Today
was an incredible and great day. We had many visitors from the IUCN
WCC, both people that came on their own and people that joined the tour.
The village was filled with colorful graffiti and artwork. The police
mostly hid, trying to pretend state oppression and violence is not a
daily occurrence but I'm sure no one was fooled.
The Eco-Cide Tour planned for IUCN members was great. We had more
participants than we expected and had to take the boat out twice.
Everyone was very interested in and supportive of our struggle. Many of
them plan to come back to the village again if they have time. They all
bought and wore our new yellow "endangered species" Gangjeong shirts,
some of them buy lots of them.
During the tours, a decent sized
group marched from Gangjeong to Jungmun where the IUCN WCC convention
is being held. There they had a big rally. The Eco-Cide Tour group also
joined the rally as did other friends and supporters inside the IUCN.
The rally was really exciting and fantastic, a really huge party with
lots of colorful signs in English and Korean, chants in English and Korean, music, speeches, and of course the usual dances as well as the
new "Gangjeong Style" dancing twice.
Overall it was a very
positive and fantastic, although tiring, day for everyone. One
particularly good news is related to our emergency motion we are trying
to get passed in the IUCN WCC. We need 10 IUCN member group sponsors to
get our motion considered. We got over 25! The response was fantastic,
especially from many Latin and South American groups who work with
environmental issues and fight with indigenous peoples against mega
corporations.
There is a lot of energy here and even if this
motion doesn't eventually pass we are all filled with new spirits just
to see more people from around the world caring passionately about us
and our movement and struggle.
Keep spreading the word!
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