CINA

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Yesterday's (bourgeois) Korea Times wrote following:

Is Media Center Taking Conservative Tone?

The Media Center, opened in 2002 and located on the fifth floor of the Ilmin Museum in Gwanghwamun, is a public cultural organization offering media education programs.

"We helped citizens to communicate socially though video clips, educated them about the media and rented out resources," said a representative of Mediact, the center's former operator.

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) funds the center's operation and selects the operator. When it opened, the Association of Korean Independent Film and Video (AKIFV) established Mediact and was given operational control of the Media Center after signing a contract with the council.

'Members of Mediact International Solidarity protest Tuesday in front of the Ministry of Culture, Sports

and Tourism for depriving Mediact of its contract to run Media Center, a state-subsidized media

education facility, and hiring a conservative organization as new operator' (K. Times, 2.03)

However, in April last year the Board of Audit and Inspection ordered the AKIFV to pay back the subsidy that was provided to Mediact for 2008 to 2009, alleging a misuse of funds. Additionally, KOFIC opened the operating contract to public bidding instead of renewing its contract with the AKIFV.

The Citizen's Video Cultural Organization (CVCO) was selected as the new operator, despite Mediact's claims that it had done nothing wrong.

Observers suspect that the change was part of the government's efforts to bring a more conservative tone to the nation's media sector.

The CVCO was established on Jan. 6 this year and is headed by Prof. Kim Jong-kuk of Hongik University, who also works for the conservative "New Right" cultural organization, Cultural Future Forum.

Mediact claimed the selection was a setback to media democracy in Korea and filed an online petition titled "Media and Democracy in South Korea: Save Mediact." Across the world, 600 people had signed the petition as of Tuesday. They submitted the petition to the culture ministry and the KOFIC.

Mahbub Alam, a Bangladeshi actor who starred in the Korean movie "Bandhobi" last year, supported Mediact at a press conference in front of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and Tourism, Tuesday.

"Independent movies are a place that allow for minorities to communicate, not only those who have money and power," Alam said. "I want to create a media education program in my home country and Mediact is a role model."

KOFIC Chairman Cho Hee-moon rebutted any suggestion of ideology in changing the contractor. Cho is considered a conservative figure in the movie world and worked for the presidential transition committee of current President Lee Myung-bak.

He said most applicants for the operator position were newly founded organizations and the KOFIC went through the proper selection process at a press conference Monday. Cho said he couldn't renew the contract with Mediact since it was suspected of misusing the subsidy.

"The core of the suspicion is why Mediact was eliminated and how trustworthy the new organization is. Our efforts to choose the best operator have been ignored," Cho said.

Mediact refuted Cho's remarks, saying they were contradictory as the KOFIC considers Mediact to be a newly established organization while recognizing its connection to the former operator AKIFV.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/02/117_60242.html

 SAVE MediACT!!  - International Solidarity:
☞ Int'l Day Of Action To Support MediAct  

☞ Solidarity in NYC/USA 

☞ Solidarity in Vancouver/CN 

☞ Solidarity in Tokyo/JP 

☞ 南韓媒體的民主危機：拯救MediAct (香港)

☞ 南韓媒體的民主危機：拯救MediAct (台灣)

☞ SAVE Mediact! 厳重警備のなか韓国大使館抗議アクション
 
Previous contribution:
☞  MEDIACT영상미디어센터

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Migrants' Trade Union (MTU) published yesterday following "Open Letter to the Korean Workers":

 
The Strife of the Migrant Workers

The Korean migrant worker policy is like a faulty wiring design that sooner or later would blow up in our faces. How effective is it to be able to fix this "broken" situation? Like the faulty wiring design that blows up our fuse or appliance, the migrant policy both in the labor and immigration laws are flawed to start with. The migrants are not the problem. It is the system.

Knowing this, will you allow that policy to destroy the lives of thousands of people? I am not only speaking of the lives of the migrant workers per se but of all the Korean society.

First of all, regardless of their claim that the migrant workers share the same rights as the Korean workers, in reality and in practice we all know that this is not true. Similarly, under the past dictatorship during the 70's and 80's the Korean labor force then are like the migrant workers today. Both of us have been heavily suppressed and have been denied access to labor and human rights.

Pick any workplace where there are migrant workers and most definitely these workers are the ones who would be doing the most difficult, dirtiest and dangerous work. They are usually the first ones to come in and the last ones to leave the workplace day in and day out. It is also very common that migrant workers are powerless in refusing overtime work despite their exhaustion or physical condition. They are always expected to work faster, longer, and more than their Korean co-workers. On top of all of this, the migrants are commonly cheated out of their salaries, benefits and other compensation.

The flawed Employment Permit System and the Immigration policies/laws are like that faulty wiring system. The revisions and amendments are like the fuse in that fusebox. They only offer ineffective solutions and will not really address the true problem. No matter how many revisions the EPS undergoes, it will still not be able to fix the situation of the migrant workers in Korea because the are designed to protect a self-serving interest(government's/capitalist's) and not the interest of the migrants. No matter how much information they get from the migrant population as prescribed by the new Immigration Law (fingerprinting requirement for foreigners) it will not discourage migrants from becoming undocumented if they choose to. It would not stop the few individuals who would resort to commiting crimes, fraud and misdemeanor. Just like in the US, it only will only incur unnescessary expenditures for the government without achieving any relevant goal. Apart from violating the freedom of the individual's privacy and freedom from persecution, this will only promote distrust and discrimination towards migrants and all foreigners.

In the past, quite a number of documented workers have lost their visa due to circumstances that are beyond their control. They have either lost their job for reasons such as company bankruptcy, sexual/violence and abuse, unpaid wages,were illegally terminated from their companies and other labor violations. Under the current policy, an EPS worker will now be able to change his or her workplace more than 3 times. If the conditions or reason for termination of the working relations are due to the employers fault, the change will not be counted. Just recently we have been able to experience the ineffectivity of this law. The reason lies not only on the particular law itself but in the protocol of it's application. The internal protocol of the Ministry of Labor is not to protect the migrants. The protocol is how they could appease the advocates for human and labor rights, how they could build a better (albeit, superficial) image for the Korean labor system while they prioritize the protection of the businesses and owners and NOT the migrants.

Just recently, we have been receiving a lot of cases from other EPS workers who have lost their chance to be re-employed because of their employers negligence. The Job centers upon advisement from the immigration office are now strictly enforcing the more than 1-month application period for the migrant workers re-application of contracts. This current practice in turn, makes a new batch of undocumented workers, casting a shadow of doubt in the real intentions of the crackdown and their claim that they want to keep the undocumented migrant population at a minimum. On one hand they intensify the crackdown by setting quotas for arrests, on the other hand they make more undocumented workers by introducing ineffective laws and practices. (Instead of importing new, and relatively unexperienced labor wouldn't it be easier for the government to just legalize the more experienced undocumented workers here? Is this how they could supply cheaper labor to the business owners? Is it their intention to eliminate the more experienced undocumented workers because the workers who have stayed here for more than 6 years onwards receive higher wages and are more empowered in knowing their entitlement to the law? Or is it their means of intimidating workers to be more submissive to their employers so that they would not run the risk of losing documentation? Or in the case of undocumented workers, so they will not run the risk of being reported to the immigration?)

Secondly, these inequality between migrants and local workers subverts the existing labor laws and practices. If the migrant workers are forced to provide cheaper labor than the Korean workers, it would then lower the standards both in wages and practices for all workers regardless of their nationality. The business owners and capitalist would rather spend less for more gain and the current migrant labor situation is designed to provide that cheap, disposable, easily controllable labor. Migrants are heavily disagvantaged and are forced to comply. All of us will suffer if we allow this system to continue.

Third, under the Lee administration, Korea is taking a forked-road approach with regards to foreigners. They try to build up the image of a multi-cultural Korea through their advertising and re-structuring in all fronts (education, image-building, etc.) in the name of multi-culturalism. With regards to migrant workers and labor in general the proposed policies are generally taking the opposite turn. Their propaganda against the criminality of the migrant workers and how we are responsible in turning our residential areas into slums are contemptible.

Because of the crackdown, the migrants either imprison themselves in their homes, others suffer from paranoia, others commit suicide or inflict self-injury to escape arrest, and in some isolated cases, migrants fight back to protect themselves or are driven to violence because of their insufferable conditions. The large majority go about their lives with a subservient attitude towards the demands of the Korean society, from the laws, to their company superiors and korean co-workers, to the ordinary Koreans they meet. Their avoidance of any sort of conflict pave the way to their own exploitation.

Migrants are forced into that situation because of the system and financial standing. Not because it is a part of their nature or culture. (They are forced to live in the Korean slums because it is what they can afford. While a few are forced into taking extreme measures to defend themselves such as during crackdowns, rarely will you find migrants that resort to violence in order to seek redress from the violence and abuse that they have suffered. I am not condoning the violent actions of the migrants but rather, I am providing an insight of how desperation can lead to a tragic end.)

Now more than ever, with the Lee adminstration's tyrannical policy against the labor movement, we the workers have to unite to fight against a common foe. We need to fight injustice and we need to protect the rights that our martyrs have paid for with their lives and their future.

It is relatively easy for the Korean unions to organize the migrant workers. It is also relatively easy to understand the situation of the migrant workers because aside from the immigration issue, the labor conditions we are suffering today are the same conditions that the Korean workers went through during the dictatorship. Korea had also been a labor exporting country in the past. Through this commonality, we can build on a better understanding.

Today, it is imparative for us to know the working conditions of each region, of each sector. It is imperative for us to teach them (Koreans and migrants) that we share the same labor rights. It is imparative for us teach them the importance of unity and working together and protecting each other. It is imperative for us to show them the power of unity and unionism.

The migrants will listen because all of us are frustrated by our situation. Migrants are FORCED to accept as fact, ...that being alone in a foreign land, speaking a foreign tounge, having foreign features... being a foreign worker, ...we are nothing but slaves and will always be treated as such. We will always be the lower-class minority. If this is the case, where is our justice?

It is time for us to break free from this prejudice. If the Korean workers accepts us and welcomes us like brother or sisters, if we are accepted as equals.., we, the migrant workers, will not stand behind you... will walk side by side with you and we will fight with you all the way.

I wish to live in a world that is not divided by border, by color, by language, by class nor religion...

I wish to live in a world where no one will die because of hunger, war, violence or poverty...

You can call me a dreamer... you can call me delusional... so be it.

If my dreams.., if my delusions.., are the fuel that feeds the passion in my heart to fight for what is good and what is right...

I will gladly embrace them. For in knowing that my life had a purpose makes life worth living.

-MPaulos

http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=26460#0

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Today's (bourgeois) Korea Times published following piece:

Life of Labor Fighter to Be Newly Interpreted 
 

Chun Tae-il (Jeon Tae-il), a labor activist who burnt himself to death at the age of 22 on Nov. 13, 1970 at the height of Korea's development-oriented authoritarian rule, will be promoted as a pioneer in Korea's human rights movement.

The Chun Tae-il Memorial Foundation (CMF) announced Monday a memorial festival for Chun will be held through by grass-root organizations in October ahead of the 40th anniversary of his death.

Chang Ki-pyo, chairman of the foundation, said he would set up a committee for the festival with the labor circle, the political world and religious figures within the month.

The festival will hold a concert, samulnori performances and poetry recitals to remember Chun's spirit of humanism.

Jeon Tae-il monument (Seoul, Cheonggyecheon, near Pyeonghwa Market/평화시장)

Chun has been portrayed as martyr. Park Kay-hyun, secretary general of the foundation, said that this change of approach is aimed at bringing him closer to the heart of the public.

The foundation will combine the existing labor awards and the literature awards for the "Chun Tae-il Award," and expand the number of areas to be cited.

It will start an educational program for migrant workers as well. "We will help migrant workers protect their rights by themselves," Park said.

"Chun's spirit can be summarized as a love for humanity and it is meaningful in such a polarized and materialistic society. These awards will give prominence to Chun as a universally desirable human character."

According to Park, foreign countries such as Germany gave material and emotional support when the foundation was built.

The foundation is trying to renew the image of Chun by emphasizing his humane aspects. It also published a new edition of a critical biography of Chun written by lawyer Cho Yong-nae last year, which was originally written in 1983.

Chun was born in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1948. He worked as a garment cutter at Pyeonghwa Market. By then, youngsters in sweatshops were forced to work 16-hour shifts.

He organized his colleagues to start the so-called labor movement. He requested increasing wages, shorter working hours and health check-ups for the workers.

However, his attempts to make a better labor environment were turned down by employers and indifferent politicians.

His self-immolation was reported internationally. With its social reverberations, some 2,500 labor unions were organized after Chun's death.

His life was cinematized in 1995 in the film "A Single Spark." Actor Hong Kyung-in played the role of the labor activist who took his life for the labor movement.

 
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/02/117_60089.html

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At the General Meeting of delegates, held last Thursday(1.28), the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) selected Kim Yeong-hun as its new chairman.

Kim, a railway worker and former head of the Korean Transport Workers’ Union, will be leading the organization for the next three years.
"On his shoulders is the task of breathing new air into the KCTU as it enters its fifteenth year and restoring the organization to its previously-held standing", The Hankyoreh wrote before yesterday.

But the S. Korean ruling class and its mouthpiece (the bourgeois media) already predicts - and celebrates in advance - a possible "radical change" in the KCTU:

KCTU elects moderate to lead it into the future

- Kim pledged that he would “eliminate the KCTU’s outdated labor protests and deepening intrafactional activities.”
- Kim will change the union’s long-standing aggressive manner. As the largest moderate faction inside KCTU supported Kim in the election, labor issue observers say it is very unlikely for Kim to stage radical actions, such as a general strike...

Source: JoongAng Ilbo (1.30)

Related articles:

☞ Labor group picks moderate leader (K. Herald, 1.30)
☞ KCTU’s new leadership task (Hankyoreh, 1.30)
☞ 민주노총 제49차 정기대의원대회 개최 (KCTU, 1.28)