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Edited by the PICIS Newsletter Team
Published by the Policy and Information Center for International
Solidarity
Tuesday, April 24rd, 2001
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Editor's Note : The attack of neo-liberal policies on the people of Korea is intensifying every minute. On 10th April, Daewoo workers who were peacefully demonstrating were brutally attacked - the situation which seems more like attempted murder. The workers were severely injured - some have lost their sight, some are in a coma. This bloodshed, along with the lay-offs of almost 7,000 contract workers of Korea Telecom, quickly turned shock and bewilderment into anguish. While the people of Korea are shout ng for the resignation of the president Kim Dae-Jung, the government is hurrying along the negotiations for the Korea-US, Korea-Japan Investment Treaties, and the Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement. Many reports are appearing these days, which predict another massive economic crisis in Korea due to the collapse of the US stock market. Neo-liberal economists are prescribing as a cure, the lowering of interest rates along with free trade, but we all know that this is not a cure but a death sentence to the people of Korea, who have already had their lives destroyed by the neo-liberal policies of the Korean government. In this edition of the PICIS newsletter we bring you the story of the fierce attack of the police on the Daewoo workers and the struggles of the Korean people against globalization. We also give you an update in the struggles of the women activists against sexual violence inside the progressive sector, which has begun to gather much support.
Trade union leader sues sexual violence victims and women activists
With the people of Korea enraged over the murderous police crackdown on the peaceful rally of the layed off Daewoo Motors workers, which resulted in 45 workers being seriously injured(for vivid and explicit video footage of the crackdown visit cast.jinbo.net//english/), the people's movement in Korea have been stepping up the struggle against the Kim Dae-Jung government. What made the carnage even more shocking was the fact that the District Court had delivered a ruling that the workers had the right to nter the factory to visit the union offices. The lawyer for the Korean Metal Workers Federation, at the site of the demonstration stated this fact repeatedly to the head of the police at the site, only to be himself beaten and hospitalized.
Just 2 weeks ago, it appeared as if the Daewoo struggle was dying down, with the factory up and running and the struggle by the workers becoming increasingly isolated. However, the brutal crackdown on workers attempting to enter the trade union offices, in which police armed with shields and clubs beat defenseless workers lying down in protest, changed the situation. The press sent out reports of the beatings as top news, independent media activists at the site distributed the uncut version through the internet, trade unions and social movement activists played the tapes at public sites, drawing intense responses from citizens passing by. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions immediately issued guidelines to all its union members to watch the footage and distribute it as widely as possible, it also announced that the aim of its struggle would now be the resignation of Kim Dae-Jung. A rally calling for President Kim to step down was held on the 14th in In-chon(over 3000 ! participating), the site of the Daewoo factory, and on the 21st demonstrations were held nation-wide in 28 cities with the same purpose. The struggle will continue onto the May Day struggle on the 1st of May, and the KCTU has announce plans for a general strike beginning on the 31st of May.
The bloodshed caused by the police at the cost of the Daewoo workers is yet another in a long string of attacks by the government on the basic democratic rights that the people of Korea have gained through decades of struggles. With the national economy in a constant state of instability and the government continuously calling for more re-structuring for the 'improvement of national competitiveness in the international market,' it is solely the socially oppressed that have been burdened with the cost of the economic crisis. In the process, any resistance on the part of the oppressed to contest the direction the re-structuring process, and offer alternatives in the process, has been taking has been met with brutal suppression. The mass sacking of 1750 workers at Daewoo, most of them union members, and the beating of the layed off workers as they attempted to enter the union office, is the latest example of this fact. With the people around the nation furious and preparing! for a counter-attack, it remains to be seen whether the progressive sector will be able to mount a meaningful struggle that will be able pressure the government into changing its overall stance regarding its anti-worker/anti-people policies. We will keep you updated.
Victims of sexual violence and the Women Activists' Committee against Sexual Violence inside Progressive Sector(WAC) have been sued for deformation by the aggressor, Kang Cheol-Gu, the trade union vice-president of the huge national public broadcasting service, KBS. WAC publicized 16 names of sexual violence aggressors last December and in February, renewed its list to include Kang. He had sexually harassed and attempted rape at two women who were working in the union with him.
The two women, after years of forced silence by the union, reported their case to the WAC. According to a report written by the union prior to Kang, there are 3 more victims, making Kang the aggressor of 5 cases of sexual violence. WAC decided that Kang could not be left any longer, and publicized the case along with his full name on the progressive website, Jinbonet. The union issued a statement saying that they will do whatever means possible to 'support' the aggressor, and publicly denounced the victims as forming a plot to overthrow the union - a statement being broadly criticized as being ridiculous and offensive.
WAC, along with 19 other social and civil organizations formed a Joint Committee to convince Kang to seriously face investigation taken up by the Federation of Media Trade Unions, and to withdraw the suit. Kang and his supporters are even rejecting a meeting proposed by the Joint Committee on the basis that the Joint Committee is a 'ghost organization'. The Joint Committee includes PICIS, the Korean Youth Progressive Party, the Democratic Labour Party and even a renowned women's organization consisting of scholars. The Joint Committee has been demonstrating in front of KBS for the last three weeks.
Many radical scholars and activist leaders have issued statements calling for the union to be responsible, and 94 KBS workers have petitioned for the impeachment of Kang and the president of the union. All the while, Kang is not saying anything other than that he is determined to use 'the law' as his weapon. At the moment. two victims, WAC and four reporters who had written about! the case are undergoing prosecutors investigation.
A long time ago, there was a cartoon in the newspapers - the title which was 'Victims of sexual violence cry three times'. The story was that women cry at the time she is violated, again when she goes to the police, and then again when she goes to court. The two KBS women workers cried when they were harassed by whom they believed to be their comrade in their fight for a better world, again when they reported the case to the union which did nothing but silence them, and now they are crying as they ended up as 'aggressors of deformation' because they used their very last resort - telling the public what had happened to them, and warning other potential victims. Victims of other aggressors who were on the WAC list have been actively participating in resolving their cases and making the aggressors acknowledge and apologize for the their violence towards women. One aggressor decided to 'run away' abroad. Lee Young-Ju, who continuously harassed 7 to 8 women who were working with him in the student movement, flew to UK. He is apparently starting a 'new life' of activism in England, visiting various workers' movement groups. PICIS believes that our fight against global capital can only be successful when activists themselves make the effort to overcome the oppression and violence that the present system has imposed.
One of the most serious oppressions amongst others in this strongly-patriarchal Korean society is the one against women. PICIS, in our struggle against neo-liberalism, will also fight any injustice and violence based on gender, sexuality or race inside the progressive sector. For more on women's oppression under he IMF restructuring and also within the progressive sector, refer to the 'In-Depth Look' series in PICIS Newsletter No. 78¡81.
End to investment treaties and free trade agreements! End to the sacrifice of economic autonomy and peoples' needs in exchange for profit of global capital! Solidarity to the global struggle against FTAA!
Three years into the IMF restructuring program, and the Kim Dae-Jung's
government which had bragged about the prospects of overcoming the economic
crisis through neo-liberal policies has left only destitution for the Korean
people. The largest ever lay-offs, brutal suppression of workers, plummeting
unemployment rate, unstable jobs.....The reality of the so-called reform based
on free market policies turned out to be sacrifice of workers and the Korean
people for the benefit making the most attractive en ironment for
transnational capital.
Some time ago, the representative of the US Chamber of Commerce in Korea, Jeffrey Jones, said through their annual report "Korea is opening its doors wide open towards the world and investors are showing their interest. Direct foreign investments and portfolio investments have increased enough to make big companies that can be said to represent Korea such as Samsung and POSCO, be recognized as foreign." Like he said, the market share of foreign companies in the Korean market is overwhelming in all areas rom IT, heavy industry, chemical industry to paper, seeds and food. Also, foreign capital that have come into the Korean market is not interested in long-term investment but concentrates only on profit generating, short-term usage, heightening the possibility of another foreign exchange and financial crisis. A second crisis can hit Korea anytime. With this expansion of market control by transnational capital, it is now only a matter of time until the collapse of national ind! ustries to one massive subcontract basin. There is nothing else to expect from the Kim government but the increase of direct, indirect investment of foreign capital, instability of the Korean economy and dependency.
At the moment, the Kim government is in the midst of negotiations for investment treaties and free trade agreements to ensure free activity of transnational capital. The Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement has only last minute negotiations until the agreement is signed, and the Korea-US, Korea-Japan Bilateral Investment Treaties are expected to be signed within this year. The progressive movement in Korea is fighting against the BIT and FTA which will demolish the very basic rights and democracy of the peop e, as NAFTA had done in North America and Mexico. We are all in the same fight against neo-liberal globalization.
It is well known that the Korea-US BIT seeks to abolish the screen quota which states that Korean movies must be shown for a certain amount of time in cinemas around Korea. Not only that, the most important elements of the BIT are the clauses on giving equal treatment to transnational capital and abolishing the limit to the amount of foreign shares allowed in state-owned corporations. Basic services that should be under state control are now the target of transnational profit gambling. During the negotia ions for the Korea-Japan BIT, Japanese capital is emphasizing that active Korean trade unions deter free activity of companies and the Kim government responded by promising to intervene when there is a labour dispute. Put in simple words, this is a promise that the government will suppress any attempts to workers' solidarity and struggle against exploitation by international capitalists. The Korea-Chile FTA will completely destroy Korean agriculture which already started to ! crumble by the market liberalization of agricultural products enforced by the WTO Urugary Rounds. The FTA which states that all tariffs on 263 products will be abolished during the next ten years, will snatch away all methods of survival for Korean farmers.
The investment treaties and free trade agreements are nothing but the exchange of economic autonomy and peoples' lives for the profit game of transnational capital. We must now not only seek to manifest the problems of the BIT's and FTA's, but stand for the complete opposition.
On the other side of the world in the Americas, the Free Trade Area of the Americas(FTAA), a mere expansion of NAFTA which brought about the crash of the Mexican economy, collapse of Canadian industries and threw US workers into the street, is once again calling for activists all around the world to unite and struggle against neo-liberal globalization. The people of the world will once again come together as we had done in Seattle, Washington and Prague. We send our warmest solidarity to those who are st uggling against the FTAA.
KoPA has been holding demonstrations everyday in front of the American Chamber of Commerce from 9th April. Culture, environment, women, and workers' groups spoke about how neo-liberal globalization has seaped through and destroyed all aspect of our lives. We brought together our different voices in the common call for the stop to all negotiations for investment treaties and free trade agreements. We continued our relay rally until the 20th, and at the same time, held conferences for in-depth debate on th problems of the BIT and FTA, the effect of globalization on the environment, women, health, education and other aspect of our lives. We also hosted a film festival to manifest the atrocities committed by transnational capital in various countries, and the struggles of the people. On the 21st, the final day of the week of action, around 100 people, including the laid-off contract workers of Korea Telecom, held a 'Global Day of Action' near the government complex, in resistan! ce against the BIT and FTA, and also in solidarity with the struggles at Quebec.
In June last year I came to Seoul with a pretty common plan - make better money teaching English than I will probably ever make back home, experience a different culture and check out the world renowned progressive movement. For as long as I've been involved in activism back home in Australia (about the last 9 years) I've heard stories about huge violent protests and militant strikes in South Korea. The news usually filters through to Australia either from the mainstream media ("Strikes in Korea may threaten economic recovery" etc) or via internet-active folk in Korea.
In particular Youn, Young-Mo (International Solidarity office-holder at the KCTU) is very active at disseminating news of progressive struggles in Korea around the world. I get the impression that he has a very long list of people he sends news to, and in Australia at least - that news is spammed to a lot more people. Still receiving his spams while living in Korea (via Australia) has been pretty interesting - as a lesson of how subjective English language (and probably all) Web-sites and email lists can be.
Anyway that was I expecting, and what have I experienced? The answer to the first question is easy - I was expecting mass participation in one of the most militant large scale unions in the world and I was expecting a radical, active student movement. I think Western impressions of the South Korean student movement must be stuck in the late 1980's-early 1990's - because I certainly haven't seen all the student riots and molotov-cocktail throwing I was expecting. I hear that - like in Australia - student activists in Korea increasingly have to work mostly on university based issues in order to keep students interested. I guess this is just one legacy of the corporatisation of universities everywhere.
On the other hand I've observed a lot of the same tactics coming from Marxist and Trotskyist students in Korea, as I've seen back home. The same gangs of middle class university stud nts debating minute points, dedicated to saving the working class and convinced that any tactics which build the party (stacking meetings and organisations etc) are valid. In terms of my dreams of mass based union militancy well I've witnessed several significant struggles here. I visited and talked to Lotte Hotel workers back in June and July last year. They showed me their demands pasted in English, Korean and Japanese to the side of the hotel. I was so surprised by the ir politeness! They expressed their desire to regain a good relationship with their employers and continue their hard work and dedication to the company. Definitely Korean-style! It's taken me a long time to learn how much you can gain in negotiations in Korea if you maintain Confusion-style respect for your elders or "superiors". I was also really surprised to see glamorously dressed young Korean women (in union jackets) at the occupation, shaking their fists in the air and sometimes passionately addressing their co-workers.
It's so rare in Australia to see white-collar workers protesting like this. Many shop assistants, hotel and office workers have been duped into considering themselves middle-class and above unionism - even when they're on minimum wage AND expected to pay for fancy clothes and make-up for work. Later I read of the brutality the Lotte Hotel workers endured from the police. I've witnessed and experienced some pretty shocking brutality against striking! workers and their supporters (in my case) in Australia - but the raids at the Lotte Hotel were of a level of violence that the Australian government and police would love to be able to get away with, but probably wouldn't. I hope if nothing else - Kim, Dae-Jung's blatant pro-business, anti-worker stance exposed how far from real democracy Korea's hard fought for democracy is. Please don't mistake my meaning here - Australia, the US and other western democracies are to me also far from true democracy.
I guess Kim, Dae-Jung's role in the pro-democracy movement has protected him from such criticisms. I have met so many members of NGO's in Korea (I can't believe how many there are!) who spend their days lobbying government for funding and for minor changes to policy. I hope they took a good hard look at this example of the treatment dissenting voices still receive. A few months after the Lotte dispute I went to many of the rallies of striking insurance workers. Again I was really surprised to talk to relatively well paid white-collar workers who were striking for so long, and coming out again and again to protest for their rights. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be much direct action; the lines of police were generally unchallenged as they directed each demonstration - as though it were a parade.
The anti-ASEM "O20" demonstrations were probably the low-point of my time here. As I heard the rhetoric and hyping of Seattle, Prague and Seoul - I became excited. I tried to find groups that were organising autonomously for the day - as was the model for the other anti-globalisation protests. I met many people who felt that the ASEM gathering was not a good target for big protests, and that it would be better to save the effort for a more important target. I could definitely see their point, but I re kon that whilst not the WTO - ASEM is still a meeting of the leaders of governments and corporations. A meeting where our futures are conspired against, so I hoped to participate in trying to stop them, or at least demonstrating that they don't represent the people - that they have no legitimacy. I searched for groups I could organise with. I got two common responses. Firstly - the planned security operation requires secrecy - so we can't tell you our plans. Secondly - i! t hasn't been decided ; again because of secrecy - only a few top placed people in the labour and student movement know the strategy, we will find out at the last possible moment. Well - that ended up being the case. Instead a local anarchist friend and I painted a bilingual banner. I packed up all my stuff and changed all my money because people had told me I would probably be deported if I was involved in trouble making at the demonstrations. I attended the pre-O20 night of speeches and concert - I'm not really sure what to call that - because I'd never been to anything like it before I came to Korea. Actually I hadn't seen most of the highlights of Korea's protest culture before! I enjoyed the passion of the speeches and singing - there was a great spirit of solidarity and resistance. I thought that if everyone who was there could really organise then we could achieve something the next day. But it was a huge arena of people and the idea of organising that in one night into an action is pretty optimistic I reckon. I think the autonomous networking within the anti-globalisation movement around the world is it's biggest strength. But by O19 it was kind of late for autonomous networking, though now I'm writing this I'm dreaming of the potential we held that night. The model of organising was announced around 1 am. Affinity g! roups of around 30 members were to send a delegate into what was going to be a closed room to make the strategy. I was already so cold and tired by this point - but I guess a lot of people had come more prepared than me. I also didn't have an affinity group. We had only a small group and a few more expecting to be called. I couldn't seriously claim to be delegated by 30 people and I really didn't want to be the foreigner who comes and tries to tell you what to do. Like most people at the O19 festivities - I went home.
At 5am we were back and trying to find out what would happen. Only members of the delegates affinity groups were to be told. Which, if taken seriously meant that we would be excluded. Instead we found some people we knew a little and waited in the freezing carpark (where they'd slept on cardboard) arguing politics with them. When their delegate came back, getting on to 8am, we 'found out' that it had been decided that there was no point even trying to stop the conference because the security was too good. That was the decision from above that I had been dreading. Only 7 hours earlier a crowd of 10,000 had thundered applause for speakers who demanded we try to shut down the conference. Now we were being told by "representatives" that the elite couple of leaders had decided that there was no point even try! ing. I searched amongst the students and workers huddled in the car-park for other people who were angry. Others who wanted to deny the legitimacy of this authority and actually do something. It turns out that there were student groups who staged actions - but at the time I met no-one. Later I heard that at the time we were all dumping our badges and banners (the stupid advice given out) Dan, Byoung Ho and the other "leaders of the movement" - were delivering their message of protest close to the ASEM tower. They apparently had no trouble getting quite close. I can't verify that however - because I was busy being duped into heading to a protest site a fair way from the ASEM tower, far from where I might embarrass NGO's with funding requirements and trade unions with bargains and negotiations with Government and political aspirations of their own.
I don't mean to bag out on the KCTU. They are still far more radical than most unions in Australia. They are a militant umbrella union with around 1 million members! As I've said - I've heard a fair bit in Australia about the KCTU's activities. In my time in Korea, several of the KCTU's member unions have fought long and hard against restructurings, sometimes succeeding in slowing down or even preventing some of the IMF imposed restructurings. Excellent stuff. But then I think about the lack of women involved in the KCTU, it's hierarchy, the grand-standing, the ambitions and negotiations with government. I remember the sections of the film "Parallel" which I watched with its director before leaving Korea. I think about the problems she is facing in screening that film, I guess because it makes the all-male KCTU union look fucking bad. Not surprising that it turned out that way, considering the male union in the film utterly screwed over and denigrated the women unionists who served them meals everyday.
I think that there is a lot of potential for militancy and staunch opposition to government and corporations within the Korean trade union movement, far more than I've ever felt in Australia. But I think the KCTU is unlikely to be "radicalising" in the near future, that will rely on workers organising themselves, but perhaps that's my bias against hierarchical unions. I also think that union participation in politics is a pretty murky business. Certainly in Australia the "Australian Labor Party" (currently in Opposition) is nothing like a party that represents "Labor" - instead it is another right wing business party that occasionally makes sure it's still got the blue-collar votes by making a rousing speech at a big union demonstration. I think that regardless of how "progressive" or radical the KCTU is on labor issues - they don't have a great track record in other areas.
I've been shocked by how stigmatised many women involved in exposing sexual harassment within organizations, including the KCTU, have been. One of my friends described a visit she made to Dan, Byung-Ho's office. The traditional lay-out of increasingly bigger officers, with bigger desks, starting with the lowly office women and culminating with a big Korean Boss office complete with brown leather chairs. I've shuddered under my authoritarian boss' thumb in one of those chairs, and now when I see Dan, B ung-Ho at a demonstration - shouting inspiring slogans, the solidarity is gone because I look at him as a big boss man in an intensely hierarchical and patriarchal world. But it's not only the trade union movement that has horrified me with its hierarchy.
I heard a story that at Student Unions at universities in Korea it is quite common for the new President or vice-president to spend a night skulling bowls of whatever disgusting shit (ashtray fulls of butts, spit, old sock! ) the old President chooses. I mean WHAT THE FUCK!!! This all sounds like something from a private British boarding school where a person's position in the hierarchy determines who you have power to fuck over and who has power over you. I can't believe that there is still hierarchy like that in the Korean progressive movement.
I get the impression that it's not only an age or experience based hierarchy but also agendered one. But then I've met so many strong women in Korea - that sometimes I doubt ho much shit the boys can get away with. For along time I was surprised by the participation of women in groups I was meeting. Then one feminist friend explained to me that compulsory military service performs the function of weeding many men out of the progressive movement and transforming them into well-behaved Korean business men. This made me really sad, though the irony isn't lost on me that it produces wicked scenes of strong confident women who really will still be pr! ogressive in 30 years. And that turns out to be only part of it.
So many of my young male friends in Korea live in fear and horror that soon they will be conscripted. I'm still trying to understand why more people don't refuse to do National service, or at least leave the country. I know these are both bad options. I hear that if you refuse - you do more time in prison than you would have done in the military, then you are expected to do the service or else you will probably never find a job. Heavy shit. The other option - leaving - is one many European and Latin American friends have take but coming to Australia.
When I've talked to people about why there isn't a more organised campaign on this issue - people say that it's too sensitive within Korean society, or that you will never win this battle. One friend did try to escape to Japan. While he was there he met with Japanese anarchists and talked about organising against conscription in Korea. He came back to Ko! rea for this purpose and started trying to organise. At even the first stage of this - he and his fellow organisers are being investigated and harassed and threatened with up to 10 years jail. I'm shocked by this, because in Australia attempts to harrass and victimise activists is usually more subtle or hidden, but at least on this issue it seems fairly out in the open - I guess a remnant of Korea's old totalitarian laws. I hope that they or others can keep organising on this issue.
Lastly I want to say that I found people in the Korean Progressive movement
to be incredibly friendly and open to sharing their ideas and spaces and
actions with. I hope I'll be back soon or that more of you can come visit me
and check things out in Australia. Solidarity,
Fiona Taylor (amagi74@yahoo.com)
Address :
510-26, Shillim4-Dong, Kwanak-Ku,
Seoul,
Korea
Tel/Fax : ++ 82 2 866 8334 (please call first before you fax anything)
Mailing-list : petidomo@mail.jinbo.net(To join, send a message to this address, with the word 'subscribe inter-picis' as the only text in the message. To cancel subscription, 'unsubscribe inter-picis'.)
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