Amnesty International: Japan Minister Must Not Cave in to Pressure on Death Penalty, says Amnesty International

Japan Minister Must Not Cave in to Pressure on Death Penalty, says Amnesty International

WASHINGTON - October 28 - Japan’s justice minister should not sign execution warrants, Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network said today, following the minister’s announcement that he does not intend to end capital punishment, despite saying last month that he would not approve executions.

Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka said Friday he would look at each death row case individually, after a prominent politician reportedly had encouraged him to exercise his power to authorize executions.

"After showing reluctance to sign execution warrants last month when he first took office, it is deeply alarming that Minister Hideo Hiraoka now seems to be under pressure to approve executions despite his own calls for caution," said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Asia and the Pacific. "The minister must stand by his original commitment which was to suspend executions until Japan’s application of the death penalty can be more carefully considered."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura reportedly encouraged Minister Hiraoka at a parliamentary committee on Wednesday to press ahead with executions.

The last executions in Japan were carried out on July 28, 2010, when Ogata Hidenori and Shinozawa Kazuo were hanged in the Tokyo detention center.

A study group on the death penalty was established by the former Minister of Justice Keiko Chiba in 2010. The study group is continuing to work under the current Minister, Hideo Hiraoka, who encouraged discussions on the subject both in public and within his ministry, taking into account international trends and opinions.

No date for its report has been announced.

There are currently 126 people on death row in Japan.

Executions in Japan are by hanging and are typically carried out in secret. Death row inmates are only notified on the morning of their execution and their families are usually informed only after the execution has taken place.

This means that death row prisoners live in constant fear of execution. Enduring these conditions for years or even decades has led to depression and mental illness among many death row inmates.

More than two thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Out of 41 countries in the Asia-Pacific, 17 have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, nine are abolitionist in practice and one – Fiji – uses the death penalty only for exceptional military crimes.

This means that less than half of the countries in that region still use this ultimate and irreversible punishment. Of the G8 nations, only Japan and the United States still use capital punishment.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as a violation of the right to life in all cases, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.

"Japan should immediately commute all death sentences and introduce an official moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition of the death penalty," said Baber.

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity. We have more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions and we coordinate this support to act for justice on a wide range of issues.

Park Won-soon, Pro-Democracy Activist & Human Rights Lawyer, elected Mayor of Seoul

Via Korea Report:

(Park Won-soon (second from the right on the photo, with supporters from other opposition party leaders) -- human rights lawyer, pro-democracy activist, and a leader of South Korea's grassroots civil society organizations -- was elected as the next mayor of Seoul.)

This election was significant in many ways in that:

1) a political novice and independent candidate won a major election, bypassing more well-known candidates from the established parties;

2) the opposition parties fielded a unified candidate (by supporting a non-affiliated candidate) which helped prevent splintering of votes that arose in the past elections with the usual array of many opposition candidates;

3) it is an indicator of the populace's dissatisfaction with the ruling Lee Myung-bak government and its policies that will impact upcoming general and presidential elections in 2012;

4) the younger generations have voted strongly for Park, suggesting that they yearn for change from the established politics and economic inequities and hardships.

Yoshio Shimoji: U.S. violated human rights & property rights under int. law in seizure of Okinawan property for U.S. bases

(U.S. military bases located on property belonging to more than 40,000 Okinawan landowners)

In “Futenma: Tip of the Iceberg in Okinawa’s Agony," his latest article for The Asia-Pacific Journal, University of the Ryukyus Professor Emeritus Yoshio Shimoji focuses on the root of Okinawan resentment against U.S. military bases on their islands: The U.S. violated human rights and property rights under international law when the U.S. military seized Okinawan property by force to make way for U.S. bases.

Shimoji asserts: "...the U.S. military seized the land in clear violation of Article 46 of The Hague Convention, which states: 'Family honor and rights, the lives of persons, and private property, as well as religious convictions and practice, must be respected. Private property cannot be confiscated.'

"There are presently more than 3,000 so-called “military base landowners” for Futenma Air Base alone and more than 40,000 for all bases and installations in Okinawa."

Shimoji details how U.S. bases in Okinawa were established by "land requisitions...executed at bayonet-point and by bulldozer, leveling houses and destroying farms in the face of protesting farmers, mothers, children and their supporters."

When they were finally freed and allowed to return home, they found that their villages and rich farmland had disappeared without a trace, incorporated within a vast air base. Reluctantly, they settled down outside the fenced-off compound in areas designated by the U.S. military as settlement areas with no regard to property rights of landowners.

Iha Yoichi, former Ginowan City Mayor and a native of Ginowan Village (now Ginowan City), writes in his book (Futenma Air Base is in Your Neighborhood — Let’s Remove It Together, p.15), that “when the war was over and people were allowed to go home, they found their villages had disappeared completely, the area transformed into a vast base.”

Shimoji's conclusion: "The U.S. violated international law when its military encroached upon private lands with impunity and built the base. On what legal and moral basis, then, can it demand its replacement?"

Homeless people in Tokyo's Shibuya district face eviction from communal kitchen/ resting area: Please voice your support by October 26th!

Dear Friends,

Homeless persons in Shibuya are faced with the threat of permanent eviction from the Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall. This is a highly valuable public space where persons on the street can stop and get some rest—a rarity in Shibuya's extremely urbanized landscape. Should this eviction take place, a "communal kitchen" run by and for homeless persons that has been operating since the 1990s would also be put to an end. In other words, homeless persons in Tokyo are now faced with the possible devastating loss of a space to rest, share information, and eat.

Over the years, the Children's Hall has served as a valuable base for Nojiren's communal kitchen, and as a sleeping space for countless persons. As a result, Nojiren would like to thank every single one of the 191 individuals and 61 organizations that signed on to our recent petition protesting the construction of an enclosure around the Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall.

On October 21st, Nojiren submitted our petition to the Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall and the Family Support Division of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Public Health, which administers Hall matters. As we stood along with 30 of our homeless friends from Shinjuku and Shibuya before the Metropolitan City Hall to speak with Division Head Kashiwabara, however, he unfortunately did nothing more than insist that "experts have assessed that the premises are dangerous, so construction will proceed as planned." We reminded him that only some parts of the building need repair, and since there is still time for adjustments, we urged him to change plans for construction in order to allow for continuation of the communal kitchen and Nojiren's encampment.

According to their plans, the enclosure will be built from June 26 through June 28. Since there is not much time left, we will be more vigilant than ever in keeping an eye on our encampment. You can help us protect our communal kitchen and the encampment by sending a message　by October 26th to the metropolitan Family Support Division voicing your opposition to the eviction of homeless persons from the Children’s Hall (“Jido Kaikan”) in Shibuya. Contact information is as follows:

Email: koe@metro.tokyo.jp
Telephone: +81-3-5320-4032
Fax: +81-3-5388-1400

From Wednesday October 26 until Friday, October 28, Nojiren will be in Mitake Park (a 5-minute walk from Shibuya Station) monitoring our encampment as construction of the enclosure begins. Persons wishing to join should contact us at: 080-3127-0639 (Japanese only).

Donations may also be sent to: Japan Post Bank 00160-1-33429 {Nojiren}
Thank you very much for your continued support!!

Shibuya Free Association for the Right to Housing and Well-being of the HOMELESS (NOJIREN)
1-27-8 (202) Higashi
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
E-mail:　nojiren@jca.apc.org
Fax: +81-3-3406-5254

Text of recently submitted petition:

(Addressed to the director of the Shibuya Children’s Hall and the head of the Family Support Division at the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health)

In Shibuya lies the Tokyo Metropolitan Children’s Hall. After closing hours, homeless persons come to the premises for a place to rest, or to take part in a once-weekly communal kitchen. In the past, homeless persons had been threatened with eviction numerous times, but each time, after we explained the reasons and circumstances behind homelessness, the facility and its director have given us tacit permission to stay.

This past March, immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Children's Hall was closed. In April, a rope barrier was suddenly raised preventing entry into the premises and we were informed that, "The Children’s Hall has been temporarily and fully cordoned off for an assessment of earthquake damage.” Later on, the director apologized to us and said, "We won’t be cordoning off the area for review. “I see no problem in you resting here or holding a communal kitchen here after hours." We asked the director that if, as a result of the review, repair work was deemed necessary and the area must be cordoned off again, to inform immediately. He consented to our request.

Then, on September 27, we were suddenly notified by the director that, “The damage assessment results are in and it has been decided that we’ll be enclosing the area to start repairs. I’ll explain in more detail on the 29th." On the 29th, we were provided with papers indicating that construction would begin on October 5th. The director added, "Closure of the Children’s Hall had already been scheduled for next year, so it is likely that the building will be demolished. In that case, the cordon will not be removed, even after repair work is complete.”

We questioned the director as to why repair work would be carried out prior to a demolition. And how he could tell us to leave with less than a week’s notice, despite the importance of this location as a place to rest and gather. In response, he simply stated "You already knew that we may temporarily enclose the area.” In addition, according to the damage assessment, the only parts needing renovation are the exterior walls and the auditorium ceiling, not the front entrance that we primarily use. There is no need for a total temporary enclosure. Moreover, it’s hard to comprehend why the cordon would not be removed after repair work is complete seeing as how a demolition has not been actually confirmed. The installation of a cordon is a clear attempt at evicting homeless persons and depriving them of a place for their communal kitchen.

On October 3, we submitted a formal petition to both the Children’s Hall director and the head of the Family Support Division at the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health. However, each of them informed us that, "Everything has already been settled" and "There is no room to consider your claims." On October 5th, as we protested, construction began right in front of our eyes.

The homeless people who come to rest at the Children’s Hall are just as much victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake as anyone else. Moreover, they are also “structural victims” of a society that has cast them out. How can the city of Tokyo reconcile the fact that it provides much-needed places of refuge to earthquake victims at the same time that it treats people living on the streets with only evictions? How can it not work to guarantee homeless persons’ right to life, as well as the underlying fundamental right of abode? The Children’s Hall director and the head of the Family Support Division have said, "If you have nowhere to sleep, inquire with the Shibuya welfare office.” However, more than a few homeless persons believe that struggling to survive on the streets is still better than the alternatives of being trapped in a dormitory-style facility or living off welfare. With the recent move to turn the public Miyashita Park into “Nike Park” as one example, redevelopment of the area surrounding Shibuya Station is accelerating at a rapid pace. Does redevelopment require that we see homeless persons as only being “in the way”?

We are opposed to the temporary full enclosure at the Children’s Hall and the eviction of homeless persons that it represents. We demand that talks be held and the extent of the enclosure be changed.

October 10, 2010
Shibuya Free Association for the Right to Housing and Well-http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbeing of the HOMELESS (NOJIREN)
1-27-8 (202) Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 　　　　　　　　　　　　

Translation by Rayna Rusenko

Also see this powerful article by Barbara Ehrenreich on the Occcupy Wall Street movement and issues facing homeless persons in the United States.

LaborNet's Occupy Tokyo video report

Great video report of the Occupy Tokyo event on Oct. 15. Concerns: Fukushima radiation and growing income disparity in a country that was once proud of its strong middle class.

Footnote: Since the 1990's, the outsourcing of Japanese manufacturing and white-collar service jobs to China and Southeast Asia, combined with neoliberal policies borrowed from the U.S. have eroded the stable and comfortable Japanese postwar quality of life.

Okinawa Governor Nakaima: Washington & Tokyo “should stop doing deals and return the bases promptly”

(Since 1996, Okinawans have told Washington & Tokyo "NO" to the proposed new mega-military base in Henoko. Since 2008, Okinawans have repeatedly responded with "No, You Can't" to the Obama administration. This photo is of Henoko elders spelling "NO" out with empty cans for former Prime Minister Kan to see from his airplane window during his 2010 visit to the beleaguered prefecture.)

In “Discordant Visitors: Japanese and Okinawan Messages to the US,” Satoko Norimatsu and Gavan McCormack quote Governor Nakaima’s September 2011 speech at George Washington University in their commentary on the bizarre incongruity between official Japanese and Okinawan prefectural stances on the U.S. military’s proposed destruction of Oura Bay and Henoko to make way for a U.S. mega-military base.

Opposed by Okinawan civil society and global environmentalists since 1996, the U.S. base proposal follows a historical pattern of violently and undemocratically established U.S. military bases in Okinawa prefecture. During and after the Battle of Okinawa, U.S. soldiers seized Okinawan property (and imprisoned the owners in camps) to make way for bases to support Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan. When that plan was abandoned, Okinawans were kept imprisoned while U.S. soldiers transformed the bases into permanent bases. In the 1950′s, U.S. marines (by use of “bayonets and bulldozers”) seized private property by dragging Okinawan women and children from homes and destroying farms and livestock to make way for more U.S. bases. Despite Okinawan protests dating back to the end of the World War II, the U.S. government has refused to remove unwanted military bases from Okinawa.

In recent years, the Okinawan movement has garnered worldwide attention, with some observers comparing the Okinawan struggle for human rights and democracy to movements in Eastern and Central Europe during Soviet military rule, before Glastnost. Since the 3/11 Triple Disaster, Japanese citizen “tomodachi” appeals to Washington to forego costly military subsidization by Japanese taxpapers have grown more urgent. Although U.S. congressional leaders have responded to Okinawan and Japanese calls for “change”; thus far the Obama administration has ignored requests to rein in U.S. military demands for Japanese taxpayer subsidization of proposed new base construction in Okinawa, Guam, the Japanese mainland, and continued “sympathy” subsidies to the U.S. military.

In September, Okinawa Govenor Nakaima, in conjunction with an Okinawan ad campaign in The New York Times, stated his case directly to Americans in Washington, D.C. Norimatsu and McCormack explain:

Nakaima declared that opposition in Okinawa to the Okinawan base project was almost total. He spoke of the unanimous declaration within the prefectural parliament (the Prefectural Assembly), and the explicit opposition of all 41 local government mayors and heads, including the mayor of the city of Nago, the designated site for the new base. Nakaima told his Washington audience that the relocation plan ‘must be revised,’ continuing that Futenma was ‘not an acceptable option’ and that if the national government was to choose to proceed ‘against the will of the local citizens,’ it might lead to ‘an irreparable rift … between the people of Okinawa and the US forces in the prefecture.’

(US military bases in Okinawa)

Citizen-based disaster response: Zen priest accepts radioactive topsoil at temple grounds

In August, The Japanese government has considering evacuation plans that may take years to revise:

It is considering creating a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius around nuclear power plants where residents should be ready to take shelter or prepare to evacuate, a draft document compiled by the NSC secretariat and released by the NSC on Thursday showed.

This compares with a current zone of a radius up to 10 km.

It is also considering recommending that local authorities in a 50-km radius around plants be prepared to provide iodine tablets that help prevent thyroid cancers from radiation exposure.

The committee is planning to revise the draft document and finalize recommendations on evacuation zones next month. It plans to come up with a mid-term review this year, while it may take years to fully revise the guidelines, an official at the NSC secretariat said.

About 80,000 residents were forced to evacuate from a 20-km radius around the Fukushima Daiichi plant after the radiation crisis and some 30,000 more left the 20- to 30-km radius zone, though some are starting to come back.

Meanwhile Mike Wallacy of ABC (Australian Broadcasting) reports that communities are reporting radiation levels at Chernobyl levels, and spotlights one of many example of citizen-based disaster response: A Zen Buddhist priest is now accepting highly radioactive topsoil on temple property:

e is the chief monk of Fukushima's 400-year old Joenji Temple and this is a sutra for peace and rebirth, a prayer for the resurrection of an entire community choked in radiation.

KOYU ABE, BUDDHIST MONK (voiceover translation): This radiation is like an invisible snow. It's fallen and brought us a long winter. But eventually the snow will melt and spring will come.

MARK WILLACY: To help his community rid itself of this invisible snow, Monk Abe is allowing people to dump their radioactive topsoil on temple land.

Armed with his four Geiger counters, he shows me just how contaminated this earth is.

The Japanese-made Geiger counter quickly blasts off the scale. The others reveal radiation levels ten times beyond what's considered safe.

KOYU ABE, BUDDHIST MONK (voiceover translation): The radiation level here is so high that some of the Geiger counters can't measure it. But I still accept this contaminated soil.

View a video of this remarkable story at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp).

John Hayakawa Torok: "Occupy Together" sheds light on interconnections between Occupy Movement & worldwide democracy, colonial resistance movements

The 2011 Occupy/Decolonize Moment

By Dr. John Hayakawa Torok, JD, PhD

Occupy Wall Street (“OWS”) is a social movement begun September 17, 2011 by a handful of protestors who encamped at “Liberty Square” in lower Manhattan. In a month it has spread to over a thousand actions across the United States.

It is also denominated as the 99% as against the 1% of the wealthiest and highest earning Americans who, along with finance capital, are perceived as having excess power over U.S. and global governance. This 1% is identified as the source of the misery of the global majority.

Since its inception I have followed the uprising through social media and also in what she who shall not be named calls the lamestream media.

I have observed a general meeting or two at the Oakland and San Francisco, California, Occupy/Decolonize encampments. I have also visited the Berkeley encampment. This writing is solely my own reading based on these observations and others’ writings.

AdBusters and author/activist David Graeber are credited with providing the spark for the uprising.

The movement draws inspiration from other recent people’s rebellions like those of the Arab Spring particularly in Tunisia and Egypt, against austerity in Greece and France and the U.K., and Chile and Spain’s Indignados. Connections are also made to the global justice protests at Seattle, Toronto and elsewhere in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Solidarity statements and actions for OWS have already come from players in U.S. organized labor and the broader U.S. left.

Demonstrations of solidarity with OWS also occurred on October 15-16 in Lahore, Seoul, Madrid, London, Hong Kong, Rome, [Tokyo] and elsewhere. Another global day of action is apparently being planned for October 29 to precede the next G20 summit scheduled at Cannes.

The ethos at the encampments I have visited and have seen described is radically egalitarian, participatory, and cooperative. They are open, evolving communities committed to non-violence because they are quite aware of the state’s repressive power. They are also sites for deep conversation, “free schools,” cultural performance and production, and even for dancing in the streets.

The carnival aspect does not derogate from these encampments’ projects of self-rule based on consensus, or at least an aspiration to that process of decision-making. To varying degrees

Occupy/Decolonize encampments assert autonomy from the state and thus eschew police presence and protection. In the U.S., the violence that has occurred has come from police repression.

Communications, like the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, September 29, 2011, are also adopted through the consensus process. They receive wide distribution through social media networks nationally and globally. What other communiqués will emerge, and from where, remains open.

The decolonization critique of OWS has two components. The first is stated in the slogan, “Take Back Wall Street: Occupied Since 1625.” The major premise is that the economic and social development of the present U.S. order originates in white settler colonization. A minor premise is that the invention of racism served as ideological justification for both conquest and enslavement and that racism still prevails in Occupied America.

The second component is based on experiences, and criticism based on those experiences, by people of color participants in the Occupy general assemblies. This part of the critique centers how male, heterosexual, class, and especially white racial privilege exclude the histories and experiences of women and queer people of color in articulating the uprising’s politics.

Thus, a call to “Occupy America” obscures the histories of colonization and resistance that U.S. indigenous and people of color communities often carry with them. The slogan “Occupy Everywhere” also unfortunately evokes colonialist projects. The phrase “Occupy Together” – used by an unofficial online coordination project –avoids this danger by inviting everyone’s participation.

Participatory democracy and consensus-based decision-making require significant leisure. That leisure can come from wealth, or student status, or unemployment. Most with jobs or families – unless they are homeless and living in poverty - will find it difficult either to follow or to participate in the on-site Occupy/Decolonize conversations. That does not render the conversations unimportant.

By claiming to be the dispossessed and disenfranchised 99% - a claim that hundreds of thousands around the world have found compelling enough to find ways to support the movement and its physical articulation as local encampments including financially – the participants have clearly struck a nerve.

The opportunity that the Occupy/Decolonize encampments provide is for people from diverse racial backgrounds and class positions to learn together and articulate a new democratic politics to transform society. It is this potential unleashed by OWS for the liberatory imagination to work and to transform our world that has captured so many imaginations not only in the U.S. but in other countries as well.

Via Occupy Love via Blackcommentator.com. John Hayakawa Torok is a critical race theorist and card-carrying member of the U.S.A. Green Party.

Oct. 21, 1995 Okinawa People's Rally: "Deliver the Spirit of Okinawa to the World"

(Oct. 21, 1995 Okinawa People's Rally)
It's the 16th anniversary of the historic Okinawa-wide protest of the 1995 kidnapping, beating, and gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by 3 U.S. servicemen. The protest launched an ever-deepening Okinawan movement for democracy, human rights, and the indigenous Okinawan culture of peace.

Here is their 1996 statement, a prayer for world peace at many levels:

Deliver the Spirit of Okinawa to the World

The citizens of Okinawa are a people who hope for peace.

Peace is the backbone which has supported Okinawa throughout history and has become something even more powerful to those who experienced the unprecedented Battle of Okinawa. It is also the basis for their view of the world, in which they are very confident.

The words "nuchi-do-takara" (Life is the greatest treasure) which symbolizes this reverence for peace, will surely last forevermore. The saying "ichariba-chode"(Once we have met, we are like brothers and sisters) has been carried down through the ages and represents the spirit of Okinawa. The spirit of "yuimaru" or helping, supporting and coexisting with one another, has overcome the ups and downs of history, and is considered to be a great asset to the Okinawan people.

Throughout history we have realized that our nation and humanity as a whole, should advance not in the direction of military power, but rather towards friendship and goodwill by accepting, trusting and helping one another. This rich culture which has made flowers bloom in the southern islands, is the essence of the history of the Okinawan spirit.

50 years ago, while the dust of combat had not yet disappeared, the first thing we set our minds on was the reconstruction of the peaceful islands of Okinawa, whose culture was reared by our ancestors. However, as if to laugh at the peaceful intentions of our people, the world took up nuclear arms and rushed into the winter known as the Cold War. Furthermore, like in the case of Korea and Vietnam, we have been forced to get involved in issues of war. And now, 50 years since the end of World War II, the situation regarding the bases has not yet changed in the slightest.

Approximately 20% of the main island of Okinawa, a prefecture which accounts for a mere 0.6% of the nation's total area, continues to be taken up by the huge bases and is forced to bear the burden of 75% of all US military installations in Japan. This provides clear evidence of the stagnant state of base affairs. The peace dividend that the people of Okinawa Prefecture have been hoping and waiting for has been continuously denied to them. The Okinawan people have not yet been allowed to benefit in the slightest from this peace, On the contrary, the one thing we are allowed to have is the unwelcomed presence of repeated military aircraft crashes and other such terrible occurrences. We are also "rewarded" with the destruction of our environment, including noise pollution and live firing exercise which destroy the forests that are important to the accumulation of our water resources.

Since the [1972] reversion to Japan, there have been approximately 4700 cases of base-related crime. These incidents pose a clear threat to the way of life and precious existence of the Okinawan people. And then of September 4, 1995, just as the people of Okinawa Prefecture had feared, yet another detestable and disastrous incident occurred. This brutal act, committed by three young American servicemen, is absolutely inexcusable.

We know the real evil and the fundamental cause of this incident because we have experienced it during the Battle of Okinawa and the US military occupation.

We saw the nature of the military on the battlefield during the Battle of Okinawa and under the 27-year-long US military occupation. Their inhuman behavior was a disregard for, and a complete desecration of human dignity. It contradicts the Okinawan spirit which is symbolized in sayings such as "Life is the greatest treasure," "Once we have met, we are like brothers and sisters," etc.

Through the sacrifice of many precious lives and a lot of bloodshed, we have reconfirmed our ancestors' unequivocally correct choice not to bear arms and to deny the use of military power as a means of diplomacy.

This year, which marks the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, "The Cornerstone of Peace" was constructed in the Peace Memorial Park in Mabuni, Itoman, the place of the last and fiercest battle of World War II, the Battle of Okinawa, in order to pray for the souls of all those who lost their lives during the war and to pray for everlasting world peace. Over two hundred thirty thousand names are inscribed on "The Cornerstone of Peace", irrespective of nationality.

Our heartfelt hope is to build a peaceful Okinawa and a world without weapons. We are certain that this is the only way that the over one million two hundred thousand Okinawans as well as all the people living in Asia and the rest of the world, can coexist as human beings and live together on the earth in the future. We appeal to the world to accept the Okinawan spirit as its own in order to ensure that the tragedy that this young Okinawan girl experienced is not repeated, and so that no one will commit such terrible crimes ever again.

October 21, 1995

Okinawan People's Rally
Denunciation of the assault committed by the American servicemen
Demanding the reversion of the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement

Women for a Nuclear-Free Future: Sit-In Protest in Tokyo, Oct. 27-30, 2011: Evacuate children of Fukushima & no resumption of nuclear plant operation!

Women from Fukushima will be sitting in at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry office in Tokyo from October 27th to 29th to demand the evacuation of Fukushima children and no resumption of nuclear power plant operation. (43 of the 54 reactors are currently shuttered for scheduled maintenance.)

The women of Fukushima are calling on women around the world to act in solidarity with similar actions at the same time – (demonstrating in front of Japanese embassies or consulates).

They are launching Women for a Nuclear-Free Future in Sapporo, Osaka, and Tokyo on October 23-24; and are asking women from all over Japan to join the sit-in on October 30th. The women state that seven months of government refusal to evacuate Fukushima children is a crime against humanity, and it can no longer be tolerated.

Send a message of solidarity via Greenpeace.

Global World Food Sovereignty Day: "From Food Monopolies to Food Commons"

( Family garden on an island in the Inland Sea. Photo: JD)
Comprehensive analysis of the engineered global food price hikes, the global food crisis, and how to fix it (agro-ecology, food democracy) at Slow Food International. (The author explains why US Big Ag is pushing so hard to force open markets in Asia (and Africa)): "From Food Monopolies to Food Commons" by Eric Holt-Giménez, Ph.D.:

Calls for food sovereignty, food justice and even “food democracy” are ringing from fields to kitchens around the world. In the face of the recurrent food and diet crises plaguing our planet, farmers, farm and food workers, consumers—politically engaged citizens—are struggling to regain control over their food systems. Why?

Because the “solutions” to these crises offered by governments, agri-food monopolies and multilateral institutions—e.g., more “free” trade, genetically engineered crops and the spread of giant retail chains—brought on the crises to begin with. With a billion people “stuffed” and a billion “starved” on the planet, why do the G-8 countries, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization continue to prescribe catastrophic solutions to catastrophe?

The answer is simple: the oligopolies dominating our global corporate food regime are also in crisis. The record profits and massive wealth they accumulated during the 2008 and 2011 food price inflation crises must be re-invested in order to maintain a compound rate of growth... Where can they re-invest their vast amounts of accumulated wealth? The monopolies have what is called a crisis of over-accumulation.

Who will solve the crisis of over-accumulation for the monopolies? The poor.

The poor are not getting any richer, but as a group they are growing at the rate of 8% and because they make up nearly half of the world’s population they offer a vast, expanding market opportunity for the agri-food monopolies. With the promise of “saving the world from hunger,” these corporations are now busy leveraging public development funds of northern governments to open new markets in Africa and Asia. Foreign food and development aid—which is fuelled by public money—is being directed to poor countries so that they can buy GM grain, fertilizers, pesticides, and genetic engineered seeds from the northern monopolies.

Many studies and reports have shown that agroecology is the best answer to hunger and climate change in the Global South. Poor countries also have to be allowed to protect their own agriculture. The oligopolies controlling our food systems are not solving the problem of hunger—rather, hunger is being used to solve the problem of over-accumulation for the oligopolies...

Over the last three decades the waves of neoliberal globalization has not only ruined local and regional food systems...

Food sovereignty, food justice and food democracy are movements of people that seek other solutions. They seek to re-open public spaces of decision so that people rather than monopolies decide what we eat, how it is grown, and how the multi-trillion dollar wealth of our world food systems is distributed. How can our movements make sure that our public resources are used for the public good rather than monopoly interests? By re-establishing the public sphere within our food systems—by taking back the “food commons.”

A food commons is not only a physical place where food is produced, processed, sold or consumed; it is also a social space where decisions are made in the interest of the common good. Whenever food activists take back a part of the food system in the interest of the common good, they are constructing a food commons. This is why food sovereignty as an organizing concept and precondition for food justice, food democracy and the right to food is so important: it implies a space that is sovereign to the corporate food regime. It is a space in which people—not corporations—decide...

The social construction of food commons is taking place around the world in the nooks and crannies of the existing corporate food regime. Little by little, the different experiences of community gardens, fair trade, community service agriculture, food policy councils, farmer’s movements and consumer movements are slowly converging in their efforts to build a better food system.

Read the entire article here.

Slow, Fair, Humane, Healthful Food: "Occupy the Food System"

Slow Food USA's blog: "Occupy Wall Street: What’s food got to do with it?"

...good, clean, and fair food IS a value of the activists. But what does it have to do with Wall Street?

Food justice writer and activist Jan Poppendeick says the connection is corporate control of agriculture. The statistics are staggering (90% of the corn market is dominated by 3 companies, for example) and the resulting degradation of human health and the environment endangers our health, and the future health of our food supply.

Reclaiming control of the food system from corporate entities is one of the written tenets of the OWS declaration: “[corporations] have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.” Another tenet speaks to animal cruelty inflicted by the common industrial practice of confining animals into tight quarters with abhorrent conditions...

With so many messages on t-shirts and banners it’s hard for any one to rise to the top, but it’s clear that food activists are present on the scene. As Sheila Salmon Nichols noted on our Facebook page, “We might not all agree on all the ideologies of OWS…however, their position on what is happening to our food system is spot-on! Hopefully, this collective energy will move our country/world in a more positive, peaceful, and sustainable direction!”

Comment: The connection between the poor quality of the culture of food in the US and control of our food systems by extremely large companies as mentioned above is spot on. Major advertising budgets target children and adults with ads that have almost nothing to do with health, community or long term life-satisfaction.

"Food Inc." pointed out some of the ways that large companies are willing to directly harm small farmers - who are the best chance for renewed innovation and responsibility in agriculture - for the sake of a few more pennies profit, and increased control over farmers seeds and practices. I strongly support Occupy Wall Street for the simple reason that they are helping all of us to understand the connections between the systems we’ve created and our current reality...

Comment: Many of the rank and file dairy farmers are supportive of Occupy Wall Street.

We have watched as a handful of companies have come to dominate the prices that we receive for our milk. A handful of traders control the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that sets the price of cheese that tranlates into milk price formulas. The most spectacular display of greed was in 2009 when dairy farmers were committing suicides from milk prices that dropped to $9 0r $10 for 100 pounds of milk. There are 8.6 pounds of milk in a gallon) You, the consumer, continued to pay the same in the store. Farmers were committing suicide in rural areas. The CEO of Dean Foods, the nation’s largest milk processor, took home a cool $66,000,000 that year according to Bloomberg.

As markets have become more consolidated, the companies have tightened their grip on us, the average farmers. Our share of the dairy retail dollar has dropped tremendously over the past decade. The leaders of even the largest cooperatives will tell you that Walmart has big power to push us back and down in price. The biggest dairy companies in the US have just piloted an ad campaign to force the prices paid down to the farmers.

Where will this all end? Thank you, Occupy Wall Street. Some of us will try to get to smaller occupy wall street demonstrations since it is hard for us to leave the cows, it is difficult to travel to big cities, but we are with you.

Writers in Support of the Occupy Movement

Writers in Support of the Occupy Movement: http://occupywriters.com:

We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world.

Includes Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Eve Ensler, and Jane Hirschfield.

Footnote: Jane Hirschfield is a poet, translator, & author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, illuminated with the following quality:

It is the task of the writer to become that permeable and transparent, to become, in the words of Henry James, a person on whom nothing is lost. What is put into the care of such a person will be well tended. Such a person can be trusted to tell the stories she is given to tell, and to tell them with the compassion that comes when the self's deepest interest is not in the self, but in turning outward, and into awareness. (p.223)

Occupy Tokyo

Occupy Tokyo website: http://occupytokyo.org/en

Robert Thurman @ Occupy Wall Steet: "This planet is in jeopardy because of the military-industrial machine that is beyond East & West."

(Via filmmaker Velcrow Ripper, engaged chronicler of nonviolent social movements, at his latest blog—Occupy Love: Robert Thurman, engaged Buddhist scholar and friend of the Dalai Lama, calling for a "cool revolution", compassion, meditation (to create psychological strength & focus) to challenge the organized greed & high-tech violence of the less than 1%.)

Robert Thurman shares wisdom at Occupy Wall Street: "We need a cool revolution!":

By "cool" I mean...without getting angry, without indulging in hatred...

Here we are at Liberty Plaza and we're trying to keep liberty keep growing on this planet. Actually this planet is in dire jeopardy because of the military-industrial machine that is beyond East and West.

The industrial part has to do with organized greed. It combines individuals' limitless greed with high-tech power and it's transcending the capacity of the planet. Pollution, global warming, over-population all comes from this technological expansion of greed.

On the other side you have hatred which necessarily goes along with greed because a greedy person hates the other greedy person whom he feels is trying to take away whatever he wants.

So we need to control both of these problems. Therefore, in order to do this, every person has to control the inside of their own mind.

No one should be protesting the nasty bankers if they truly hate them. They are not worthy of being hated. They are just like us. They are just luckier at the moment and unluckier in the long run because they are taking away too much from too many. This makes them paranoid. They never can have any fun because they think we're going to pick their pockets. And one billion is not enough. Even ten...twenty...one hundred billion...By that time, they're reduced to a pile of shivering paranoia...Therefore we have to be sympathetic to them. We don't hate them. We feel sorry for them...

However the corporatocracy has taken over the mass media and the electoral process and so they are defeating your will. Every poll says 70% of us wants social security without problems; want a single-payer medical system; want to have bankers and insurers know they work for us. They are service industries: they serve us, we don't serve them.

The corporatocracy are a bunch of wimpy guys with a couple of token girls who don't actually know how to make anything. But they know how to sign checks and push papers which my pathetic university taught them, without properly teaching them ethics...But one thing they're good at is not wanting to pay people to make things. An honest wage, a decent job. So they support dictatorships like China to keep slaves on tap for them for a dollar a day so they can bust the unions here and export all our jobs and even get tax breaks for it. This has to stop.

You have to vote the congresspeople who are corrupt out of office so that 70% of the wishes of the American people will be honored by them. They should serve their constituents and not their [campaign] contributors like the people up there in those buildings [pointing at Wall Street buildings], who are the 1% or less...

Don't be brainwashed by political propaganda like Fox News...who lull us into complacence, which now you all are not doing...

Let's all meditate everyday. But not just "Duh...I didn't think anything. Oh that felt so good, I didn't think anything." That can be nice, like Prozac or something...But it can be a little addictive. It doesn't really bring you insight.

And, indulge your compassion. Indulge your intelligence: what you really need. So when you meditate, think about compassion. Here we are free to take our time, envisioning a happier world...a world with gross national happiness...

Erric Solomon posted the entire talk (with good sound) at whatmeditationreallyis.com. Solomon also posted on the group of about 100 meditators at Occupy, with a link to organizer Anthony Whitehurst.

South Korean Catholics launch Solidarity Movement to Save Jeju Island; Korean American & peace groups demonstrate @ White House tonight

(3,600 Catholic clerics throughout South Korea launched "Catholics Solidarity to Realize the Jeju Peace Island" on Oct. 10. Image: mass for its launch held in the Gangjeong port at 7pm with 1,000 clerics and followers)

Sung-Hee Choi from Jeju Island, South Korea:

3,600 Catholic clerics nationwide launched the ‘Catholics Solidarity to Realize the Jeju Peace Island,’ on Oct. 10. The mass for its launch was held in the Gangjeong port at 7pm with 1,000 clerics and followers joining.

The Catholic Solidarity, centered on the Catholics Justice and Peace committee of the 14 dioceses nationwide was composed of the various clerics from convent, monasteries, human rights committee and labor groups such as the Association of Major Superiors of Women Religious in Korea, Korean Conferences of Major Superiors of Men’s Religious Institutes and Societies of Apostolic life, Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice, Catholic Human Rights Committee and Catholic Labor Pastoral Association of Korea.

The total number of the members of the Catholic Solidarity reached to 3,835 as of Oct. 10 and if additionally collected, it would exceed 4,000.

They told through its draft of the launch statement that “The stop of the naval base construction is the only way to save the peace in the Korean peninsula and Jeju Island.”

The Catholic Solidarity came to a mutual agreement for each diocese to hold mass or lecture meeting on the Jeju naval base and to visit the Gangjeong to hold life and peace mass there. It also made consent to have a large rally in Seoul in November. The discussion to organize the lay believers is also underway, as well.

More from The Global Campaign to Save Jeju Island on tonight's protest rally:

Global Campaign to Save Jeju Island to join rally against South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak at White House State Dinner

The Global Campaign to Save Jeju Island joins forces with Korean-American activists to call attention to failed Lee Myung-Bak policies.

U.S.-based peace activists will assemble in front of the White House on October 13 as a signal to visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak that his support for the illegal construction of a naval base on Korea’s Jeju Island is garnering international heat.

Since 2007, protests have occurred at the site of the proposed base, which would host up to 20 American and South Korean warships, including submarines, aircraft carriers and destroyers, several of which would be fitted with the Aegis ballistic-missile defense system.

South Korea started construction of the base in January but protests halted the work in June. Construction has again resumed despite democratic appeals for its halt, including one from the Jeju Provincial Council on Oct. 4 following a 22-day investigation into the procedures that set the plan into motion.

Just last week nine Catholic priests, a South Korean journalist and 11 college students were arrested as part of the Jeju naval base protests under the banner of violating Article 314 which is the penal code for "obstruction of business" and is most often used to arrest and imprison trade unionists for exercising their democratic rights. Two hundred others have been called in for questioning by police not because they have committed any crimes, but because they are being targeted for their political beliefs and affiliations and for exercising their democratic rights.

Recently the Pan-Korean Committee to stop the Jeju naval base stated, “The police are indiscriminately and violently arresting and detaining not only the Gangjeong villagers and activists who protest against naval base construction but also clerics and news reporters, too. It is the police who have downfallen as the guards of the naval base construction, not minding the protection of the people’s basic rights such as the freedom of expression.”

Among those imprisoned is the democratically elected mayor of Gangjeong, the tiny fishing and farming village on Jeju’s south shore that is the site for the slated construction. The vote to authorize the installation of the naval base was decided by 87 people—some of whom were reportedly bribed—out of a village of 1,900 and an island of more than a half-million people.

Jeju Island, 50 miles southeast of South Korea’s mainland, is a pristine 706-square-mile volcanic island that is the site of three UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites. It was also the scene of a 1948 massacre by South Korean police and military forces of 30,000 civilians. In 2005, Roh Moo-hyun, then South Korea’s president, apologized for the atrocities and designated Jeju as an “Island of World Peace.”

U.S, President Barack Obama will host Lee for talks and a state dinner on October 13. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner has also invited Lee to address a joint session of Congress during his state visit.

Tim Shorrock: "Korea-US Trade Agreement: The Hidden History"

(Photo: Korea Policy Institute)
Despite widespread opposition from family farmer, labor, human rights, environmental, and Korean American groups, the US House of Representatives (in the wake of K Street's expensive lobbying for Seoul's and Wall Street's 1%) overrode the interests of the 99% and approved KORUS (the US-South Korea FTA) last night.

Main Street Americans have shifted their focus to the Senate...

Immediately after the House vote, Tim Shorrock posted this analysis (originally published at Foreign Policy in Focus in 2007) "Korea-US Trade Agreement: The Hidden History" which reveals the interconnections of U.S. military and economic neo-colonialism in a nation where the majority of people have challenged both for six decades:

The pact was approved along with treaties with Panama and Columbia – but those agreements pale against KORUS, which is the largest trade deal passed since NAFTA was signed by President Clinton in 1995

In fact, KORUS represents a major victory for U.S. multinational corporations, banks and financial institutions, which have lobbied intensively for the pact for more than half a decade. It’s also a major setback for Korean and American unions.

Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul (April 2007)

The South Korean-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS) cannot be seen apart from U.S.-South Korean security ties, the presence in South Korea of more than 30,000 U.S. troops and a 50-year economic relationship that has been heavily weighted towards American interests. From this perspective, KORUS is the fourth attempt by the United States to force its economic will on South Korea over the past half-century.

The trade deal still has to pass in South Korea, where Lee does not enjoy widespread support. Among numerous questionable policies, Lee initiated the environmentally massively destructive "Four Rivers" construction project (he is compared to 1970's-era Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka for his use of public office to push through construction boondoggles) and has contravened democratic process to force the seizure and demolition of private property on Jeju island, a World Natural Heritage Site, to make way for a naval base.

Sakai Tanaka's "How Long Will US Forces Continue to Occupy Japan and Korea? China, the US and the New Division of Power in the Asia-Pacific" published at The Asia-Pacific Journal last year also takes a close look at the wider geopolitical and military contexts of KORUS.

From the broad spectrum of American groups opposing KORUS:

• Environmentalists: "Friends of the Earth denounces passage of unjust trade agreements: President Obama broke his campaign promises in backing Bush-era trade pacts that repeat mistakes of NAFTA" (Oct. 13, 2011)

• Traditional Conservatives: "Why Conservatives Should Oppose KORUS Part I: Sovereignty" (Conservative Times, Feb. 17, 2011)

• Unions: "South Korea ‘Free Trade’ Deal: Another Funnel for Exploitation" (In These Times, June 3, 2011)

• Korean American organizations: "Why We Must Oppose the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement" ( Korea Policy Institute, May 25, 2011)

• Peace & Social Justice advocates: "
Legal protest dispersed during S.Korea-U.S. summit: Secret Service shuts down protest of KORUS FTA and Jeju naval base in front of the White House" (The Hankyoreh, Oct. 17, 2011):

According to John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, the fates of the U.S. and South Korea are more interconnected than most realize.

“The United States and South Korea are celebrating the passage of the [free trade agreement] and a very close military alliance,” said Feffer, who attended Thursday’s protest. “But the relationship between the two leaders conceals a number of unfortunate failings: a trade agreement that will throw a lot of workers out of jobs, a shared North Korea policy that has done nothing to improve peace and security on the peninsula, and a project to build a naval base at Jeju that will further jeopardize regional stability. What many observers have called a win-win set of U.S.-South Korea deals has actually been lose-lose for a lot of people in the region. And that’s what people were protesting in D.C. during Lee’s visit.”

• Family Farmers: "Korea US Free Trade Agreement Another Cash Cow for Corporations" (Familyfarmers.org, April 11, 2011)

Short investigative report on corporate media coverage of the FTAs with South Korea, Columbia, and Panama: "Bait-and-Switch Boosterism on Trade Pacts" (Janine Jackson, FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), Oct. 13, 2011):

What else but blind faith would allow a story to carry a line like one in the October 12 New York Times, about textile industry opposition to the new deal with South Korea: "The production of shirts and sheets has shifted steadily from the United States to countries with lower-cost labor. Economists argue that this process strengthens the economy as companies and workers shift to more productive and lucrative kinds of work." Of course, if the Times has evidence of laid off textile workers' mass movement to more lucrative work, they're sitting on the scoop of the century...

Then you get a line, like that in the October 13 New York Times, once the deals have passed and been heralded as a "rare moment of bipartisan accord," that "the passage of the trade deals is important primarily as a political achievement, and for its foreign policy value in solidifying relationships with strategic allies. The economic benefits are projected to be small."

See more at this compilation post: "Worse than NAFTA: S. Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) would hurt U.S. & S. Korean small farmers & workers; Burmese, N. Korean slave laborers" (TTT, June 21, 2011)

Korean American @ Occupy Wall Street: "The FTA with S. Korea represents...exactly the types of agreements everyone at Wall Street is opposed to."

Democracy Now! interviews Korean-American, Columbian, and Panamanian fair trade advocates @ Occupy Wall Street - "Colombian, Korean and Panamanian Activists Condemn White House Support for New "Free Trade" Deals":

Organizers from Colombia, Panama and South Korea held a teach-in at Occupy Wall Street on Monday about "free trade agreements" now pending in Congress that will expand the market for national corporations and financial corporations from the United States.

"Essentially, it tries to institute once more the things that caused this financial crisis in the first place," says Sukjong Hong, an organizer with Nodutdol for Korean Community Development.

"It also opens the door to outsourcing more American jobs." Carlos Salamanca, member of AFSCME Local 372, adds that the Colombian free trade agreement is "the continuation of what’s going on in Colombia, supporting the government who are not doing anything to stop the killing of workers in Colombia, the union members, the human rights activists, and the persecution against the indigenous and Afro-Colombians’ leadership over there."

AMY GOODMAN: We’re here in Freedom Plaza, just around the corner from Wall Street, and a teach-in just finished up with three people who are here from three different countries talking about so-called free trade agreements. Why don’t you introduce yourselves and talk about where you’re from?...

SUKJONG HONG: Hi. My name is Sukjong Hong. And I’m with Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and an organization that’s national called Korean Americans for Fair Trade. And I’m a second-generation Korean American.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re here in Freedom Plaza, just around the corner from Wall Street, and a teach-in just finished up with three people who are here from three different countries talking about so-called free trade agreements. Why don’t you introduce yourselves and talk about where you’re from?

...SUKJONG HONG: Hi. My name is Sukjong Hong. And I’m with Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and an organization that’s national called Korean Americans for Fair Trade. And I’m a second-generation Korean American.

SUKJONG HONG: Yes. Well, for myself and many Americans who are also tied to Korea, the free trade agreement with South Korea represents this—exactly the types of agreements that everyone here at Wall Street is opposed to.

Basically, it bans the limit on the size of financial institutions. It bans any limit on capital flows. It bans deregulation—it bans any regulation on derivatives. So, essentially, it tries to institute once more the things that caused this financial crisis in the first place. And it also opens the door to outsourcing more American jobs.

And it has caused a lot of depressing of the standards of life and of the laws in South Korea, as well. They had to lower their emissions standards. They had to lift their ban on GMOs...Basically, a lot of the laws that both Americans and Koreans have fought for are going to be—basically become meaningless in the face of these free trade agreements.

And just last week, 10,000 people in South Korea went to the streets to protest these free trade deals. But both governments seem very intent on pressing forward. And I think not enough Americans know about the damage that these free trade agreements will cause, and really not really looking even in their own backyard at what NAFTA has done.

Read the rest of the interview with Carlos Salamanca from Columbia and Sunyata Altenor from Panama (who describe how these FTAs are related to the persecution and killings of human and labor rights advocates and indigenous people in Columbia; and the unrestrained exploitation of natural resource and worker in Panama) here.

More from Kristen Beifus and Christa Hillstrom at Yes!: "The Tricks of the Trade Deals: This week, Congress will vote on three Free Trade Agreements that are predicted to kill jobs and solidify corporate power. It's our turn to have a say in how we trade.:

Last week, President Obama submitted to Congress no fewer than three "hangover" free trade agreements (FTA's) originally negotiated by the Bush administration. All three bills have been widely opposed by labor organizations, environmental groups, human rights activists, and others for their strong likelihood of offshoring U.S. jobs, further deregulating the corporate sector, hurting the livelihoods of farming communities, and ignoring labor and environmental standards and human rights. They are expected to be voted on Wednesday.

Since negotiations on it first began, more than 700,000 South Koreans have protested the largest of the three pending agreements, the U.S.-Korea Trade Agreement, or KORUS...

Right now, tens of thousands of Americans—from New York to Seattle to St. Louis—are in the streets for a related reason: standing up to the control corporations have over the political process. Perhaps nowhere is this manipulation better exemplified than in the realm of global trade.

In the past 20 years, the U.S. has consistently instated international trade policies that secure the “rights” of corporations over those of workers and indigenous communities; that protect intellectual property, but not farmers' land, workers' health, or communities' water and air; that appropriate taxpayer money to bolster industries that shift production overseas, leaving a wake of unemployment at home...

But human rights concerns under KORUS reach further.

About 40 miles north of Seoul, and 10 miles over the border with North Korea, is a complex of sweatshops where 44,000 North Korean workers labor in factories for as little as 25 cents an hour—about half of which is directly paid to the North Korean state. This, the Kaesong Industrial Complex, is a South Korean free trade zone, where 120 corporations like Hyundai use disgracefully cheap labor to manufacture products intended for export—exports that may soon enter the U.S. duty-free. On top of that, KORUS' "Rule of Origin" states that fully two-thirds of a product can be made outside of the country and still have the label "Made in Korea," and enter the U.S. without tariffs...

We need to continue to build and nourish natural alliances—across industries, across countries, across unions; between faith, farm, and migrant communities; among students and small and medium businesses—so our voices are at the decision-making table ensuring that trade policy benefits our communities...

Save Jeju Island: Protest Lee Myung-bak - Oct. 13, 2011 @ 6 p.m. - The White House

(April 3, 2011 march in Jeju City against state seizure of private property & forced destruction of a biodiverse (soft coral habitat, South Korea's only natural dolphin habitat) coast to make way for construction of a naval base in Jeju Island. Many are survivors or descendants of survivors of the state-perpetrated massacre on April 3, 1948. In Osaka, Japan, a "Jeju village", formed by massacre refugees, still exists, with continued ties to the island. Photo: Media Jeju via No Base Stories Korea

Protest Lee Myung-bak
Oct. 13, 2011 @ 6 p.m. - The White House

The South Korean Government is constructing a naval base on Jeju Island. Officially named the “Island of World Peace” by the late President Roh Moo Hyun, Jeju was the site of a 1948 massacre in which more than 30,000 civilians were estimated to have been slaughtered during a democratic uprising.

Located strategically in the Korea Strait, the island’s potential to become a military target in the event of an armed conflict in this tense region would increase exponentially with the addition of a naval base. The threat this poses to the men, women and children of Jeju Island is unconscionable, and it can be avoided through halting the base construction.

Since plans for the naval base were announced five years ago, 94 percent of Gangjeong residents have voted against the base and used every possible democratic means to block its construction in their pristine fishing village. Yet their protests have fallen on mostly deaf ears.

The home for this proposed military facility is the tiny village of Gangjeong, which is surrounded by three UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites and nine UNESCO Geo-Parks on an island that is designated a Global Biosphere Reserve. Construction is accelerating daily with the dredging of the island’s seabed and its coral communities currently underway.

See also "National & Int. Protests Challenge Naval Base Construction on Jeju Island" by Gwisook Gwon.

Updates on democratic crisis in South Korea: Navy disregards Jeju Island Council's demand to stop illegal construction

Latest disturbing updates about the democratic crisis at Jeju Island, South Korea from the Global Campaign to Save Jeju Island:

October 5 | Two hundred Gangjeong villagers and Korean peace activist have received letters from the police demanding that they appear for questioning regarding their role in the Jeju naval base resistance. The government crackdown is escalating.

October 4 | Five priests from the Jeonju diocese, two from Jeju, one from Gwangju and a Jesuit brother have been arrested and are now being held in the Jeju Dongbu police station. Unlawful arrests are increasing dramatically.

October 3 | Bail has been rejected for Gangjeong village mayor Kang Dong-gyun, villager Kim Jong-Hwan and photographer Kim Dong-Won. The three men have been incarcerated since August 24 for their role in the nonviolent resistance.

October 2 | 11 South Korean college students and three Hanjin employees have been beaten and arrested by naval soldiers and police while trying to visit Gureombi Rock - site of the naval base construction project. 15 people are now in custody.

More from Sung-Hee Choi on the Lee government's abuse of state and military power and contravention of rule of law and democratic process in Jeju Island:

Return of militarism in the Republic of Korea. The Navy ignores even the Jeju Island government.

The navy’s conduct of test blast works in the Gureombee [rocky coastline] today, Oct. 6 — two days after the Jeju Island Council made a resolution to demand the central government and navy to stop construction.

Today, even the Island governor Woo Keun-Min who has expressed support for the naval base construction, strongly opposed the navy’s test blast plan before its execution.

The navy, as usual, has never consulted the villagers for the work today.

Do you believe?

The navy, totally ignoring not only the opinion of villagers, but also the demand of the Jeju Island Council and even the Jeju Island government, conducted six times of test blast of the Gureombee today.

11 activists were arrested during their resistance in the sea and land. One female activist and one female journalist were released later therefore total 9 people are in the hands of police now: six people who were in the boat are told to be currently in the maritime police station in the Jeju city while three people who were arrested in the land are in the Seogwipo police station.

6,000 family farmers protest in Seoul against US-South Korea FTA (KORUS) which would destroy what's left of South Korean agriculture

(Image: Nile Int. (Egyptian TV channel) via APTN)

On Oct. 6, 2011, 6,000 South Korean family farmers protested against the proposed US-South Korea FTA (KORUS), stating the agreement will endanger their livelihood by flooding the South Korean market with cheaper, government subsidized U.S. agricultural products.

Martin Frid, who participated in an organic farming conference in Korea earlier this month, posted on the incredible amount of food that South Korea imports: 80-90%. Most of it comes from the U.S, followed by China.

This is by design and parallels political economic shifts in other countries. The South Korean government uses state policy to intentionally undermine small family farmers (and traditional landed culture), similarly to the U.S. in the 1970's and Japan in the 1990's (when the USTR forced Japan to open its previously fiercely protected rice market). The common agenda against family farmers in these countries (and elsewhere) was and is to enlarge markets and profits for global (especially US) agribusiness ("Food Inc".); alter traditional (local) food production in favor of neoliberal agricultural (plantation monoculture) food production; and to diminish the political influence of family farmers.

In "Crisis at Daechuri - the latest phase of the Korean War," which explores the back stories behind Seoul's forced, violent seizure of farmland to expand a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, Brian Mac Grath describes the long domestic war against Korean farmers:

The political activism of Korean farmers has long been a thorn in the side of the global agricultural industry and as such is consistently denounced by the media. After the Korean War, South Korean agriculture was sacrificed to enable industrialization to take place, with land nationalization less thorough and complete than it appeared on the surface.

US agribusiness has gradually gained total access to the South Korean agricultural market, with over half of Koreas food imports now coming from the US. The result could be the total disappearance of the small farmers who are the backbone of Korean agriculture. If the farmers of South Korea can be successfully defeated through the subtle warfare of international trade, and the less-subtle warfare of outright land seizure at Daechuri and Doruri, then Korean nationalism will of itself wither and die, as the South Korea industrial economy is increasingly absorbed into that of the US.

The destruction of South Korean agriculture is a vital stage in increasing the dependency of the peninsula as a whole upon the United States, given the disastrous condition of North Korean agriculture, as a result of flooding, state mismanagement, and international sanctions imposed by the US.

In-depth 2008 reports at Grain.org on U.S. agribusiness introduction of GMO foods into South Korea: "Food Safety on the Butcher's Block" and Daewoo's attempted immense land-grab in Africa for corn and palm oil plantations: "Korean women farmers on the Daewoo/Madagascar land deal" (The deal was rescinded in 2009 by the president of Madagascar who replaced the president who was forced from office (in part for outraging citizens by leasing half of Madagascar's arable land to Daewoo.))

For a compilation of articles on KORUS, please see this post: "Worse than NAFTA: S. Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) would hurt U.S. & S. Korean small farmers & workers; Burmese, N. Korean slave labor"

Some background on petrochemical-intensive industrial agriculture from Fritjof Capra's The Turning Point:

Three million American farms have been eliminated this way since 1945...

The farmers who were able to remain on the land had to accept a profound transformation of their image role, and activities. From growers of edible foods, taking pride in feeding the world's people, farmers have turned into producers of industrial raw materials to be processed into commodities designed for mass marketing. Thus corn is converted to starch or syrup...it is not surprising that many children today grow up believing that food comes from supermarket shelves...

In this industrialized system, which treats living matter like dead substances and uses animals like machines, penned in feedlots and cages, the process of farming is almost totally controlled by the petrochemical industry...Nevertheless, a growing number of farmers have become aware of the hazards of chemical farming and are turning back to organic, ecological methods.

In-depth analysis of KORUS: "Capitalism, the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, and Resistance" by Martin Hart-Landsberg, temporarily available as a free download at the Critical Asian Studies website.

Americans need to occupy K Street too: Seoul's 1% spends millions on K Street South Korea Lobby (& US campaign contributions?) for KORUS

I wish the Occupy Wall Street movement would understand this is the street they need to focus on…

The street that passes the money from the corporations to the politicians…

I understand they are going to protest there today…this is the protest I would like to see take hold.

Obama promised to reign in K street and has done nothing…it is not the $20 gifts that the people are objecting to. It is things like this article is about.

Shut down K street all together.

BY jb on 10/06/2011 at 07:25 (Comment at "Trade deals were cash cow for K Street" by Kevin Bogardus, 10/10/11, The Hill)

It's not just the 1% at Wall Street that 99% of ordinary Americans are up against...

They are also up against the foreign 1% represented by K Street lobbyists. South Korean corporate interests have spent millions on K Street lobbyists since 2006 to push through a free trade deal opposed by the majority of U.S. and South Korean citizens (family farmers, labor rights, environmentalists, human rights and consumer advocates).

Kevin Bogardus' Oct. 10, 2011 "Trade deals were cash cow for K Street" published at The Hill on Oct. 10, 2011 charts some of the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the U.S. government by foreign lobbies (of course U.S. corporations and banks do the same overseas):

The Korean government was the biggest spender among the three, with close to $6.3 million spent on lobbying and PR from 2006 into 2011.

Not included in the Hill’s analysis was lobbying and PR spending recorded in Justice records by any private groups — such as the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a quasi-governmental agency — or government agencies not connected to the trade agreements.

Opponents of the trade deals are still lobbying hard against the agreements and said there will be nothing to celebrate if the president signs them.

“With the projections that hundreds of thousands of manufacturing workers will lose their jobs from the pending trade pacts, it’s hard to work up too much sympathy for the relative handful of lobbyist contracts that may expire after Congress votes on the deals,” said Todd Tucker, research director for Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch...

In a July 2010 letter to the Korean ambassador on file with Justice, Akin Gump laid out a month-by-month strategy to pass the country’s trade deal. The plan included hosting social gatherings at the embassy; exploring hosting an event in Napa Valley to coincide with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) retreat; reaching out to national security experts at think tanks like the Center for American Progress and Third Way; and organizing the ambassador’s visits to California, Illinois, Michigan and Washington state.

Ben Freeman, Lydia Dennett, and Dahna Black at The Project on Government Oversight have written an in-depth report that addresses foreign campaign contributions , "Super Committee: Under the (Foreign) Influence?":

...For instance, lobbyists for South Korea have muscled in on Super Committee action. The top foreign lobbying firm in the U.S., Patton Boggs, LLP, was hired in February 2010 on behalf of both the non-profit Korean International Trade Association and the Embassy of South Korea to advocate for passage of the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement. They targeted committee co-chair Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) in a September 14, 2011 letter at least partly on the basis of her work on the Super Committee. The letter from Patton Boggs’ senior partner Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., to Murray states:

Ambassador Han would like to discuss the status of the pending US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), including in the context of the ongoing deficit reduction discussions in which you play a crucial role…The Ambassador is anxious to discuss these matters, as well as to update you on KORUS's benefits for the United States, particularly the State of Washington...

Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) and Patton Boggs, have a similar track record. The firm contacted Clyburn’s office about the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement more than any other representative in the past year and these contacts often coincided with campaign contributions the firm made to Clyburn. For example, on September 21, 2010 Patton Boggs lobbyists met with a Clyburn staffer to discuss the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. The following day, Patton Boggs PAC made a $5,000 contribution to the Senator, and the day after that Clyburn received an additional $500 from a Patton Boggs foreign lobbyist – a week later the firm got a face-to-face meeting with Clyburn to discuss the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement.

Clyburn may have had extra encouragement to take this meeting from Patton Boggs employees who don’t work as foreign lobbyists. In addition to the $5,500 Clyburn received from the firms’ PAC and a foreign lobbyist, employees of the firm made contributions to Clyburn of $500 on September 27th and $1,000 on the 30th, the same day that the Congressman met with their Patton Boggs colleagues. Prior to these contributions in September neither Patton Boggs PAC nor any of its employees had made a contribution to Clyburn in more than six months, according to CRP data.  Yet, in just nine days, from the time Patton Boggs first met with Clyburn’s associates until the day they met with the Representative himself, Clyburn received $7,000 in direct contributions from Patton Boggs and its employees.

Clyburn continued to promote the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Just this past April, the Korean Ambassador to the U.S., Han Duk-soo, and Clyburn attended a fundraiser in the Representative’s home district in South Carolina, where sponsors contributed up to $5,000. With echoes of lobbyist Tommy Boggs’ September 2011 letter to Senator Murray cited earlier, at the event the Korean Ambassador to the U.S. gave a keynote address on “the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement and the benefits for South Carolina's economy.”

Patton Boggs declined to comment. 

A Loophole for Contributions from Foreign Nationals?

Was it just a coincidence that within days of meeting with Clyburn to discuss the Korea Free Trade Agreement Patton Boggs contributed $7,000 to his campaign? Were the contributions Baucus received from Akin, Gump completely independent of the United Arab Emirates? Perhaps, and it would be incredibly difficult to prove otherwise. While the relationships between Clyburn, Baucus and foreign lobbyists are not shining examples of democracy in America, these exchanges are considered legal based upon current campaign finance and foreign lobbying regulations. Lobbyists working on behalf of foreign governments, just like any other U.S. citizen, are free to make political contributions. Their foreign clients, however, are explicitly prohibited from making any political contributions in the United States.

These foreign lobbying relationships then lead to a legal paradox – foreign entities hire agents who can commit acts they otherwise legally could not. Each year, foreign lobbyists are paid hundreds of millions of dollars by their foreign clients and they make millions of dollars in contributions to politicians. Yet American citizens are asked to naively believe that foreign lobbyists never use foreign money to influence the U.S. political process.

For a compilation of articles on KORUS, please see this post: "Worse than NAFTA: S. Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) would hurt U.S. & S. Korean small farmers & workers; Burmese, N. Korean slave labor"

Organic farmer from Fukushima & Hokkaido activists share their experiences & demand the evacuation of children from Fukushima & nuclear-free Japan

Via Beyond Nuclear: Aileen Mioko Smith (executive director of Green Action); Sachiko Sato (organic farmer from Fukushima); Kaori Izumi (director of Shut the Tomari Reactor); Yukiko Anzai (organic farmer from Hokkaido); and Kevin Kamps (Beyond Nuclear)...

See also: "Bringing the Plight of Fukushima Children to the UN, Washington and the World" (Aileen Mioko Smith with Mark Selden, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Oct. 10, 2011)

Thyroid gland dysfunction found in Fukushima child evacuees

Kyodo via Mainichi on Oct. 4, 2011: Thyroid gland irregularities found in young evacuees from Fukushima:
(A government map displaying radiation levels in the area around the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.)

Hormonal and other irregularities were detected in the thyroid glands of 10 out of 130 children evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture, a Nagano Prefecture-based charity dedicated to aid for the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident said Tuesday.

The Japan Chernobyl Foundation and Shinshu University Hospital did blood and urine tests on youngsters aged up to 16 including babies under the age of one for about a month through the end of August in Chino, Nagano, when the children stayed there temporarily after evacuating from Fukushima...

Three of the 10 children used to live within the 20-km no-go zone around the nuclear plant and one was from the so-called evacuation-prepared area in case of emergency in areas between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant, while six others were from towns outside such zones...

Fukushima resident expresses faith in grassroots change at "Goodbye Genpatsu" demonstration on Sept. 19, 2011: "Please don't forget Fukushima."

The following is the English translation of a powerful speech delivered by citizen activist Ruiko Muto at the recent Goodbye Genpatsu demonstration held on September 19th. Muto herself is from Fukushima, and had ironically been working to help decommission the Dai-ichi nuclear plant at the time of the accident last March. These words provide a crucial perspective from someone who experienced the Fukushima catastrophe firsthand, which those us who are not there will never be able to fully comprehend.

Hello everyone. I came here today from Fukushima.

I came along with many busloads of my companions, both from Fukushima prefecture itself and from the places to which we have evacuated. For many, this is the first time to participate in a rally or demo. We reached out, invited each other along, and came here today because we want to tell you about the grief caused by the accident at the nuclear plant in Fukushima; and because we are determined that we, of all people, will raise our voices to say that we do not want nuclear reactors.

There are a few things I would like to say at the start.

I want to express my deep respect for each one of you, who have tackled so many things each day, in the midst of this difficult period since 3/11, in order to protect life.

I also want to express my gratitude to all of you who have warmly reached out to connect with the people of Fukushima prefecture and to support us in various ways. Thank you.

And to all the children and young people whom this accident has forced to shoulder a heavy burden, I want to apologise from my heart on behalf of the generation that brought about such a situation. I am truly sorry.

I want to tell you all that Fukushima is a very beautiful place. To the east, the Hamadori region gazes out across the deep blue Pacific Ocean. The Nakadori region is a treasure-house of fruits: peaches, pears and apples. Golden rice stalks droop their heads on the Aizu plain, around Lake Inawashiro and Mount Bandai, while the far side is framed by deep mountain ranges. This land, with its blue mountains and clear water, is our homeland.

The nuclear accident of 3/11 was a turning-point. Radiation, invisible to the eye, descended on this landscape, and we too became “hibakusha” *.

In the midst of widespread confusion, various things happened to us.

Caught between a rapidly rolled-out "safety campaign" and feelings of alarm, the connections between people were torn apart. Who can say how many people worried and grieved: in our localities, our workplaces, our schools, our homes? Day after day, many inescapable decisions were forced upon us. To flee, or not to flee? To eat, or not to eat? To hang the laundry outside, or not to hang it outside? To make our children wear masks, or not to make them? To plough our fields, or not to plough them? To speak out about something, or to remain silent? There were various agonising decisions.

And now, here we are.

During the past half year, the following things have become clear:

The truth of the situation is being hidden

The country is not protecting its citizens

The accident is still not over

The inhabitants of Fukushima prefecture are being made the subjects of a nuclear experiment

A huge volume of radioactive waste remains

Despite the enormous price that we have already paid, there are powers that are intent on driving nuclear power production forward

We have been discarded

We heave deep sighs of exhaustion and overwhelming sadness. But the words that spill from our mouths are "Don't you dare treat us like fools!", "Don't snatch away our lives!"

In the midst of our anger and grief, we, the citizens of Fukushima prefecture, are quietly rising up:

Mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, wanting to protect their children...

The young generation, fighting to stop their future from being stolen...

Workers trying to help those cleaning up the stricken nuclear plant, exposed to huge doses of radiation in the process...

Farmers filled with despair at the contamination of their land...

People with disabilities, determined that the radiation should not give rise to a new discrimination and separation...

One by one, each of us citizens is asking questions about the responsibility of the state, and of TEPCO **. And we are raising our voices to say "No more nuclear reactors!"

We have become the ogres of Tohoku***, quietly burning with fury.

We, the people of Fukushima, want to share our suffering, responsibility and hope, and to support each other as we move forward with our lives, whether we have left our hometowns or have stayed in our land. Please join with us. Please take note of the action that we are undertaking. We are learning about negotiations with the government, evacuation rulings, temporary evacuation, recovering our health, decontamination, measurement of radiation levels, nuclear reactors and radioactivity. And we are going everywhere to tell people about Fukushima. Today, companions of ours are giving a speech in New York. We are working on this in every way we can think of. Please help us. Please don't forget Fukushima.

There is one more thing that I want to talk about, which is how we each live our lives. We need to imagine the world on the far side of that socket into which we plug things so heedlessly. We need to put our minds on the fact that convenience and development come at the price of discrimination and sacrificing people. Nuclear power plants are on the far side of that socket. The human race is no more than one species among the living creatures on this earth. Is there any other species that usurps its own future? I want to live as a living being should, in harmony with this beautiful planet. Although it may be a small thing, I want to treat energy as a precious resource, and weave an ingenious, rich, creative life.

How can we build a new world that is the polar opposite of one reliant on nuclear reactors? Nobody knows the full answer to that. What I think we can do is for each one of us, in complete and total earnest, to think with our own minds, make sure to open our eyes wide, decide what we can do, and act on it, rather than following what someone else has decided. Let us remember that each one of us has that power.

Every one of us has the courage to change. Let us reclaim the confidence that was taken from us. And then, let us connect with each other. If the power that even now aims to advance nuclear plants is a vertical wall looming over us, our power extends horizontally, without limits, through our ongoing connection.

Try reaching out and gently holding the hand of the person next to you. Let's look at each other, and listen to each other's pain. Let's allow each other's anger and tears. Let's spread the warmth of these hands we're holding now throughout Japan and the world.

However overwhelmingly heavy the burden each one of us has to bear, however rough the road that we have to travel, let us support each other so that we do not lose sight of our goal, and let us live through this time freely and blithely.

Muto Ruiko
Fukushima, Japan

Translated by Emma Parker

Translator's notes:

* The "hibakusha" are the victims of the atomic bombings of 1945. The use of this term for the victims of the nuclear accident last March makes this one of the most emotionally and politically charged sentences of the speech. The moral position of the hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is unassailable; no Japanese politician would dare be seen to belittle their suffering. Placing the victims of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi accident in the same category, however, emphasises that the lack of action by the government and TEPCO is just as inexcusable.

Also, the Japanese government was only able to obtain public acceptance of its nuclear power programme by acting as though nuclear weapons and nuclear power generation were two completely unrelated questions. Although many of the hibakusha have long been anti-nuclear weapons activists, few have been involved in the opposition to nuclear power. The accident of3/11 changed this situation, with many more people questioning whether any use of nuclear energy can really be safe, and the two movements are finally beginning to join forces.

** Tokyo Electric Power Corporation, the company that owns the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant

*** Additional explanation from Ruiko: the people of Tohoku were first called "ogres" by Sakanoueno Tamuramaro, an eighth-century general, because of their resistance to his attempts to bring them under the rule of the Kyoto-based court. In Tohoku, ogres are not seen primarily as scary creatures, but as figures of resistance with whom people sympathise. For example, there are many dances that depict them in this way. During centuries of exploitation and marginalization, the people of Tohoku have not been able to express their anger openly; but now they are becoming "ogres" once more.

Ruiko Muto is a key member of Hairo Action Fukushima (http://hairoaction.com/), an organization set up by a group of Fukushima citizens in October 2010, to plan and implement a "decommission the reactors action year" beginning on March 26 2011, the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.