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| Tough G-8 Protests for Korean Activists |
| Japan took strong actions to prevent activists from reaching protest sites |
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Ida Grandas (jezaky)  |
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Published 2008-07-22 05:12 (KST) |
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The G-8 protests in Japan were both a disappointment and a good experience for Korean activists Do Young and Cho Yak-gol. On Saturday afternoon, they spoke about their experiences at a screening held by the radical language exchange group Seoulidarity at Kuchu Camp in Hongdea, Seoul.
About 30 people came to see the screenings. One of the documentaries for which Seoulidarity provided the subtitles was produced by the Korean activist group NO G-8.
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| Seoulidarity was formed two years ago. The group has a Web site with articles and documentaries in both Korean and English. The aim is to reach out to foreigners living in Korea and to people in other counties about social struggles in Korea.
Both Do and Cho joined already for the preventive protests in Tokyo and then moved on to Sapporo and finally the Toyoura campsites.
Do is a media activist and the G-8 protest was the first time for him to do a joint media action together with Japanese. In a park in Sapporo, they did laser tagging -- a way to make people reach out with what they want to say through projecting tags on big buildings. When they started the action, the police did not say anything. But then they came back.
"I told the police in Korean to fuck off. Then we moved to next place," Do said.
In the end the police stopped bothering them, and they could go through with their action.
The protests in Japan were smaller than in previous years. Not many people from Europe could travel the whole way for the protests and many Korean activists did not come because of the ongoing protests in Seoul. Furthermore, Japan took strong actions to prevent activists from getting to the protests. Some activists were stopped at the airport and people were forced to leave fingerprints. Do erased his fingerprints before going to Japan.
"The Immigration officer asked me why I didn't have any," Do said. "I said I've been working too hard."
Cho and Do found it hard to go through with the protests. There were three campsites located 20 kilometers from the hotel where the meetings were held and the long walks in the heat only exhausted people.
"That stopped us from doing many things," said Do.
The large number of police officers and the violence against the protesters were also limiting. The protesters started to demonstrate against the police.
"Even in the middle of nowhere they have to use this kind of violence, that's the only way to go through with the meetings." said Cho.
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©2008 OhmyNews
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