Self-Employed Workers Demand "Abolish Quarantine Pass and Business Restrictions... Guarantee Right to Survival"

Self-Employed Workers Hold Mass Rally in Gwanghwamun on the 22nd
"Demanding the Abolition of Quarantine Passes and Business Restrictions"
Participants and Police Clash Outside the Fence

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Self-employed workers held a rally in downtown Seoul on the 22nd as scheduled, urging the government to abolish measures such as the vaccine pass and business restrictions.

The National Emergency Measures Committee for the Self-Employed held a general rally condemning the government's quarantine policies at the Gwanghwamun Citizen Open Square in Seoul from 3 p.m. that day. The rally was expected to last about two hours until 5 p.m.

Initially, the organizers had registered the rally for 299 participants, but many attendees voluntarily came to the rally site, resulting in a crowd several times larger than the registered number gathering near the venue. Fences were installed around the rally site. The police allowed entry only to those who had completed vaccination, so some participants stayed outside the fences, watching the rally or wandering nearby. The Emergency Committee shouted slogans such as "Police, guarantee peaceful protests," "Small business owners are also citizens. Guarantee the right to survive," and "Withdraw the vaccine pass," and started the rally about 10 minutes later than originally planned.

In his opening speech, Oh Se-hee, president of the Small Business Federation, stated, "Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the economy of small business owners and the self-employed is shaken, and as the number of closures increases, self-employed people who can no longer endure are being driven to extreme choices," adding, "After only one month of implementing the vaccine pass, now with restrictions on the number of people and business hours, the right to survive for self-employed workers is once again threatened."

The police deployed about 800 officers from 14 units to prepare for any possible clashes. During the rally, some participants who could not enter inside the fences shouted slogans in protest, and during this process, loud exchanges occurred, causing some disturbances. Such scuffles continued throughout the rally, but no major clashes have occurred so far.

The Emergency Committee demands ▲ withdrawal of the vaccine pass ▲ abolition of business restrictions without compensation ▲ significant expansion of support funds for small business owners ▲ revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Loss Compensation Act ▲ opposition to the expanded application of the Labor Standards Act to workplaces with fewer than five employees. If these demands are not met after January 2 next year, they plan to hold simultaneous large-scale rallies nationwide again and to non-cooperate with the government's quarantine policies.

The Emergency Committee's return to rallies comes about five months after several nationwide vehicle protests held in July. After the vehicle protests, the committee set up a memorial altar for self-employed people who took extreme measures and began a tent sit-in. They briefly stopped collective actions starting from the phased recovery measures on the 1st of last month but resumed collective actions again following the government's announcement to strengthen social distancing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.