Migrants occupy NHRC office

Breaking News: Migrant worker activists have occupied the offices of the National Human Right's Commission. They are demanding the release of Anwar Hossain, the Migrant Trade Union chief, who has been in jail since May.

Here's the story from the MTU website:

Migrant workers in S. Korea’s capital Seoul are occupying the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC, actually a part of the S. Korean government). Here a report from the situation yesterday and today, local Korean time.

Several activists of the Migrant Workers‘ Trade Union ( MTU ) occupied yesterday (Dec. 5) the Commission 13 th floor office at 10 a.m. after they held a press conference where the workers criticized a recent proposal made by the Commission.

The Commission decided that the Immigration Office should NOT be held accountable for the arguably 'illegal' arrest and detainment of Anwar Hossain, the elected chairman of MTU, the migrant workers' union leader.

The proposal means that it was perfectly legal to arrest and detain him. So Anowar Hossain cannot be temporarily released from the detention center. Angry at the proposal, migrant workers occupied the Commissioner's office at 13th floor. And the occupation is still going on. (Dec. 6, a.m. 1:30)


Dec. 5, the beginning of the occupation of NHRC

It's the second day of the occupation today (Dec. 6, a.m. 12:00).
As of this moment, there is no urgent danger of arrest. Occupying migrant workers will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. today. One of the migrant workers' demands is to have a meeting with the Commissioner of the NHRC so that they can openly criticize the National Human Rights Commission's hypocricy and it's biase to the Immigration Office.

Read More...


Today, Dec. 6, the morning press conference in the occupied NHRC


A lawyer for the Migrant Workers' Trade Union (MTU) consulted to the occupiers that if this occupation lasts for a long time, then the police may use force to break the occupation or/and arrest them.

In the mean time, MTU is trying hard to get the word out that Anwar Hossain was illegally arrested and he must be released immediately. Also the Commission should admit their responsibility. According to the law, the Commission cannot make another proposal on the same issue. Once it is made, it is final. And so migrant workers' union considers filing another petition regarding to Anwar Hossain.

The MTU members have said that they will not leave until the issue is resolved to their satisfaction. That is that the NHRC reverse their decision and recommend the full release of Anwar from the Cheonju detention center.

Following the text of MTU’s last urgent appeal
and the background of the story:

Demand the Immediate Release of Anwar Hossain,
President of MigrantWorkers' Union, KCTU!
Stop Crackdown on Migrant Workers!




A. Hossain behind bars, in the "Immigration Processing Center", aka prison in Cheonju

On May 14, 2005, Anwar Hossain, president of the Migrants' Trade Union in
Korea, was forcibly arrested by more than 30 Korean immigration officials
in the early hours of the morning. Anwar was beaten by immigration police
and had to receive treatment for the injuries that were sustained at the
time of his arrest. Anwar has been languishing in Cheonju Detention
Center, about two hours south of Seoul, since his arrest in May. In the
detention center, Anwar was been isolated from detainees who speak Korean
or Bangla, and is only allowed association with those he cannot
communicate with. He physical health has also been steadily deteriorating
since his capture.

Immediately after Anwar was arrested, MTU filed suit in Korea's courts and
appealed to the Korean National Human Rights Commission requesting a
temporary release of Anwar. In their investigation, the KNHRC found that
Anwar's arrest was actually illegal. According to Korean immigration law,
a warrant must be issued within 48 hours of an arrest. In Anwar's case,
more than 52 hours passed before a valid warrant for his arrest was
issued. It was later found out that there was actually a warrant issued
within the initial 48 hour period, but it was signed by an employee who
doesn't have the authority to issue warrants. However, due to this
evidence, the KNHRC has sided with immigration officials and denied
recommending the full release of Anwar, as well as the temporary release
of Anwar. This means that Anwar will have to remain in the detention
center until the outcome of his court case, which could take several years
to resolve as it is still in the lowest level of the court system and will
likely be appealed until it reaches the highest level of the Korean court
system, the Special Court.

Anwar is not a criminal. The KNHRC investigation has shown that his arrest
was illegal, and continuing to detain him is not only illegal according to
Korea's own immigration laws, but also inhumane. Demand justice for Anwar!
Please send a letter to the Korean Ministry of Justice and the Korean
National Human Rights Commission demanding the full release of Anwar
Hossain. A sample letter follows.

Take Action!


The English history and reports about MTU's and formers ETU-MB's activities you can read here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Please send a copy of your letter to

Send a letter to Cho Young-hwang, the Chief of the KNHRC: cyh@humanrights.go.kr


Dear Mr. Cho,

It has come to my attention that Anwar Hossian, President of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants' Trade Union is still in detention at the Cheonju Detention Center just south of Seoul. While in detention, his health has been steadily deteriorating and he has been denied association with people he can communicate with. This isolation is making his mental health suffer in addition to his physical health, and is a form of torture. Furthermore, you found through your own investigation that his arrest was actually illegal because an arrest warrant was not issued within the legal time frame set forth by Korean immigration law.

Mr. Hossain is not a criminal and it is not just treat him like one. I implore you to release Mr. Hossain immediately, pending the outcome of his lawsuit. To do otherwise is clearly politically motivated and an obvious ploy meant to thwart the Migrant' Trade Union organizing efforts.

Yours sincerely,

Send a message to the Minister of Justice: (This is a little difficult because the website is in Korean, but please try. Here are instructions. )
Use this link to access the freeboard on his homepage: http://www.jb21.or.kr/netizen/list.asp?bid=1
Next, click on the green button on the far right hand side. It looks like this:
This will open a new page. At the very bottom of that page, there is a small grey icon that looks like this:

It means 'write'. Click on it.
The first line asks you for a subject: "Release Anwar Hossain"
The second line asks you for your email address.
The third line asks for your name.
Finally, you can enter the text below.
The last thing you have to do is enter a password at the bottom of the form. You can write anything here and it will work.


Dear Mr. Cheon,


It has come to my attention that Anwar Hossian, President of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants' Trade Union is still in detention at the Cheonju Detention Center just south of Seoul. While in detention, his health has been steadily deteriorating and he has been denied association with people he can communicate with. This isolation is making his mental health suffer in addition to his physical health, and is a form of torture. Furthermore, it was found through an investigation conducted by the Korean National Human Rights Comission that his arrest was actually illegal because an arrest warrant was not issued within the legal time frame set forth by Korean immigration law.

Mr. Hossain is not a criminal and it is not just treat him like one. I implore you to release Mr. Hossain immediately, pending the outcome of his lawsuit. To do otherwise is clearly politically motivated and an obvious ploy meant to thwart the Migrant' Trade Union organizing efforts.


Sincerely,


A Brief History of the Migrants' Trade Unions

MTU was officially formed on April 28th, 2005, after a 14 year history of struggle against Korea's oppressive and racist immigration laws, as well as unfair, unsafe and discriminatory workplace practices. The history of the migrant workers struggle started in 1991 in the small town of Maseok, when migrant workers banded together to fight an employer who refused to compensate an employee for a workplace injury. Through direct actions such as strikes and protests, migrant workers were able to achieve victories at their work sites. These victories led the formation of a larger group of migrant activists who began challenging not only employers, but also the Korean government. Eventually, in 2002 they would come together to form ETU-MB- the Equality Trade Union, Migrants' Branch.

Starting in November of 2003, ETU-MB staged a 377 day sit-in struggle at Myeong Dong Cathedral in protest of the crackdown on migrant workers in Korea, as well as the implementation of Korea's immigration law called Employment Permit System (EPS). After the sit-in struggle in Myeong Dong, MTU was formed so that migrant workers could have power within their own organization and make decisions for themselves. MTU is the only organization in Korea that is organized and led solely by migrant workers in Korea. They are still struggling against EPS and the constant crackdown on Korea's migrant workers.


CRACKDOWN AGAINST MIGRANT WORKERS


From the beginning, the South Korean government refused to recognize the Migrant Workers Trade Union (MTU) and publicly announced that the MTU could not have the three basic labor rights---the right to organize, the right to strike, and the right to collective bargaining. In addition, the South Korean government launched an all-out campaign to repress the MTU. During a press conference held by the MTU to announce its formation, immigration officials secretly videotaped the proceedings in an effort to specifically target migrant workers participating in the MTU. Clearly, the arrest of President Anwar is a direct attempt by the South Korean government to repress the MTU and crackdown against migrant workers in South Korea.

The recent repression by the South Korean government is not new. The government has consistently targeted migrant workers activists who have been arrested and deported. In 2003, many migrant workers were labeled as “terrorists” and forcibly deported. Samar Thapa, a key leader of the ETU-MB and the Myeong Dong sit-down demonstration was “kidnapped” in broad day light by immigration officials and deported in an effort to stop the mobilization efforts by migrant workers.

Like all workers in South Korea, migrant workers should be treated with dignity and respect. Migrant workers should be guaranteed the same fundamental labor rights that are enjoyed by native workers. Despite the government crackdown and threats of deportation, the MTU will continue to organize and fight for the rights of migrant workers. On behalf of more than 400,000 workers in South Korea, MTU calls on the South Korean government to stop the crackdown against migrant workers and recognize the labor rights of migrant workers.

Death of a Farmer

An article in the Korea Times yesterday made the first mention in the English language media of a death at the hands of riot police which occurred last week:

About 4,000 farmers gathered in Taehangno, central Seoul, to protest National Assembly’s ratification of a rice market opening deal.

The protesters urged the government to punish the police officers responsible for the death of a farmer, Chun Yong-chul who was severely beaten by riot police during a mass protest in front of the National Assembly building on Nov. 15.

The farmers' protest at the National Assembly on November 15 was the large one against the opening of the rice market which took place just before the APEC summit, which Kotaji covered here. As he mentioned, some of the farmers were seriously injured, and on November 24, the aforementioned farmer, Chun Yong-chul, died from a cerebral hemorrhage. An article by the Asian Human Rights Commission gives a more detailed account of the protest and Chun's death:

Mr Jeon was reportedly beaten on the back of his head, right eye and chest by riot police attached to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency during their crackdown at about 7pm. Although his external wounds did not seem serious and he left the rally with other protesters without obtaining any medical assistance, on his way home he was overheard speaking to two witnesses, saying that his head was very painful after being hit by a police shield.

On November 17, Mr Jeon was taken to the Boryeong Asan hospital as he was unable to control his body movements. He was then transferred to the Chungnam National University Hospital, where he was hospitalized and treated for a cerebral hemorrhage. He underwent brain surgery twice but died at around 6:30am on November 24.

An autopsy pointed to a skull fracture as the cause of the hemorrhage, but did not say how the fracture occurred. The police maintain the fracture occurred when he fell down at home.

Ohmynews has several articles which are accompanied by photos and links to many videos (of the Nov. 15 protest, and of the response to his death). Many more photos can be found here and here. Obvious in the video of the Nov. 15 protest is the number of the riot squad, 1001, which is well known as a particularly brutal squad; one photo of this squad at Thursday's protest shows that they have no numbers on their shields. Whether this has anything to do with the anger that has been directed at the police since Chun's death, I don't know. On Nov 28, after several days of mourning, at which several members of the Democratic Labour Party were to be found, a protest took place at the Seoul Metropolitan Police station.

The aforementioned protest at Daehangno on Dec. 1 was in fact the starting point for a march down Jongno to Gwanghwamun, where the marchers were greeted by this:


One has to wonder how long it takes the police to park all of those buses; I don't think I've ever seen the front line buttressed like this before. If I remember correctly, the plan was to march to the Blue House, but with such creative parking and the use of firehoses and masses of riot police, that wasn't very likely. Video of the protest can be found here and here, and a lengthy article on the protest with many photos can be found here (though it's in reverse chronological order).

The photo at the top of this post has photos of three other farmers above the large photo of Chun Yong-chul. They are of Chung Yong-pum, a 38-year-old farmer from Damyang County in South Jeolla Province, who committed suicide by drinking herbicide on Nov. 11; O Chu Ok, 41, director for cultural affairs of the Women Farmers' Association in Songju County, North Kyongsang Province, who committed suicide on Nov. 17; and Ha Shin-ho, 73, who attended the protest at Yoido on Nov 15 and collapsed and died suddenly on his way home.

Of interest may be an article (in Korean) comparing the deaths of Kang Kyung-dae (beaten to death by riot police at a protest at Yonsei University in 1991) and Chun Yong-chul.


Updates:

Dec. 16: The police finally admit the possibility that Jeon Yong Cheol died as the result of being hit by riot police at a farmers' protest.

Dec. 18: Hong Deok-pyo, a farmer injured during the November 15 Yeouido protest, dies of his injuries.

Dec. 26: The National Human Rights Commission concludes that Jeon Yong-cheol and Hong Deok-pyo died from injuries inflicted by riot police during the Nov. 15 rally.

Dec. 27: President Roh apologizes on television for the actions of the police, but also criticizes the violent actions of the protesters. Police Chief Huh Joon-young also apologizes, but refuses to voluntarily step down.

Dec. 28: Police Chief Huh is pressed to resign by members of Uri party and the DLP.

Dec. 29: Despite saying he would not, Police Chief Huh resigns, saying he did not want to "burden the administration".

Jan. 8: Families of riot police hold a protest against violent protests.

January 15: A plan to have riot police wear name tags while on duty is announced by the National Police Agency. It draws a great deal of criticism before being withdrawn.

Jan. 19: A government panel is formed to promote peaceful rallies, saying a policy package is due in April.

Feb 12: A protest in Pyeongtaek against the relocation of US bases there is celebrated for being non-violent.

general strike is on

Even though it has been declared illegal. Here's the first story about it.
Update: numbers are diminishing in the general strike: read more here.

Update 2: In another article, the KCTU said 60,000 people, or 10% of its membership, have taken part in the strike; the government estimate is quite smaller.

More than 10,000 striking unionists staged a rally in front of the National Assembly in Yoido, Seoul, [Thursday] afternoon to protest the bill and call for more rights for non-regular workers.

Footage of this demonstration can be found here, and over at his blog, Christian has a very long video of the protest, which can be found here.

General Strike Thursday

The KCTU is set to begin a nine-day general strike Dec 1st in protest of the government's labour reform plan. Here's a short story on it at today online. Check in here for further updates.
Update -- here is a good story that sets the tone a night before the strike. Seems the FKTU and KCTU have split over the issue, but the KCTU is enjoying support from farmers and teachers' groups. You can also see my older article on the issue here.

APEC protest: sources

(Pusan Protests)

Well, there is lots of coverage and analysis to provide on Friday's APEC protests which will take a little more time than I have today, so this post will be more of a nod to other posts so readers, and I, can try to grasp exactly what happened.

CNN has a short story and video on the farmers protest against plans to open the rice market. Monsters and critics also had an early report on protests but their numbers, along with CNN's are inaccurate. As mentioned earlier, protests groups expected around 100,000 participants in Friday protest, but, as Kotaji remarks, the police (combined, thhere were over 50,000 police and other security personel) interferred with the buses that protest groups had hired and were also able to block many from congregating near the bridge leading to the Haeundae Beach resort area where the conference was being held, nevertheless, between 15-30,000 still made it to the bridges near the BEXCO convention center. From Kotaji's blog:

As the day wore on it seems that protestors converged towards the bridge connecting the city to the area where the summit was being held. Here they were met by thousands of riot police (a total of 30,000 were deployed in all apparently) with a barricade of buses and shipping containers. As might be expected, some some pitched battles broke out between the bamboo-spear wieldingfarmers and the riot police, who began to respond with water cannon. In the tradition of Korean demonstrations things got quite extreme with riot police apparently wielding 3-metre-long metal pipes at demonstrators and angry protestors responding by using ropes to pull the shipping containers from the barricades and into the sea. The fighting went on after dark, but it seems that the police were eventually able to disperse the protestors without too much trouble.

Read more...

The Korea Times also reports that protests continued on Saturday, this time at the subway station in Haeundae, about 4km from the conference site, but protestors were surrounded at the station and no skirmishes broke out.



Apec has sparked a tradition of oppositional protest to its yearly meetings, a brief, and not very critical, summary of which you can find in the globe and mail's article on Busan here. For a more interesting look on how the protest was percieved on the ground in Busan, here is an article in the Asia times.

In terms of the summit itself, I'm not exactly sure what was accomplished as APEC tends to act more as a coordinating body rather than a specific framework for economic and political issues. However, for Korea directly, there has been pressure to expand the rice import quota to 7.96 percent by 2014, under WTO rules. In a joint statement, APEC leaders didn't say much except promise to help fight bird flu and express their support for the Doha development round of the WTO which still may collapse anyways over the issue of agricultural subsidies.

This is all I have time to post at the moment, but in the next few days it would be worthwhile to discuss some of the issues around the nature of APEC itself, perhaps hazarding a few comments on why farmers and students seem to have had a bigger role than workers (please hazard your own comments as well if you have time); I think it's also worthwhile to think about the geography of the protest and the role of the police and local government played in obstructing routes to the meeting and limiting other sites of protest. Some of their other spatial strategies seem common to APEC and WTO protests in general (such as designated off-site protest pens and other such zonal strategies). There is also the issue of hype created around 'anti globalization' activists coming to protest which you can read on our earlier posts.

All for now.....

Come Friday

About 12,000 Korean farmers took part in strident protests outside of the National Assembly Tuesday night against the proposed liberalization of the rice market (for more info see APEC Busan section below). Here are two short reports and pic from Radio New Zealand, and American Journal-Star. Farmers have vowed to continue their protests in Busan on Friday.


(Burning Police Bus in Seoul)

Internationalized Chaebol

Here's some interesting news. Ssamgyoung Auto's union has just announced a strike vote against its Chinese majority investor, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). The strike is against technology relocation and I wonder if their idea for a strike may come from similar strategies such as those employed by the movement of reclaimed factories in Argentina whom have occupied factories that have been shipping or selling off their fixed capital investments to overseas buyers and locations in the wake of economic crisis. Here's more on the strike from Joongang Daily:

Unionized workers at Ssangyong Motors Co., Korea's fourth-largest carmaker, said they will go on strike if the company's largest shareholder reneges on a pledge to invest in the company's domestic factory. Ssangyong Motors' workers want Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. to invest $1 billion in Korea, fulfilling a 2004 pledge made when the Chinese company bought 48.9 percent of Ssangyong for $500 million. The workers oppose Shanghai Auto's plan to build Ssangyong Kyron sport utility vehicles in China."The union took a vote and 79 percent of the workers were in favor of the strike," said Cho Young-jin, spokesman for Ssangyong's union. "We won't stage a strike immediately but wait to see what Shanghai Auto does."

The Korea Times also reports that union leaders claimed that SAIC Motor, which holds a 50.91 percent stake in Ssangyong Motor, has no plan to invest even a penny in the Korean subsidiary since its acquisition last year.

In my opinion this strike vote is interesting in that the chaebol have become increasingly internationalized (both in their activity and ownership) and, thus, so must labour tactics. Of course, the Argentinia case is somewhat different in that the domestically dominant class has long been internationalized at least in terms of its colonial origins and dispositions thus its forms of allegiance seem somewhat different then Korea's dominant groups which have, in general, been more economically nationalist when it has suited them, and now perhaps internationalist, when it doesn't. But the Ssamgyoung case is even different because we are no longer discussing a dominant class that is not simply internationalized in activity but in its constitution. Thus, how labour goes about attempting to woo an internationally owned corporation (ssamgyoung) to invest in a national space (Korea) might be an interesting problematic for the future. In some ways, the legitimacy of South Korean governments may rest on how well they can deal with this problematic, and how much more it will expand.

This is also something to continue to think about as we see what sort of agreements and protest the APEC Busan event (see below) generates.

APEC BUSAN

It seems that November 18th will main day for protests against the APEC conference, though there was a protest on Saturday with about 20,000 in attendance.

In other APEC news, here is a story from the Korea times about how the National Police Agency has banned about a thousand NGO activists. According to the Korea Times, they've also submitted a list of 400 foreigners who will be allowed entry but will be subject to close monitoring, as it is feared they could organize anti-APEC demonstrations there.

Notices will be distributed in and around Pusan (Busan) to inform foreign activists of possible punishments, including deportation, if they take part in anti-APEC protests, they said. The APEC forum is to take place in South Korea’s second largest city of Pusan on the southeast coast from Nov. 12-19, with a summit of the 21 leaders of APEC member states to be held on the final two days. Meanwhile, Pusan, host city of the APEC summit and forum, is trying to make potential anti-APEC protesters understand that the international gathering is not a rich man’s club, according to a senior city official.

Farmers protesting rice liberalization, one of the APEC side deals, have also set up camp at myeongdong cathedral and were part of Saturday's rally. The Minjok Dongshin reports that they expect up to or over 100, 000 in attendance for Friday's protest. Here's a more in depth look at the rice liberalization issue from the Citizen's Coalition for Economic Justice (they also a have more recent statement on chaebol reform here, fyi).

APEC is coming to town

APEC is beginning next weekend in Busan (I have a bit of interest in APEC, having participated in a over-a-year-long public inquiry into the policing of the 1997 summit here in Vancouver - read more here in the Canadian Encyclopedia). Here's some links for you. Here's the official site: www.apec2005.org and here's an early story on potential opposition and police response. I'll post more analysis as I get a chance...

Update -- Here's the link for the Korean anti-apec site, they have a small english section. Here is pretty stimulating flash intro for the bush protest in busan at the leader's summit.

Bad for tourists

Here's an older story from the Joongang Daily that I have to post in entirety.



(September 26, 2005)

(PIC) Policemen yesterday removing steel mesh from windows of buses used to transport riot policemen. The National Police Agency said it removed the mesh from all 1,131 buses, citing a drastic drop in violent demonstrations as the main reason. A symbol of the military government in the 1980s, the vehicles were dubbed "chicken coop cars," and used both to transport forces and blockade roads. Police said there were 809 illegal violent demonstrations in 1998 but the number fell to 215 in 2001, 91 last year, and only 34 by August of this year. "The buses also give a bad impression to foreign tourists," officials added.

Note: Looks like a positive step, I always found them unsightly, parked as they were at most prominent corners in the city (shin chon, jongro, etc). I would often get the suspicision that something was going down, even if these buses were just parked there for no reason. I wonder if the US embassy is still surrounded by a fleet of them. Hmmmm. Will the buses will still be parked around town, but cageless? Or are they going to hide them altogether?

The DLP loss, Elvis and the right

Kotaji has a short post up on the Democratic Labour Party's (DLP) recent by-election loss in the working class city of Ulsan that is worth reading. He makes the point that perhaps the growing number of non-regular and low wage workers there as well as the recent corruption scandals with the nation's two large labour federations may have something to do with this.

A Korea Times article focusing on the loss quotes DLP representative Sim Sang-Jung :

We should have paid more attention to the livelihood of non-regular workers and low-income earners in Ulsan, instead of focusing too much on the unionized workers of the big plant... Something unimaginable just took place in Ulsan, which is practically the land of laborers... The defeat is feared to seriously hurt the party and its leadership.

It should be pointed out that there have been strong efforts to regularize non-regular workers and fight for wage increases by the local, militant unions in Korea, and these struggles have been faily militant and puntuated with strong violence from the state, not to mention the protest-suicides of workers. However, the government continues to push for more and more labor flexibility in an economy that has some of the highest levels of subcontracting out there to the point that some workers have trouble identifying who indeed they are producing for or indeed who really owns their company -- there are lots of case of chaebol ownshership of smaller firms through dummy corporations or partial ownership and the like.

One wonders, in fact, if the ranks of younger, casual and non-regular workers, are following a trajectory similar to what has been happening in recent years in Japan, with younger people of this sort voting for the rhetoric of the right as they've become dis-illusioned with the potential of the left. I'm not exactly sure what current demographics are like in Ulsan but it would be interesting to see if there are indeed parrallels to generation of temps, freeters, and casual workers that Gavin Mccormack discusses in his recent article on the Koizumi election, postal reform and decline of Japan's developmental/welfare state -- worth reading if only for the picture of Koizumi's album of his favorite Elvis songs for karaoke.



Ok, I couldn't resist posting it, but, humor aside, Mccormack makes the point that Koizumi developed a rhetoric full of fun sound bytes and other publicity stunts that appeals to this youthful voters as it distances him from the culturally conservative image of his party, while promising to undertake 'reform.' Coincidentally, the only thing that he is reforming are the institutions that created a fairly equal distribution of work and weath in the post war years. Thus, appealing to images of 'cool' from the very generation cut off from economic equality, he secures the conditions to erode further these mechanisms of redistribution.

This issue is too complex to explore in this short post, especially in the Korean context so I'll only hazard a few more comments; namely, that I think its too early to attribute this loss to a growing depolitized electorate, but nonetheless I do think it is important to think about what the potential tendencies of a generation of workers lacking clear employment status and disciplined by retrenchment, restructurturing, and the vagarity of the market can or will be. Perhaps to do this we should look a bit more at how the GOP appealed to these voters (last time I checked the GOP weren't so 'cool,' but maybe they are), the development of working class youth culture in Korea (which doesn't seem as differentiated in Korea as it is in Japan at the moment), and, perhaps, how the DLP articulates itself in the context of the previous two.

Whither Tripartitism: Part 2

Changes are underway in the Korean labor movement today, as a new ad hoc executive commitee has formed in the wake of Lee Soo Ho' resignation (check here and here at the Korea Herald).

Though not oppossed to tripartite negotiation per se, the KCTU's new interim charman Jun Jae-hwan, from the Metal Intustry Trade Union, has said that he sees no point in rejoining the tripartite committee for as long as the government sticks to its labor reform plans (an issue you can read more about on our blog here, or here at the le monde diplomatique).

As for relations between the nation's two labour federations, the KCTU and the FKTU, it will be interesting to see if they continue to plan joint actions or if they begin to diverge in tactics and strategy -- for those interested in some of debate around different strategies pursued by Korean labour see this working paper by Kevin Gray.

In other Korean labour news, truckers are planning on going out on an illegal strike wednesday, as the number of non-regular workers active in the economy continues to rise one wonders if this sort of action will continue.

Update ----October 27, 2005 ---- The two truckers unions, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union postponed their decision on a general strike yesterday until after it holds a vote on a government-brokered deal on Monday.
Meanwhile, dump truck drivers, who are part of a larger construction workers union, decided to end their strike Tuesday after union members voted to end their strike that started on Oct. 13 -- I don't think they got an agreement, however. Both unions are part of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

Whither Tripartism?

Judging from this recent Korea Herald article, it seems that the struggle against the governments attempt to "flexibilize" labor is still ongoing with no clear resolution in the future, but several possible trajectories. Currently the FKTU and the KCTU, Korea's two large labor confederations, are boycotting tripartite talks between management, government, and labor, demanding Labor Minister Kim Dae-Whan resign.

The article also reports that union leaders of the two federations said the government would "face increased troubles, including a general strike, if the government goes ahead with a set of measures pending at the National Assembly that would allow companies to expand the use of irregular workers."

At the moment labor groups are meeting with the prime minister Lee Hae-chan to get around the impasse. I'm not sure if the situation will continue like this or whether one will see a more gradual reincorporation of labor into the tripartite talks, but perhaps with a more unified voice both at the table -- in the form of a possible FKTU-KCTU merger?-- or in the streets, with more joint actions and protest -- something which has, indeed, picked up since last June. Both unions also boycotted an International Labor Organization regional conference which was scheduled to be held this month, but was cancelled when the groups withdrew.

Another set of issues that seem decidely off the table in triparte discussions are the work conditions for migrant workers, both documented and undocumented. Early this week, the Ministry of Labor announced their latest plans to curtail the use of undocumented workers and expand the use of permitted workers. However, their strategy looks certain to cause more social strife by giving employers incentive to help deport their own workers. The basic structure of the permit system, however, is not being altered in any fundamental way, so many of the problems that we have discussed previously on this blog are certain to continue (read more here).

For the full articles, continue reading.




Labor groups threaten to step up struggle

The nation's two labor umbrella groups threatened to heighten their struggle against government measures aimed to increase flexibility in the job market.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions reiterated that they would continue to boycott a tripartite dialogue table with the government and employers unless Labor Minister Kim Dae-whan resigns.

They said the government would face increased troubles, including a general strike, if the government goes ahead with a set of measures pending at the National Assembly that would allow companies to expand the use of irregular workers.

Their separate announcements came a day before their planned meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan today to discuss normalizing strained relations between the labor force and the government.

Representatives from the union groups said that they will convey their demands directly to the prime minister regarding the government's move to legislate a package of labor reforms.

The labor unions rejected dialogue with the government in July in protest against the labor-related bills.

Union groups said that today's meeting is aimed at seeking a new communication channel to the government since both groups have rejected Labor Minister Kim Dae-whan as a dialogue partner. Kim is expected to attend the meeting.

The meeting was proposed by the union groups when they asked President Roh Moo-hyun to become directly involved in resolving the confrontation between the government and the union community during a press conference held in August.

Labor unions expect today's meeting to be a turning point for both sides but said that it is hard to see how substantial changes mary occur unless the government changes its "anti-labor attitude."

Lee Yong-deuk, the FKTU and Union and Lee Soo-ho, the head of the KCTU reportedly had an urgent meeting on Sunday to organize one voice to tackle the government's labor policies and hamper possible disruption of the labor community.

The FKTU and KCTU have recently discussed a merger plan between the two major union groups to increase their bargaining power.

In a show of solidarity, the two groups have boycotted hosting an International Labor Organization conference which was scheduled to be held this month.


Korea Herald (2005.09.27)


Employers who make their illegal foreign workers voluntarily depart from Korea will be legitimately

ㅁThe Ministry of Labor will allow employers who make their illegal foreign workers voluntarily depart by the end of this year to newly employ as many foreign workers as they eject.
- The Ministry will also guarantee that illegal foreign workers receive no disadvantageous treatment when they are put on a roster of registered job seekers, if they voluntarily depart from Korea.

ㅁIf employers make their illegal foreign workers voluntarily depart from September 25 to December 31, 2005 and then submit a document confirming their departure issued by airports or harbors to an Employment Security Center when they apply for the issuance of employment permissions, they will be allowed to newly employ as many foreign workers as they eject.

* In this case, employers can hire the same number of new foreign workers as that of departed ones regardless of the number of foreign workers employed by a workplace.

○ However, replacement workforce will be supplied only to employers who receive employment permissions before the end of March 2006.

○ Employers who make their illegal foreign workers voluntarily depart during the special period will be exempted from fines and the restriction on issuance of visas to foreign workers will be lifted.

ㅁMeanwhile, illegal foreign workers who depart from Korea during the period under the guidance of employers will be exempted from fines and the period during which their re-entry to Korea is restricted will be shortened. Which is the same as what currently applies to illegal foreign workers voluntarily departing from Korea.

- If the foreign workers are those who came from the sending countries selected under the Employment Permit System, they will not be given any disadvantageous treatment in the process of registering themselves as job seekers.

ㅁUnder the previous measure to encourage the voluntary departure of legal foreign workers, which had been implemented between March and August this year, employers were entitled to be supplied with replacement workforce only when they made legal foreign workers voluntarily depart from Korea.

- However, the new measure is expected to reduce the number of illegal foreign workers and contribute to minimizing workforce vacancy in industrial sites by allowing employers who make illegal foreign workers voluntarily depart to be supplied with legal foreign workforce.



Ministry of Labor (2005.09.29)

Labor update

Being so busy with school these days, I haven't had much time to update the blog on current events, much less provide analysis. So in the absence of the latter, here are a few links to some current issues brewing, I promise to get back to some analysis of these events in the following weeks, perhaps in the form of a short article.

Autoworkers
Kia Workers start Strike -- August 29th
Kia Workers end Strike -- Sept 13th
Major disputes at all Automakers settled -- Sept 15th.

ILO meeting posponment
KCTU/FKTU statement -- Sept 7th
Labor/Management to hold talks -- Sept 20
KCTU and FKTU merging? -- Sept 8th

Other labor issues
Asiana pilots file injunction -- Sept 9th.
Truck driver suicide-protest -- Sept 9th.
Taejon Hotel closes to bust union -- petition (ongoing)

Dirty little deeds

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but this article from a Bangladeshi online paper recently caught my attention via Labourstart.org's Korea newswire. Basically it details the fact that there are a large number of migrant workers from Bangladesh in South Korea facing deportation, but what is novel about this article is that the Korean government has apparently threatened the Bangladesh government because of political activism by Bangladeshi workers in South Korea, notably Anwar Hussain, president of the MTU, and Mohammed Biddut, the now-deported sit-in chief of the old ETU-MB.

What is more disturbing is that the Bangladeshi government has promised to punish Anwar when he is deported and to collude in what looks to be an illegal deportation (as was the case in Bidduth's case). Bidduth, also, was tried under some arcane section of Bangladeshi law for associating with trade unions when he was deported, but, thankfully, the case was thrown out.

Here is an extended quote from the article, the link to which you can find above.

Bangladesh might even lose the lucrative manpower export market in South Korea because a section of Bangladeshi workers are leading workers' agitation on the issue of their rights.

The Korean authorities have already threatened to exclude Bangladesh from the list of countries sending workers, the sources pointed.

A migrant Bangladeshi worker, Anwar Hossain, is president of the Migrant Trade Union, an organisation mostly comprising illegal workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines.

The Korean authorities have not recognised the organisation and arrested Anwar in May for illegal stay. They wanted to deport him to Bangladesh but he refused to sign an application form for issuance of travel permit. The Korean ministry of justice also held a meeting with the Bangladesh embassy on May 25 and expressed their displeasure.

The authorities then requested the embassy to persuade Anwar, who stays at Cheongju Immigration Processing centre, to sign the application form. But the embassy also failed to do so, contacted the home ministry in Dhaka and then told the Korean authorities to deport him without any travel permit.

The home ministry will take action against him when he returns to Dhaka, officials said.

Earlier in 2003, another Bangladeshi national in Korea -- Biddut -- had done the same and he was deported.
South Korean investors are also concerned at formation of a trade union by foreign workers, led by a Bangladeshi national. They normally hire foreign workers because they face tremendous pressure from local workers, who belong to strong trade unions.

New zones of hope and discontent?

Interesting story in today's (Aug 25th) Joongang Ilbo about workplace accidents at the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong, North Korea. The complex is a joint project between North and South Korea and as of July employed about 2400 North Koreans.

The report by the ministry of unification described a string of incidents beginning in late October when a North Korean construction worker fell to his death. The article reports that "further industrial accidents occurred this year. In January, four people were injured in separate accidents. Three among them lost fingers. In June, a worker suffered a burn, and the accidents have continued. The ministry said 10 accidents have occurred so far, including the deadly fall of last year."

The ministry goes on to cite a lack of safety awareness among North Korean workers using South Korean machinery. Also interesting is the fact that because North Korean workers are paying social welfare insurance to North Korea, worth about 15 percent of their wages; South Korea is not providing a separate compensation to these workers.

I'm curious how this issue will continue to evolve. On the one hand, the new complex up in Kaesong has been lauded by many to be an positive step of engagement between the South and the North, perhaps leading the North towards a reform trajectory similiar to China's. However there is the issue of the exploitation of a cheap and captive labour force without proper compensation -- does anyone even know if North Korea has an operating worker's compensation system? Basically, I'm curious, and perhaps sceptical as to how services will be provided to these workers.

It will be interesting how South Korean unions begin to respond to developments in this new zone, whether or not they will be able to influence the rights of workers there or not. How North Korean workers respond when problems arise will also be of note. I imagine tight tabs are probably kept on some of these workers, but as with any transnational space, there is the chance for greater information flow between workers from both countries (see our earlier post with a link concerning the possible marriage of two workers in the zone at Kaesong or this story about the potential for increased tourism in the area), although it will probably appear in Korean before it appears in English, so if any of you, our dear readers, see anything please let us know. For our part, we'll try to keep up on the info as well.

Corruption and the EPS

Here's a story that Matt brought to my attention looking at corruption in the new EPS system, a topic I mentioned in my last post. The article claims that bribery in sending countries has been one source of slowness in the system:

Ever since last August, when Korea adopted a new work permit system for foreign laborers, the process of recruiting workers has mostly been handled by the governments in the workers' home countries, including Indonesia. And corruption in some of those governments has become a serious problem for the program. To work in Korea, applicants in Indonesia typically wind up having to pay government officials the equivalent of 4 million won ($3,900) to 7 million won, which is about 40 to 70 times a typical worker's monthly income. Before the new work permit system, the workers had to pay about 2 million won.

The important point here is that (...) there has been a transition from a recruitment-based system run by Korean firms, to a recruitment-based system run jointly by recieving and sending countries. In my pessimistic opinion, it just seems that rent seeking and bribery, already a feature in most migrant sending locales, is simply becoming more visible in this case. Indonesia has an elaborate recruitment system already, comprising recruiters that work with local, regional, and national agencies. What has changed is that the older Korean recruiters (KITCO, ATCO) are no longer part of the chain as the Korean government now recruits directly. I guess direct government recruitment ends up politicizing corruption along the chain, as governments, legitimately, face more public scrutiny, and it dampens any image of equality or fairness in the recruitment process. Hopefully, then, the government could put pressure to ensure more fairness in the process, but looking at how pervasive this kind of behavior is, I doubt that significant changes will be made.

As for the jump in price in bribes for migration. This is most likely because the EPS is a higher quality 'product' offerring more job security and rights than the old trainee system, which basically was a ticket to becoming an illegal worker as the majority of trainees fled their workplaces.

In case you are interested, below is a diagram of the process of hiring foreign workers from the EPS website. It shows foreign government's role in the process quite clearly. What is also rather interesting is the criteria for selecting sending-countries. In the past it has been countries with which Korea has economic links, and this continues, except things like rates of overstayers seem to influence quotas. Here is a document from the EPS site discussing this directly. On the creepier side of things, here is the link to the government's online form to report illegal immigrants.

All the news that's fit to blog

I feel like we're becoming more of news site than a social movement tracker these days, but what can you do? Here's a bunch of news and quasi-analysis on some of the migrant issues we've been covering the past few months.

Organizing Migrant Workers

It seems like the migrant worker television project is going ahead well with new broadcasts including multilingual migrant and world news. Here is a link to their latest news in English, where you can read that the number of undocumented workers is now back to near 50% of the total migrant population. There are also some stories concerning workplace accidents and other issues that help paint a picture of some of the social conditions that migrants often find themselves in. Good work MWTV!

Organizing Migration

In other migrant news, here is a story and here is an editorial titled Foreign Workers Needed about the EPS system that has been in place for over a year now, complaining that the system works too slow and undocumented numbers are rising again. Many hoped that the EPS would get everyone legally recognized and provide a fresh start on the migrant issue. However, as we reported earlier, the EPS was only selectively offered to undocumented migrants, and some of its rules have caused others to become 'illegal' by basically changing their workplace.

more...

I wonder also if the slowness of the EPS relates more to the encouragement of employers prefering to use non-permitted workers and thus helping to create conflict between policymakers, especially between the coursts and the ministries of justice and labor. The Korean Federation of Small and mid-size Businesses (KFSB) basically brokered most of the migrant flow to Korea to date through KITCO and now through ATCO (an "Alien Traing Corp"). KITCO may not be around anymore as the government is suppossed to take over the brokerage of flows to Korea, but its chairmen used to be retired justice ministry (who handle immigration) officials. I'm curious how close their connections remain since the EPS started. I'll have to do some more research on this one.

Finally, here's a story on some news programs and residency status for foreign females married to Koreans. Interesting, however, that the same rights aren't being given to foreign males.

Update -- Blogger deported, Anwar Hossain, migrant hospital, summer strike news

Following up on last weeks story and few other items:

(1) Its seems Christian was deported back to Germany a few days ago. Thus he is not on hunger strike anymore, but is barred from entering Korea for five years. You can leave a comment of support or check out his reflections on the event at his CINA blog -- kudos if you can guess what does CINA stands for by the way.

(2) Anwar Hossain, the president of the Migrant Trade Union, is still in Jail, though there hope that he may be freed soon as there has been a lot of support for his case in South Korea and abroad -- all the more reason to keep up the pressure. Here is briefing from the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong on the case, not mention our link to an online petition here.

(3) Here is an older article in the Choson Ilbo about a migrant worker hospital run by private donations. It seems the hospital is about 200,000 (Canadian dollars) in the red because the government won't support it.

"Since its foundation, 13,000 patients have come to Migrant Workers' Hospital, both legal residents without money and illegal residents with nowhere to turn. Every Sunday, specialists from university hospitals come to offer free treatment, while about 80 volunteer doctors provide treatment from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily."

(4) Summer strikes: Looks like the government is intervening in the Asiana pilots stike, sending them to emergency arbitration, which gives them a month to make a deal or the government forces a compromise. Meanwhile, a deal was reached between GM Daewoo and its union, more on that here. I haven't read it closely but looks like good terms from a quick glance.

Korea Blogger on Hunger Strike

A few weeks ago I noticed that Christian's CINA blog had stopped being updated, which is rather strange behaviour because he normally updates it compulsively.

For the last few years, Christian has been, if you will, something of a pedestrian activist-reporter photographing and reporting on events that normally miss the mainstream in Korea's media, and even much of its independent media.

I always looking forward to reading his street level posts on topics ranging from the efforts of street vendors poor urban dwellers to resist displacement, nurses strikes, struggles by the disabled for safe and accessible public spaces, not to mention the migrant worker's struggle, which his has covered in more detail than anyone.

Albeit, Christian's english in his reports is often affected, partially because of his own peculiar brand of grassroots political ideology, and the fact that he is not a native speaker of english. Christian hails from Germany, and seems equally disillusioned with both german socialism and capitalism, making him something of an eccentric and his opinions a bit wild at times, but under it all, he has a genuine concern for documenting and assisting organized struggles against the social causes of human suffering, so much that it may sometimes cause him to neglect his personal life.

Which perhaps is what led to his recent arrest and detention. It seems Christian long ago let his immigration status lapse, mostly because he had run out of money covering protests in South Korea and was most likely afaid that if he left he would not be allowed back in. Inevitably, he was detained by police.

The following is a statement in English and Korean, dated today, documenting conditions in the migrant detention center where Christian is being held, and announcing that he is going on a hunger strike in the hope of improving conditions in the detention center. I hope it works.


Official Statement - 일인 단식 투쟁

Today, Thursday, August 4, 2005, it is exactly 4 weeks ago, that the National Human Right Commission (국가인권위원회, NHRC) was inspecting Mokdong Immigration Detention Center(*).

HNRC, of course, found a lot of violations of human rights here. The main complaints, made by inmates here:

- The entire space here, inclusive the common room, where the inmates spend there "leisure" time and have their fool, and floor between the cells, is permanent overcrowded. Detains call this "like chicken in cages" and "dead fishes in cans"

- The food is "more for pigs" - so many detains here. Even though since about two weeks some small things are changed, till now many detains get only rice and water soup, with small fragmants of vegetables.

- Fresh vegetables or fruits - never the detains, even the people, who have to spend mouths here, get.

- The sleeping places also are totally overcrowded (18 peoples or 16 peoples? is common), noisy, hard and extreme dirty.

Even though yesterday the blankets were taken to clean/wash, because of the daily change of detaines - most of them are arrested on their workplaces, without to get a chance for to take a shower - it should be done at least all 2 weeks, instead of once a year, or all two months, or so.

- The long term detains saw since their arrests no heaven, could not breath fresh air. There is no exercise possible here, so the detainment here, for example, is very harmful for the muscles.

- Until now the detains get no information about their rights here (some detaines, when they come here, even don't know, where they are).

- Since July 19 the inmates of cell №3 demanded their right of at least alternative breakfast. Instead of rice and water soup milk, bread and eggs. But the authorities here, now the 9th day are refusing to met this demand.

- And so on, and so oh...

Because of this terrible situation I have decided to go from today, August 4 2005 in a UNLIMITED HUNGER STRIKE until the immigration authorities solving this problems successfully.

Christian Karl

Mokdong Immigration Detention Center
2005-8-04

* today it has been exactly 5 weeks that I have been detained here

공식성명 - 일인 단식 투쟁



오늘은 2005년 8월 4일입니다. 정확히 4주전 국가인권위원회는 목동 출입국 억류센터(*)를 조사했습니다.

국가인권위원회는 물론 여기서 많은 인권침해를 발견했습니다. 여기에 수감된 사람들의 주요 불만은 다음과 같습니다.

-여기의 전체 공간은 수감자들이 “여가”시간을 보내는 각 방들 사이에 있는 층별 휴게실이 계속 사람들로 꽉차 있다는 것입니다. 수감된 사람들은 이것을 “닭장 같다” 또는 “깡통에 죽은 물고기들”이라고 부릅니다.

-식품은 “돼지”를 위한 것-그리고 많은 억류자들도 그렇게 생각합니다. 심지어 2주전에 작은 변화가 있기는 했지만 지금까지 많은 억류자들은 단지 적은 야채 조각들에 밥과 멀건 국만을 받고 있습니다.

-신선한 야채와 과일은 한번도 몇 달 동안 갖혀 있는 동안 먹어보지를 못했습니다.

-잠자는 곳 또한 전체적으로 꽉차있고(18명에서 16명은 보통입니다), 시끄러우며, 불편하고 대단히 지저분합니다.

심지어 어제 담요를 빨기 위해 걷어갔습니다. 왜냐하면 매일 억류자들이 바뀌기 때문이고 대부분은 그들 공장에서 체포되기 때문에 샤워를 할 수 있는 기회가 없기 때문입니다. 1년에 한번, 2달에 한번 대신 2주 마다 한번씩 (뭘?) 할 수 있도록 보장되어야 합니다.

-장기간의 억류기간동안 신선한 공기를 마실 수 없습니다. 여기서는 운동도 할 수 없고 예를 들어 여기에 있는 억류는 근육에서 대단히 해롭습니다.

-지금까지 억류자들은 여기에서의 권리에 대해 아무런 정보도 얻지 못했습니다(일부 억류자들은 여기에 왔을때 그들이 어디에 있는지 조차 알지 못했습니다.)

-7월 19일 이후 3번 방 수감자들은 적어도 아침식사를 바꾸어 달라는 그들의 권리를 요구했습니다. 밥과 멀건 죽 대신에 빵과 달걀을 달라고 했으나 당국은 9일째 그들의 요구를 들어주기를 거부하고 있습니다.

-기타 등등


이런 끔찍한 상황 때문에 당국에서 이 문제를 성공적으로 해결할 때까지 오늘 2005년 8월 4일부터 무기한 단식투쟁을 진행하기로 마음먹었습니다.


2005년 8월 4일

크리스티앙 칼

목동 억류센터에서

* 오늘은 정확히 내가 여기에 억류된 지 5주째가 됩니다.

What to do about industrial policy?

Or, why I wish my Korean was better...

Here is a review in the Korea Times of a new book from Ha-Joon Chang and Jeong, Seung-il which is sure to raise some positive controversy. The two economists published a book [only in Korean I think] last week titled Cutting the Gordian Knot of Korean Economy (Koaedo Nanma Hanguk Kyongje) which suggests that the reason why the Korean economy in the democratic period has failed to boost equality and maintain economic growth is not because of a cyclical economic slump caused by the 1997 crisis but a structural problem attributted to the new ruling block's adoption neo-liberalism.

I've attached an extended section of the review below which is interesting, particulary for the authors' distinction between financial and industrial capital and, the controversial bit, their appraisal of Park Jung-Hee's developmental policies. I'm curious what students of the developmental state will think of this one, and the need to think about industrial policy alongside progressive politics, particulary labor rights, environmental issues, and participatory democracy: How can these be reconciled with strong, state-initiated industrial policy? Post a comment if you have any thoughts, but you'll have to read the book to figure out exactly how the authors see these issues unfolding. Apparently they appraise the role of the labour movment. It's possible they might agree with labour's present strategy of fighting labour market flexibility, which took a new turn last week with the withdrawel of the FKTU and KCTU from a number of labor relations committees, you can read about that here and here.

Here is the rest of the book review:

[The authors] note that neo-liberalism is not suitable for an economy eyeing high growth. ``Conservative newspapers have long demanded that the nation adopt neo-liberal policies, including deregulation and flexibility in the labor market for economic growth. However, neo-liberalism is focused on low growth rate,'' Chang writes.

He relates that neo-liberalism is basically for financial capital, not industrial capital. ``It is a system in which financial capital takes initiative of industries. From the perspective of financial capital, economic growth is not very desirable. To insure returns from their investment, they want to stabilize the economy and lower the price increase rate,'' Chang notes. Thus, neo-liberalism and a high economic growth rate are incompatible.

``Since the economic reform (by Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun), Korea has entered a system in which people refrain from investment, which in turn has slowed economic growth.''

They note that the average investment ratio in 1990-1997 stood at around 37 percent, but it has hovered around 25-26 percent since 2000. ``It is not a cyclical phenomenon, but a structural problem,'' Chang writes.

As recent administrations adopted the low-growth-oriented policy, the nation's crippling economic growth rate is a ``successful'' result of the administrations' stance, the authors write sarcastically.

Discussing neo-liberalism in the nation, the two economists analyze Korean progressives' ``odd'' endorsement of laissez faire. For them, it is natural that the conservatives champion a freer market for the freedom of capital, but it is irrational for many progressives or the left to tilt toward market fundamentalism.

Then what is behind the progressives' strange stance? Chang and Jeong both point their finger at the Park Chung-hee regime, which masterminded economic growth but at the same time ruthlessly suppressed any resistance.

``Many progressives seem to believe that every bad influence stems from Park. As a result, they began to deny all Park-style economic policies, emphasizing a break with the past,'' they write.

For the author, the progressives made a serious mistake in believing that the key to overcoming the past regime was to go in the opposite direction of Park's policy. ``Because Park created a wide distance in the market, (controlling the market), they saw free market as a cure-all,'' they write.

This strange ``unanimous'' belief in the market, the authors write, could tie the hands of the government. Bearing in mind the past authoritarian government's wayward intervention, both progressives and conservatives are allergic to the administration's role in the market and have begun to regard laissez faire as virtuous. ``But, in Korea, the government still has a lot to do,'' Chang adds. ``For example, they are things such as nurturing next-generation industry, adjusting the labor market and instituting a better welfare social system,'' they write.

In the eight-chapter book, the two economists also discuss Korea's economic development under the iron fist of Park, chaebol and foreign capital. They there suggest that chaebol reform has often missed points in the process, only benefiting foreign capital. They also note the progressives need to wake up to the nature of foreign capital invested in Korean conglomerates.

The two economists blame the business for focusing excessively on labor market flexibility, which has spawned unemployment and destabilized social integrity. They also criticize labor for failing to come up with adequate demands under the framework of the nation's economic development.

With ample grounds for their arguments, the book gives readers persuasive and fresh insight into the current economic situation.

Conscientious Objection In Korea

Early in 2001 the concept of “objection to military service” became known to the Korean public when a current affairs magazine reported on a forum concerning the military service system. It focussed on the history of conscientious objection among Jehovah's Witnesses in Korea; since the formation of the Korean army, over 10,000 objectors (mostly Jehovah's Witnesses) have been imprisoned for their beliefs.

The report and forum began to draw people's attention to the previously taboo subject of conscientious objection, but also drew the attention of the Seoul Police, who started to investigate three antimilitarist websites which provided information on evading military service.

In December 2001, a pacifist and Buddhist, Oh Tae-yang, declared his objection to military service. The following February, for the first time in any conscientious objection case in South Korea, a court decided that he would be not imprisoned while awaiting trial. On June 2002 his trial was adjourned until after the decision of the Constitutional Court, but the case was reopened on 17 May 2004. On 30 August 2004 he was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months imprisonment, and arrested in court.

The reason that Oh Tae-yang's case took so long to go through the court system was that, due to the fact that he was not a Jehovah's Witness, he turned conscientious objection into a political stance as opposed to an expression of religious belief, which started the small but growing movement in Korea which has led in the past year to Supreme court decisions regarding its legality.

Anyone interested to learn more about the first two years of the movement (2001-2002) can find several articles in an archive on a Quaker website.

In February 2002, Korea Solidarity for Conscientious Objection was launched. It is now a coalition of 36 civil and social organisations.

March 2003 an international conference on conscientious objection to military service took place in Seoul, attracting more than 400 participants over two days. It was reported on here and here.

As a small handful of people began to declare conscientious objection, (a list of whom can be found here - scroll down), on November 21, 2003, Kang Cheol-min went a step further. At the end of his first leave, four months after beginning his military service, he held a press conference and declared his conscientious objection in protest against the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq.

He did so knowing that he could face a stiff punishment, for those who refuse to comply with conscription are tried by civil courts, which since 2001 have handed down sentences of up to 18 months of imprisonment for violating the Military Service Law. Those who refuse to participate in military training after being conscripted, however, are tried in a military criminal court for mutiny.

On the day of his press conference, he began a sit-in in the National Council of Churches in Seoul. A week later, after a second press conference, and during a march to the residence of the President of Korea, he was arrested. A court martial sentenced him to 2 years imprisonment on December 27, 2003, but the High Military Court reduced his sentence to 1 1/2 years in prison the following March. He went on hunger strike for 7 days on 22 June 2004, to protest against the dispatch of Korean troops to Iraq.

Early 2004 saw a report by Amnesty International about an objector who refused to perform his military service on grounds of discrimination against gay, bisexual and transsexual persons by the military, as well as a Korea Times article about a teacher who declared CO.

As the Chosun Ilbo and Korea Times reported, a Seoul court dropped a legal bombshell on May 21, 2004 when judge Lee Jeong-ryeol acquitted three Jehovah's Witnesses, upholding their religious conscience over compulsory military service. The Military Manpower Administration quickly announced that it did not acknowledge the right of refusal to serve in the military, while a week later the Chosun Ilbo bemoaned the inconsistency among the courts in dealing with the issue.

This inconsistency was resolved on July 15, when the Supreme Court upheld the decision of a lower court to prosecute a Jehovah's Witness for evading conscription, as reported by the Chosun Ilbo, Korea Times, and Joongang Ilbo. The court said in its ruling, “If national security is not protected because of the failure to serve the mandatory military service, the dignity and value of human beings cannot be guaranteed. One’s freedom of conscience does not take precedence over the obligation of national defense.” Despite this, one justice disagreed, and five others felt alternative service was necessary for conscientious objectors, something the Joongang Ilbo argued for in an editorial that day.

The Joongang Ilbo also posted an excellent article a few days later about Jehovah's Witnesses titled "Pacifists and Model Prisoners", while objectors were reported a few weeks later calling for alternative service. In October two objectors, Choi Myung-jin, 23, and Yoon Yeo-beom, 25, whose prison terms were upheld by the Supreme Court decision on July 15, announced they would take their case to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, though comments made by their lawyer calling for an alternative system of service suggest this may have been done to put pressure on the government. At any rate, it was reported in March this year that a revision bill, submitted by a ruling party lawmaker, "aimed at allowing conscientious objectors an alternative to military service, mainly at social welfare facilities, for one and a half times longer than ordinary ones who serve in the military."

While this would seem to be good news, the Korea Herald reported two weeks ago that a judge "sentenced a conscientious objector to one and a half years in prison, reversing a previous decision that upheld his right not to serve in the military for religious reasons." This of course refers to the May 21 decision of last year; apparently, that decision only gave him a one year reprieve.

The article continues, however:

Amid the uproar, on July 2, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea said it will hold a public hearing on the issue of conscientious objectors around the end of August. Experts have said it will put an end to the case-by-case rulings and establish a consistent policy on the issue.

The NHRC has collected documents and data on conscientious objectors since 2003, but it will be the first time for it to hold a hearing on the issue. It would request an official opinion of the Military Manpower Administration beforehand and present the hearing's result to the whole committee of the National Assembly, according to sources.

While there does seem to be more and more people agreeing that alternative service should be allowed, how exactly this will be carried out is the more pressing question. The process for determining whether someone is genuinely a conscientious objector or whether they simply don't want to have to do military service is going to be a contentious subject of debate. In the end, I do wonder if only Jehovah's Witnesses will be allowed to. When one considers that hundreds of Korean families give birth to children overseas every year so as to give them foreign citizenship in order to avoid military service, the abuse of an alternative service system isn't a possibility, but a certainty. What's also certain is that watching how different groups within the Korean government, parliament, and civil society go about negotiating a process for conscientious objectors to enter a space outside of the military and prison will be interesting - almost as interesting as the realization that five years ago this was an utterly taboo topic.

Here is a list of Korean conscientious objectors who were in prison as of the end of 2004.

Base Geopolitics?

There was a big protest at Camp Humphries in South Korea this weekend thats over the local and international news, and getting a lot of debate on blogs as well, and even between us here at two koreas because we didn't want to get caught up in some of the more sensational debate that usually comes with protests like these in the ROK. For those of you who don't know, some 7,000 demonstrators fought with about 10,000 police guarding the military camp which US forces are planning to expand. There were a number of injuries on both sides, but it was certainly the pictures and video of stick and pipe wielding students charging the gates and the riot police that got the media's attention, as well as some bloggers who likened the event to the storming of the bastile.

The reasons for the protest are complex and involve, primarily, the move of the U.S. military headquarters from Yongsan garrison in Seoul to Pyongtaek in the Northeast by 2008. The move is part of general plans for the US to consolidate bases and reduce the number of U.S. troops in Korea. This decision must appear, and is, certainly mundane to outside viewers, but when one peels back the layers, the situation grows more complex and touches upon conflicts and frayed nerves at a variety of levels.

First, there is certainly public and private pressure to get the troops out of the capital region. The land that they sit on is prime real estate in downtown Seoul and worth billions. Besides making some very rich, freeing up this land would help the city to expand parkland, build apartments, and perhaps expand some of the industrial capacity south of the base. There is also a cultural argument to be made, and I'm sure those of you who have been to the Itaewon area near the army base in Seoul may agree, that the area around the US army base feels like a colonial scar out of place in a more modern and independent Korea. Thus, moving the base out of sight to the rural northwest is certainly favored by many in the capitol region.

Now, compounding the issue is also the local dynamics around Pyeongtaek, whom the base is being dumped on in a classic case of uneven metropole/hinterland relations, combinging a mixture of both boosterism and NIMBYism. This issue has been well explored by South Korea's Ohmynews last summer and have been roughly summarized by the blog Marmot's hole who states that if you’re a Pyeongtaek resident, your opinion on the base transfer is pretty much a function of where exactly in Pyeongtaek you live.

"If you live on the 3.49 million pyeong of land in the northwest area of Paengseong-eup (near Camp Humphreys) that is scheduled to be transfered to the U.S. military, you’re pretty much opposed to the move. The real estate, which comprises the villages of Daechu-ri, Dodu-ri, Donchang-ni, Nae-ri and Shinnae-ri, is mostly agricultural and the farmers, many of whom have probably lived on the land for generations, are naturally pretty attached to their soil.

Residents in the southeast of Paengseong-eup, including commercialized Anjeong-ni, and other areas just outside the area to be taken over by USFK are mostly in favor of the move. In particular, the store owners in front of the main gate of Camp Humphreys are particularly high on the move, and for obvious reasons. Apparently, land speculators are on the prowl down there, too, so locals may be expecting a boost in property values, something that might figure into the motives of both those in favor and opposed to the expansion.

Anyway, the farmer folk are currently adamant in their opposition to the move — the [summer 2004] government’s explanation meeting ended ugly, and they [the farmers] are talking about protecting the land (and their livelihoods) with their lives. The first 240,000 pyeong of land from Daechu-ri is scheduled to be turned over to [Camp Humphries] by the end of this year, which obviously doesn’t give the locals a whole lot of time to adjust. The government had announced a plan to compensate the 740 some-odd families that will be forced to relocate, but given the opposition of the targeted families, either the compensation offered will have to be sweetened or the land will have to be taken by force, with very little time to play politics. Sucks for everyone involved."

Added to the mixture are a number of Korean activist groups, particularly the peace and unification movement and Hanchongneon, who would like to see the US leave Korea immediately in the short term (a minority activist view) in contrast to those who would rather see them leave more gradually after the issue with the North is resolved (the more moderate progressive view). Hanchongnyeon and other radical activists approach the US from, perhaps, an outmoded national liberation perspective, which sees the US as an overarching enemy (a position that underestimates the Korean capitalist class), and which is seen as a little too extreme by other sectors in the Korean left who have a more subtle perspective. However, for those activists from other anti-war, anti-empire, peasant, and citizen movements in South Korea, the relocation plans are still a pretty good opportunity to protest an unruly empire whom they are bitter at for several reasons.

One reason involves the unsightly elements of military camptown atmosphere such as prostitution and traficking in women which are organized parts of US-ROK relations (these issues are explored quite well in scholar Katherine Moon's book Sex Among Allies); though these issues are also only the tip of the iceberg in terms of domestic red-light districts, they nonetheless continue to draw legitimate protest in Korea and at US bases around the world and nearby in Okinawa, particularly by many opposed to Status of Forces Agreements and other forms of immunity from domestic law for soldiers that go with them.

Another source of resentment is a feeling by many South Koreans of being dragged into the war in Iraq. Korea's involvement in Iraq is widely seen as an attempt to encourage America to not worsen the situation with North Korea. President No Myu Hyun said as much when he said that the decision to send 3000 troops to Iraq was made solely out of the national interest (US support for or minimal opposition to the sunshine policy), and really not part of any principled desire to participate in the 'coalition of the willing.'

Finally, peasants affected by the land deal and from other areas in the country are also mobilized becuase they are already facing hardship in Korea due to the free trade agreements that Washington pushes and which regions with cheap agricultural products such as China, Chile, and California more accurately represent.

Thus, this weekends protest, rather than simply being solely an issue of outside students or chiliastic peasants, seems rather to be an implosion of several geopolitical, national and regional issues into a pretty visible display of discontent, for better or for worse.

Here's some media on the event here and here from an NGO. Finally for more pictures here, here, and here and some video here. Check here also for the Marmots hole's more recent coverage of the event.

Summer of discontent?

I haven't been making as many indepth posts as I would like to lately, so here is an attempt to summarize a few current issues and provide, hopefully, a tinge of analysis.

As covered below, the summer strike season is heating up. The FKTU, yesterday, pulled out from the government sponsored tripartite talks and held a one day strike demanding the resignation of the labour minister Kim Tae Hwan for not safeguarding conditions surrounding irregular workers sufficiently, nor preventing violence against striking workers, resulting, indirectly, in the death of FKTU regional head Kim Dae Wan at a picket line over a month ago -- see our story on it here.

FKTU President Lee Yong-deuk was quoted as saying "There is no more social dialogue... Labor Minister Kim Dae-hwan is the one that should be held responsible for the rupture between labor and government".

more...

I've heard that labor minister Kim Tae Hwan used to be a consultant to the labour movement, so perhaps his inability to introduce progressive legislation speaks to either a change of heart or to some of the constraints the government faces under pressure from the large chaebol and other forces of global neoliberalism. After the 1997 crisis, the chaebol pressured the government, with the help of the IMF, to introduce labour market reform expanding the use of irregular and contingent workers to lower wages. The increase in the use of migrant labour since then can also be seen, indirectly, as a form of expansion of irregular work, because the status of migrants is precarious and their wages low.

Since the death of (the union leader) Kim Dae Wan, the FKTU, long regarded as a conservative union, has been mobilizing its members in protest of the government's policies. According to the Korean herald, thousands of workers affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions staged a one-day strike from 8 a.m. yesterday, culminating in a in a massive rally in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul.

Official and unofficial sources put the number of strikers and people in attendance at between 20,000 - 60,000.
The Herald reports that the FKTU represents over 820,000 workers, encompassing various industries. The last mass general strike they participated in took place in December 1996, lasting for 23 days with more than 260,000 participating.

Other labour action in recent days has included slowdowns taking place by the Korean Air pilots union and the Korean Federation of Hospital Workers' Unions' 33 000 members are set to strike for 24 hours on Friday.
Contracts are normally negotiated during the summer months in Korea making it a key strike period, other periods of worker activity are the anniversary of Jun Tae Il's death in November, and May Day, both are unofficial workers' holidays.

There was a short article here yesterday on migrant workers in the Choson. Apparently the Justice Department said Wednesday it repatriated some 59,276 illegal residents in the first half of the year, some 8,000 more than during the whole of last year. However, as of the end of June the number of foreigners staying illegally in the country had increased by 8,000 from late last year to 196,000. Just goes to show that the crackdown continues, ineffectively.

A great deal of this number is also from workers whose permits have expired but have chosen to overstay in order to continue working. The Equality Trade Union (ETU), years ago when trying to sit at the negotiating table over the new employment permit system, said that any system would have to be longer than three years because that is simply not enough time to repay the debts they incur to come to Korea, legally or illegally, through brokers, recruitment firms and so on.

It's hard to clearly get an idea of how much workers pay to come to Korea, but I've heard of it costing generally in the range of 5000-15,000 dollars, not including a number of other hidden costs that workers incur in Korea in addition to that. I'm not a policy maker but it seems to me that rather than repressing migrant's groups as they did to the ETU and now the MTU, they should have listened to them as they have much better knowledge of the conditions on the ground and motives for overstaying. Not much has changed though, seems that Anwar Hussain, leader of the Migrant's Trade Union (successor of the ETU) is still in detention for trying to organize migrants to have their voices heard (see our other stories about it here and here).

Finally, here are some pictures from the recent rallies, courtesy of the FKTU, enjoy!

Some labor news

From the Korea Herald:

Flurry of labor strikes looms this week

With umbrella labor groups campaigning to oust the government's labor policymaking lineup, Korea's seasonal
wave of strikes and boycotts, or the so-called summer strife, is expected to hit the nation this week, creating a flurry of labor unrest in key industries. Setting the stage for the July offensive, at the forefront was a group of hospital workers who voted overwhelmingly over the weekend to authorize a walkout for Friday.

The Korean Health and Medical Workers Union, representing about 40,000 workers at more than 100 hospitals nationwide, is demanding that individual hospital managements form a counterpart body to collectively negotiate with the trade union and implement the previously agreed measures such as new recruits for the five-day workweek system. Workers affiliated with the Korean Metal Workers Union are also gearing up for collective action, demanding a hike in minimum pay and irregular workers' right to organize. The union has earlier decided to stage 4-hour stoppages twice on Wednesday and Friday if no agreement is reached during the upcoming round of negotiations tomorrow.
...

Pilots at both the Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have threatened similar action in the near future. In what they say is a warning strike, unionized pilots at Asiana are set to stay away from their jobs for 24 hours from 1 a.m. Tuesday. All Asiana flights departing Incheon and Kimpo airports during the planned striking hours will have to be cancelled, union officials insisted. However, Korean Air union has decided not to join the stoppage but instead will carry out a work-to-rule campaign.

Pilots request to extend the retirement age from 55 to 59 and shorten the flight hours. Amid waves of labor unrest in major workplaces expected this week, the largest umbrella labor group of Federation of Korean Trade Unions, which called on its 820,000 members to join an indefinite general strike from Thursday, is pressuring the current administration to fire Labor Minister Kim Dae-hwan and other labor officials.

The second largest Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has joined FKTU on the campaign. At the core of the group's discontent is the government-pushed labor reform package which is deadlocked in the National Assembly and the tragic death last month of a labor leader during a rally for workers' rights. The FKTU strike is expected to be punctuated by several marches and rallies nationwide in which thousands or tens of thousands from all over the country are expected to turn up.