Last week, while Clinton was hanging around with the bigwigs in the Chinese government and "lecturing" Chinese students on human rights, a nearby U.S. ally in Asia finally owned up to one of its biggest human rights problems. South Korea, which has a policy of locking up political dissidents and throwing away the key, scrambled to find those keys again on the eve of the 50th anniversary celebration of South Korea's "democratic" government. The new South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, himself once a political prisoner and a man who was harassed by South Korean intelligence agents for most of his career, announced that 500 political prisoners would be freed, including those who have refused to renounce their political beliefs. South Korea has had a long-standing policy of forcing prisoners to disown their political ideologies in return for freedom. This policy kept Woo Yong-gak, widely acknowledged as the world's longest-imprisoned political dissident, in solitary confinement for forty years. During that time, Woo lost his teeth and suffered a wide range of illnesses and mental suffering, but remained steadfast in his refusal to renounce his socialist beliefs.

Unfortunately, President Kim Dae-jung hasn't followed Woo's example. Ignoring most of his campaign promises, Kim has opened his arms to the IMF and helped to support a tripartite agreement that would allow massive layoffs in industry. The payoff to workers: a small, insufficient, government-run unemployment fund for newly laid-off workers. It's too little, too late for most. South Korea, like many Asian nations, has never had much of a social safety net for its people, and right now there's not much extra money in the government coffers to set one up. As a trade-off for more privatization of utilities and government-owned businesses which will lead to lots more lay-offs, it just doesn't cut it. Meanwhile, the unemployed are quickly running through their savings, while realizing there are no jobs to replace the ones they've lost. Layoffs are proceeding at the rate of 10,000 per day, and unemployment is at a 12-year high. Prices for basic goods and services have been increasing, too: they rose 8.9% in the 12 months ending March 31st.

In the meantime, militant South Korean labor unions have been busy. A five day strike at KIA Motors, one of the largest employers in the nation, cost the company $22 million. A May Day demonstration of 22,000 workers and students sent police into a panic and a riot ensued: rubber bullets (the cops) versus rocks (the demonstrators). On May 27th, trade unionists called a two-day general strike, and at least 120,000 people walked off their jobs to demand the following: an end to the layoffs, an increase in unemployment benefits for workers who've already lost their jobs, and a re-negotiation of South Korea's deal with the IMF, which has shifted the burden of the bailout off the shoulders of financiers, shareholders, and businessmen and onto the shoulders of workers. While Bill Clinton parties in Shanghai, shaking hands with the Chinese military (who own most of the large businesses and factories in China) on the floor of the Chinese stock exchange, South Koreans are fighting for their jobs and their freedom. They could give him a lecture or two about "human rights." --Maria Tomchick

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A little closer to home, others are protesting another privatization scheme similar to the schemes going on in South Korea. In Puerto Rico, hours after Governor Pedro Rossello signed a law that would complete the sale of Telefonica, Puerto Rico's phone company, to a consortium led by GTE Corp., protesters went into action. 6,400 Telefonica workers had already gone on strike the week before, fearing that GTE would start a massive round of layoffs as soon as it took control of Telefonica. On hearing that the deal had been signed, those same workers got out their tools and began cutting phone lines in protest. Other critics of the deal, including people fighting for Puerto Rican independence from the U.S., smashed and burned bank machines belonging to Banco Popular, which is part of the consortium and helped to put together the financing to buy Telefonica for $1.9 billion.--M.T.