Atlanta, GA – On October 14, Atlanta Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) hosted an event at the Little Five Points Community Center to hear a report back from Chrisley Carpio on her recent trip to South Korea. Carpio, a member of the Central Committee of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, visited as part of the Jaju Solidarity Brigade this past August to participate in demonstrations against U.S. military occupation.
Carpio first gave a summary of the current political situation in Korea; about how the Korean peninsula was once united, but is now divided by U.S. imperialism at the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People' s Republic of Korea) as an independent, socialist state, and South Korea (Republic of Korea) still occupied by the United States.
Grand Rapids, MI – Meredith Aby, a Minneapolis-based organizer and co-founder of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, spoke in Grand Rapids on September 26, to share her experience on the Jaju Solidarity Brigade to South Korea. The brigade, organized by Notdutol, brought activists to the country to participate in the National Liberation Day protests against U.S. war games.
Aby’s presentation was held in the chapel of Fountain Street Church, which is a venue in this year’s annual ArtPrize Festival. Thus, the two events coinciding brought people into the space who were taking a break from browsing art and wanting to sit in on the presentation.
On Sunday, September 20, the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) held a webinar to hear from activists who traveled to the Republic of Korea (RoK) to participate in demonstrations against the U.S. military occupation of the country.
Speakers on the webinar included Meredith Aby of the AWAN steering committee, Chrisley Carpio of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Sonya Chung of Nodutdol, the organization of Korean American activists who organized the trip. The event was moderated by Maria Sohn Hasman of the AWAN-aligned Tucson Anti-War Committee.
Seoul, SK – On August 15, the Jaju Solidarity Brigade, led by Nodutol, joined 10,000 people marching in Seoul, Republic of Korea to demand “U.S. out of Korea.” This was the first international delegation to ever join the annual National Liberation Day protest in South Korea, which has historically brought together the country’s most progressive trade unions, student organizations, women’s groups, and other civil society organizations to oppose the Ulchi Freedom Shield war drills.
June Colcol, the secretary general of BAYAN USA, explained the purpose of the delegation at a press conference for the delegation, “We aim to contribute to uplifting the Korean national liberation struggles against U.S. militarism by raising the people's resistance and linking our efforts to kick out the U.S. from our homelands. U.S. military presence continues to place our people in danger.”
21 international anti-war and progressive organizations, from the U.S., Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, Guåhan (Guam), the Philippines and India, participated in the Jaju Solidarity Brigade. The brigade spent a week visiting sites of U.S. military occupation, including Gusan Air Base, Camp Casey and Camp Humphreys. The delegation also met with people’s resistance leaders from across South Korea to learn about their fightbacks to U.S. occupation.
