Music, Coup de Ballet, and Hot-air Balloons! ~ Powerful and Energetic Workers’ Rally in South Korea

We visited Seoul, South Korea to join the Workers’ Rally that is held every November. The pre-event held in the evening of November 8 was filled with a very large number of people in front of Seoul Railway Station. We were very impressed with the sense of unity between respective struggle reports, music performances, dancing performances in groups and participants. The most impressive was hundreds of handmade red hot-air paper balloons. Cheers were raised once they were flown into the night sky. The Workers’ Rally (photo) that started at 2 PM of the following day attracted 30,000 participants so as to fill DaeHak-ro in Seoul, which is a trend-setting area in the city. All the participants chanted their messages together with the heavy sound coming out of a large screen that was installed on the stage. Various trade unions opened their booths on the pedestrian area, which became good opportunities for exchange. (KAWAMURA Takefumi) Photo and video (UnionTube)

音楽と群舞と熱気球！～労働者のパワー炸裂した韓国労働者大会


　毎年11月に開催される韓国労働者大会に参加するためソウルを訪ねた。8日夜に開かれた前夜祭は、ソウル駅前を埋め尽くす大きな盛り上がりを見せた。個々の闘いの報告と音楽と群舞とが参加者と一体となった演出で、とても感動した。圧巻は手製の紙風船による熱気球（?）で、数百の赤い気球が夜空に舞い上がると大きな歓声が上がった。翌9日の午後2時から始まった労働者大会（写真）は、ソウル市大学路を制圧する3万人の大集会となった。舞台に設営された大スクリーンは、後ろの方では見えなかったが、響き渡る音響の下に一同気勢を上げた。また歩道上は、各組合が出店を開いていて、交流の場になっていた。（川村剛史） 動画（UnionTube）