The Marmot’s Hole

(NOTE: I started working on this on Monday but didn’t have the time to complete it until today.)

I was at a couple of protests last Saturday. I won’t go into too much detail here (that has already been covered by several blogs already). I just wanted to add a few thoughts on what I saw. I have a few pictures posted at my blog.

No No Demo

As mentioned in this post by the Hole’s Dear Leader last week, they promised hundreds of foreigners to be among thousands of their group’s members at a counter-protest at Cheongyecheon.

That did not happen. It looked like they had about 300 folks there (I heard someone say 500 but that would be way too generous).  There are some conservative groups that can put thousands of people on the streets, but No No Demo is not one of them.

There were about 60-80 foreigners there. However, the vast majority of them were gyopo, which made it a little difficult for the media folks to get pictures of whitey.

In any case, the anti-beef protests are tapering off (although we can still expect a couple of big ones around the time of Bush’s visit) and don’t need any help from counter-protesters in winding down.

Liberty in North Korea (LiNK)
They made a presentation at the No-No Demo protest. They were apparently unaware of the nature of the event they were addressing and felt compelled to hand out copies of this clarification to reporters at the event:

Reports from some local media have erroneously reported details about our organization, LiNK - Liberty in North Korea, and some of the aims of its participation in Saturday’s scheduled mock funeral.

Our organization, and this Saturday’s event accordingly, is strictly non-violent. We also do not take a stance on the issue of US beef in South Korea. We are simply asking citizens to remember that while they can raise their voices in their own defense - and many citizens have legitimate concerns about broader issues not necessarily related to beef - the North Korean people have no champions. We believe that the voices of South Korea’s people can make all the difference.

As if to prove that point, they tried (without success) to get permission to address the anti-beef protest. In the end, they followed their original plan of conducting a mock funeral procession around city hall square.

LiNK has been pretty successful in the States and has been doing vital work on a limited budget helping North Korean refugees. Unfortunately, they have so far not been able to have as much of an impact in Korea. That is a shame.

The anti-American beef folks
I will leave the deep analysis of the beefy protest folks to others and just offer a few impressions.

First impression: These folks are rolling in the cash. They were passing out thousands upon thousands of hand signs to replace the thousands upon thousands of hand signs that were slowing being turned into pulp on the pavement. There were also jumbotrons and huge speaker stands, not to mention boxes of candles stacked all over the place ready for distribution.

Second impression: These folks are well-organized. There were groups of ushers (marked with reservist uniforms or towels) all over the place making sure things went smoothly. They did a pretty good job of keeping folks in line. I witnessed a couple of occasions when someone tried to start trouble but was quickly dissuaded by ushers and fellow protesters. As tightly as these protests are run, the only way for there to be violent confrontations with the police is for the protest leaders to want violent confrontations with the police. Fighting the police was not part of the game plan last Saturday.

Third impression: This was a party, baby! Even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about beef, you can go just to have fun chanting, listening to music, watching dance shows and generally having a good time. Folks were enjoying themselves munching down kimbap with their friends while enjoying the show. I would dare say it was more fun than a lot of what you can get from the Hi Seoul Festival. Perhaps the the city should try to market these protests.

A final note about the riot police: they were generally chilly-chilling behind their buses while I was there. The only time I saw any deploy was when a scuffle broke out between some No-No Demo folks and a group of anti-American beef protesters. The riot police quickly formed a line between the groups and put an end to that. If you are a protester it is pretty easy to avoid getting a shield to the face; don’t bum rush the police and stop blocking the street when the designated protest time is up. It really is that simple.