"Give special investigation into FL, "Jail Lee Jae-myung"… Progressives and conservatives rally in front of Seoul city hall = Korean coverage

The first weekend of December also saw a series of Saturday-after-Saturday counter-rallies between progressive and conservative civil society groups. However, this time it was held near the Seoul City Hall, not near the Oval Office, and a fierce verbal battle unfolded between the two groups across the two roads.

The progressive civic group “Candle Behavior Change” will hold the “17th Candlelight Parade” at 4:00 pm on December 3rd at Se Jeong-daero in Jung-gu, Seoul, and said they should suspend their duties and resign". Participants dressed in down jackets and brushed hats shouted, "Special investigation into Kim Gun-hee!", "Resign Yoon Seol-yeol!" They held up placards that read, "Struggle." The candles they held in their hands filled the front of Sunnaemun with a little light.

Today's candlelight rally supported the Cargo Solidarity General Strike, which has entered the 10th day of the strike. Kim Eun-jin, permanent co-president of Candlelight Action, said, "Strike is a natural right of workers guaranteed by the constitution, but President Yoon ordered the start of business and forced workers in the distribution industry to work. It's blatantly evident in their attitudes towards freight workers that they treat workers not as people but as slaves," they said.

Oh Nam-joon, vice-chairman of the Cargo Solidarity Committee, who was one of the parties to the strike, also spoke on stage. “At the time of the strike in February, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism promised to work to maintain the safe fare system and expand the number of items under the watchful eye of the entire nation, but it was not fulfilled and was abandoned,” Oh said. The ruling party ignored the debate in the Diet for five months and ignored the safety and lives of cargo workers working on the road."

He continued, "Until now, freight workers have worked hard in the midst of turmoil caused by urea water shortages and soaring oil prices, playing the role of an artery to the economy, but they have reached a breaking point. The administration only puts laws and principles at the forefront, mobilizing all administrative orders to suppress cargo workers. Cargo Solidarity will fight to the end without wavering," he said.

On November 24th, Cargo Solidarity launched an indefinite general strike, arguing for the expansion of the safe freight system. Amid a growing sense of crisis in the industrial world due to the refusal of mass transportation, tensions are rising after the government issued an order to start operations targeting cement transportation. The order to start operations was enacted in 2004, but it has not been invoked for 18 years, and this is the first time it has been invoked by the Yoon administration.

On the other hand, on Sejong-daero, where the candlelight rally was held, a rival rally was held right next to it across two lanes, and a battle of nerves unfolded. The Liberal Unionist Party, led by Pastor Jeong Kwang-hoon, held a rally with 7,000 members in front of the Donghwa Duty Free Shop in Jongno-gu, Seoul at 1:00 p.m.

According to the organizer's estimate, a total of 30,000 people participated in the candlelight rally, and after marching from Sungnyemun to Myeongdong and Euljiro to Jonggak, they returned to the meeting place. I'm back. After that, after the general assembly was over, they were dismissed.