NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

In the middle of this year's regional seminar of the UN C24, the proceedings stopped briefly in order to recognize the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera, a long-time Puerto Rican political prisoner. Rivera was part of the Puerto Rican independence group named FALN, which was involved in more than 100 bombings around the US during the 1970s. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy along with other crimes and spent 35 years in prison. Rivera has been mentioned each year I have attended the regional seminar, as some Latin American countries feel a strong sense of solidarity with Puerto Rico and its independence activists, and therefore consider his case to be that of a political prisoner or a prisoner of war, who should have been subject to international court proceedings, as he was fighting for the liberation of Puerto Rico from US colonial control. Vilma Reveron, who frequently attends the seminars to discuss the state of affairs in Puerto Rico made the announcement and held up her

Two urgent messages about the situation in Gangjeong, Jeju: ************************** From Save Jeju Dear friends, Starting today, Gangjeong is in an emergency situation. Nearly 700 police have arrived from the mainland in Gangjeong village to monitor the blasting of Gureombi, the volcanic rock coastline, and the dredging of the seafloor. Not only will the marine life, including endangered crabs and coral reefs, be swept away, the blast has already impacted the fresh water springs that the majority of the island is dependent upon. Though our numbers are small in the village, we will do our best to fight to stop the blast of Gureombi. It is still uncertain whether the Seogwipo Police will allow the Navy to blast Gureombi on Monday, when the Governor of Jeju Island is supposed to make his decision. Please send an email to the Governor NOW asking him to please stop the blast of Gureombi. Thank you for one minute of your time. We urgently need international solidarity NOW. In p

Throughout 2011 I was usually pretty good at blogging about the latest news out of Gangjeong in Jeju Island, South Korea. Things were pretty heated there throughout the entire year, with plenty of protests, arrests and international calls for solidarity. A friend of mine was arrested, as was the mayor of the village, whom I had met when I was there the year before. Both were eventually freed after spending months in prison. The central conflict is over the fate of Gangjeong Village and its beautiful environment. As a small village in Southern Jeju, it was identified as the site for a new joint US-ROK Naval facility. The majority of the people there, not wanting to see their land and their sea life damaged, have decided to protest this action. Incidentally and ironically, Jeju was named several years ago as "an island of peace." The protesters are attempting to ensure that their island lives up to its name. I haven't posted much on my blog, but emails and the reading of

My friend in South Korea Sung Hee Choice has been put in prison for the past two months for peacefully obstructing the construction of a Navy base in the tiny village of Gangjeong in Southen Jeju. She used to run the blog No Base Korea Stories , but after being arrested her friends have taken over the task of updating it on the fight against militarism in South Korea. David Vine, an anthropologist who is most famous for his excellent book on the secret history of Diego Garcia, had a chance to visit Sung Hee recently and wrote up his interview for the website Foreign Policy in Focus. ***************************** Jeju Island Activist Sung-Hee Choi Interviewed in Prison Foreign Policy in Focus By David Vine, July 26, 2011 Last week, I had the honor of going to prison. I was conducting research on South Korea’s beautiful Jeju Island, off the country’s southern coast, and was lucky enough to be one of the two people per day allowed to speak with the renowned imprisoned activist S

One of the listservs I'm on had a little bit of a spat recently over the Wikileaks and Julian Assange issue. The debate was over whether the sexual assault charges against Assange should be taken seriously or not. Some felt like the charges were more contrived than anything, while others felt that this was precisely a problem that movements have, is that they tend to look past any clear faults in their heroes and therefore perpetuate gendered systems of oppression. Many seemed to feel that this is one of the those moments where "identity politics" weakens or ruins the Left, because something small, minute and paticularistic, ends up tainting something which is hugely important and universal. For them, the issue is obviously made up by government who want to take Assange down, but the way identity politics has wormed its way into movements has made them susceptible to fake debates like this. From this perspective, even if the charges are true (and they are not rape charges

I have only been in South Korea for two days and I have already met dozens of political prisoners, some of whom were imprisoned for a matter of months, others for years. When I say political prisoner I don't mean someone arrested at a protest, but rather people who have been condemned and wrongfully incarcerated by the South Korean government. In fact, within the span of one day, I met three men who were political prisoners longer than Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in South Africa. I didn’t make this connection right away (this connection to Mandela), but it was something that was regularly reiterated throughout the day. I’ll return to this at the end of the post. Most people on Guam or in the United States don’t know anything about South Korea, and certainly not about its government. But that is why nationalism and the imaginary cognitive mapping that it provides is so important when dealing with “the rest of the world.” Most people might know about the Korean War or know that S

“The South is the true betrayer of the Korean nation. After the war, those who came to power and collaborated with the Americans, were the same people who had collaborated with the Japanese and helped oppress the Korean people. After the war they helped put down Korean nationalism. The spirit of our nation cannot be healed until the people reunite it.” Park Jnng-Ki Chairman of the Korean Council for Democratic Martyrs (via an interpreter), during dinner with myself, the other South Korea Solidarity delegates and PKAR The Korean Council for Democratic Martyrs is an organization dedicated to remembering those who have died or been disappeared (political prisoners) by the South Korean government, because of their fighting to build a more democratic Korea.

Our delegation was given a tour this afternoon of Yongsan Base which is right in the heart of Seoul and the headquarters of the United States military forces in Korea. We climbed into a van provided by the Pan-Korean Alliance Reunification (PKAR) South Korea branch, and drove around the base, marveling at how intertwined the government of South Korea and the US military were. We spent the afternoon visiting the Pan-Korean Alliance Reunification (PKAR) South Korea branch. They took us to their office, gave us a tour of nearby Yongsan Base (which houses the headquarters of the US military in South Korea) and treated us to dinner afterwards. For those interested, we were given a small packet of information on their group and so here is some excerpts: Who are We? Pan Korean Alliance for Reunification (BomMinRyon) was established in 1990 as a non-governmental civil organization conducting the movement for great nation unity and reunification of Korea… BomMinRyon – the movement is based