Scenes from a Protest

In the firmament of international antiglobalization activists, South Korea’s militant farmers are superstars. Organized with military precision and armed with an almost suicidal disregard for personal safety, Korean farmers have repeatedly clashed with police, most recently at a Nov. 15 protest in Seoul where over 100 were injured. So when Hong Kong announced that 9,000 police officers would be on duty during the Dec. 13-18 World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, it’s safe to say that they weren’t posted to protect the city from the Philippines Domestic Helpers General Union. Some 2,000 South Koreans were scheduled to make the trip, and in the weeks leading up to the meetings Hong Kong newspapers pumped up the threat, until the coming invasion seemed only slightly less dangerous than the Mongol hordes. “I’m quite afraid of the Koreans,” said Christine Hung, who considered closing a shop she owns along a scheduled protest route in the heart of the city.

But in a week when the WTO talks themselves were stultifying even to trade ministers, the South Koreans may have provided the only surprise—they displayed relatively good behavior. Many ended their protest march on the conference’s opening day not by running amuck but by taking a dip: wearing orange life jackets, over 100 Koreans leapt into Victoria Harbour, floating just a few hundred meters from the convention center where the talks were being held. It was a peculiar act of protest, but it was brave—the polluted waters of the harbor haven’t been safe for swimming in years. “I cannot swim,” pear farmer Han Do Sook said later, struggling to explain the politics of his perilous plunge. “But right now, I feel as if the WTO is trying to make me swim without a life vest.” A squadron of Koreans did make a break for the convention center later, but were repelled by riot police wielding shields and pepper spray. Homegrown radical and Hong Kong legislator Leung (Long Hair) Kwok-hung, who marched with the Koreans and was caught up in the tussle, summed up the experience: “I had a good time, apart from getting pepper-sprayed.”

The good times couldn’t last forever, and on Saturday the protests flared into violence. Scores of Koreans burst through police barriers and battled officers, who responded with fire hoses and tear gas. Despite the fighting, which left at least 40 injured, through Saturday the farmers still hadn’t managed to disrupt the WTO meeting. But with talks inside mostly deadlocked, there wasn’t much to disrupt.