Since April, students at universities around the world have been staging tent protests to support Palestine and condemn Israel. Despite violent crackdowns by police, students have been occupying campuses, demanding that their universities cut ties with companies supplying weapons to Israel and sever relationships with Israeli universities. Additionally, people worldwide are participating in solidarity rallies, the BDS movement, and activities to expose the truth about Israel's genocide, all in support of Palestinian liberation.
However, despite international condemnation and the UN Security Council's calls for an immediate ceasefire, and even orders from the International Court of Justice to halt attacks, Israel has continued its assaults. Recently, they have carried out airstrikes on the Rafah refugee camp and advanced tanks into central Rafah, resulting in many civilian casualties.
In Northeast Asia, Lai Ching Te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been elected president of Taiwan. Likely, his presidency will continue the DPP’s strained relationship with mainland China. Exacerbating the situation, in April, the United States placed a missile launcher system on the first island chain, thus raising alarm and protest from China. Furthermore, Japan is building missile bases along Okinawa’s southernmost islands closest to Taiwan, once again placing Okinawans in the line of fire. Our dossier with Tricontinental, The New Cold War is Sending Tremors Across Northeast Asia, details the historical fault lines being destabilized by the U.S. containment of China.
Both the struggle in Palestine and the struggles for peace in Northeast Asia are inextricably linked to an international order that enforces US global domination. Now is the time to intensify our struggle against Israel and against the US system of global domination. In South Korea, the Urgent Action by South Korean Civil Society in Solidarity with Palestine will hold its 16th rally by the Israeli Embassy on June 1. Furthermore, on June 8, marking eight months since Israel, with full support from the United States, began its acts of genocide against Palestine and the 54th anniversary of the occupation of Gaza, the International People's Assembly (IPA) and Progressive International are calling for collective action to stop the genocide and for liberation in Palestine. As Mariam Ibrahim writes in her article, 76 years and 7 months: “Palestine will free us all.” |
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The New Cold War Is Sending Tremors through Northeast Asia |
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Song Dae-Han
This May, the International Strategy Center created the Tricontinental dossier "The New Cold War is Sending Tremors through Northeast Asia." The dossier examines the history and current state of how the U.S.-led New Cold War with China is destabilizing Northeast Asia, with a focus on the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait, and Japan. |
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How Far Has the Militarization of Space Progressed? |
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Hwang Jeongeun
…the government plans to create a cluster to foster the space industry, which it considers a future growth driver: Jeonnam Province will focus on launch vehicles; Gyeongnam Province, on satellites; and Daejeon, on research and human resources. Furthermore, the private defense company Hanwha Systems will build a space center in Jeju Island for developing, manufacturing, and testing satellites. Additionally, the Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) was established on May 27th. Yet, closer inspection will challenge the view of the space program as simply an enhancement of national competitiveness or an expansion into new markets. After all, the space program will also be used to launch satellites for military reconnaissance, which fuels a regional arms race and escalates military tensions… |
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Every year on May 15, we commemorate the atrocities of the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, during which more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homelands as a result of the Zionist pursuit of a Jewish ethno-state atop their homes in 1948. As Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, Zionist militias had been laying the groundwork for this ethnic cleansing by carrying out campaigns of terror against villages and cities across historic Palestine, leaving devastation and massacres in their wake, from Deir Yassin to Tantura. Those who fled this violence would become one of the largest refugee populations in the world, a population that continues to endure displacement today. As we mark these events amidst the backdrop of a seven-month-long genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it’s more clear than ever that the Nakba never ended; its violence has persisted over the decades in the form of continued Israeli aggression and occupation, ethnic cleansing campaigns, house demolitions, the imprisonment of children, women, and men, and the persistent efforts to deny Palestinians any semblance of dignity, justice or self-determination.
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Greg Chung
During the colonial era, communists were the most targeted and repressed group in the peninsula, but everything changed after Japan’s defeat in the Second World War. The soon-after freed communists would hold positions in at least half of the people's committees that were prepared to govern a post-colonial Korea. While the Comintern advised communists to build support among the masses, right-wing nationalists continued to lose relevance in exile and the local elite discredited themselves through colonial collaboration.
Unfortunately, the US military occupation and the Korean War would eradicate the Korean Left (the first casualty of the Cold War). Nevertheless, Communism represented the radical hope for an equally nationalist and cosmopolitan Korea, a dream kept alive by the Soviet Union's strong commitment to the colonized world. The Comintern’s guidance may have been heavy handed but they provided the resources and connections Korean communists needed to survive persecution and showed us what we can achieve when the left combines international solidarity with local organizing.
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Fighting the 24-Hour Workday
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Greg Chung
We thank Jun and Yolanda for sharing home care workers struggle to end sweatshop labor in New York City. Homecare workers are arguing that the attack on their rights will spread to other industries, but it’s also true that it’s spread to other countries, as we are seeing with the South Korean government’s attack on migrant care workers rights. Home care workers have shown that we must move beyond trade union consciousness to a genuine mass movement that organizes workers where they live and where they work, grounded with an analysis of US imperialism and global capitalism.
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For a full view, click on the image below. |
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Join the 2024 25th Seoul Queer Parade with the ISC!! |
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Join the 2024 25th Seoul Queer Parade with the ISC!!
- Date: June 1st (Sat) 4pm
- Venue: Area extending from Namdaemun-ro to Ujeongguk-ro(Euljiro Station~Jonggak Station)
- Program
(1) Booth Events 11:00-19:00 - There are about 60 booths where you can join in various creative and interactive activities.
(2) Welcome Performances 14:00-16:00 - This part of the event welcomes everyone who are joining the Seoul Queer Parade. Please enjoy the exciting performances before the start of the parade.
(3) Parade 16:00-18:00 - We will march around the city with pride. We will dance and cheer with overflowing energy, celebrating and standing in solidarity with each other. As we exist, gather, and walk together, Seoul will become a city full of rainbow colors and possibilities for coexistence.
(4) Celebrating Performances 18:00-19:30 - This part of the event celebrates our completion and safe return from the march. Please hold on to the passion and pride you have recharged at the Seoul Queer Parade, which is held only once a year. We will meet again next year to celebrate each other's existence.
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📚🌈 In June, we will discuss Jasbir Puar's "Queer Times, Queer Assemblages" at Book & Beer. Puar investigates how LGBTQ+ identities are used in the narrative of U.S. exceptionalism through critiques of neoliberalism and orientalism. Join us on June 9th and 23rd, 2pm! Reading the text is not required.
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It's a rainy day, it's a meat party! The International Strategy Center held its spring barbecue. We enjoyed the rain, the music, the drinks we brought, the alcohol, the meat, and the good company. |
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In May, our book club discussed "If We Burn" by journalist Vincent Bevins in two parts. Based on interviews with 200 activists, politicians, and protesters during the decade of uprisings in the 2010s, Bevins analyzes why we saw the largest protests in human history, only to be followed by little to no political and economic reforms, as well as the rise of the far right and even more authoritarian governments. |
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Palestine Solidarity Action |
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Palestinian solidarity struggle, marching to the accompaniment of a drum group at a solidarity rally. We also participated in an emergency press conference to condemn the ongoing severe attacks on Rafah and a one-man demonstration on the 27th to draw attention to Israel's atrocities. It's been eight months since Israel began its genocide. We will not stop until the 76 years of colonization endured by the Palestinian people is over and Palestine is fully liberated! |
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On May 1, the International Strategy Center participated in the 2024 International Labor Day rally. This year's event honored the spirit of the late activist Yang Hoe-dong, who protested the Yun regime's crackdown on workers on May 1, 2023 and condemned the regime's anti-labor policies. Members heard stories from various Democratic Trade unionists and joined more than 30,000 workers who gathered at Sejong-daero to sing struggle songs and march together. |
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2F, 2 Dosin-ro 47-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul International Strategy Center
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