By Yun Suh-young
As the drumbeat of “Occupy Wall Street” is getting louder in the United States, a number of civic groups plan to organize similar rallies in Yeoido, Seoul, the home of financial giants and regulators.
The consumer rights groups, led by the Korea Finance Consumer Association (KOFICA) and Spec Watch Korea, are discussing the details about holding a protest in the “Wall Street of Korea” this Saturday, a KOFICA official said Tuesday.
“We were originally planning to hold a similar protest to the one in Wall Street after the Seoul mayor by-election on October 26th. But we’ve moved forward the schedule, because the movement is rapidly spreading as a global collective action,” said Baek Sung-jin, the secretary general at KOFICA.
Baek said their protests will not call for the same things that protesters in Wall Street are asking for but their demands will be locally customized to meet the domestic situation.
“We will mainly call for financial firms to perform as entities for public good, compensation for imperfect sales of financial products and reform in the financial sector,” he said.
Not only civic group members but university students are expected to join the rally as they demand financial authorities to take steps to make financial firms cut interest rates on tuition loans.
Other participating organizations will bring up issues related to the mutual savings bank crisis, financial derivatives and other issues that are closely connected to public welfare.
KOFICA plans to hold a press conference today to release detailed plans for the upcoming rallies.
They will hold the first protest Saturday as the date is also designated as a global action day by protesters on Wall Street.
The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and other civic groups, labor unions and organization for financial victims will participate in the campaign.
The demonstration will likely take place in front of the Korea Exchange or the Financial Supervisory Service in Yeoido, where the major financial companies are clustered.
They have yet to decide as to whether they will use the chant “occupy” for the Korean version of the protest.
The Occupy Wall Street movement which began on Sept. 17 has spread rapidly nationwide in the United States with protesters criticizing the greed and corruption of financial conglomerates on Wall Street whom the protesters claim are the wealthiest one percent in the nation.
The demonstrators say that they, the 99 percent majority, must take action against the greed and corruption of Wall Street as the majority of people are left jobless and underpaid.
The movement which has spurred global participation in 22 cities worldwide is now calling for a global action to be held on the same day internationally on Oct. 15, designated as “Occupy Together” day. Currently 8,438 groups in 1,384 cities have decided to participate.