by Bruce Gagnon
I was invited to come to Jeju City to appear on live radio show. As we were preparing to leave Gangjeong village we looked into the sky as a formation of Navy “Blue Angel” war planes came screaming over the village. For 15 minutes they went back and forth over Gangjeong doing stunts. One brought the planes very low in an ear splitting maneuver.
The Navy was sending a message to Gangjeong village loud and clear. “We own you now. Your village will become a war base. There’s nothing you can do. We will project power against China from Jeju Island. You’d better get used to it.” This is how the US empire thinks and how they treat people who stand in their way.
Just before we went on the air we learned the Navy was demanding that Gangjeong villagers pay $20 million in fines for disrupting construction operations on the base now nearing completion. Some activists believe that the Ministry of Defense in Seoul is controlled by the Samsung corporation which is lead contractor for the US Navy base construction. Just as in the US, where Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics control our government, the Park administration inside the Blue House in Seoul is the pawn of corporate interests.
By demanding this outrageous amount of funds from a small fishing and farming community the South Korean puppet government is saying that democracy doesn’t exist anymore. In a true democratic nation people who protest government policies are not fined and driven into poverty – especially an entire village. What was the crime of Gangjeong? They wanted to protect the environment, sacred Gureombi rock, the offshore endangered soft coral forests, the water, the sea life and more. The villagers wanted to protect their way of life – their 500-year old culture.
I’ve learned that only South Korea and Japan have this kind of punishing policy that smacks of fascism. The government of South Korea is controlled by corporations and Washington. How can they claim in Seoul to be a democracy and then treat citizens this way? How can the government claim they need a Navy base to defend the people and then attack the people who use non-violent protest to challenge the destruction of their village?
This will have to go to court but the courts are ultimately under the control the the same corrupt corporate state. When the Navy demands that the village pay $20 million in fines that means every man, woman and child owes that debt. They would be naked without any land after the court takes all they own. This is an illegal and immoral attempt to finish off Gangjeong village. Every human being should be outraged at this crime against the human rights of the people in Gangjeong village.
After the US directed massacre on Jeju Island soon after WW II was over, on April 3, a new program was put into place, the ‘Involvement System’. Anyone labeled a communist by the US-run puppet government could get no job and would have no future. Any family member would suffer the same fate. This demand for $20 million by the Navy is an attempt to reinstate this ‘Involvement System’ once again. The only way out for a person is to commit suicide.
I am told the South Korean regime is using this same punitive program to go after striking auto workers on the mainland and other activists around the nation. The decision has been made to kill democracy in South Korea. We’re seeing the same method of operation in Japan as the right-wing government kills their peaceful constitution, contrary to popular will. We see the same system in Okinawa as the people demand US bases there be closed. We see the same system inside Ukraine, where the US has installed a puppet government.
For those out there sitting on the fence this is the time to wake up and see the writing on the wall. Democracy is being drowned globally by corporate capitalism.
Who will be next?
Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
https://space4peace.blogspot.com/
PHOTO ATTRIBUTION: httpss://www.flickr.com/photos/msimdottv/
LICENSE: httpss://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
