Monthly Archives: May 2022

Crypto has proven itself to be much more than just a hot investment. Indeed, some say its poised to play a critical role in the future of finance

Money, as we know it, has evolved from its earliest form of clay tablets and precious metals to coins and banknotes and most recently, digital bank balances. So, will crypto become the next progression in the history of money?

There are reasons to think it wont. Governments across the world have plenty of motives to want to defend the status quo, which ensures state-backed institutions have a complete monopoly on everything that makes the economy go round namely printing money. Yet, crypto has several characteristics that have so far prevented governments from keeping a lid on it.

Crypto promises to put economic control back into the hands of the masses because it is built on an open, global network that doesnt recognize any national borders. With crypto, people can transact on a shared network in the same way they can communicate with people anywhere in the world on the internet. Better still, these networks are beyond the control of national governments and have so far proven impossible to shut down. This principle was designed by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto and is designed to create more open markets and promote financial freedom for all crypto users.

Prior to the invention of crypto, financial freedom was limited to the trust people have in their governments and respect for the rule of law. Crypto makes it possible for anyone to grow their wealth without worrying about the intervention and seizure of their assets by third parties such as a bank or the government.

Another benefit of crypto is smart contracts. Previously, contractual agreements were governed by laws, which meant people couldnt always be confident that the courts would enforce them. With smart contracts, agreements are no longer enforced by courts but by the blockchain.

Furthermore, crypto is anonymous. It doesnt matter if its Bitcoin or Ethereum or Fantom or Avalanche or some other network. Crypto doesnt give a damn whether youre white or Black, Hispanic or Asian. It doesnt care about your gender, your religion, or your political views. That compares to the existing financial system, which in some countries is inherently biased towards people of certain creeds and dispositions. With crypto, all anyone needs is a smartphone and an internet connection and they can download a mobile wallet and get paid in tokens, buy them and sell them, participate in decentralized finance, and more.

A final characteristic of crypto is its mobility, a key component of economic freedom. Users can send any amount of Bitcoin to anyone, anywhere in the world, and they can fly from San Francisco to Tel Aviv with millions of dollars worth of funds without having to inform anyone or declare anything. As a result, crypto significantly reduces the barriers to emigration, boosting economic freedom.

The economic freedom promoted by crypto has given cause for concern. In the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine, some observers have suggested crypto could give Vladimir Putins government a way to mitigate international sanctions. Others have warned that criminals are undoubtedly using cryptocurrency to launder the proceeds of crime or fund terrorism around the world.

Those fears may be grounded in truth, however, it could be a price worth paying for the freedom from financial and political repression, surveillance, and deplatforming that crypto also enables.

The unique characteristics of crypto mean that it is, to all intents and purposes, resistant to censorship. That means the government cannot control or monitor peoples financial activity or prevent them from accessing their funds as they can in the traditional banking system.

A good example of this occurred in Nigeria in 2020, when protests erupted against the government in its largest city, Lagos. The population was protesting against the illegal actions of a police force known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which became infamous for police brutality. The government attempted to clamp down on the protests by suspending the bank accounts of key leaders in the movement. However, they immediately turned to cryptocurrency, in particular Bitcoin, to raise funds to sustain their movement, which ultimately caused the government to disband SARS.

The event was no flash in the pan. Usage of Bitcoin in Nigeria and other African nations has grown rapidly as an alternative to the traditional day-to-day banking system. Thats because anyone can use Bitcoin, and its transaction fees are minimal compared to the charges people face for using traditional systems.

Nigerias Central Bank has been far from enthusiastic about the populations embrace of cryptocurrency and in early 2021 issued a ban on banks and financial institutions dealing with digital money. However, Nigerias young and tech-savvy quickly found a way around the ban, using peer-to-peer trading services to buy cryptocurrencies and cash out without using traditional banks. In May, Nigerias Securities and Exchange Commission did an about-turn, publishing a set of regulations around digital assets in an effort to find a middle ground between an outright ban and the unregulated use of crypto.

The experience of Nigeria is not unique. In Belarus for instance, President Alexander Lukashenko also tried to use the monetary and banking system to silence his critics following disputed elections in 2020. Protestors flooded the streets of Minsk and other cities following Lukashenkos apparent win, and leaders soon found their bank accounts were frozen. Yet they continued raising funds for their protests with crypto, with one fund called BYSOL reportedly netting over $2 million worth of donations in a month.

Crypto has value beyond funding protest movements though. It can also serve as a replacement for cash, which is seen as an essential ingredient of financial freedom because it allows for anonymous transactions away from state surveillance. Unfortunately, cash is in terminal decline in many parts of the world. In China, for example, the government has pressed its citizens to replace cash and use digital apps for their day-to-day payments instead. While such apps may offer more convenience, they also give the government much greater control over peoples finances, and the ability to cut off someones access to payments, credit, and savings for any reason.

In the world of decentralized finance, this kind of financial deplatforming of government critics becomes impossible. With new cryptocurrencies such as Verse, the utility token of the Bitcoin.com ecosystem, anyone can access a full ecosystem of decentralized finance services that are beyond the control of any government entity.

Bitcoin.com provides users with a non-custodial multi-coin wallet that only they can access, meaning no one can freeze or seize their crypto assets. Users of Bitcoin.coms ecosystem of products and services will not only earn Verse tokens for doing so but also unlock various rewards and DeFi services.

For example, holders of Verse can provide liquidity to the Verse DEX, a decentralized exchange, in return for earning a share of the trading fees on that platform. They can also stake Verse tokens for rewards, and access other services that allow them to lend and borrow cryptocurrency. In other words, Verse and Bitcoin.com provide access to a comprehensive, alternative banking system that no government can control.

Crypto ecosystems have already thrived where theres a need. Take Venezuela, where thousands of merchants began using the Dash cryptocurrency in the wake of hyperinflation that rendered the national currency, the Bolivar, virtually worthless. Its a similar story in Afghanistan today. Since the Taliban swept to power last year, the country has been almost completely cut off from the international banking system. As a result, many Afghans have turned to crypto to send and receive money from abroad and also for their everyday transactions.

The takeaway from all of this is that crypto can and will play a fundamental role in enabling greater economic freedom all over the world. With crypto, people have an alternative to the traditional banking system thats immune to political oppression. It has shown it can help to build better-functioning economies in countries with runaway inflation, making it easier for people to transact, protect their wealth and perhaps even emigrate to a better life.

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Crypto Is An Invaluable Tool In The Fight Against Financial Oppression - - FinanceFeeds

Altaf Hussain, the founder and leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has asked Pakistan military Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to stop forthwith the ever escalating genocidal military oppression against Muhajir Nation and finish the barricade of MQM headquarters, 90. He said this in his exigent protest address to the people who had assembled at City's Press against enforced disappearances of men of Muhajirs.

The protest was meant to attract attention of international fraternity and lawmakers and rights organisations because the state oppression against Muhajirs is being continued since the creation of Pakistan and was beefed up in late 90s. To a rough estimate, the ghoulish military has so far executed 30, 000 youth of Muhajir Nation. It is pertinent to mention that Lahore High Court had at the behest of the Pakistani military establishment, imposed a 6-month ban on Altaf Hussain and through that ban, he was restricted to speak to his Muhajir Nation, carry political programmes and philanthropic activities for the indigent Muhajir families. The 6-monnth ban has now crossed 5 years and the judicial system of Pakistan can't do justice to MQM because it is grossly chained.

It was quite peaceful protest demonstration for the release of Muhajirs from unlawful custody at the city's press club where the feudal provincial government led by feudal Pakistan People's Party ordered Police to baton- charge protestors comprising senescent men and women. They were savagely manhandled, tortured and arrested. Hussain in his address reminded that Muhajir Nation remembers that PPP persecuted the Muhajirs in every era. The feudal PPP during its rule killed innumerable Muhajirs. Oppression and injustice against them were at its peak during the Bhutto era. Benazir Bhutto carried out genocide of Muhajirs through Police and distributed prizes among the killers. During the reign of Murad Ali Shah's father Abdullah Shah, thousands of MQM workers as well as Hussain's elder brother Nasir Hussain and nephew Arif Hussain were arrested and brutally martyred. Even today, atrocities are being inflicted on Muhajirs during the present feudal PPP regime.

Muhajirs are being arrested for protesting peacefully. Hussain strongly condemned the Pakistan People's Party led feudal Sindh provincial government and warned it to stop oppressing Muhajirs as time is never the same. Each of their oppressive and tyrant actions will be accounted for.

He said that religious fanatic Imran Khan and the people of PTI have openly been criticizing and even accusing the Pakistani military establishment and in recent days, a PTI MNA painted walls of Karachi with graffiti that mocked the Pakistani premier spy agency and the entire military establishment but no action was seen taken. Hussain asked the Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa to stop the state atrocities against Muhajirs as the general impression is that behind all this is the Pakistani military establishment. which is pinning Muhajir Nation, their leader Altaf Hussain and MQM to wall.

Therefore, the military establishment should end the unconstitutional and illegal ban on MQM, lift the siege grom Nine Zero and end the illegal ban on Altaf Hussain. Addressing the military establishment, he said that Altaf Hussain had a mechanism to save Pakistan from catastrophe.

Hussain said that his struggle was not for his personal gains but he wants to bring revolution in the country. He wants an end to the outdated and decayed feudal system in Pakistan. He said that he wanted the army to remain at the barracks and borders and focus on the defense of the country instead of interfering in the political affairs of the country. He demanded immediate release of all detainees and warned that the series of arrests should be stopped immediately. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Pak Army Chief General Bajwa has to stop the oppression against Muhajirs: Altaf Hussain - Devdiscourse

It wasSunday, Sept. 1, 1963 four days after Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his clarion call for racial justice with his I Have a Dream speech to hundreds of thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and to millions more watching on TV.

In Plaquemine, Louisiana just south and west of Baton Rouge 16-year-old Calvin Johnson shoehorned inside Plymouth Rock Baptist Church to hear James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and a close associate of Dr. King, give a passionate talk about the moral imperative of registering African Americans in the Deep South to vote.

Just two weeks earlier, Farmer had led a protest march through downtown Plaquemine, shadowed by city police. Police chief Dennis Songy claimed he had gotten assurances that the Negroes had promised not to sing, which became hollow justification for what would happen next: As the protesters defiantly intoned We Shall Overcome, police fired canisters of tear gas, scattering the marchers and triggering the arrest of Farmer and other leaders.

But on Sunday, Sept. 1, Farmer was out of jail, and the 200 people inside Plymouth Rock Baptist Church were still seething over the tear gas attack and the black-and-white images of government oppression.

On orders from Louisiana Gov. Jimmie Davis, police looking for Farmer and other youthful instigators decided enough was enough. In the dark of night, police fired a barrage of tear gas, and officers on horseback rode into the church with cattle prods to drive people outside. They then pelted the sanctuary with high-pressure hoses, breaking windows and overturning pews.

Johnson was a skinny teenager all of 6-foot-2 and 120 pounds but at least he had the benefit of agility. He leaped through a church window and then tried to outrace the horses to a fence at the edge of the property.

It was a barbed-wire fence, but I had to jump across it to keep from being run over by the horses, Johnson recalled. My left arm got caught on one of the barbs, and that gave me a slit. I still have the scar on my arm.

But what Johnson recalls even more vividly than his deep and elongated flesh wound and the stitches was the smell of tear gas.

Today, if I think about tear gas enough, I can smell it, Johnson said.

Police went door to door, looking for Farmer, who had found a hiding spot at a funeral home next to the church. In a contemporaneous journal, Farmer wrote that protesters had told him police were ramming down doors in the neighborhood looking for him, promising to lynch him on sight. Farmer wanted to hand himself over to end the terror but was talked out of it by neighbors, who said he wouldnt be alive in the morning.

The woman who owned the funeral home hatched an ingenious plan: She would send out two hearses in different directions, and Farmer could jump into a casket in the back of one hearse, with its curtains pulled tightly, and drive inconspicuously through the police cordon, with the other hearse serving as a decoy.

Later that month, Johnson, a senior leader at all-black Iberville High School, felt emboldened to rally his classmates to leave school and march peacefully to the school board office in downtown Plaquemine to push for the integration of public schools. This was nine years after the U.S. Supreme Courts Brown v. Board of Education decision made desegregation the law of the land, but that message had not yet infiltrated Louisiana.

We basically had just about the entire high school population of 400 or 500 kids, Johnson said. We did the traditional thing, walking two by two down the street. The march was stopped again by law enforcement, and they told everybody to get back to school. There were 26 of us who didnt, and we laid down on the ground and got arrested.

As a 16-year-old juvenile, Johnson was charged with inciting a riot. He went to courtin the spring of 1964, defended by famed New Orleans civil rights attorney Lolis Edward Elie, whose cool demeanor in the courtroom left a lasting impression.

Lolis became a pivotal point for me just in seeing this man practice law and dealing with this judge, who was not nice at all, Johnson said. The way Lolis carried himself, the way Lolis talked to me, that was a revelation.

Spurred to enter law school

Johnson eventually went on to Loyola University Law School and for years earned a living as a criminal defense attorney and also as a professor of criminal law at Loyola University. In 1990, on the advice of good friend and mentor Jack Nelson, he successfully ran for a criminal court judgeship in Orleans Parish.

For the son of a Donaldsonville lumber mill laborer, it was one more example of gold being tested by fire. Johnsons older brother William became a member of the school board in Glen Cove, New York, and his older sister Linda was president of Louisianas Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

My father preached to his children their obligation it was kind of a W.E.B. Du Bois concept that we were part of the Talented 10, the talented 10% and we had an obligation to others, Johnson said.

As Johnson created the first drug court alternative in New Orleans and used his gifts to serve others who are mentally disabled, the memory of his 1963 arrest gnawed at him. In 2008, just before Christmas, he penned an op-ed for The Times-Picayune in which he viewed his rich life from 35,000 feet. His daughter had asked him what he wanted for Christmas.

I had everything I ever wanted, Johnson wrote cars, clothes, houses, fine wine, good food.

However, there is something else I want, he continued. Its not stuff. Its something I have wanted for almost 45 years, which I have never received. I want it not just for me, but for all those similarly situated. Its not a costly thing to give. In fact, its free. I want an apology.

The gift he yearned for

Johnson said he wanted someone who was present on the day he was arrested and present during the other violent incidents that proliferated in our state to say they were sorry.

Former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu read Johnsons piece, and his daughter Madeleine went to his house to type up a letter to the editor to the Times-Picayune: Although I was not in Plaquemine, La., at the time, I was an adult who stood silent as that inequity and countless others were inflicted on him and other African Americans during the Jim Crow era. My gift is not much and words may seem wholly inadequate, but I apologize to him for my inaction.

Johnson also received a phone call from a white woman who grew up in Plaquemine.

She was a woman about my age, and as strange as this sounds, these activities went on and a lot of white people really didnt know they were going on, Johnson said.

When Madeleine Landrieu became dean of the Loyola Law School, she kept Johnsons 2008 op-ed displayed on her office credenza, always wondering if someday she might be in a position to deliver a more concrete response.

For the longest time I had it folded up in my desk drawer because it was such an inspiring thing, and then I decided to laminate it and put it on the credenza, Landrieu said.

Johnson was not interested in a pardon which would imply that he had done something wrong. As the law school worked on honoring Johnson for his service to budding attorneys and to the community, Landrieu knew it was time to approach Gov. John Bel Edwards.

What the governors office came up with was an amende honorable an ancient French action of reparation for an offense or injury done by making an open and usually humbling acknowledgment.

Landrieu had asked Johnson to show up for the Baccalaureate Mass on May 12, even though he was to be the commencement speaker and receive an honorary doctor of law degree the next evening at the graduation ceremonies. Johnson was wrestling internally whether to attend the Mass because his schedule was slammed he had to finish a professional development test in the parking lot of Holy Name of Jesus Church for his role as interim director of the local office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

My wife was harassing me with the idea that I had to show up for the Mass, Johnson said. I was really busy. The whole time I was thinking, Why am I actually here?

And then, after Communion, Landrieu walked into the sanctuary. Johnson noticed something in her hands. He had seen it before. It was the laminated copy of his 2008 plea for an apology.

And then, Landrieu turned to another document and read the words Johnson had been yearning to hear for nearly 60 years: An apology from the state by Gov. Edwards.

It was such an absolute, total surprise, Johnson said. I was just in tears.

It was one small acknowledgment of the razor-sharp barbs imposed on an innocent life.

It means something, Johnson said. It absolutely does.

pfinney@clarionherald.org

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The cherished gift of an apology, 60 years later - Clarion Herald

By HILLEL ITALIE

NEW YORK (AP) Margaret Atwood has imagined apocalyptic disaster, Dystopian government and an author faking her own death. But until recently she had spared herself the nightmare of trying to burn one of her own books.

With a flamethrower, no less.

She failed, and that was the point.

On Monday night, timed for PEN Americas annual gala, Atwood and Penguin Random House announced that a one-off, unburnable edition of The Handmaids Tale would be auctioned through Sothebys New York. They launched the initiative with a brief video that shows Atwood attempting in vain to incinerate her classic novel about a totalitarian patriarchy, the Republic of Gilead. Proceeds will be donated to PEN, which advocates for free expression around the world.

In the category of things you never expected, this is one of them, she said in a telephone interview.

To see her classic novel about the dangers of oppression reborn in this innovative, unburnable edition is a timely reminder of whats at stake in the battle against censorship, Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, said in a statement.

The fireproof narrative is a joint project among PEN, Atwood, Penguin Random House and two companies based in Toronto, where Atwood is a longtime resident: the Rethink creative agency and The Gas Company Inc., a graphic arts and bookbinding specialty studio.

Rethinks Robbie Percy said that he and fellow creative director Caroline Friesen came up with the idea. Late last year, they had heard about a Texas legislator who listed hundreds of works for potential banning from school libraries: Percy and Friesen wondered if it were possible to make a book protected from the most harrowing censorship. They soon agreed on The Handmaids Tale, which came out in the 1980s and has had renewed attention over the past few years, beginning with the political rise and unexpected presidency of Donald Trump and continuing with the current surge of book bannings.

We thought an unburnable copy of Handmaids Tale could serve as a symbol, he said.

Percy and Friesen spoke with Atwoods publishers in Canada and the U.S. both divisions of Penguin Random House and got in touch with the author. They then contacted Gaslight, which has worked on numerous commissioned texts, including some for PEN.

The Gas Companys principal owner, Doug Laxdal, told the AP that instead of paper, he and his colleagues used Cinefoil, a specially treated aluminum product. The 384-page text, which can be read like an ordinary novel, took more than two months to complete. The Gas Company needed days just to print out the manuscript; the Cinefoil sheets were so thin that some would fall through cracks in the printer and become damaged beyond repair. The manuscript was then sewed together by hand, using nickel copper wire.

The only way you could destroy that book is with a shredder, Laxdal says. Otherwise, it will last for a very long time.

Atwood told the AP that she was was immediately interested in the special edition, and in making the video. She was a teenager in the 1950s, when Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 was published, and holds vivid memories of the novels futuristic setting, in which books are reduced to ashes.

The Handmaids Tale has never been burned, as far as Atwood knows, but has often been subjected to bans or attempted bans. Atwood remembers a 2006 effort in one Texas high school district, when the superintendent called her book sexually explicit and offensive to Christians, that ended when students successfully fought back. In 2021, The Handmaids Tale was pulled by schools in Texas and Kansas.

The novel has sold millions of copies and its impact is not just through words, but images, amplified by the award-winning Hulu adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss. Advocates worldwide for womens rights have dressed in the puritanical caped robes Atwood devised for her story. Most recently, some women in handmaid outfits marched to protest the Supreme Courts expected overturning this year of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Its an unforgettable visual metaphor, Atwood said. Thats why people in the middle ages put coats of arms on their armor, and had recognizable flags. That way you can visualize them and know whos standing for what.

Original post:

Burn-proof edition of The Handmaids Tale up for auction - Boston Herald

Recent news has again shone a light on the violence and sexism that thrives inside the institutions of the capitalist state, with revelations about a government cover-up of domestic abuse by an MI5 agent. The whole system is rotten to the core.

A recent BBC investigation has revealed how an MI5 agent was able to use his position to abuse and terrorise his partner.

The agent, who can only be referred to as X, worked as an informant on right-wing extremist networks in the UK. He brazenly told his partner, referred to as Beth, that she could not report the abuse she was enduring, as the security services would protect him.

With the approval of the state, MI5 agents and spy cops are authorised to commit crimes in certain circumstances. But even this highly-questionable immunity and impunity clearly does not cover activities in their private life.

In practice, however, when Xs abuse did come to the attention of the police after he attacked his partner with a machete and then tried to cut her throat the establishment quickly closed ranks to shield one of their own.

In a despicable case of negligence in-and-of-itself, police officers at the time arrested X, but failed to take a full statement from Beth, or register her video recording of the machete attack.

The Crown Prosecution Service quickly dropped the case as a result, citing a lack of evidence, and X was freed.

A counter-terror investigation was launched after police officers discovered extremist material at the house. The BBCs investigation describes how X admired white supremacist mass murderers; had written about exploiting and killing women and Jewish people; and fantasised about eating childrens flesh.

The BBC also found that X had a history of violent abuse, which had come to the attention of the police after he similarly terrorised a partner in another country before moving to the UK.

That this readily-available information did not stop X from securing a job with MI5 indicates that the British security services either did not bother to check, or simply did not care.

In an act of flagrant interference, the material that had been seized by counter-terror police was then handed over to MI5. It was then concluded that no criminality could be identified.

While this conclusion was being drawn, X fled from the UK to work for security services in a different country. His traumatised ex-partner, meanwhile, was hospitalised after suffering a mental breakdown.

It comes as no surprise that the capitalist state would be nonchalant towards violent sexism or racism when selecting its agents. After all, sexism and racism are baked into the very foundations of the capitalist system a system built on oppression, violence, inequality, and exploitation.

Similarly, Wayne Couzens was known as the rapist among his fellow police officers before he went on to use his police powers to abduct, rape, and murder Sarah Everard.

Although the government has in words launched an inquiry to prevent such abuses of power from taking place again, its deeds lay bare its real interests and hypocrisy.

For example, far from providing justice for left-wing activists coerced by undercover police into relationships, the Tory government has cleared the way for the continuation of this scandalous practice with its spy cops bill.

Likewise, when the BBC tried to bring to light Xs abuse and the blind eye that MI5 turned to this the government took the public news broadcaster to court, in an attempt to block the story from surfacing at all.

What is clear is that it is not just a case of bad apples creating a stench in the apparatus of the capitalist state. The whole system is rotten.

The police and security services as vital organs of the state exist to defend the interests of the ruling class, not the safety or wellbeing of ordinary people.

Indeed, to serve this role, these armed bodies of men are handed a monopoly of violence, in order to protect the property and power of the capitalists.

But it doesnt stop at these institutions. After all, the BBC itself doesnt have the cleanest record when it comes to covering up abuses, having brushed the disgusting actions of Jimmy Saville under the rug for years.

Xs violent sexism, racism, and abuse is not an isolated case. Countless similar examples will no doubt continue to surface in the future. And these cannot and will not be solved on a case-by-case basis.

Even the best-intentioned calls for inquiries and investigations into institutional sexism, racism, and corruption in the pillars of the capitalist state will not find a resolution.

These decrepit institutions just like the capitalist system they protect cannot be patched up or reformed. They are rotten and reactionary to their core.

Only the socialist transformation of society can do away with capitalism and its tools of repression, along with the violence and oppression that thrives inside of them.

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Violence and sexism in the state: Establishment closes ranks to protect their own - Socialist Appeal

Since the 2000, the institutionalization of government-led womens policies was rapidly promoted. In 2001, the Ministry of Gender Equality was started by agreement among the ruling and opposition parties. Ministry of Gender Equality changed its name to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2010. Moon Jae-in, who became president in 2017, declared that "I will be a feminist president" and made promises such as elimination of gender discrimination in employment and eradication of gender violence. After inauguration, Moon Jae-in enlarged organization and budget of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. As a result, progresses such as gender equality act and legislation on violence against women were seen.

On the other hand, problems of women such as low-wage female workforce became more serious. A few women tried to break the deadlock. But most women were stuck in poverty, discrimination and oppression. "Family-head (hoju) system", a symbol of patriarchy, was abolished in 2005. But it did not change the South Korean society, which had been built around patriarchy power. Liberation of all women will be impossible without the strategies to transform the underlying structure to overcome social or economic inequality. This article outlines the history of feminist movements and the current situation in South Korea to consider the possibility of feminist movements for social transformation as an alternative.

The early feminist movement in South Korea remained primarily within the university faculty since the establishment of womens studies in 1977 at Ewha Womans University. And other feminist movements were also limited to some feminist claims and struggles. For many years, feminism had not been common for Korean women. And feminism was generalized among women by the murder of a woman which occurred near Gangnam Station in Seoul in May 2016. As a result of this incident, Korean women began to speak out one after another, and it became a big social movement. From 2015, a year before that, there were signs of a growing awareness of feminism. "Misogyny" was spreading online due to fake news that the first infected person by Mers was a woman in her twenties who returned from overseas. And in the same year, radical feminist launched an internet community site called "Megalia". Korean women expressed "Megalia" by combining "MERS" and "Egalia" based on Norwegian feminist literature classic "Egalias Daughters". In Megalia, the words that men despised women were also applied to men as they are as a counterattack against misogyny. However, some excessive mirroring not only insulted men excessively but also ridiculed unrelated sexual minorities, which became a social problem in South Korea. After all, the site was closed in 2017.

However, people who used Megalia had developed feminism peculiar to South Korea in various ways, such as the opening and operating of a radical feminism site called "Womad". Since then, womens anger and struggles led to quantitative rather than qualitative growth of feminism in South Korea. In 2018, more than 70,000 women, the largest number for a single womens agenda, gathered at Gwanghwamun Square to protest against the polices partial investigation of illegal filming and photography. From around 2018, the tal-corset movement began to spread in the South Korean society. Those who were angry at violence against women had embarked on aggressive actions to eradicate misogyny. A series of activities were different from the forces of the existing womens movements. It was an explosion of the cumulative victims experiences of individual Korean women who were unfairly treated in the society. After that, the womens movements to have the same rights and status as men continued in South Korea. In addition, #MeToo movement that accused harassment worldwide made the movements more active[1]. But on the other hand, the future vision of the movements was not in the prospect of social transformation. Therefore, the movements did not develop beyond the struggles against patriarchal order by individuals.

Since the year 2000, government-led womens policies have been institutionalized rapidly in South Korea. But the results of the policies were further deterioration of the living environments of most women such as low-wage and unstable working conditions and double duty imposed on women as wage and domestic workers. The inauguration of Park Geun-hye in 2013 as the first female president in East Asia symbolizes the disparity between women. Government-led policies have only fostered the advancement of a small percentage of elite women in the public sphere. Park Geun-hyes reactionary neoliberalism with a populist and feminist face enforced repression of the majority of women. And the repression is deeply rooted in the South Korean society in almost all fields such as politics, economy, and culture. At least there was no commonality between former Korean Air Vice President Cho Hyun-ah and the Korean Air female crew members (or Filipino housekeeper illegally hired by Cho Hyun-ah) in the nut-rage incident, also referred to as nutgate which occurred a year after Park Geun-hyes inauguration[2]. It was clear that there were large class differences instead of common elements between the woman who exploited and the women who was exploited. At that time, many South Koreas feminists could not explain differences among women, differences in class, and problems of domination and power among women. "Merit system" and "result-oriented pay system" with the success myth of a few women lowered the power for womens liberation.

Meanwhile, capitalism exploitation and patriarchy repression interacted and strengthened each other. As a result, feminist groups that hold existing political power, executives of major womens organizations, and some privileged women succeeded in advancing to the public sphere. However, the process is far from the human rights of women. Its just a power struggle for personal and political interests. The liberal feminism policies have highlighted the class differences among women. Meanwhile, neoliberals ignored the majority of oppressed women and continued discussions mainly in the public sphere in institutional reforms. It showed the limitations of "liberal equality".

Liberal feminism has been the mainstream in South Korea and has taken the initiative to make policies such as expansion of female labor. And representatives of womens organizations advanced to politics and government. These changes seemed to promote womens participation in the public sphere, but in actual fact the majority of women were left alone. Unfortunately, its neoliberal policies have converted service labor into market-oriented and expanded "traditional gender roles". And South Koreas neoliberal government exploited female labor force under low-wage and unstable working conditions in the name of "womens policy". "Gender mainstreaming" in "flexible work strategies" employed by capital served as a means of accelerating unfavourable living conditions for women. And the institutional reforms promoted by Korean liberal womens movements have not changed the lives of women.

It shows that the problems caused by capital cannot be solved by "equal measures" of institutional reforms. The "equal measures" wanted to find a few elite women who could provide a workforce "comparable to men". And discussions mainly in the public sphere in the institutional reforms have disregarded near-daily discrimination, domestic work, and sexual violence in the private sphere as "personal problems." At the same time, liberal feminism has ignored issues such as racism and classism, denying the need to break the fundamental structure of womens oppression.

On March 9, conservative Yun Seok-yeol has won the South Korean presidential election. It shows that most South Korean voters allowed the next government to trample on the fundamental human rights and to lose respect for legal and administrative womens rights[3]. In the current situation, it remains to be seen what new rise can take place for a movement aimed at social transformation from a class perspective. Six years have passed since the murder occurred near Gangnam Station in 2016. During this time, feminist movements for gender equality have developed independently in South Korea under the influence of the global #MeToo movements. However, the reality of life for the majority of Korean women has not changed. Neoliberal policies by fake progressive forces have resulted in the creation of a small number of elite women, while driving the majority of working-class women into chronic and severe poverty and oppression. In the process, feminist movements are heading for unexpected directions. Some "radical feminists" took conservative direction to prop up exclusive separatism with anti-gender ideology[4]. They are not sufficiently radial. Some dominant feminist groups still remain stuck and varied in the course of the linear model of western feminism[5]. Also, many feminist scholars did not consider women activists to be equal in solidarity. Looking from above, they sought to strengthen the power and authority of a few privileged women, which was almost unrelated to improving the lives of the vast majority of women.

Until now, dominant feminists in South Korea have been insensitive to the oppression of women deepened by capitalism. Womens liberation is not obtained through dialogue with capital. Womens liberation is possible by socialism. And real socialism is possible for the realization of womens liberation. The 2016 candle light uprising which impeached "the first female president in East Asia" Included the flames of many Korean womens willingness against social contradictions and hardships brought about by neoliberals. But it cannot necessarily be called a struggle launched by the class perspective. And there are many limitations to define it as a revolution. We must build a structured autonomous womens movement for social transformation that goes beyond institutional reforms or the limitation of liberalism in order to break the structural womens oppression caused by social relations of capitalism and patriarchy which are interacted and strengthened each other.

16 May 2022

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Women's Movement in South Korea: How to Break the Structural Oppression - International Viewpoint