading up to the anniversary, South Korean peace movements organized the international campaign Korean Peace Appeal to end the Korean War with a peace treaty. Yet, the anniversary has come and gone and peace is nowhere on the horizon. In fact, rather than working towards defusing tensions in the Korean Peninsula, the Biden Administration is using North Korea as a cover for building a NATO-level trilateral alliance with South Korea and Japan against China.
Upon taking office, when South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol sidestepped claims for historical accountability of Japanese colonialism, he cleared the way for the US’s regional “cornerstone” (Japan) and “linchpin” (South Korea) to connect with each other. In the process, they overcame the US’s roughshod San Francisco system, which had sacrificed justice against Japanese colonialism at the altar of anti-communism. On Aug. 18, to immunize the trilateral alliance from changes in administration, at Camp David, Biden, Yoon, and Kishida announced the “Spirit of Camp David” which would institutionalize annual trilateral summits, meetings, and consultations.
On Aug. 28th, to explore the state of South Korea’s peace movement and the tasks ahead for it, I met with Francis Dae-hoon Lee, a long-time peace activist and veteran of Korea’s democratization movement and a Professor of Peace Studies at Sungkonghoe University and Director of Peacemomo, a research institute for peace and education. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The interview was part of the International Strategy Center’s Progressive Forum where we interviewed James Mudoon, a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Exeter, a research association at the Oxford Internet Institute, and head of digital research at the Autonomy think tank. The interview was conducted by Mariam Ibrahim and edited for clarity and brevity by Matthew Phillips.
With the backing of the United States and the IAEA, it is only a matter of time before the wastewater dump begins. Once the discharge starts, the Pacific ocean will be contaminated with radiation for the next three decades. With no clear prediction on how the radioactive discharge might disrupt the ecosystem of the ocean and the planet, what choices should we make? It is time for the people around the world to come in solidarity with the people of Fukushima and international environmental organizations to engage in a sweeping campaign to fight against the wastewater dump. Such a global ecological catastrophe must be stopped.
eishi Hinada is a National Executive Committee member of ZENKO (National Assembly for Peace and Democracy). ZENKO emerged in 1970 out of the student movement in the 1960s. He joined in 1981 as a university student activist in the anti-nuclear peace movement in Hiroshima.
On May 1, May Day, a construction worker set himself on fire. The crackdown of the construction union by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration drove Yang Hoi-dong to his death. His death is the social murder of the Yoon Suk-yeol government.
Illegal multi-level subcontracting is rampant, and delayed/unpaid wages ongoing. Construction workers who have struggled to change construction sites, which relegate worker safety to the background, demanding to be treated with respect as workers and technicians, are being cornered as/ turned into criminals accompanied by extortion threats at regular intervals. Since January of this year, there have been 13 seizures and searches, 15 arrests, and 950 union members subpoenaed for investigation. The massive crackdown against the construction union has taken the life of the martyr.
The ISC English to Korean translation of the Tricontinental’s “Bolivia Does Not Exist: The Fourty-Sixth Newsletter (2019)”
![[ISC March History Tour] Seodeamun Prison: A Remnant of the Japanese Colonial Era](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1647778635070-L8Q6IC0TOAMC0Q6G0KY8/photo_2022-03-20_20-56-36.jpg)
Today the ISC had the tour at Seodaemun Prison History Hall where we can learn about Japanese colonial era. We met up with 7 participants of various backgrounds outside of the museum, held a tour and discussion through the museum, and continued conversation over dinner at a nearby traditional market. We discussed parallels between other examples of colonialism, holes and biases in our historical educations, and what led to the Japanese Colonial Era, the following US imperialism, and Issues that remain unresolved. As this is the first in a series, keep your eyes out for the next ISC tour, and our follow up movie night!
In other coconut growing areas outside of Thailand, coconuts are harvested using people or machines. Moreover, a group of Indian researchers developed coconut picking robots in 2020 though they still have a long way to go for the commercialization of the technology. Since the use of animal labor in agriculture has been around for a long time, we may be able to understand the use of monkeys as a traditional Thai farming method. However, looking at the scale and intensity of the labor, it is clear that this is exploitation rather than traditional farming methods. Why should it be seen as exploitation? Behind this, in addition to the animal rights issue, there is the systemic problem called capitalism.
So, what should we do for the survival of all humanity and the preservation of our ecosystems? There seem to be only two possible approaches. Either we gather our collective strength, engage in a struggle to wrest political power from the privileged, and invest capital to save the environment ourselves, or, even if we can't take away their power, we must at least compel the privileged to invest capital in saving the environment. In whatever form, we must stop the unbridled pursuit of capital for the sake of the survival of all humanity. Otherwise, we cannot guarantee the right to survival for all.
What's even more frightening is the possibility that even if the Earth's environment is severely destroyed in the future, to the point where humanity is almost wiped out, some of the giant capitalists may continue to exist, utilizing the artificial intelligence and other technologies they monopolize. In other words, the colossal wealth may choose to ignore the existential crisis we feel.
Deinstitutionalization is not simply a matter of physical space that calls for the dismantling of large-scale care institutions. The institutionalized disabled must return to their families, and to society at large. The reality is that many deinstitutionalized disabled rely on the support of their families. However, care from their families is not enough, and society and the state must take responsibility. If the government simply postpones this process as it readies itself, then the process will never begin. The government must recognize deinstitutionalization as a responsibility and then actively begin its implementation.
There can be no dignity for anyone, without dignity for the disabled.
![[Survey Report] UN Comprehensive Sexuality Guidelines and Cases from Abroad: Sexuality Education for a Better World](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1606631357871-31MRQYMUR35KIFATK8G0/image01.png)
On November 21, the International Strategy Center co-hosted the 14th Seoul Women's Culture Festival with the Seoul Women's Association. The festival was held under the theme of sexuality education, and the ISC’s Research Team compiled the UN comprehensive sexuality education guidelines and investigated and studied overseas sexualisty education cases.
![[Report] Workers Become Owners — Woojin Traffic, A Korean Case Study of Workers' Self-Management union](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1527241222335-OPLEYEZJ7OVYA68920TK/image-asset.png)
It is important to identify factors behind workers’ self-management (WSM) companies’ success that can be applied to other cases: empowerment of workers through…
![Revision_Resend[Jul. 2024 ISC NewsLetter]RIMPAC, Venezuela's Presidential Election, Capitalism’s Burnout and Depression](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1730117304119-9PUDUR2BKIU45RE0EQXY/20241028_210602.png)
[Jul. 2024 ISC NewsLetter]RIMPAC, Venezuela's Presidential Election, Capitalism’s Burnout and Depression
![[ISC Aug. Newsletter] Ven. Elections, Marsha P. Johnson, US Destabilizing East Asia, the Great Workers Struggle +](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1730117459516-31FW84PIG7I4SWRSV6ZE/20241028_210701.png)
[ISC Aug. Newsletter] Ven. Elections, Marsha P. Johnson, US Destabilizing East Asia, the Great Workers Struggle +
![[ISC Sept. Newsletter] Change the World, U.S. Destabilizing East Asia, Free Free Palestine](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b027627f2e6b1d4bfbe16c5/1730117409980-J136MNRN3ODK3W32EJWU/20241028_210753.png)
[ISC Sept. Newsletter] Change the World, U.S. Destabilizing East Asia, Free Free Palestine
INFORMATION DECK
Platform Capitalism is a set of economic tendencies that emerged with the rise of digital platforms (e.g. Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber...). Platforms collect user data while facilitating the exchange of goods. This gives them great near-insurmountable advantages.
You’ve likely heard of International Women’s day, but let’s look a little deeper. How did it start? Why is it held on March 8th? Did you know it was originally ‘working women’s day’?
Here is a bite size overview of IWD’s origins and some of the celebrations and protests held around the world this week!
As the world braces to deal with global warming, there is much focus on Green New Deals that can stimulate the economy, provide good paying jobs, and transition our economies away from fossil-fuel intensive production and towards sustainable production. Economist, activist, and co-founder of the Jubilee 2000 campaign (to forgive Third World Debt) Ann Pettifor describes how a Green New Deal might be funded by government financing and how it must radically transform our economies to be sustainable and equitable. This information deck summarizes her key ideas as well as critically evaluating them.
It is not overpopulation that causes hunger as is often argued, but rather inequality and a profit-driven, agribusiness-dominated food system in which the basic material need for food for hundreds of millions of people – at minimum – is sacrificed to quench the hunger for profit of the few.
A few countries have done relatively well in responding to COVID-19, and they all approach health care and public health very differently from the United States, even if their economies are capitalist. I focus now on one of those countries that I know best: South Korea. I then move the focus to that other mysterious, noncapitalist country on the same peninsula: North Korea.
Ultimately, the ceasefire is necessary, but that is just the beginning. As Dr. Gilbert states, "The root causes of all that we see is the occupation of Palestine…the colonial apartheid policies of Israel need to be addressed." Stopping at simply demanding a ceasefire would make us “complicit in only mopping the blood up from the floor and patching the wounds.”