Korea: General strike

I really want to know more about contemporary struggles in korea. Any ideas where I can find out more?

Gwangju = Kwangju?

good to see they didn't 'learn their lesson' then!

you know, looking at that picture...

interesting thing about fights during protests and strikes and stuff is, you go back to ancient military tactics. i mean, look at them! fighting in formation, shields over their heads "locked" together (or close as they can manage in the situation). it's like a giant version of the old roman turtle shell formation! but it seems like neither protestors nor cops ever seem to commit themselves too strongly into these tactics though, and it comes out very sloppy... could be something which more militant protestors might want to keep in mind.

on another thought: wonder if those suits the cops are wearing are fire retardant?

well, what i meant is that they seem to fight somewhat half-heartedly, and often, the formations are done kind of sloppily. i mean, look at the formation of the cops in the pic above... a bunch of them in the mass have their shields over their heads as is logical, but basically only on the left side. the rest are just sitting there with shields down, waiting to get a molotov on the head while the cops dont have the gear (or, hopefully, intent) to wade in and completely crush their opponents, their gear seems to put the advantage greatly on their side. i'd think they could push the other side back (and, ideally, break them). especially since protestors usually have crappy protection (the guys in the picture look like they dont have any armour at all), generally poor weapons which wouldnt be massively effective on the well-armoured cops(though i'd be intimidated by the fire poles they've got there!), and often seem to fight in a kind of... unorganized horde.

but what kinda gets to me is that, considering that the cops seem to be kind of sloppy in their handling of things, i imagine that, with some good organization and clever strategy, protestors could probably utterly *trounce* the cops (perhaps not in every fight, but, you know). of course, i'm thinking there are lots of other factors messing around here (a bunch keep popping into my head), so... dont put much weight on what i said

yeah, i've been seeing this more and more, as i read more about military history. it baffles me to hear about major battles between armies of tens of thousands having only, say, hundreds or so casulties until one side retreats, and then you get a bloodbath. i'd never considered the idea of being better able to kill someone without seeing their eyes... the sort of psychological factor involved. but, i also think a major thing about what makes the killing of a retreating force much more effective is that the retreating force is focusing on *retreating*, rather than fighting (much harder for someone to defend him/herself by swinging around whatever weapon they have behind their back). they might realize they're getting picked off badly in the retreat, but fear that if they consolidate and try to put up a good defence, the enemy could end up completely overtaking them and cutting off all chance of further retreat... so they keep running till their pursuers stop, or they fall from exhaustion or wound. (exhaustion'd be another big thing in it, especially since a pursuing army could eventually stop their regular troops once they're tired and have the retreating opponents harassed for a while longer by their faster forces, ie cavalry).

as a final note: if i find that book in a bookstore, i'll definitely check it out! (alexander must've lost more than 600 troops, though in all his campaigns!)