‘Unite all workers against neoliberalism!’

Below is the English translation of the speech given by Oh Jongryul, co-chair of the Korean Alliance against the KorUS FTA, at a June 4 rally outside the White House opposing the so-called Free Trade Agreement between South Korea and the United States.

The reason we came to Washington, D.C., the heart of the U.S., is to oppose the Korea-U.S. FTA. We came to build international solidarity for anti-neoliberalism with Korean Americans, American workers and workers and farmers of the world progressive movement.

The violent U.S. neoliberal agreement, NAFTA, swept Mexico like a tsunami. The FTA tsunami is about to give a big blow to South Korea.

We already experienced the 1997 IMF economic crisis and austerity measures forced upon South Korea. In the name of liberalization, financial and manufacturing and agricultural sectors were forced to liberalize their markets; presently 60 percent of South Korean financial and manufacturing industries are in the hands of U.S. corporations.

Some 86 percent of Kook-Min Bank, the largest South Korean bank; 54 percent of Samsung Electronics, a world-class corporation; 70 percent of POSCO—the cream of the crop of South Korean corporations are owned by U.S.-based transnational corporations. Thus transnational corporations take that portion of earnings to their pocket.

Neoliberalism is another name for the unlimited freedom by which transnational capitals and their tool, military power, pursue endless greed and indiscriminate aggression and exploitation.

Neoliberalism guarantees unlimited protection for transnational corporations but for workers and farmers they rob the minimum rights to their livelihood.

Thus neoliberalism means neo-imperialism. It is a modern form of imperialism that serves the interest of transnational corporations.

Since NAFTA, U.S. workers are competing with oversupplied Mexican migrant workers in a labor market that has heightened the intensity of labor and job insecurity and worse working conditions. Imperialism sees no border. It also victimizes its own people.

Under neoliberalism, the new economic imperialism, we are one. Workers from Korea, the U.S. and Mexico are one.

South American people who are fighting against the post-NAFTA devastation and South Korean people are one.

To Korean people who are fighting against the Bush administration and transnational corporations who are forcing down Korea-U.S. FTA, which is worse than NAFTA, U.S. workers and Latin American workers are the same.

Thus U.S. workers and Korean workers must fight together against the transnational corporations and capitals.

Not for a U.S. which is condemned by the world but for a U.S. that stands for equality and peace, U.S. workers, farmers and progressive movements must fight back.

Workers, farmers and progressives from South America, U.S. progressives and workers and Korean workers, farmers and progressives must fight together under one unity.

Beyond region and race, workers of the world and social minorities must unite to end imperialism and I urge all of you to join us in building a self-determined, equal and peaceful world.

Oppose globalized neoliberalism! Unite the workers of the world!