Pen/Insular_Notes

The rather popular and interesting Cambridge economist, Ha-joon Chang, whom I’ve written about here before has apparently been banned by the South Korean Air Force. The Korean translation of Chang’s recent book, Bad Samaritans, which is a Keynesian attack on neo-liberalism and free trade, has been categorised as a subversive book liable to corrupt the minds of those brave Koreans defending the homeland:

In the instructions, the Air Force states that “seditious books” can hinder soldiers’ concentration and suggested a list of 23 books to be banned in three categories: pro-Pyongyang, anti-government and anti-U.S., and anti-capitalism.

So I guess that Chang’s Keynesianism must fall under the category of ‘anti-capitalism’. The ironies in this are just too many to point out, but we could perhaps start with the fact that South Korea’s military probably wouldn’t exist at all without a long history of the sort of protectionist and interventionist economic policies that Chang is advocating. The biggest irony though, must surely be that far from being anti-capitalist these same Keynesian/statist policies probably did the most to save capitalism from self-destruction during the 20th century.

Fascinating also that being ‘anti-government’ and ‘anti-US’ are considered to be part of the same category of sedition here…

I reproduce in full below an urgent appeal for solidarity from Korea (see also No Ordinary Sun):

Greetings of international solidarity!

Starting May 2, 2008, South Korean people took to the streets holding candle lights in protest against various policies (import of US beefs in danger of being infected with mad cow disease, privatizations of public broadcasting, health, and public corporations, and the grand-canal project) put forth by the Lee Myung-bak (LMB) government.

The protesters came from all walks of life from elementary school students to 80-year-old seniors, ordinary working people to opposition National Assembly representatives. More than a million people just in the greater Seoul area alone gathered on June 10 for a peaceful candle light protest.

However, the LMB government responded with force, repressing the peaceful candle light protests. It discharged fire extinguisher and water cannon, wielded shields and batons, and crushed the people with military boots. Police Commissioner Eo Cheong-soo is leading what he proclaimed in the mainstream media “the real 80s military dictator style” violent repression.
(more…)

I received this rather enticing invitation in my inbox a few days ago:

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Joseph Hong and am the Research & Policy Officer at Liberty in North Korea, or LiNK, a nongovernmental organization devoted to the protection of refugees and human rights in North Korea.

We would like to cordially invite you to a funeral procession for the dead and dying of North Korea on July 5, 2008 at 6:00 PM, sponsored by LiNK and No-No Demo. The funeral procession will be held in Cheongyecheon towards Shichong.

Groups organizing protests in Seoul have pledged that one million will turn out to protest over the beef issue on July 5, 2008. Last week, protestors came brandishing steel pipes and bricks, toppling police vans and attacking the offices of several major newspapers. The funeral procession will be next to the protestors and remind them that perhaps there are more pressing issues.

For more details, please visit:
English - http://libertyinnorthkorea.blogspot.com
Korean - http://blog.daum.net/linkglobal

The invitation is attached and we look forward to your response.

Best regards,
—
Joseph Hong
Research and Policy Officer

There are two strange things about this. First, do they not realise that I’m a Kim Il-sung worshipping bbalgaengi son of a bitch? Why would I want to attend a demo organised by a US-government funded organisation that is now joining up with a rightwing South Korean pro-LMB group? Second, and somewhat more seriously, I really wonder about the motives behind this whole enterprise. Holding a rightwing counter demonstration to a potentially million-strong demo of anti-Lee Myung-bak protesters is surely asking for trouble. Unless of course that’s what they actually want…

The reaction begins in earnest…

Both photos from Oh My News.

Eighties nostalgia has been fashionable in the UK for a while now, but reenactments of the Miners’ Strike have not been a feature (actually, on second thoughts…). In Korea meanwhile, by last week the Lee Myung-bak government obviously felt that the candlelight protests had quietened down enough and the time had come for some serious, 1980s Chun Doo-hwan style repression.

There had been some warning signs with increasingly belligerent announcements from the government as well as increasingly confident and violent attacks by far right organisations. Attacks have also come on other fronts with the prosecution beginning criminal investigations into the the TV station MBC’s coverage of the US beef issue and into a movement to boycott companies that advertised in the major rightwing newspapers. But it was on Saturday night at the latest large-scale candle-light demonstration that the government gave a taste of the sort of repression it was prepared to mete out.

As I said before though, a real return to the eighties is not as easy as getting a silly hairstyle, wearing brightly coloured clothes and listening to electro-pop. The anti-2MB protests show no sign of flagging at the moment and for all its bluster the Lee Myung-bak government is really unable to use the sort of repression that was available to Chun Doo-hwan back in the dark days. Or at least so far anyway…

[Note: I’m not being sponsored by the Hankyoreh, but their coverage of recent events in Korea has been invaluable, hence the large number of links here. Clearly many Koreans think so too as their subscriptions have been soaring apparently).