Anti-War Action Network attends People’s Summit for Korea

By Trent Fast and Cedar

New York, NY – On the weekend of July 25-27, the Anti-War Action Network sent members from the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Detroit Anti-War Committee, Tucson Anti-War, and Seattle Against War to the first ever People’s Summit for Korea in New York City.

The conference was held at Riverside Church in Harlem, and organized by Nodutdol, an organization of Korean Americans organizing for a world free of imperialism, and for Korea’s reunification and national liberation. Founded in 1999, Nodutdol has organized against U.S./South Korea war games and training exercises on the Korean peninsula, the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement in 2006, and in 2024 launched the U.S. Out Of Korea campaign.

The summit opened with an energizing performance of traditional Korean drumming, setting the tone for the weekend and ending in roars and applause from the crowd. The final speaker of the opening ceremony, Miyeon Jang of Nodutdol, declared, “The era of U.S. impunity and waging war without consequence is over. Across the U.S., we are organizing working people to create consequences for the U.S. empire and building towards our inevitable socialist future.”

Jang also spoke about the consequences of U.S. and South Korean military presence on the peninsula observing, “The United States and South Korean puppet soldiers will beat grandmothers until they need surgery simply for defending their farmland, and call it protection against North Korea. They impose lethal sanctions against pregnant mothers and children and call it diplomacy. They stage war exercises that drop bombs on villages and call it peacekeeping.”

Throughout the summit, attendees listened to many engaging panels including Solidarity and Sovereignty: Anti-Imperialism in the Indo-Pacific, the Long Revolution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Toward a United Front: U.S. Out of Everywhere. The South Korean delegation also provided an insightful panel on fighting empire from within the Republic of Korea. The summit also provided workshops including Surviving Sanctions, Occupation is a Crime!, and Policy and People Power.

Representatives from the Anti-War Action Network found the conference to be fruitful in continuing their analysis of anti-imperialism globally. Maria Sohn Hasman of Tucson Anti-War said, “It has been 72 years since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed – 72 years since the United States forcibly divided Korea, began its occupation, and imposed the world’s longest standing sanctions. As a Korean adoptee, it is critical that I understand my people’s history of resistance. Adoptees and diaspora around the world have the responsibility to fight U.S. imperialism. In the United States specifically, we need to organize and deal a blow to every monopoly capitalist we can to support the liberation and national determination for not only Korea, but for the Philippines, Palestine, and all under the control of the United States. The U.S. sanctions imposed on the DPRK have crippled their economic development and livelihoods. All around the world, U.S. sanctions kill 500,000 people every year.”

Rae Minji Lee of Seattle Against War explains, “There are 28,500 U.S. troops stationed across 62 bases in South Korea, which have for decades been a source of violence as assaults, murder, rape, pollution and noise have been imposed onto the Korean people, with no justice or reparations. When the South Korean people are forced to bear the cost of moving or expanding these bases; when the U.S. can position operational nuclear warheads on their soil in secret for decades; when their army can be mustered by a U.S. general as a standing army in wartime, how can anyone not see that South Korea is occupied and has no sovereignty?”

Lee also spoke to the Western perceptions of North Korea that we are inundated with and the need to think more critically about them saying, “My own family repeated U.S. propaganda about the Korean War and its continued presence on the Korean Peninsula all throughout my childhood; I consider unlearning these lies and unpacking the propaganda against the DPRK to be critical for generational healing, as well as becoming a more effective anti-war organizer within the united front against U.S. imperialism.”

The connections between the fight for Korean liberation and Palestinian liberation were everywhere at the conference, with many attendees wearing keffiyehs and other clothing showing their support for Palestine.

Allison Gunderson of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee shared why she attended the conference, saying, “As an anti-imperialist, and as one who organizes around Palestine in particular, it’s crucial to learn the effect U.S. imperialism has on Korea and that you cannot have a liberated Palestine without a liberated Korea. You cannot be an anti-imperialist without advocating for the reunification and self-determination for Korea free of U.S. imperialism. There are 62 military bases on the Korean peninsula alone and Korea is used as a foothold in the Indo-Pacific region for the U.S. to ramp up war against China. That fact alone should tell you the ways in which Korea’s Liberation is crucial to anti-imperialism, so of course I went to the summit!”

In the final plenary on Saturday afternoon, Mick Kelly of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization highlighted the importance of internationalism and building a global movement. Kelly expounded upon the recognition that the capitalist system is in its dying stages and is an enemy to people in the U.S. and around the globe, and the understanding of that fact is what creates the basis for working class internationalism. Going further he added, “the fact is when the Korean people strike a blow for liberation, it is of great benefit to those of us here in the United States and vice versa.”

After touching on the need for solidarity with the people’s struggles currently happening in Korea and the Philippines, Kelly laid out the tasks of people in the United States, stating, “We need to be about solidarity and it’s important that that solidarity is extended to the DPRK. It’s important that we have a global point of view and realize we have friends all over the globe. It’s vital that we build an anti-imperialist wing of a broader anti-war movement, a movement that’s inclusive not exclusive. We have a lot of work to do in the future, but we need to do it in a practical way that relies on drawing tens of thousands, if not millions of people into this effort. It is the masses of people that make history, it cannot be made by us alone and it depends on us being able to pull large numbers of people in behind us to do things.”

The weekend ended with a protest on Sunday in Times Square, in the heart of American finance capital, Manhattan, New York City. Speakers from several of the organizations that attended the conference took a stand to demand the U.S. out of Korea and an end to U.S. imperialism, not only in Korea, but also the Philippines, and of course Palestine. Attendees were also encouraged to hold or join a rally on August 15 for Korean Liberation Day. Organizers rallied around the chant of “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, U.S. Out of everywhere!” as they took to the streets to cap off a historic weekend.

The summit was seen as a major success. With organizations like Nodutdol bringing together organizers not only from across the U.S. but across the world, we can be sure that the fight to end U.S. imperialism will grow stronger.

#NewYorkNY #NY #International #Korea #AntiWarMovement #AWAN #Nodutdol

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