<People’s Rally: in celebration of 119th May Day>

<People’s Rally: in celebration of 119^th May Day>

 

Women activists and members belonging to KWWA and its regional branches in the Seoul metropolitan area took part in the International May Day rally.  In the rally, 10 demands by the labor movement were made under the flag of ‘Let’s weave hopeful prospects on public welfare and democracy based on strong solidarity!’

 

□ People’s rally to restore public welfare, heighten democracy and judge MB regime:

- Date: May 1^st, 2009, at 3pm

- Venue: rallies in the Seoul metropolitan area:  Yeoido Park, and other regions simultaneously (North Choongchung, South Choongchung, North Jeolla, South Jeolla, North Kyeongsang, South Kyeongsang provinces)

 

□ Keynote of the rally:

 Let’s weave hopeful prospects on public welfare and democracy based on strong solidarity!’

- to form solidarity amongst all kinds and layers of workers such as regular, irregular, and unemployed workers, reserve workers, and dismissed workers.

- to actualize the solidarity between workers and students to overcome 10 year gaps (declaration of overnight indignation rally between May 1^st~2^nd, by Korea Students Association)

- to carry out nationwide simultaneous struggles (in Seoul, Kyeonggi province, Incheon, Kangwon and other regions at the same time)

 

<10 demands>

 

①      Stop the transferring of its responsibility to workers and ordinary people, reduction in taxes for the rich, forced nationwide channel, and allocation of budget for construction companies; and fulfill policies for workers and people immediately!

②      Stop immediately one-side industrial restructuring and dismissals, wage reduction of university graduates and the social weaker, and the suffering from extremely hard living of workers and ordinary people; and establish unemployment and social safety nets including the entire improvement of the employment insurance, the national basic livelihood security system, the urgent welfare support system!

③      Ensure the right to work, sharing jobs through decreasing working hours, and creating more than one million jobs centered by social service jobs in the public sector!

④      Take drastic steps for boosting people’s livelihood such as the realization of halving tuition fees, comprehensively increasing free education, free lunch and free childcare, expansion of medical insurance, comprehensive increase and expansion of free medical checkups, and housing welfare!

⑤      Stop the ratification in the National Assembly, of FTA between the U.S. and Korea driving Korean farmers’ livelihood and agriculture extremely hard; realize and defend food sovereignty through protecting the right for Korean farmers to survive and solving debts of farmers in the right ways of reforming farmers’ cooperatives that warmers demand; and stop the forced large-scale modernization in the agricultural and fishery industry driving poor farmers out!

⑥      Stop immediately the retrogressive revision of the Temporary Employee Protection Act and the Minimum Wage Act; support the regularization of irregular workers; and realize the minimum wage system!

⑦      Protect the basic labor rights including those for specially hired workers; and stop the suppression on the democratic labor movement!

⑧      Stop terrible one-side and top-down redevelopment; and immediately solve the Yongsan disaster, investigating the truth of the disaster and punishing people in charge!

⑨      Stop abolishing retrogressive bills suppressing civilians and netizens, and democracy and human rights!

⑩      Stop the attempts to participate in PSI which will increase tension in the Korean Peninsula; and find the comprehensive ways to resume communication and cooperation with North Korea as well as fulfilling the 6.15 declaration and the 10.4 declaration.