Dec
17
2013

All out to support the Korean railway workers!

By now you should have seen the message going out to LabourStart’s mailing lists (below is the full text) – things are heating up in South Korea.  Because of the seriousness of this, we’ve dropped everything else here in the LabourStart War Room and are totally focussed on building our campaign and growing awareness of the strike and the repression.

Here are some of the things we’ve been working on:

Posted content on social media – Facebook, Twitter, UnionBook, LinkedIn, Google+, Reddit.  Tweets are going out several times an hour.  On Facebook, invested £100 in a promotion of our message about the campaign.   (This should kick in soon; the ad has been approved.)

Posted top news stories on LabourStart — of which there are now many.

Using Twitter, publicly contacted key unions, national trade union centres, global union federations, NGOs and the ITUC.  Our message has been retweeted by the UK transport workers union TSSA and its general secretary, Union Solidarity International in the UK, COSATU in South Africa and the TUC in the UK so far.

By email, contacted other groups including Amnesty, and British transport unions RMT and ASLEF.  Did a mass mailing to our main English list and to all UnionBook members; asked our translators to get the mailing ready for other lists too.  Translated mailings have already gone out in Indonesian, French, Russian, Finnish, Farsi, German and Dutch with more on the way.

Contacted (mostly British) mainstream media organizations which incredibly have nothing at all on this story — the BBC, CNN, ITN, Sky News, the Guardian, and the Independent.


Full text of the message going out to all our lists today:

Two weeks ago I asked for your support as Korean railway workers were about to launch a strike. They were concerned back then that their government might attempt to break the strike. They wanted the solidarity of workers around the world. They wanted a clear message sent to their government and nearly 9,000 of you sent off messages of protest.

Today, their worst fears are coming true.

Just a few days into their strike, the Korean government has launched a savage crackdown.

A few hours ago, the offices of the railway workers union were raided by dozens of police. Computers and other equipment were seized.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the top union leaders — who are currently hiding in a safe place.

Korean media are reporting that the military is prepared to send hundreds of soldiers to work as strike-breakers.

Tomorrow morning, the subway workers in Seoul are set to launch a solidarity strike, shutting down the capital.

It is our job now to mobilize the widest possible support for the Korean railway workers.

Those workers are on the front lines today of the fight against neo-liberal policies such as privatisation — and they are defending the basic human right to have independent trade unions with the right to strike.

If you’ve not yet done so, please send off your message of protest today: http://bit.ly/1c8Uao8

If you’ve already supported the campaign — thanks. But let’s do more:

Post this link to your Facebook page: http://bit.ly/1c8Uao8 Tell your friends there that you support this campaign and urge them all to do so.

Tweet this: Hands off the Korean railway strikers! http://bit.ly/1c8Uao8 @labourstart

If your union has a mailing list of its members, make sure they are all informed about this important struggle. There are many millions of organized workers out there who aren’t aware of this fight. Please email your fellow union members.

Finally, LabourStart is being continuously updated with news about this strike and others. Make sure it’s the place you start your day on the net: http://www.labourstart.org

Thanks.

Eric

Written by admin in: Campaigns |

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