Flying Yangban has a pictorial entry on a recent labor riot in South Korea. He points out that there is nothing spontaneous about a Korean riot, and compares them to "Aztec flower wars" for their ritualized, scripted precision. Still, those are real Molotov cocktails they're flinging at the cops, and big honking iron bars they're beating each other with. I don't know that I'll ever really understand Korea. I can get Italy and its parade-strikes: it's the lazy man's labor demonstration. I'm a lazy man - I can get behind taking a half-day vacation to go strolling through town with the rest of the union, making a little noise. I can't quite picture why I would want to go charging tear-gas-tainted-water cannon tanks with no more protection than a surgical mask and some work gloves.

Via the Marmot Hole's Eyes on Korea wrapup at Winds of Change.