Escorted by hundreds of supporters, labor rights activists Mao Chen-fei (毛振飛) and Lin Tzu-wen (林子文) walked to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday to begin their prison terms, with both saying they feel honored to be imprisoned over demonstrating for labor rights.
The supporters held up banners and flags as they departed from Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office, heading over to an annex office of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office about 1km away.
Their departure was accompanied by firecrackers and fireworks as the crowd chanted: “Honored to go to jail, no regret at all.”
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“I feel honored to go to jail for speaking out against injustice in this society,” Lin, a long-time labor activist, told the crowd before the parade started. “We didn’t commit any crime, we’re just being repressed by the state.”
Mao, chairman of the Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU), said that while he also feels honored to be jailed, he does regret one thing.
“I regret that I’ve only got 20 days, while Lin’s got 50 days. Whenever I think about it, I feel ashamed for getting such a short jail term,” Mao said. “Going to prison is nothing to be afraid of, and if we fear nothing, the government will be afraid of us. This is why President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] is now hiding from us.”
Lin was sentenced to 50 days in prison for engaging in clashes with police during a protest the National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories (NAWCF) staged on Ketagalan Boulevard, while Mao was sentenced to 20 days in prison over an egg-hurling protest the NAWCF also staged in front of the Presidential Office last year.
At the protest, when police asked the crowd to stop hurling eggs at them, Mao told the crowd to continue and said he would take full responsibility.
The NAWCF is made up of hundreds of workers in their 60s or 70s who were laid off nearly 20 years ago. When their former employers would not pay them the severance packages and pensions they were owed, the Council of Labor Affairs offered them loans and promised that it would ask their former employers to repay the loans, rather than making the workers repay them.
However, two years ago, the council filed a NT$20 million (US$680,000) lawsuit against the laid-off workers, urging them to repay their loans, triggering waves of protests by the workers and their supporters.
“When I get out of the jail, I will return to the streets, because I cannot sit and do nothing when I see a small group of people benefiting at the expense of the public and workers,” Mao said.
Yao Kuang-chu (姚光祖), a younger member of the TCTU, vowed to carry on the job while the two leaders are in jail.
“These people are too old to go to jail. Shouldn’t it be time for us, the younger generation, to go to jail?” Yao asked, and received a firm “yes” from the crowd. “We are ready to make the government pay more for what they did wrong.”
Firecrackers and fireworks were again let off after the parade arrived outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, but many people were in tears when Mao and Lin walked into the office.
Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮), a spokeswoman for the NAWCF, urged the crowd to take part in another protest outside the upcoming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) National Congress in Greater Taichung on Nov. 10.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS