‘Occupy Yeouido': Activists plan anti-corporate protests Saturday

American protesters’ rage against the “greed of financiers” is expected to reach Korea as a worldwide protest is planned for Oct. 15.

Whether Korean young people, many of whom are low-income or unemployed, will join the protests against the financial system is drawing keen attention.

A U.S.-based website, www.occupytogether.org, suggested that people worldwide simultaneously protest against governments’ tolerance of financial recklessness and bailouts and call for greater financial regulation on Saturday.
“Getting people to stand up in this way requires a very strong commitment that most people have not yet realized will be necessary and in their best interests,” it said. 

“As we continue awareness operations and build momentum, we will reactivate this part of our Ground Operation at a future date. We have set up a social network group dedicated to planning this operation. If you are ready to peacefully occupy a public place, please join the planning group here,” it said.

Some Seoulites have expressed their willingness to participate.

“Maybe we can start with 10 people. But later we can have more,” a netizen, who signed up, said. The demonstration is to take place in front of the Korea Stock Exchange building in Yeouido in Seoul, the financial hub of Korea.

The Korea Finance Consumer Federation, SpecWatch Korea, Korea Confederation of Trade Union and several other civic and interest groups plan to join the protest.

Whether they would use the catchphrase “Occupy” as those on Wall Street was not clear since the Korean groups are likely to focus on Knock-in, Knock-out derivatives and the government’s encouragement of university students to take out expensive student loans.

KIKO is composed of two derivatives: knock-out options that cease to exist when a knock-out event occurs, and knock-in options that come into existence when a knock-in event takes place. They are blamed for incurring huge damage to individual investors. Student loans are based on a compound interest method and are criticized for imposing financial burden on students even before they start to make money after graduation.

“We are living in a world where abnormality has gained hegemony. We will raise public awareness by telling them that financial crisis can always happen to them,” Baek Sung-jin, spokesman of the group, said.

“We hope the protest will ignite a long-term drive to oppose the endless pursuit of market capitalism and neoconservatism,” he added.

The occupation of Wall Street started in June, inspired by a similar movement in Spain. It gained momentum on Sept. 17 with thousands of students and mostly white collar-workers walking down the heart of world finance against “Casino capitalism.” Hundreds of participants were arrested but the movement quickly spread to other parts of the world including Europe.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)