Hyundai union avoids strike for the first time...

For 15 straight years, the Hyundai Group Trade Union Council has gone on strike every year in protest of wage cuts, working conditions and numerous other issues. That streak ended this week as the Union agreed to wage freezes without going on strike. This has been actually fairly large news as I've seen numerous news groups reporting on the news event which should give you an idea on how militant the Hyundai Group Trade Union Council is historically.

This itself isn't that shocking if one has been paying attention to labor news. Earlier this year the Hyundai union voted in a more "moderate" union President who openly ran on the grounds he will be less political and hostile than previous leaders. Overall, there seems to be a major gutting of the militancy within Korea's auto-unions, traditionally a very militant workforce. Along with the stuff involving Hyundai, the gutting of the Ssangyong Union's militant union members also is going to have lasting impact on labor relations in the auto industry. How far this goes is still up in the air especially among the small domestic auto companies in Korea where militancy and class conflict is still common.

KORAIL union leader arrested...

In recent news that would only shock those who have not been paying attention to the news recently, the KORAIL union leader has been arrested for carrying out an illegal strike.

Expect news of the pending lawsuits to hit over the next few months and further arrests. Atleast there isn't any black cars randomly coming to peoples houses like in the good ol days.... yet.

Second English teacher union founded in Incheon

In an attempt to stop the numerous problems English teachers face in Korea, several teachers at a hagwon in Incheon have formed a union to deal with this issues. The idea of making a giant union for foreign English teachers has never been that popular in the ESL circle. Outside of the obvious high turnover problems, its pretty easy to see the government cracking down on such union due to the ambiguity of Korean law on what "political activity" actually means for foreign workers. ATEK in some ways is suppose to act like an alternative, but its history has been uneven in certain areas and seems to be more than a place where English teachers can meet up. For the most part, English teachers in Korea are pretty much left to their own devices even when it comes to clear violations of their contract. Even public jobs aren't guaranteed as the last minute canceling of numerous ESL teachers last August showed us. It is a cutthroat industry that can tarnish how someone views Korea permanently.

Multi-union law delayed, alliance over..

Last Friday, a last minute deal between the FKTU and Labor Ministry was reached that delayed implementation of the new labor laws until 2010. You can read about the deal here. Very few people are happy with what happened, from both business side and the KCTU. The KCTU has announced it will hold demonstrations against the new tripartite agreement. The Hankyoreh has a short interview with the KCTU chairman right here. Korea Times also has a decent article citing the breakup here. The KCTU was not aware of any negotiations and seems received the news the same way I did on Friday, by hearing it from the news.

Overall, this is a disaster and the worst realistic scenario imaginable. Not only is the labor movement completely blocked, it looks like this is going to be one of those issues that will tie up the movement for a while. This issue will be going on for around 15 years when this labor revision takes affect (assuming it passes the National Assembly). Out of all the issues within the Korean labor movement, this is not something we need to be spending 15 years on, especially when the government is still refusing to do its job on the irregular worker issue or when numerous major strikes are failing due to lack of support and state violence.

In other news, Korail is going to take major action against union members during the weeklong strike that took place about two weeks ago. The Labor Ministry also continued its war against public employee unions by refusing the application of the new integrated civil servant union, demanding more information on membership rules, how elections are run and demanded the chairman to send in a stool sample to show that his digestive system is not red. Some scotch sounds good right now

KORAIL strike called off...

After severely damaging the railway system and being constantly harassed by the state, the KORAIL union have decided to conditionally end the longest strike in the union's history. Time will tell why they decided to end the strike and if this is a good move; KORAIL was in the weaker position and many officials doubted KORAIL could last a long term strike.

In other news, the ILO has condemned the Korean government for its substandard labor laws involving irregular workers. They also continued the long tradition of condemning penal code 314 (which allows business to sue workers for obstruction of business), which has been on the ILO's list for one of the longest running complaints against any country (its been going on for ten years). For the full report by the body (as well as information on other countries) look here.

UPDATE:

Reuters has actually posted a nice and relatively long article on this news event. Unfortunately the news seems to be far more griming than what Korean news sources are reporting:

The union said it was suspending the strike temporarily to regroup, but management said it was effectively a surrender.

"We are calling on comrade members to briefly return to the workplace so we can prepare for a new strike," the union said in a statement. "We have not been able to achieve our demands."

Truckers join the railroad workers...

The current strike Korea Railway Worker's has gone on for over 5 days now, with no signs of it slowing down. While freight services have generally found ways to work around the strike, its been made clear that the union clearly has the advantage right now. On Monday (or Sunday over in the States), the KORAIL Workers got a major boost when the Korea Cargo Transport Workers' Union (KCTWU) announced they will refuse to ship freights during the strike. This news shouldn't be a major surprise to those familiar with the history of these two unions; the two unions have a long history of giving support to eachother during strikes.

In related news about 187 KORAIL union leaders will be summoned for interrogation or face arrest for creating an illegal strike. The union might also face a compensation law suit from KORAIL for the damages it has done so far (they've already lost 4.7 billion won within 5 days). This probably part of the on-going escalation being carried out by the state, as President Lee has announced that the government will not tolerate the strike.

Other links on the strike:

"Chaos looms as truckers join rail workers in strike" from the Korea Herald (also posted at Yonhap)
"Concerns grow as strike drags on" from the Korea Herald
"Strike paralyzes South Korea's rail services" from UPI Asia
"President orders stern action against striking public workers" from Yonhap

General strike looks inevitable...

Hope all my American readers had a nice holiday, meanwhile a couple major newsworthy events happened over the last few days. The biggest being collapse of last minute talks between the two major labor umbrella unions and the labor ministry.

However, Labor Minister Yim Tae-hee walked out of the conference room in Yeouido, Wednesday, saying, “There will be no more talks.” Lim is the point man for President Lee in labor affairs, vowing in public that Korea’s militant union movement is the most backward among advanced nations and poses a major threat to continued economic growth.

The KCTU said Thursday that they were not ready to back down.

“The government and businessmen give nothing but pain and toil to people. It’s time to hear the music,” it said in a press release. KCTU leader Lim Sung-kyu said that the organization was ready to go on strike.

The FKTU has already begin throwing its weigh around by occupying the GNP's headquarters Friday during a sit-in. To add more fuel to the fire, the Korean Railway Workers’ Union strike has also started bringing freight shipping in Korea to a stop. Expect more news after the weekend.

Government's bargaining plan for multi-union shops...

Last Friday, the labor ministry announced it's plan on how multi-union shops will handle collective bargaining. I should emphasize once again, that if I am reading correctly, that this is mandatory for all shops.

The Labor Ministry on Friday unveiled a plan in a meeting with labor unions and management at local enterprises to force labor unions within a single enterprise to have a negotiation channel with the management after the country begins allowing multiple labor unions next year.

...

The unification of the negotiation channel will come about in three steps. First, different labor unions within a company must agree upon a single negotiation channel seven to 20 days before they launch a negotiation. Second, if they fail to do so within the deadline, the union that has the largest membership will automatically be given the right to bargain. Third, should there be no union with a majority of members, the unions must form a collective negotiation delegation that will comprise members from different unions. In some cases, they could adopt a proportional representation system.

This is one of the most confusing and convoluted labor laws I have ever seen. First of all, how the heck do they expect trade unions to successfully negotiate on behalf for those in other skilled unions? Different areas of work have different issues and conditions to deal with that need to be brought up in these negotiations. Its not that big of a problem for industrial unions (in theory anyways) since hopefully the negotiators will be from different areas of the workforce to make sure their voice is on the table. I don't think even the best intentioned negotiator from a carpenter union can really represent the voice of someone from a truckers union.

Yes, I know technically these unions could come up with an arrangement to make sure this issue is worked out. Unfortunately this is a fairly big if as many unions have problems working together and its not unheard of for management to favor one over another in these dealings. I can see this easily happening if there is a union in a workplace whose membership greatly outweighs others.

The labor ministry has promoted a plan to prevent multiple labor unions from wielding excessive power in negotiations and to protect minority labor unions.

I don't know if this was the plan to protect them or the writer just got lazy here. Either way, this is going to be disastrous for small unions for the reasons I just stated.

Also, unionized workers will have to get the support of its entire union membership for any proposed industrial action, according to the ministry.

I have no clue what this means, but I am guessing they are going to try to push the legal threshold for collective actions to have an extremely high threshold to pass in union voting. I'll post more as soon as I find articles that explain this in detail more.

Ok, I lied...

And I am commenting on this two days later but forgive me. I did not get home until 5 am Tuesday.

I have been mentally chewing on the recent escalation issue for a while now, and have been talking to several people about this. Things have been escalating for a while now and has quickly gained international attention by both NGOs and even western media. As time goes by it is becoming less likely that this is just going to be another weak strike that took place in July but will be a revival of the labor uprising that took place during the 1997 financial crisis.

One of the little random tidbits I discovered during my studies is that there seems to be a giant upsurge of worker activity about every 10 years give or take since independence. The uprisings of 79, 87 and 96-97 being the most famous along with the frequently overlooked upsurges during the post-independence era and the April Revolution in 1960. I guess one can say Korea is due for another upsurge which should cause some hope for labor organizers in Korea.

The question that remains on the table is whether or not an upsurge would give labor in Korea its first major victory. All but the 96-97 movements ended with violent repression by the state. The strikes that started in 1997 ended with the Korean equivalent of Reuther's Treaty of Detroit (The unions would accept IMF's economic reforms in exchange for political recognition of the KCTU).

The Korean government has generally moved away from violent repression towards more legalistic and neoliberal policies to keep things under order. Any sort of informal peace treaties seem unlikely considering that President Lee does not have the connections and respect that Kim Dae-jung did with the labor movement. Because of this, I find myself a bit more optimistic than some of my colleagues that there will be some victory for organized labor in Korea this time around. South Korean society is not as capitalist as many people think it is and there still remains bitterness towards the IMF reforms. What the KCTU and FKTU need to do is (a.) paint the struggle in pure democratic and anti-neoliberal language instead of just economic and legal terms and (b.) let grassroots activism take shape and a be forefront of the struggle. If they don't, eh, we have to wait another ten years I guess.

TUAC comments on the current situation...

As things begin heating up over in Korea, with news about the Union for the environment ministry succeeding from the KCTU and the FKTU beginning to vote on a general strike. Too add further fire, the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD adopted a resolution that condemns the Korean government for their recent actions. Along with NPR's article covering the recent rallies (with beautiful photos too), the conflict has slowly quickly becoming an international event.

More on this tomorrow (currently out of town for a conference).

Large rallies held over last weekend...

This weekend proved to be a crazy time for Korean labor organizers as the KCTU and FKTU held a two day rally over the weekend. The Hankyoreh stated that over 50,000 people attended the rallies and the JoongAng Daily puts at it around 100,000 (with the FKTU providing 60,000).

In related news, the labor ministry has stated it will fine and blacklist any firms that go against the new labor laws when implemented in 2010. I guess government regulation on business is fine when it comes to attacking workers. It amazes me how hypocritical some of these policies are.

Memorial for In Soo Chun and ritual suicide

My three years of studying and working at the University of Washington has given me countless memories that I will probably never forget. One of these was during an event on October 30th of 2008 while I was working at my barista position on campus. Around the early afternoon while working at cashier, some guy walked up to us and stated that some guy had lit himself on fire in red square. Later on I would know the name of that In Soo Chun as many people would brush this action aside as a crazy mentally ill man. A year has since passed and numerous students and workers have decided to challenge that viewpoint and remember In Soo Chun.

Evaluating the meaning of In Soo Chun's actions is not exactly an easy thing to do. As the UW Daily pointed out, ritual suicide is a fairly common practice in Korean labor and was also a big part of the democracy movements during the 70s and 80s. The act of self immolation publicly also has a political history about it, rooting with Chun Tae-Il's self immolation back in 1970. Chun Tae-il quickly became a martyr for both the labor and democracy movements and many activists chose similar routes during their lifetimes.

The question remains is exactly HOW this act became so rampant throughout the movement. Unlike Japan, there isn't any sort of tradition ritual suicide in Korean history. To make things even more complicated many people who committed political suicide were also devoted Christians (Chun Tae-il was as devout as you can get) which condemns suicide as murder and a one-way ticket to hell. By Christian logic, Chun Tae-il paid the ultimate price with his soul for his sacrifice. Prof. Nam at the University of Washington told her class that there seems to be no known source for Chun's actions. None of his writings warn about this and he did not seem well aware of the Buddhists in Vietnam who performed self immolation to protest the Diem government.

Is the action just a symbolic "FU" as one commenter posted? Is it just an example of how the human mind and soul can only be pushed too far? Or is there something we are all missing? Its stuff like these that make mankind a creature of great mystery no matter how hard we try to "rationalize" things.

However, probably my biggest beef with the media and numerous commentators on the issue is the handeling of In Soo Chun's mental "instability." Now, there is definitely a good possibility that In Soo Chun infact did had mental and emotional issues; many people do and many of those people do not commit similar actions. However, I find this being used as kinda of an "excuse" or a way to paint In Soo Chun as a deranged lunatic disgusting and offensive. I know several custodians at UW who have medical conditions that effect their emotional and mental well being and have medical history to support this. UW for the most part has done nothing to follow through on doctor's recommendations creating major distress for these people.

UW is not the only organization that has this problem; this is a wide spread problem on many levels for anyone who has a medical disability. My mother (who is bipolar) always keeps her medical history silent as she knows that few places will keep a worker around that has recorded "mental problems." The disabled are easily among the most discriminated people in society world wide, and this is just another classic example of this. I have no clue about In Soo Chun's medical history, but if he did had some issues it should not be used as a put down nor as an excuse for his actions.

With that in mind, I shall end this with a post the best way I know how when dealing with death; a prayer straight from the Book of Common Prayer:

In the midst of life we are in death;
of whom may we seek for succor,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased?

Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Savior,
deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer;
but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty,
O holy and merciful Savior,
thou most worthy Judge eternal.
Suffer us not, at our last hour,
through any pains of death, to fall from thee.

News updates..

First, I must apologize for the lack of posts. I have been dealing with personal issues lately that kept me out of the loop for the short bit. Fortunately, there has been some notable events in the last week or so that are worth looking into:

-First the labor ministry has imposed a ban on certain ceremonies that civil servants can do during their official events. Usage of folk labor songs and chants are common at these events which apparently antagonizes the government and people.

-The Korea Railway Workers' Union has voted for a strike.

-Minu, a migrant worker activist from Nepal, has officially been deported from Korea. Minu was deported for his involvement in political activities which non-citizens are restricted from doing under Korean law (though they are fairly vague on what a political activity is). I haven't paid to much attention to migrant worker issues on this blog so far but I am going to try to keep a better eye on it from now on.

-The NHRCK is requesting an investigation on the possibility of police brutality during the Ssangyong occupation.

Now, moving away from labor related news...

-We are all aware of DPRK defectors.. but have you heard of defectors from ROK to the DPRK?

-In more positive news not only has the ROK government came out of the recession, but had the highest quarterly GDP growth since 2002.

-The ROK government will restart the sending aid to DPRK after a series of backdoor talks between President Lee and DPRK officials. Does this mean President Lee is a in-closet Communist?

-There was a few elections this week for some seats in the parliament and to the surprise of a few, the GNP did not do well.

-Probably the biggest news however is that the Constitutional Court has made a ruling on the media bill reforms. While they state that the GNP acted inappropriately and violated the voting rules, they will not overturn the passing of the bills. This ruling is fairly similar to what happened during the Roh impeachment issue where the court ruled that Roh was out of line, but did not throw him out office. As I mentioned in a previous post, this should have been expected.

Labor ministry refuses to recgonize KGEU

In an ongoing series of escalation, the Labor Ministry has announced it is refusing to acknowledge the newly formed KGEU. Furthermore, they are pushing threw a new amendment for the civil servant laws;

If the amendment is enacted, government employees and the government employee union would be prohibited from engaging in issuing public statements, endorsing petitions, participating in protests or assemblies, and advocating for the ideas of specific political parties. MOPAS explained, “Ever since government employees’ union issued public statements opposing government policy in daily newspapers and employees have been wearing vests with political slogans on them during working hours, employees have been in violation of the measure that requires the political neutrality of government employees.” MOPAS added that is adopt the new amendment in response to the union’s decision to join the umbrella of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

"Advocating for the ideas of specific political parties"? What the hell is wrong with the Labor Ministry? This is no longer a simple case of fighting over political neutrality, its becoming one of the most over the top legalistic attempts to crush unionization I have ever seen.

Even the relatively moderate Korea Times is stating that this is destructive so its not just the crazy left wing Hankyoreh. All I can say is... wow.

Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!

As many people probably know by now Unions in Korea are not very happy about the Labor Ministry's plans to force through the new labor laws involving paid union members and multiple unions in one shop. What has been surprising though is that the biggest bullhorn in recent days has been from the FKTU, a more conservative pro-government federation, and not the KCTU. It looks like now that the dog poop has hit the fan, and the FKTU is now threatening a general strike.

"We regard the issue of multiple unions and salary ban as a matter of life and death for 16 million workers and will devote all our energy to fighting against it (revisions)," the FKTU said in a statement issued in the name of 652 representatives.

The FKTU agrees to having more than one union at a single work place but opposes government demands that only one of them be recognized as the negotiating partner with the management. It also argues that the government's "no work, no pay" principle undermines the union's important role as the mediator between workers and the management.

The labor association, which claims over 700,000 members nationwide, said they were abandoning a tripartite panel's agreement reached in February on "sharing the burden" to help overcome the global economic crisis. The KFTU had pledged at the time to refrain from strikes and to freeze or cut back wages.

According to the JoongAng Daily, the FKTU is planning to team up with the KCTU to coordinate a general strike.

“If our demands regarding multiple unions in a single workplace and pay for full-time unionists are not fully satisfied, we have no option but to start a general strike,” Jang Seok-chun, head of the FKTU, told reporters in a press conference held at the Korea Electric Power Corporation in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul. “If we team up with the KCTU, we will stage a joint strike .?.?. Executive members of two labor unions will meet to discuss forming an alliance on Oct. 21.”

...

Lee Su-bong, KCTU spokesman, said there’s no major obstacle to forming an alliance and staging a strike with the FKTU because the “two sides share the same views on the disputed matters.”

Has President Lee's labor policies finally pushed the unions over the edge? Has the FKTU turned over a new leaf? Will this actually be a real strike and not just a weak 3 day event like the KCTU's last general strike? Will I ever get my workers visa allowing me to watch these events and take pretty photos for you all?

My answers: Yes. No. Possibly. And hopefully.

Hooray for legalist assaults on workers!!

After taking a break a couple weeks ago, the Korean government has decided to reopen its attack on workers and unions in Korea. The current target seems to be the civil servant unions. Monday Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced that they will fire atleast 14 workers and send another 105 to disciplinary committee for their actions in July. I think its not a stretch to say that this action was in pure retaliation for the unions decision to join the KCTU.

In further news, several administrators have announced they plan to toughen restrictions on civil servants ability to challenge government policies.

The ministries agreed to make a list of political activities considered anathema for civil servants. The current law says, “Public servants are banned from forming or becoming members of a specific political party, and from advocating or opposing a specific political party or political candidate.” Violators are subject to a one-year prison term or a fine of up to 3 million won ($2,577).

But the ministries want to add the following phrase: “Civil servants are prohibited from forming groups and planning, leading and hosting events that oppose or interrupt government policies.”

I can understand the need for preventing civil servants to be involved in party politics or endorsing candidates, but is this really necessary? If civil servants believe strongly that a government policy is wrong shouldn't they have the right to oppose it publicly? I can understand that some groups of civil servants (such as those in diplomacy) need to be in unison with government policies due to the nature of their job, do just random bureaucrats in non-security areas need to be that strict? Furthermore, this just damages the bureaucracy even more if many employees are not happy with what is going on and just quit. The US has suffered badly because many of its Middle East experts quit in protest of the Iraq war.

The government said it will then try to ban civil servants’ labor unions from joining either of the nation’s two umbrella unions - the aforementioned KCTU or the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.

So not only are they being authoritarian douchebags, they are being stupid as well. Apparently they haven't learned from Park Chung-hee who never went this far with their labor policies. Wanna know why? Because its much easier to just co-opt major union federations and make them part of the government. This is how the FKTU formed.

Oh, and an organizer for the Ssangyong occupation will face a jailterm for causing a violent strike. Not really shocking news there.

The labor ministry begins fight with... the FKTU!?

With much labor news being dominated by the KCTU and affiliated groups, one might be shocked that the conservative FKTU is butting heads with the government in recent days. The issue is over a fairly old bill that I covered a few posts ago.

While the FKTU wants all multiple unions to have negotiation power, the government has said only a single representative body should be in charge of negotiations. The FKTU also wants the wages of full-time union officials to be decided independently between a labor union and a company, while the government said a labor union must be responsible for the wages of its own officials.

If the government and the labor community fail to compromise, the current laws governing the two issues will automatically take effect. In that case, all labor unions will have negotiation power, while companies will be banned from paying union officials.

Jang made clear that he will pull out all FKTU officials from the Economic and Social Development Commission, formerly known as the Korea Tripartite Commission.

This is not the first time the FKTU has pulled out of government committees; they did it in 2005 in opposition to President Roh's neoliberal policies. So far, the conservative opinion writers have been silent on this issue. I'll post more if I see anything else come up.

Reading and thinking..

Sorry for the slow updates. Things have been fairly slow recently due to the recent holiday weekend in Korea nor has there really been anything peaking my interest so far over here news wise; so instead I have spent my time recently reading some new books I've picked up recently. One of books I've picked up is something some people would probably be surprised I never read; the Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley.

My initial reaction so far has been filled with love for the book. I started reading it last night and kept reading until my body was physically incapable of reading anymore. More importantly, in the first half of the book it made me realize how pointless the "Malcolm X vs MLK Jr" debates I occasionally see among the internet. Most people don't realize was that both figures were making critiques and responses to racism in their own areas. Dr. King was in an area where segregation was a legal reality, and getting legal recognition was necessary. Arguments of "integration" were important to him because they did not exist in any form. In contrast, Malcolm X was in an area where integration was already accepted to some degree and most whites were claiming to be against segregation. Malcolm X himself went to mostly white schools. The problem for the northern parts of the USA was that racism was more systemic and not in the open. Because of this, Malcolm focused more on the system itself and calls for integration wouldn't have been as effective there as it was in the south.

I'm not even halfway through the book (I stopped when Reginald begin introducing NOI to Malcolm) and I've already found myself reviewing my values and how I thought the world worked. Might be the best $7 I spent in a long time.

All around the news today..

-First up, the DPRK has officially announced Kim Jong-il as the "supreme leader" of the DPRK due to his position National Defense Commission. Kim Il Sung is currently the DPRK's eternal president just for random trivia.

-The Korea Times also has this laughably bad editorial by a guy named David Thiessen who proves that racism doesn't exist. His proof? The Bible states that we are all descendants of Adam so there is no race thus racism doesn't exist. The Korea Times generally has pretty decent and balanced editorials, what the hell happened here?

-The Hankyoreh has a short interview with Korean Democracy Government Employees’ Union (KDGEU) head about the merger with the KCTU. Unfortunately the article is really short and for some reason the article isn't sure if he is the leader if the KGEU or KDGEU.

-The Republic of Korea has a new Prime Minister now, Chung Un-chan who I talked about before. His election came with walkout of most of the opposition parties, including the conservative Liberty First Party. Chung is under fire for his switch of positions and ethics problems in his past. Some unity eh?

-A three day reunion between families separated by the South/North divide just ended.

Three Civil Service Unions join the KCTU...

Korean news has been in rage the last couple days over the decision of three major Civil Service unions to merge and join the KCTU. The government has been quick to react by warning that they will punish the unions for any illegal activities. Under Korean law, public employees are prevented from taking in collective action but they are allowed to join outside organizations creating these type of controversies.

Media reaction, to the shock of few, has been divided. The Korea Times has posted an excellent article on the subject noting the blatant hypocrisy when one considers that many government officials had no problems when unions joined the FKTU. They also point out that Korea's labor standards are abysmal not only by developed world standards, but by the standards set in the ILO that Korea is a member of.

From the conservative side, the Joongang Daily has a nasty response to the news, with this being my favorite part.

That the three unions pushed ahead to become the latest to join the KCTU can only mean that they sold the sacred spirit of public service for collective selfishness. We can see, through their thinly veiled cover, that the civil servants’ unions wanted to rely on the militant KCTU to realize their goals in issues like wage hikes and their opposition to pension reforms and to restructuring. The image of the public workers going on political strikes under the pro-North Korea, anti-America KCTU is enough to make us shudder. And it is precious tax money that people have shelled out to support public service that would instead be used for such strikes. That would be pathetic.

I don't know what is more hilarious; the fantasy idea that civil service has a "sacred spirit" that is above all pettiness or the fact that being anti-American is important to note on this issue. Aren't civil workers loyal to the government they working for above all else? Why would being anti-American a thing to note in this case?

For comparisons sake, laws on public workers doing collective action in the United States varies tremendously from state to state and type of employment (Railroad and Airline workers are different), but in theory public workers generally have the same rights under federal law (State law is different) as private workers. In practice, this of course means that most Unions negotiate the right to strike in their contracts and can only strike in very specific cases just like other workers. This is only at the federal level though and some states do ban collective action among public workers.

Government interference on union voting and multi-union bills brought up..

Public Services International, a global union federation of public workers, has sent out a press release complaining about the Korean government's interference with a few unions voting to join the KCTU.

The minister of Public Administration and Security has already sent down a “Directive on performance of duty regarding ballot on merger of 3 government employees unions” to government bodies including local governments. Through this directive, the Ministry has ordered government bodies to ban all kinds of union activities relating to the ballot, including voting during working hours and publicising the ballot. In addition, PSI has been informed of concerns about police raiding the voting areas.

This makes you wonder on how involved the government has been with the recent mass of secessions from the KCTU, doesn't it?

In other news, recent debate has flared up over some thirteen year old labor bills that have not been implemented yet. These bills will allow multiple unions join one workforce and prevent full-time union workers from getting payrolls from the company.

I am generally not a fan of full-time paid union officials at workplaces. From my experience, these officials generally do not advocate worker's positions very well and are the first to give in to management. I always thought the best union representatives are those who actually work at the place they are organizing at and are knowledgeable about the conditions their fellow workers are dealing with. I have less experience with this than other labor issues, so if anyone disagrees please feel free to comment on it.

I also have a strong distaste for multi-union setups at single workplaces. Most unions that operate on this organizing tactic are often some of the most corrupt, racist and sexist unions around. Many of the negative stereotypes associated with unions generally stem from these type of unions (not saying industrial unions have the same problem, but they are more common in craft union setup in my experience). It is also a nightmare to organize these type of workplaces as unions get into "turf" wars and not everyone operates on the same program. Workers are disconnected with other workers and its easier to play "divide and conquer" when trying to mobilize. The last thing Korean labor needs is more fractures in an already heavily sectarian movement

Reexaming the "Left/Right" paradigm in Korean history..

Recently, I have been reading Kim Ku's autobiography Paekpom Ilchi translated by Jongsoo Lee. In the introduction, Lee talks about how American historiography on Kim Ku has generally treated him as a member of the "far right" which misrepresents the political ideology of Kim Ku. This along with conversations with few of my friends have driven me to reexamine how the "left/right" diagram is generally treated in Korean history and the limitations of it.

When talking about the Korean independence movement and the years immediately following Korean independence, many American historians have separated the two groups into two camps, the left and right. The left normally refers to both Communists and left leaning nationalists such as Yo Un-hyung and Kim Won-bong. The left is generally categorized not only for its progressive political stances (mostly land reform, labor laws, ect) but as well for its tactics and strategy against Japanese colonialism. In contrast to the right, the left has generally been regarded as promoting more militant methods to fighting Japan and relying more on mass movements from the masses for support.

The right in contrast has been used to describe a section of the Korean independence movement that was not only more conservative in its political ideology, but completely different in its strategy on tactics. Believing that reform and raising national consciousness was the best way to achieve independence, they were more willing to compromise with Japanese leaders, a tactic that would hurt their reputation during the war years. The right also relied more heavily on support from outside groups and the elite of Korea, were venomously anti-communist and were more willing to let Japanese collaborators into the political structure. This is best laid out in the first volume of the Origins of the Korean War by Bruce Cummings.

While I don't have much problems with the definitions used for the left (even if they are a bit more broad than I preferred), the definition used to describe the right runs into problems immediately when you bring up people like Kim Ku. Though being associated with the "far right," Kim Ku does not match any of the qualifiers mentioned. When it came to fighting the Japanese he was arguably one of the most militant figures in the Independence Movement, as the KPG would attempt several assassinations under his watch. He had no tolerance for Japanese collaborators which was the major cause for is disgust with the US military government after independence Finally, Kim Ku's popularity was fairly massive which he used to his advantage whenever he can. His failed coup against the US military was not lead by a small group of leaders but consisted of a mass uprising including protests and call for general strikes. Kim Ku's stances on Communism is a bit more murky, as he seemed to shift from being able to work with communists at some points to being against. Though there is no debate that Kim Ku disliked Communism as an ideology, he was willing to work with Communists if he felt that they were sincerely nationalist in their goals. His attack on the Communists during the period from 46-48 seems to be more fueled by the fact that the Communists in the south "betrayed Korea" with their position on the trusteeship. With these facts, its hard to consider Kim Ku a member of the "far right" with this definition.

Kim Ku is not the only figure of the "right" who fails to match up with this definition. Cho Man-sik, though clearly more conservative than Kim Gu, was willing to work with the left (being a fairly large figure in the Korean People's Republic) and had strong grassroots support in Pyongyang. It also cannot be forgotten that Syngman Rhee, the largest figure of the Korean right, had mass support in Korea when he arrived by both the right AND the left due to his nationalist credentials.

Things get even blurrier when examining some of the policies of the "right" during this period. As Hwasook Nam's noted in her book Building Ships, Building a Nation, many people in the right supported progressive labor laws. Even after the "left" had been eradicated, it did not stop the calls for incredibly progressive labor laws, including a labor bill of rights that had a vague clause on the right of workers to have share of the wealth(!). Many members of the right supported land reform, though they had disagreements with the left on how far it should be taken. Many figures of the right opposed the trusteeship which later became the basis for their hatred for the Communist traitors. It seems almost that we have used a definition that only accurately describes a small portion of the right and used it to cover a wide spectrum of beliefs.

For the most part, I have generally separated the Left into two categories; the Communists and the people who I mentally call the Progressive Nationalists. I'm still trying to decipher if there is anyway to separate the "right" into several groups. The term "liberal" is not a bad term to describe figures such as Kim Ku and "moderates" like Kim Kyu-sik but we still run into problems when dealing with the "far right" who had some liberal ideas and tactics. I need to do more research on this matter but unfortunately the amount of work in English on this type of issues is relatively small and outdated. I better start cracking on my Korean I guess...

Ssangyong Union leaves KCTU..

In news that few should be shocked about, the Ssangyong Union has severed its ties from the KCTU. 73% of the 700 voters voted in favor of leaving the KCTU. The one question is which sides reasoning was used as a justification for leaving? Was it conservative unionists, who have criticized the KCTU for not being too militant and not willing to compromise with management? Or was it lead by progressives who have noted that the KCTU has failed to back up its militant talk with powerful action? According to the Hankyoreh, it looks like the conservatives dominated the policy (WARNING: Editorial) behind the action. Considering that many of the leaders in the occupation have been kept out of the factory, this news isn't exactly shocking.

EDIT: The Korea Times also has a good editorial that summarizes the problems the KCTU is facing. Unlike other articles from other Korean news sources that blames everything on the KCTU being politically involved and not compromising, the article also mentions how progressives are viewing the KCTU.

Controversy over woman's law and pro-poor policies..

Korea's gender laws are not exactly known for being the most progressive in the world, and are pretty terrible for a country as developed as Korea. One controversial law is currently being reviewed by the Ministry of Gender Equality who has submitted to the Constitutional Court is against the spirit of the basic law (whatever that means).

The law as stipulated in the country's criminal code states, "Men may be punished by a maximum prison term of two years or a maximum fine of 5 million won for luring chaste women to have sex with them through false promises of marriage or other deceptions."

The part the ministry specifically objects to refers to is "chaste women," saying that it carries implications of sexual discrimination.

The ministry also added that the concept of the law runs the risk of perpetuating the stereotype that women don't possess the ability to make decisions using their own free will.

"In the United States and Germany, for example, there is a clear tendency to bring the sense of equality and revise anti-rape laws by no longer defining women as sole victims. Women are replaced by persons in these countries' laws," a ministry spokesman said.

"Chastity is expected not just from women but also from men," he said, explaining that the law as it is, sees women as the only gender that should abide by chastity.

The ministry's opinion comes at a time when the Constitutional Court is scheduled to hold an open hearing on a petition filed by a man who has been accused of having sex with a female colleague on four occasions after he promised to introduce her to his parents, a usual part of marriage protocols.

In its July 2002 ruling, the court supported the constitutionality of the law in a 7-to-2 majority decision. At that time, the majority opinion was based on the court's view that the law helped preserve the spirit of chastity in society.

Good point, but how about the concept that women should be chaste for this law to work being a major issue? Or how about the fact that the law makes it look like chaste women are just a bunch of children who will be lured into indecency with a few tricks? If I want to get some action in Suwon, do I just have to promise some random virgin marriage?

In other news, the new chair of the Grand National Party (GNP) has publicly stated that the GNP will focus on protecting the working class and poor sections of society.

``There has been a rising demand for policy responses to improve the livelihood of working class families and underprivileged people and this requires the ruling party to respond,'' he said.

Here is one way that will help the underprivileged in Korean society; stop screwing around with irregular workers who generally represent the most marginalized and poorest sections of Korea. Stop allowing corporations to push back the date when they have to transition their irregular workers to regular, and stop cutting back benefits for companies that do this. That should help. But then again, I am just some crazy American so what do I know?

A liberal Prime Minister?

President Lee has announced a new candidate for the Prime Minister spot; Chung Un-chan a liberal economist and critic of Lee's economic policies.

The JoongAng Daily has some interesting quotes and tidbits on the subject:

Shortly after the announcement, Chung held a press conference at Seoul National University. “Because of where Korea stands today at home and abroad I cannot just sit behind a desk,” Chung said. “None of the challenges we are facing today will be easy to solve, such as the uncertain macroeconomy, the problems facing people’s livelihoods, the enormous burden on private education spending, the job crisis, social conflict, regionalism and inter-Korean relations.

“I know I have many shortcomings, but I will bring together wisdom and the nation’s experiences to create a stepping stone for social unity and assist the president based on my expertise and efforts to help resolve these issues,” Chung said.

Great, more "social unity" language. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing wrong with a "united" society in theory but calls for "unity" in Korea have generally translated into repression of opposition in the past.

The Princeton-educated economist said he had criticized Lee’s policies in the past, but he had learned through a recent meeting that his economic philosophies were similar to the president’s. “We both think competition should be encouraged in principle, but those who have fallen behind must be warmly cared for,” Chung said.

Some "progressive" economist. So it looks like we have a centrist social liberal economist who cares about the poor. Nothing really shocking there.

Does this show a policy shift for President Lee in general? Time will tell; personally I doubt it will change that much. However, it does show a move towards a different more "subtle" political strategy when it comes to the public. President Lee is probably borrowing notes from the late Kim Dae-jung who also had former opposition act as his Prime Minister (Kim Jong-pil).

Woori Bank cuts wages..

With government pressure mounting, the Woori Bank has announced it will cut wages for its workers by 5% and new workers by 20%. The Korea Financial Industry Union (KFIU), which is based on the craft union model affiliated with the FKTU, apparently is one of the more "flexible" unions according to this article;

The Korea Federation of Banks, part of the industry-wide negotiations in the financial sector, unilaterally terminated talks with the KFIU on Aug 20 and gave its member banks authority to negotiate. Since its founding in 2000, the KFIU has been praised as the model of flexible Korean-style industry-wide negotiations, and had secured a 40-hour work week. This is the first year KFIU has been unsuccessful in negotiating an industry-wide wage deal.

Now why are labor-management cooperation models the best models for unions to work around again? The KFIU is a bit more willing to strike than most its fellow craft unions but its clear that the current situation in the ROK is not an attack on "violent labor" but all forms of labor organizing. And the KFIU is not the only union in the public sector under attack.

A labor expert says the industry-wide negotiating system has been completely shaken by the Management Association of the Health Industry which had broken off from their position as negotiating partner with Korea Health and Medical Workers’ Union. He is concerned that considerable tensions will be appearing in labor-management relations in response to continuous attempts to weaken the industry-wide negotiating system.

Updates..

As you might have noticed, my posting has slowed down this last week. Its because I've gotten slightly busy this week due to moving out of my Seattle home, an upcoming retreat, working on MUN related issues and planning my transfer to Korea. Expect this to be slow for another week with occasional random news notes. Once things settle down, I'll hit the throttle again. I already have a plan of what I will be posting over the next couple weeks. So far this is on my agenda:

-More on Kim Dae-jung and his involvement in labor
-Book reviews (A new labor book and some classics on independence movements in Korea)
-Updates on my future plans in Korea (once I get things settled there)
-A critique of the DPRK, not on liberal or human rights grounds, but on the grounds of a pro-labor progressive. It will be an attempt to point out that leftists do not have to defend the DPRK nor is it truly a "worker's" paradise as people make it sound

Have fun everyone!

SMOE cuts jobs for english teachers..

Many hopefully ESL teachers going to Korea have been hit with the horrible news that they no longer have a job. Korean public schools are generally the most attractive for foreign teachers due to the stability they bring and the long vacation times. SMOE was one of the biggest groups involved in this; this is pretty sad.

Now I am glad I am taking the job in Suwon; I might have dodged a bullet.

ECLA allows gay clergy men...

In a historic moment the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA) has voted to allow gay clergy into the church. The issue of homosexuality has been a major divide in the mainline protestant churches for a while now; the Anglican church split due this very same issue. Expect other mainline groups (Most notably the United Methodists) to follow the same path. This is easily the most decisive thing that has hit American churches since the issue of slavery which caused many churches to split into separate groups. Expect the same here. As much as I hate to see such horrific divisions, I think its almost a necessary evil at this point in protecting gays and promoting progressive theology into the mainstream.

One annoyance about evaluating KDJ's legacy..

The issue over many articles and posts I have read involves the hopes and failures of the Sunshine Policy that Kim Dae-Jung developed during his Presidency. It is often portrayed that this policy was a radical and new idea in ROK politics and that Kim Dae-jung deserves blame for keeping the DPRK in existence.

First, I should say that saying any specific person is the cause for keeping the DPRK alive is ignorant. There are many factors that keep the DPRK from collapsing, singling any person or entity out is just foolish. This idea seems to stem from the basic idea that was thrown around in the early 90s that the DPRK was on the verge of collapse and Kim Jong-il will not last a few years. Clearly this is has been proven to be false and we got to stop acting like that it is an undeniable fact that the DPRK is barely surviving on a shoe string. The reality is that we don't know.

Secondly, Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy was not that radical; in many ways it was the natural evolution of ROK policy that stems back nearly 30 years. The first ROK President to try to make peaceful reconciliation with the DPRK was Park Chung-hee during the 1970s. Park Chung-hee met numerous leaders in the DPRK, and the two sides came up with a Join Statement in 1972 that called for peaceful reunification of the country and setup committees to prepare for it. The plan was eventually scratched because of an assassination attempt on President Park by a DPRK agent.

In the late 80s, President Roh Tae-woo begin a policy of cooling relations between the two sides with some success. During this period the two sides signed the the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, Exchanges, and Cooperation and the Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. President Roh also publicly discussed allowing family reunification, intertrade and other peaceful exchanges on both sides. This was derailed by the first nuclear crisis that happened at the end of his Presidency. After the Agreed Framework was signed, Kim Young-sam begin loosening business restrictions on firms within the ROK with dealing business in the north. These eventually paved the way for the Sunshine Policy to exist, and many aspects of it was clearly influenced by the agreements achieved by both President Park and President Roh.

Even the conservative leaders of Korea do not want a military conflict, and prefer a peaceful resolution than war. That is the nature of international relations.

Korea loses one of its finest...

To the surprise of few who have paid attention to the news, Kim Dae-jung has finally passed away after a month in the hospital battling pneumonia. It took nature and age to take away the life of a man who has several assassination attempts put on his head, was sentenced to be executed and nearly killed by Communists during his lifetime. You can find numerous news articles everywhere, and Gusts of Popular Feeling have a series of nice photos over the span of his life. Kim Dae-jung joins former President Roh Moo-Hyun and fellow 80s democratic fighter Cory Aquino of the Philippines who all earned their wings this year.

In the west, he is best remembered for the Sunshine Policy and the controversy surrounding that (including sending money directly into Kim Jong-il's pocket). I will forever remember him not as a President, but as one of the leader of the democracy movement in Korea. As one of the few Asian leaders who took a swipe at the "Asian Value" concept that authoritarian leaders were arguing. As the leader whose goals had reached so many people, the the ILWU refused to handle Korean shipping until Kim Dae-jung's life was spared.

I will post more when I get my thoughts cleared on this matter. I am currently incredibly sad at this moment.

Bigot Watch: "Ragin' Asians!" by Erika Hobart

As some of you probably heard, recently the Seattle Weekly posted a trashy stereotypical article on the Asian nightlife scene called "Seattle's Ragin' Asians" by Erika Hobart (who is Asian American just FYI). In about four pages, Erika does nothing but portray Asians in a "exotic" light for things that are relatively common while slipping in numerous stereotypes while at it. The Asian American community is pissed, but quiet a few people are baffled why. And in this lovely post, I will explain why this article is offensive and why this should not be acceptable.

Pham is Vietnamese. He's invited several friends to his Tukwila townhome that Friday to pre-funk before going out to one of their favorite Seattle clubs: Venom. All the 20-somethings pre-funking at his house are also Asian—most of them Vietnamese or Cambodian.

Now there is nothing wrong with this part but I would like to note that the group Erika is portraying are southeast Asians. Outside of the whole "What about the other guys?!" issue, I also find this just reinforces some nasty stereotypes on this group. Unlike east Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) which generally have the stereotype of being lame mathematicians, southeastern Asians have more of the stereotype for being wild and lose. Blame this on the sex tourism within southeast Asia and the dominance of this group in pornos.

The gaggle of girls at his house could easily pass for sisters—sorority sisters, anyway. They're wearing strikingly similar dresses from Forever 21. Two of them—identical twins—look like they're in middle school, but are actually 20. They plan to get into Venom by waiting outside the club for a friend who's already gained entry to return with the IDs of those inside. (It can get so crowded at the rope that the bouncer won't notice an ID is being used twice.)

Nightlife photographer Luis Ongpin of streetpaparazzi.com, a local Web site devoted to photos of club-goers, often witnesses the operation go down while shooting at clubs like Venom and the War Room. "One Asian girl brings 10 with her. And to people that don't know them, they look similar enough to pull it off," he says.

First of all, what the hell is Erika thinking when writing this? Does she want these people to get in trouble? This is just irresponsible. If you read the comments in the article, Luis Ongpin actually comments and is not very happy. Second, what is with this whole "they all look young!" and "all look alike!" crap?

. The 22-year-old, whose cousin is married to the ukulele-strumming Nguyen, dons high heels and a skimpy purple get-up that stretches down to her mid-thighs, which she admits is actually just a long shirt. Mom just graduated from Seattle University, and is putting her job search on hold so she can enjoy one last responsibility-free summer.

Why is Erika sexualizing all the girls here? Is this to attract the white male audience or something?

"I have some white friends who won't even go [to Venom]," Mom says, laughing. "It's too Asian for them. For us, it's like family. Everybody knows each other there."

What the hell is "too Asian"? Do people run around eating kimchi by the gallons? Are there giant mecha robots as decoration? Are there posters dedicated to Ho Chi Minh? No seriously, I don't get it.

"Asians are like neon tetra fish—they travel in schools," Truong says. "You always see masses of them together. Once you get the group leader to come, you get the entire group. Then you get the friends of people in that group, and so forth."

... What the fuck?! Yes, I know Asians do generally travel in groups but then again so does everybody else. There is nothing unique or Asian here. Not to mention it just reinforces the whole "Asians have a group mentality!" stereotype.

"A lot of Asian-Americans that you see out there don't go to a four-year university or have a scene they really fit into," Ho explains. "They aren't going to frat parties or dive bars or sports bars. But many of them have been born and raised here, so they're incredibly in tune to the city. The club is a good comfort zone for them to go out with other Asian-Americans."

Really? I guess the explains the numerous Asian fraternities and sororities around UW. Or why I see several in places like Earl's on numerous occasions. Not to mention, clubs are not the only "Asian" night places they like to go too. I know several nightplaces around the Ave where the Asian population generally goes too that are not clubs. Why don't we talk about BBQ Chicken instead?

The girls begin sucking on Blow-Pops the bartender gave them, and then get up and start dancing with the sticks hanging out of their mouths. It's like a weird fetish-porn video.

If someone showed me this article without giving me any information on the author, I'd swear it be some white guy with an Asian fetish. Seriously, why is everything these Asian girls do being so hypersexualized?

Sab, like a majority of the clientele, hits up Venom on weekends because she's seeking the company of other Asians—not the people who fetishize them. Pham's circle arrives at and leaves the club together. It's like the Asian version of No Child Left Behind.

First of all, what the hell does Erika mean by NCLB? Is this another point about Asians looking young or something? Or is she thinking about "No Man Left Behind"? Second of all, has Erika actually been clubbing before? This is not an "Asian" thing. Its a universal rule among club goers. Everyone stick together, dance in a circle and leave together. Its a basic safety rule to make sure your drunk female cadre is not getting raped in the bathroom.

The patrons, most of whom are Filipino or Vietnamese, crowd the understaffed bar or thrash about on the dance floor.

Erika, "thrash dancing" is a type of moshing done at hardcore concerts. I doubt these people are listening to hardcore metal. Please be careful with your use of wording from now on.

And dear god, why is this article so long? Why did we have to go through that one page of how they drink and whine about people wearing similar clothes? Why didn't the editor make sure this article had a point?

many of them possessing that telling red-faced glow as they kneel over family-sized portions of greasy Chinese fare to soak up the booze in their bodies.

Oh god, now she brings up the "greasy Chinese food" stereotype. Chinese food is not anymore greasy then any other food; that Panda Express crap is not Chinese food. I seriously feel bad for these places mentioned in the article, especially the Purple Dot. I've been to the Purple Dot and none of the food is "greasy" and is actually fairly high quality. They serve Peking Duck for god sakes.


Of course, I could have saved all you and me the trouble of this by simply linking to this article from the Stranger that pretty much sums up the major issue we have with this article. And I do not care about what race Erika is, I don't believe in privilege politics and it does not change this article is garbage.

My analysis of the Ssangyong occupation..

For 77 days, nearly a thousand workers occupied the Ssangyong factory in Pyeongtaek in a losing battle against layoffs. During this time, the workers would be attacked by the management, other workers, the media and the government itself with violence. Despite this, they managed to hold until almost the very end when it became clear that they were going to lose their fight. Many people are quick to blame the union leaders at the strike for calling the armistice, which I find completely unfair considering that the situation looked like it was going to be bloody.

The workers had an uphill battle to fight from the very get go. Ssangyong Motors is one of the smallest auto manufacturers in Korea, and Ssangyong is a relatively smaller chaebol. Furthermore, the company was already deep in financial problems before the occupation took place. Its a miracle that the company has not completely liquidated yet. This makes it easier for management and media to pain the striking workers in a negative light and makes the possible awards more minimal. If this was Hyundai or even Kia, things might have been slightly different.

Finally, this occupation shows how badly the KCTU is doing right now. The KCTU did absolutely nothing for the workers, and did not even promote their cause until very late in the game. There also seemed very little attempts to coordinate the occupation with the other strikes that were going on at the time. The KCTU seems to be interested in being involved in parliamentarian tactics and trying to deal with its own inner turmoil. The KCTU was suppose to be the more militant and independent alternative from the FKTU, but it looks like it is becoming irrelevant. Whether or not we should be surprised that a trade federation that existed thanks due to its own armistice with the government would have these problems is worth another post on its own.

64 workers from Ssangyong arrested...

In the largest number of detainees since Posco union sit-in 2006, Korean police have arrested and detained 64 workers involved in the Ssangyong occupation with permission from the courts. Oh, and they are also apparently a bunch of Communist pigs;

Judges Jeong U-yeong and Jeong Ha-jeong of the Pyeongtaek branch of Suwon District Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday morning for 38 of the 42 workers for whom warrants were requested for violating the Law on Punishment of Violent Acts, obstructing the performance of official duties, and obstructing operations. The two judges cited sufficient grounds for criminal charges and flight risk as reasons for issuing the warrants for the workers, including one for Han Sang-kyun, the head of the Ssangyong Motors chapter of the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU). Han and the other workers are also being investigated for acts of violence against police officers and the company’s security personnel during the occupation of the factory from May 21 to August 6, and for using illegal weapons such as Molotov cocktails and air rifles.

...

As of Sunday, prosecutors have also announced that “outside forces with a strongly pro-communist character” were involved in the Ssangyong Motors strike, including individuals with a prior history of violating the National Security Law. “We confiscated ideological documents and illegal weaponry, and uncovered an attempt to establish a military committee,” prosecutors reported. However, the security investigation division of the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, which actually conducted the investigation of the case, was unable to apply charges of violating the National Security Law against any of the individuals. This suggests that baseless charges of communist sympathies have been pinned on workers who waged a strike against large-scale layoffs.

When in doubt, just blame the whole incident on outside Communist influence. Noone has ever been hurt by that, right?

In other news, the Defense Security Command might have resumed spying on civilians for non-military activities. Now I remember why I called President Lee an authoritarian leader who is cutting back on the democratic process in Korea. And I was called a crazy left winger for that.

YH Incident anniversary....

If you have not yet read Matt's blog called Gusts of Popular Feeling yet you should be ashamed of yourself and go there right now. Today is the thirty year anniversary of the Y.H. Incident which I would not have been aware of if Matt had not posted about it today. He also posted a nice article on women's labor and the democratization movement that I will read later today. You should all do the same.

Say a prayer for Kim Dae-jung...

Former President Kim Dae-jung is not doing to well. He has been in the hospital for a while now, and is still going through a crisis now and then. What really makes me worry is the news that Kim Young-sam, who has been public for his dislike of his fellow democratic opposition leader, decided to pay Kim Dae-jung a visit in the hospital to reconcile after their relationship fell apart nearly twenty years ago. The JoongAng Daily has more on the situation:

Kim Young-sam also said he wished Kim Dae-jung’s family the best of luck and added, “I said there are always miracles in life.”

...

A source with knowledge of Kim’s condition said the former president “may not last very long.”

“The X-rays of his lungs showed that his condition has worsened,” the source said. “He did improve slightly from early Sunday morning [when his blood pressure plunged], but he is still relying heavily on the respirator and medication to maintain his blood pressure level.”

First Roh and now maybe Kim Dae-jung in one year. Meanwhile Chun Du-hwan, the biggest monster south of the DMZ line, still remains alive and active. Life is cruel like that I guess.

Ssangyong strike ends with a armistice...

After a two month long occupation that was filled with numerous attacks by police, including a 4 day counteroffensive this week, fighting between scabs and the striking workers, tear gas bombing from helicopters, and numerous failed attempts at making a deal, the two sides finally reached an agreement this week. According to the KCTU website the following agreement was made:

ü Union members who are affected by the layoffs, are allowed to make a choice of unpaid leave, transfers to sales positions, transfers to spin-offs, or voluntary resignation. 48 % of restructured people are being given unpaid leave or are being transferred to sales positions, and 52 % are voluntarily resigning or shifting to spin-offs. (However, what is the '100%' out of which the ratio is applied is subject to additional negotiations for details.)

ü After one year, depending on production levels, workers on unpaid leave are allowed to engage in job rotation and 2-day work shift system will be implemented. Workers who are transferred into sales positions will be provided with wages of 500,000 Won (ed note: that is about $400) per month for one year.

ü Workers who take an unpaid leave, transfer to sales positions or voluntarily retire during this restructuring period will be fairly reinstated or rehired if a demand for new workers arises in the future as a result of an improvement in the company’s financial situation.

ü An additional two-month voluntary retirement allowance will be paid to workers taking unpaid leave or retiring voluntarily, while livelihood security support, such as job placement, will be provided in cooperation with central and local governments and cooperating firms.

ü The management will withdraw criminal proceedings against the trade union and its members in order to encourage good willingness for the revival of Ssangyong Motors. Civil liability will be also called off when the company’s revival plan is approved.

The union has essentially backed off on the "no lay-off" platform in hopes to get some protection for those laid off. Fears of a brutal police crackdown leading to tragic consequences at Ssangyong probably influenced the union to make such a deal along with the threats of liquidation of the company. It will be a while before how effective this deal will turn out for the workers, though I imagine there will be some conflict within those workers on who is going to leave and who is going to shift over.

Problems are still ahead though. 96 workers are currently in jail and the union might face giant legal fines from the government for their action. We will not see the conclusion of this until much later.

UPDATE 1: libcom.org has some nice photos from the scenes today in its article. They also note that 20 to 30 workers are still in the factory refusing to back down. I'll post my own analysis probably Monday.

John Bolton is an idiot..

I was wrong; while everyone is celebrating the release of the two US journalists, warhawk John R. Bolton decided to be a debbie downer on the subject. John R. Bolton also proves himself not to be very knowledgeable on history.

ad_iconThe Clinton visit may have many other negative effects. In some ways the trip is a flashback to the unfortunate 1994 journey of former president Jimmy Carter, who disrupted the Clinton administration's nuclear negotiations with North Korea and led directly to the misbegotten "Agreed Framework."

First of all, there is no comparison to either of the situations. Jimmy Carter was sent by the US in hopes to brokering a mutual agreement with Kim Il Sung on the matter. What angered the Clinton administration was that Carter created a treaty with Kim Il Sung and announced it on television before telling Clinton. In this case, Clinton went with approval of Obama with a simple mission of getting the two journalists back (which many analysis believe was already negotiated before his arrival). Comparing the two situations is ridiculous.

North Korea violated the framework almost from the outset but nonetheless enticed the Bush administration into negotiations (the six-party talks) to discuss yet again ending its nuclear program in exchange for even more political and economic benefits.

Bolton is negating the fact that the US also violated the Agreed Framework when it came to offering aid. This was due to Republican opposition in Congress during the time. Despite this, we made better inroads in nuclear proliferation and had much better knowledge on the DPRK then we did during the first term of the Bush administration.

Also, why did Bush decide to start the Six Party talks again? Oh wait, I remember now; because their policy of doing nothing that was promoted by John Bolton was a failure and lead to the DPRK getting nuclear weapons in the first place. During this time, Bolton was the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and was kicked off the negotiations team with the DPRK due to his inability to keep his mouth shut at the negotiating table. Gee, now I remember why I don't take Bolton seriously.

The offense begins and some other stuff..

While many people are celebrating the release of the two US Journalists from the DPRK (Thank god), the police have begin their offense on the Ssangyong factory in hopes to retake it from the workers. This is a last ditch effort to stop the trike before the company is completely liquidated.


Also, begin to see a small slow down in posts for a short bit. Don't worry; I am not going on hiatus. I just got a job for a short bit and working on getting my documentation together to head back to Korea in a month. The lack of internet at my place also makes it harder for me to make long ranting posts that I did earlier. I'm also working on some longer posts that I've been planning to do for a while that will require some research and time. More on that coming soon.

RIP: Corazon Aquino

For those who have not heard, Corazon Aquino, the first democraticly elected leader of the Philippines and wife of anti-Marcos martyr Ninoy Aquino, died Saturday from colon cancer.

Corazon Aquino become President in 1986. Running against Marcos (who had ordered the death of her husband 3 years before), she was announced as the loser in a obviously rigged election. The announcement of the election results caused a massive wave of non-violent street demonstrations all over the Philippines. Dubbed as the People Power Revolution or the Yellow Revolution (in reference to the yellow ribbons worn), the demonstrations managed to overthrow the Marcos regime and installed Aquino in office. During her term in office she survived numerous coup attempts as she pushed through land reform and a new democratic constitution. She spent the last few years of her life being involved in the street protests against the authoritarian and corrupt Arroyo regime.

Cory Aquino was not without her faults. Her presidency as a whole was a mixed bag and failed to end some of the major economic problems in the country. She initially worked with the Communist forces against Marcos and released hundreds of prisoners when she took office. Unfortunately, the two sides were unable to reach a peace agreement and she restarted the bloody conflict against the communist insurgency. Despite this, Jose Maria Sison and the National Democratic Front have only spoke of goodwill and condolences to her family.

Rest in Peace Cory

Ssangyong updates and ban on demonstrations...

Too the surprise of few, the Ssangyong talks over the weekend have failed and people are preparing for total liquidation of the company. The police have begin increasing attacks on the factory and around a 100 strikers have left after losing hope. I said this before and I'll say this again; this is going to turn ugly.

In other news, there will be a ban on demonstrations at the restored Gwanghwamun Plaza. For those not familiar with Seoul, Gwanghwamun is in downtown near city hall. It is also where the famous statue of Yi Sunshin is. The area has been a popular place for demonstrations over the years, especially during the Candlelight Protests last year. The statuee of Yi Yushin was used as a roadblock during some of the protests to prevent demonstrators from marching to the Blue House, as well as making it easier for them to be controlled.

Ssangyong news, KTU in trouble and media union news...

Thursday, the leaders of the striking union at the Ssangyong factory have reopened talks with the management on ending the strike. This is probably going to be the last time the two sides will talk before courts might liquidate the company completely in mid August. So far the management has offered to cut back on layoffs and reassign some people to other jobs, rehire most of the workforce by 2012 slowly and help find jobs for other works. The Union has refused and has demanded that the company send 2/3rd on "unpaid leave" so that they will face lesser job cuts. Either way, the Union has seem to have won some major victories for the workers (when originally around 900 were being laidoff). How far they will take it is up to them.

In other news, the Ministry of Education is planning to sack 89 teachers, including the leader Korean Teachers and Education Union (KTU) Jung Jin-hoo, for their collective action in signing a joint declaration against government policies on July 19th. There are strict laws against civil servants from doing collective actions in Korea and this is just an example of this. It doesn't help that KTU is well known as one of the most militant and left wing unions south of the 38th parallel.

Finally, the courts in Seoul have told the police that they cannot hold Choi Sang-jae, leader National Union of Media Workers, anymore. Choi was arrested earlier this week for illegal strikes and trying to break into the National Assembly. The court ruled that there was no risk for him fleeing the area or destroying evidence, so there was no need to hold him captive any longer.

Article on transgender model in Korea...

First, the Chosun Ilbo (of all sources) has an article on a transgender women named Choi Han-bit. Choi Han-bit is the first transgender woman to compete in the Super Model Contest.

a telephone interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Wednesday, she said, "I dreamt of becoming a model from when I was very young. The message on the screen of my cell phone reads, 'I am a model,' and after the operation I started preparing to become one. I thought it was a dream that could never come true, but I'm very happy about where I stand at the moment."

Her biggest supporters have been her parents. When Choi decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery, they encouraged her, saying it is better to live with confidence than to hide from your nature and end up with regrets. "When I called my parents after the contest, they told me I did very well but I should stay humble as bigger obstacles are yet to come," she said.

Good luck Choi Han-bit! Miss Choi is not the first transgender woman to make major pop media news, Harisu of course came out in 2001 and has always been very open about her past.

Independent unions recieve higher wages then others...

According to a study by the JoongAng Daily and Labor Ministry.

The wage growth rate in workplaces with independent laborers was between 5.2 and 6.8 percent during a three-year period. Unionized workers under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions saw the rate of growth decrease from 4.5 to 3.9 percent while unionists affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions saw a rate growth of 4.5 to 4.7 percent. In the first half of this year, wage growth in workplaces with no unionized laborers was 2 percent. Wage growth for unionists under the FKTU, independent workers and members under KCTU were 0.9, 0.8 and 0.5 percent, respectively.

I should say I am not really shocked; from most of the talk I have heard from these independent unions have been mostly focused on increasing their economic standing. Of course such narrow focus creates a giant misconception on the purpose of unions. Korean workers do not just fight for high wages (though that is a common demand). Many disputes have came over the issue of layoffs, fringe benefits, seniority vs performance wages, working conditions, temporary/irregular workers and control of their workplace.

However, each Simpac worker received incentives worth 10 million won ($8,090) and company shares at the end of last year due to increased profits since unionists withdrew from the KCTU in January of last year. It was the first incentive in 10 years. Nam Ho-ki, 48, who has worked at the firm for 22 years, said workers once received nothing despite past profits. He said employees now believe there will be compensation if they work hard.

“While the company suffered from a deficit in the first half of this year due to the economic downturn, unionized workers first suggested a wage freeze,” said Choi Jin-shik, chairman of Simpac. “The firm will do its upmost to run the business successfully so that management can offer workers incentives by the end of this year.”

Some said that changing characteristics of labor-management relations in Simpac are largely influenced by its labor union’s withdrawal of membership from the KCTU. All the unionists voted in favor of the withdrawal.

It sounds like business is starting to co-opt these independent unions by giving them economic benefits in exchange for cooperation. This is what Japan has done which was a major success in derailing the once militant Japanese workforce. From a management perspective (as well as a union bureaucrat) this is a good thing. And I'm pretty sure the unionized workforce is pretty happy.

The question is this, is this good for workers overall? No. What often happens in these type of agreements is that the management will give high economic incentives to its unionized workforce that represents a small portion of their total workforce. Management then makes this up by treating its non-unionized parts like crap outsourcing much of the work overseas and begin relying on temporary/irregular workers domestically. This is what happened in Japan; you got a well off labor aristocracy (as Lenin would have put it) while most of the employees suffer. For women and minorities (who make the majority of both overseas workers and irregular workers) this is bad.

Ssangyong status: "Like a refugee camp.."

Conditions for the occupiers at the Ssangyong occupation are horrific as they have been denied food and water for a week now.

"It was hard to breathe," he said. Many of them are exposed to dehydration as drinking water was drying up. Doctors estimated that 200 were injured.

"Six of them need an immediate surgery or medical care. Many have severe injuries, including broken ribs or joints incurred during clashes with riot police."

According to Baek, they are given one or two rice balls per day. "Toilets are in dismal condition as the water supply has been cut off."

Hundreds of protesters have complained of a lack of sleep, he said.

"They sleep just two or three hours a day as police helicopters above the building generate unbearable noise."

Lee Chang-geun, spokesman for the unionized protesters, said noise from helicopters and speakers installed nearby the building was adding to the terrible conditions. "We have no food, no water and no sleep."

The workers might also fate a suit for the damages the company has suffered during this occupation. Ssangyong is currently trying to get an injunction that will liquefy the company completely. Previous attempts to reach an agreement has failed due to the worker's demand of stopping all layoffs. Ssangyong will not talk to the workers until they drop this demand.

Article on sex and woman's rights in the DPRK...

Andrei Lankov, probably the biggest expert on the DPRK, wrote a great article on the changing image of sex and woman's rights in the DPRK.

In the North, this approach was soon taken to the extreme. From the late 1950s even the slightest references to sexual activity were purged from North Korean art. Only villains could be depicted as thinking about sex, while the positive heroes were always asexual. Divorce was made difficult, almost impossible.

It seems that the government control, along with the activities of the neighborhood watch groups, the infamous ``inminban,'' helped to maintain the officially endorsed standards of sexual behavior. The powerful few sometimes could have extra-marital affairs, but they were an exception.

I also know of some cases when women got pregnant from premarital sex ― like a female soldier who once ``did it'' with her boyfriend in the late 1970s.

But once she found out that she was pregnant, she knew she was in serious trouble: if discovered, a pregnancy would lead to a dishonorable discharge from the army, after which nobody would allow her to return to her family in privileged Pyongyang.

Suck it all you Marxist-Leninist who talk about how the DPRK "liberated" women. Despite early progressive reforms when it came to issue of women, the DPRK has historically made women nothing more then machines that produce revolutionary men. The fact that this is changing further shows that the DPRK population is not as "brainwashed" as people make it sound as well as the decline of the Stalinist state.

ROK airforce might change its KF-X program..

Quiet a few years ago, the ROK Air Force announced it was going to look into the development of a fifth generation stealth fighter (Along the lines of a F-22). To the surprise of few, they are going to change this program quiet a bit.

I was always doubtful of how feasible for the ROK to develop its own fighter. Very little has come since the programs announcement over 5 years ago, and the USA has had major problems with its fifth generation fighters. The F-35 can be potentially attractive due to the fact it can be used off small carriers (thus allow the ROK to expand its Navy) but that program has been ridden with problems ever since it was put into production. Maybe that F-15 Silent Eagle will find a bidder in the ROK pretty soon.

Ssangyong update and other news...

There have been several news updates the last couple days and I unfortunately do not have time to comment on all of them, so here is a quick summary:

-The union at the Ssangyong plant and the management are going to meet later today to discuss ending the current occupation.

-Former Director of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Kim Sang-wan, is going to jail for three years for trying to rape a female union member.

-So far 70 DP legislators have handed over letters of resignation to opposition leader Chung Sye-kun who has already announced his resignation in protest of the GNP ramming through the media reform bills. Opposition parties will also begin a 100-day street protest.

-Many of you have already probably heard of the recent verbal jabs the USA and DPRK have fired at each other at the last ASEAN Regional Forum summit. You might have also heard about that Christian activist that was executed in the DPRK recently. But did you hear about the newest act of defiance within DPRK's borders that is causing a giant crackdown? Korean dramas. Apparently they cannot resist the charms of Rain and Lee Young Ae.

-The ROK is officially the third biggest buyer of US arms behind Israel and Saudi Arabia.

-On July 20th, there was some confrontation between police and protesters. The protesters were forming a march in memory of the Yongsan incident.

KCTU calls a general strike..

After nearly months of waiting around and speaking big, the KCTU has finally called for a general strike in solidarity with the Ssangyong workers and in protest of the "MB (Myung-bak) Evil Bills" in the National Assembly on media reform and irregular workers. The strike is go on until only July 24th, so I question how effective they will be. The last General Strike came last spring during the candlelight protests.

The KCTU now also has a lovely photography of the Ssangyong Occupation here. Apparently scabs are also firing things from slingshots at the striking workers according to the KCTU.