CINA

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DLP on verge of split over ideology (Yonhap, 2.04)

The progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) is likely to break up as its two main factions have failed to narrow differences over whether to maintain strong ties with North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.

The party's moderate faction, focusing on labor, environment and other issues more closely related to people's livelihoods, is said to be preparing to form a new party. Such a move would end eight years of shaky unity, with the DLP's hard-line faction considered to be the country's sole progressive group free from the regionalism that has dominated the country's politics for the past few decades.

Some analysts say the likely breakup may be a boon to progressive forces trying to make inroads among liberal voters with an image focused on people's livelihoods rather than reconciliation with North Korea. Others say both the DLP and the proposed party may collapse, with neither having enough time to woo voters just a couple of months ahead of the April general elections.

Either way, the fate of the DLP may significantly alter South Korea's ideological spectrum amid a resurgence of conservatism following the right-leaning Lee Myung-bak's landslide victory in the Dec. 19 presidential election.

The DLP on Sunday failed to pass a critical motion to expel members related to the "Ilshimhoe scandal" -- involving a clandestine group rumored to have strong ties with North Korea's ruling Workers Party -- widening the existing rift.

The party's moderate members, who supported the motion to expel the pro-Pyongyang lawmakers, left the meeting room in anger amid rumors they will soon bolt from the party and create a new party of their own.

The internal conflict escalated following the DLP's embarrassing defeat in the December presidential election, in which its candidate Kwon Young-ghil garnered a mere 2.8 percent of the vote.

The initial responsibility fell upon Kwon and the party leadership, which resigned en masse, but the DLP moderates blamed the pro-Pyongyang rival faction, claiming the "anachronistic agenda" had driven away many voters.

The latest rift is not very surprising, considering that the two main factions of the DLP have often been in dispute over their ideological beliefs.

The DLP was established in January 2000 with the support of the National Liberation (NL) and People's Democracy (PD) groups. The two mainstream anti-government student organizations were formed in the 1980s when the country was under the authoritarian regime of Chun Doo-hwan, who seized power in a coup after the assassination of his mentor Park Chung-hee. During Park's 19 years of iron-fisted rule until 1979, the country was transformed into an industrialized nation but it faced criticism over human rights violations.

The moderate PD faction worked mainly on advocating laborer's rights, with many of its members joining trade unions to mastermind industrial actions.

The NL faction, holding a majority within the party, is a pro-Pyongyang group that prioritizes reunification of the two Koreas and focuses on stronger ties with the North's Workers' Party.

The DLP emerged as a major political force in 2004 when it won 10 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly under the proportional representation system, based on its 13 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections.

It was the first time in South Korea's modern history that a non-region-based progressive party gained significant legislative representation.

However, the situation took a dramatic turn by the end of 2006 following the arrest of five party members on charges of spying for the North, leading to the crushing defeat in the Dec. 19 presidential election last year.

Facing growing pressure from the PD faction to push for a party split, or formation of a new party free of the pro-North agenda, Shim Sang-jung, head of an emergency committee to deal with the election's aftermath, proposed a motion to expel two senior staff members of the NL faction.

These members, linked to the North Korea-related scandal, were convicted by the Supreme Court in 2006 of spying for the North.

The terms "spy" and "pro-North Korea" have particularly strong negative connotations in South Korea, especially among members of the older generation who grew up amid high tension between the Koreas in the Cold War era.

But the NL members voted down the motion on Sunday, nullifying the emergency committee's move.

The NL faction claims that linking voter rejection and the North Korean issue is ludicrous. Asserting that progressivism is an "all-encompassing concept," the group insists that rejecting a single liberal policy like the pro-North agenda is unquestionable and that the party must move on and prepare together for the April elections.

Following Sunday's vote, members of the emergency committee led by Rep. Shim are likely to leave the party, which would cause a leadership vacuum just two months ahead of the elections. More PD lawmakers, including Rep. Roh Hoe-chan, are expected to follow suit.
Some political experts propose that the DLP try to stay away from its pro-North Korea image, but do so together.

"The DLP must change the scope of policy to more genuinely progressive credentials," said political analyst Lee Kyung-hun. "As its name symbolizes, it must work harder on protecting the laborers and the low-income bracket -- now a counterpoint to the market advocacy of right-leaning incoming leader Lee Myung-bak."
Political analyst Im Myung-jin of the Progressive Politics Institute agreed.

"Although it appears that conservatives are currently dominant, the decision to elect right-leaning candidates may simply be due to a lack of a better alternative for voters," he said.

"In order for the DLP to keep hold its position -- which is critical for a healthy ideological debate in the nation -- its members must strive to maintain unity among the various interest groups that support the progressive cause," Im added. "After all, they are all in pursuit of the same goal to improve the lives of workers and the underprivileged. Labor and progressives need to stay on the same page."

Related stuff:

☞ DLP Hardliners Throw Out Reform Attempts (Chosun Ilbo, 2.04)

☞ Labor Party moderates begin exodus (JoongAng Ilbo, 2.05)

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Three weeks ago the "Emergency Committee to Stop Repression Against Migrants" (ECSRAM/이주탄압분쇄 비대위) initiated the "Internet One-Person-Demo (to support the struggle of migrant workers)". Following you can see just a few beautiful examples of the campaign:

 Many more pics of the campaign you can see here:

☞ 인터넷1인시위

☞ 사진자료실

Related:

MWTV's latest video (last week's rally in front of Seoul's Immigration Office):

☞ 당뇨병 걸린 이주노동자 치료없이 폭력적 강제출국 강행

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Jin Joon-kwon(*):

"From today, the DLP is no more!"

Today's K.Times reported that the..

..Troubled DLP Leader Resigns
 

In a move that is expected to accelerate a breakup of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), the party's head stepped down Monday taking responsibility for failing to revamp the party suffering an internal rift.

Rep. Sim Sang-jeong, who temporarily led the party on behalf of the party leadership, resigned as chairwoman of the party's emergency committee over the rejection of the party reform plan during a national convention a day earlier.

As the party failed to settle disputes and narrow the opinion gap in the convention, which party members called the last chance to retain the party, the minority party will likely face a split soon.

``Yesterday, we witnessed that obsolete rules still control the party. I apologize for having failed to meet the demand from the public for party reform and I think I should take the responsibility,'' Sim told reporters at the National Assembly.

Some party members, who shared a sense of need for party reform, are moving to leave the party.

A major bone of contention for the party was whether or not to deprive people engaged in pro-Pyongyang activities of their party membership as part of efforts to shed its North Korea-friendly image.

Mainstreamers within the party, which is more critical toward the United States and favorable toward the North, opposed the plan, while the smaller faction, called the equalitarian group, insisted that the reform is a necessary sacrifice for the party to regain public trust.

In Sunday's convention, 553 of 862 party delegates voted against the reform plan which would have deprived former Vice Secretary-General Choi Ki-young and former Supreme Council member Lee Jung-hoon of their party membership.

The two figures, known as members of the pro-Pyongyang group Ilsimhoe within the party, allegedly met North Korean spies and leaked information on the DLP to North Korea on a regular basis.

Twenty-three members of the smaller faction already left the party and more officials are expected to follow suit over dissatisfaction at the rejection of the reform plan.

Sim and Rep. Roh Hoe-chan are also considering quitting the party soon, party sources said.

Deserters plan create a new progressive party which can complement insufficiency that has haunted the DLP founded eights years ago, party sources said.

Following her resignation, Rep. Chun Young-se, the only Supreme Council member remaining in the party, will lead the party until new leaders are elected.

Conflicts between the two factions surfaced after DLP candidate Kwon Young-ghil was defeated in December's presidential election with three percent of the vote, even lower than that he received in his second run four years ago and that of independent Lee Hoi-chang.

The party's popularity also plunged to a single digits from 13 percent.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/113_18469.html

Related: 

☞ Labor party crisis deepens (K. Herald, 2.04)

☞ DLP’s ideological feud splitting group (JoongAng Ilbo, 2.05)

* Jin Joon-kwon is a "well known" columnist and culture critic who left the DLP in 2002

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Following you can read articles, reports and analyses, published during last days in the S.K. media - from the extreme conservative/right (DailyNK, JoongAng Ilbo) to the alternative/independent radical left (NewsCham/참세상):

The Debate to End the DLP’s Pro-North Korea Stance: the Roots of a 20-Year Conflict (DailyNK, 2.01)

 
It seems the conflict between the Democratic Labor Party’s two major ideological outlooks, those favoring “equality” versus those favoring “autonomy” is reaching a climax as the two sides battle over the party’s pro-North Korea stance.

After an emergency committee meeting, DLP members revealed that they would propose a measure to expel party members involved in the Ilshimhoe spy case (the Ilshimhoe was a group accused of espionage in 2005. Some of its members were also members of the DLP). The proposed measure will be put before the party’s national convention. The pro-Pyongyang “autonomy” faction, who is in the majority, is threatening to veto the proposal.

Meanwhile, the opposing “equality” faction led by former assembly member Jo Seung Soo held a launching ceremony for the “New Progressive Movement Party,” which means the equality faction is already preparing to leave the party.

“It is an inevitable process” said Joo Dae Hwan, the former chairman of the Policy Committee of the Democratic Labor Party. Due to the waning of pro-North Korea sentiments, the “autonomy” faction and the “equality” faction can no longer stay together. This current conflict within the DLP arose gradually from the two sides different positions on North Korean issues.

Mutual relations between NL and PD

Within the Democratic Labor Party, the National Liberation (NL) group represents the “autonomy” faction while the People’s Democracy (PD) group represents the “equality” faction. Both groups have their origins in 1980s South Korean revolutionary social movements.

The NL group thinks that South Korea’s problems are due to the division of the country and believe South Korea is still a colony of American imperialists. Their main enemy is the US. Additionally they emphasize “Uriminjokkiri (with our nation alone)” and support independent national reunification.

The PD group thinks that South Korea’s key problems are due to a monopolistic capitalist system. They even think that the division of the peninsula was the result of the expansion of capitalist markets. They insist the process of unification could only result from the liberation of South and North Korean laborers.

Some call the NL group the “autonomy” faction, but the “Juche Ideology faction” (Jusa-pa in Korean) is more accurate. They subscribe to the Juche Ideology of Kim Il Sung and consider the Chosun Worker’s Party as their guiding organization. This is the reason why pro-North Korea currents are so strong in the Democratic Labor Party.

The NL group has dominated the movement’s national structure since the mid 1980s, while the PD group has been on the decline since the fall of communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe.

The NL group started discussing the establishment of their own progressive party in the early-1990s. The current manifestation of the Democratic Labor Party was organized and founded mainly by the PD group with a few members of the NL group in January, 2000.

The PD dominated-Labor Party turned into the NL-led-Labor Party as the general public’s pro-North Korea sentiments grew, especially during the 2000 inter-Korea Summit. National organizations, such as the National Farmers Union and the Korean College Student Union, had announced their support for the Party by the 16th Presidential Elections in 2002.

Kim Young Hwan, a member of the editorial committee of Zeitgeist Publishing used to be the leader of the National Democratic Revolutionary Party (Minhyuk-dang), the core organization of the NL group, before switching sides and joining the North Korea democratization movement. He insisted through a telephone conversation with DailyNK that “The core members of the ‘autonomy’ faction of the Labor Party are from the Minhyuk-dang, and the Minhyuk-dang is deeply involved in controlling the Democratic Labor Party.”

“Around 30% of the NL group joined with the PD group to found the party. Since the presidential elections, 60-70% of the NL group now participates in the party and the NL group dominates,” explained Kim.

Why the end of the pro-North Korea stance?

After their miserable defeat in the 2007 presidential elections, blame fell on the “autonomy” faction because of their hegemony over the party. The “equality” faction criticized the “autonomy” faction for rubbing the electorate the wrong way with their pro-North Korea policies, thus causing their failure in the elections.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Labor Party asserted that the North’s nuclear program would only be used for the national defense of North Korea and clung to North Korea’s concept of “Uriminjokkiri.” The party found itself being criticized as a puppet of the Chosun Worker’s Party.

The “equality” faction supports improving the conditions of the domestic labor class, favoring human rights issues over unification issues, and criticizing North Korea’s nuclear development. When North Korea tested its nuclear weapons, the “equality” faction found itself unable to release a statement of condemnation due to the power of the opposing faction. Since then, conflicts within the party became more pronounced.

The “equality” faction criticized their counterparts for their indifference to the North Korean regime’s human rights record while the “autonomy” faction accused the other side of not acknowledging the peculiarity of inter-Korean issues.

“Supporting North Korea without any conditions, the motto of the ‘autonomy’ faction, is not the spirit of this party. They consider our party a vehicle for North Korean propaganda,” said Jo Seung Soo

On the other hand, Kim Chang Hyun, the former secretary general of the party, and a member of the “autonomy” faction, retorted, “If the ‘equality’ faction considers North-South relations as relations between sovereign states, it is as though they support a permanent division.”

It is obvious that a party split is inevitable, as the “autonomy” faction remains silent on the worst human rights situation in the world. 

http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00400&num=3212

Related articles:

☞ 2 senior members exit Democratic Labor Party (JoongAng Ilbo, 2.02)

☞ DLP Seeks to Shed N. Korea-Friendly Image (K. Times, 1.30)

☞ Discussion about a New Progressive Party Emerged (NewsCham, 1.28)

☞ “총선 전 창당하자” vs “민주노동당 사정일 뿐” (참세상, 2.01)

☞ '민주노총당', '친북당' 등 표현 삭제 (민중의소리, 2.03)

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Jan. 30, only one day after I published the latest news about comrade Suwash he was deported without to get any medical treatment. Despite the protests, respectively the demand for to release him for medical treatment  by MTU and several S.K. human right, left political and labour organizations the MoJ/Immigration Office decided to send him back to Nepal, where he arrived yesterday.
Today, to protest against the deportation, MTU and several other orgainzations held a press conference in front of Seoul's Immigration Office..

Following you can read the news about Suwash's case by MWTV and IBMK:

Nepalese Migrant Worker, Suwash, Deported

Suwash, a manager of the Sung-dong branch of the Migrants' Trade Union was deported on Wednesday, January 30th. The Nepali worker spent months at the the Hwaseong Detention Center without getting proper treatment for his diabetes. Ignoring the calls of doctors and NGOs, the Ministry of Justice and the Immigration Office chose deportion instead of giving Suwash the medical treatment he required. The Ministry of Justice argued that they deported Nepalese because his diabetes had gotten better.

Aware of the deportion plans, members of the MTU sit-in struggle team blocked the gates in front of the Hwaseong Detention Center around the clock from January 29-30th. It was only when they demanded to see Suwash for an interview on the afternoon of January 30th that they were told that Suwash had been secreted out of the Center and put on a plane back to Nepal. 

Suwash had come to S. Korea on March 11th, 2003 as a trainee, becoming an undocumented worker after 3 years. He was caught by Immigration officials in a crackdown in July 2007. He had summited a petition over the violation of his human rights to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea but was turned down on the 28th of January. Protests against the deportation of Suwash are ongoing.

Immigration Office deported a migrant worker

with diabetes..
The application for temporary release was rejected without any reasons. 

The Seoul Immigration Office rejected the application for temporary release of Suwash Budathoki, a Nepalese migrant worker suffering from diabetes and complications and deported him on January 30.

After hearing the news of deportation of Suwash, members of Migrant Trade Union and about ten civic group activists have went on a sit strike in the front of Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center since January 28.

Their last meeting with Suwash was at 10 a.m on Jan 30. At that time he asked to have endoscopy, complaining about stomachache. He said that he couldn’t sleep last night because of pain.   

The Migrant Trade Union and civic group activists stayed in Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center to confirm his deportation at around 4 p.m. on Jan 30.

Suwash Budathoki had been detained in Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center for 7 months. He had suffered from diabetes before arrest and in the center; complications were developed so he asked for temporary release. The Seoul Immigration Office accepted at first, however, the Justice Ministry requested reexamination without any reasons and finally, the application was rejected.

http://211.47.69.86/~migrantsmulti/?document_srl=14487#0

Related articles in Korean:

☞ "대한민국에 인권이 있는가?" (이주탄압분쇄비대위, 2.01)

☞ 법무부 병든 이주노동자에 '가혹행위' (참세상, 2.01)

For more (but unfortunately only/nearly only in Korean) please check out:

☞ ECSRAM/이주탄압분쇄비대위

☞ MTU/이주노동자 노동조합