June 6, 1999 Korean PICIS Newsletter #55 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Jun 8, 1999 by labornews@labornet.org PICIS Newsletter No. 55 Edited by Chang-Geun, Lee Published by PICIS (Policy and Information Center for International Solidarity) June 6, Sunday, 1999 Edior's Note : In this issue, it covers 1) column : Is South Korea Independent?, 2) report on the PICIS Workshop : Fron UR, IMF to the Millenium Round, 3) Debate on the slogan of Working-hour reduction, 4) short information : Insecure Employment Rapidly Increasing. Welcome any comments, opinion and questions on the PICIS Newsletter. (mail to : picis@jinbo.net) Is South Korea Independent? I have heard that the is a medium that is read by many activivsts overseas. Many articles in this newsletter, including this one, will be about the contradictory realitites of Korea. However, one can not take pleasure in telling people overseas about the problems of one's homeland. Just as the war in Kosovo is primarily a problem of the people of Kosovo, and just as the problems in East Timor is a problem of the native's livelihood, the problems of Korea is fundamentally the Koreans share and no sympathethic or well-intentioned view/theory(however, distinguished it may be) will change that fact. Especially in a country like Korea, which has suffered for so long from outside forces, and has been the subject of blunt or suggestive comments of superiority from residents of developed countries, foreigners are a subject to be guarded against. Of course I do not believe that any of our readers would have degrading views of our country or any of the peripheral countries. In fact our readers may have undue expectations or illusions about our country. This is also a trap that foreigners have to defend against. My hope is that article will not serve to confirm the degrading thoughts about a country which is ridden with problems, but rather bring a common problem to the attention of all that wish for true progress and human rights to be brought to this world. What impressions do foreigners have aboutKorea? I have heard many times that Korea, both North and South, seem very antagonistic to both outsiders and foreign cultures in the view of foreigners. As a matter of fact, besides North Korea, which is known as the most isolated and closed off country in the world, South Korea is also a country in which anti-foreign comments can be frequently heard, the slogan "What's Korean is what's Best" has always been popular, and a country in which the words 'nationality unknown' accompanies mistrust. Is Korea that much independent from the outside world? The objective reality is that it is not! It may be that the subjective autonomy of Koreans may be a paradoxical reflection of the complex that we have of our foreign dependency. Of course all countries, including economically closed off countries like North Korea, are mutually independent, and this seems to be a trend that will continue. In this global system with no borders, it has ceased to be unfamiliar news that an event in another country such as the econmic crisis in Indonesia, the moratorium in Russia, or the devaluation of the Chinese currency has grave effects on not only neighboring countries, but also on countries at the opposite end of the globe. We also have come to know no country in the world is free from the arrogant international relations policy of the U.S., or the movement of the out-of-control speculative international capital, or the power of Hollywood films. But it can be said that 'foreign dependency' in a country which is geopolitically surrounded by the so called 'four powers(Russia, China, Japan, and the U.S.)' is a problem that is on an entirely different scale and context. A famous literary critic in a recent paper used this expression. "The Korean culture, which in pre-modern times we lived in the Chinese era, In the first half of the 20th century in Japanese era, and in the second half is in reality living in the American era........" This expression is in no way an exaggeration or a figure of speech. After Japanese imperialism left this country with the end of World War II, what came to this country was not the flag of an independent country which the people of Korea had fought for so long, but the dividing line of an international Cold War. The U.S. replaced Japan in Korea as the ruler. Internationally, the U.S. became the godfather of Korea, and internally it set the standards for everything. Looking back, being under the protection of the most powerful country in the world had it'spros and cons. The forced division of the peninsula led to the most tragic war in the history of Korea(in which 4 million died), but at the same time the U.S. strategy in Korea was set with the view in mindthat Korea was the showwindow for capitalism and this led to Korea becoming the fastest-growing economy in the Cold War era. Korea's strategy for survival in the Cold War era was watch the intentions of theinternaitonal powers and to act accordingly, and Korean's strategy was opportunism. This was the basic terms for everything in Korean society, including the progressive movements. The governing indeology in Korea was not the liberal domocracy that the ruling class invariably repeated but a horrible combination of anti-communist totalitarianism, supremacy over everything for national security, ownership absolutism, exclusion of labor, and anti-tolerance. This 'Cold War Capitalism' or Cold War Liberalism' was the true face of Korea's so called "Asian values' or 'development dictatorship' and the lack of liberal ideologies blocked the growth of socialist ideologies. Is the Cold War over then? The answer is a No, at least in Korea. Actually, the prospect that the condition of Korea peninsula which has been oneof the hottest conflict places in the time of Cold War, would succeed between two international powers, the U.S. and China, even in the coming 21st century, the time of New Cold War. To watch the intention of the strongest nation-states, as the weak one's strategy for survival, still continues. Even though excluding the subordinate history for the last 50 years, I can give you some examples of it on the recent press. When the U.S. bombed the Sudan and Afganistan last year while the period of Clinton's scandal with Rewinski, most Korean media analyzed that it could have effect of warning over the Kim Jung-il, North Koreanregime. And while the U.S. & NATO's attaking the Yugoslavia, Korean media reported at that time, "We are worried about 'the vacuum of the strenth of U.S. Army in Asian-Pacific region' because of its too much concentration on one conflict-place". The only ground of their analysis was that air craft carrier Kitty Hawk (of the 7th fleet) had moved to the Gulf. After the Chinese ambassy in Yugoslavia had been attacked, the media was so busy to analyze the impact of the U.S-China conflicts on the peace of Korean peninsula. These kinds of things are important news in Korea. These articles anticipating influences on the Koreanpeninsula are not bad, whether they are right or not. Because Korean people can't know what kinds of fatal things happen and disappear in their own land, in case 'secret files' are sealed in the U.S. "Black Box". It might help Korean people to prevent confusion and disorder and to ensure 'mental peace'. It was only the late of 1998 that the fact was revealed, that the U.S. intended to attack the North Korea in June,1994 and the U.S. Army based in South Korea entered into warlike times, and the command of displacement was given to the families of personnel working for the U.S ambassy in South Korea.(The commander of U.S. Army based in South Korea has still the right of ordering military operations in warlike times.) The title of column at a daily newspaper, in May 1999, was "war crisis skipped over under the condition of ignorance". Korean media & people are taking a deep breath of security only after 5 years has passed. Five years ago, Korean conservative media intended to expand public opinion of inciting bombing over the NorthKorea, like its results was no business for them. Today five years has passed, 'New Guideline' between the U.S. and Japan has passed, which ensure Japan's intervention in warlike times of Korean peninsula. And there were many reports which covered the visit of William Perry, the North Korea Policy coordinator, to the North Korea, however, no one knows what kinds of things he has carried in his briefcase and what he discussed in the North Korea. A daily newspaper reported, "It is so stuffy happening that authorities-concerned of Korean Minstry of Foreign Affairs & Trade still don't know whether Willam Perry have met N. Korean leader, Kim Jung-Il or not even after his came back to S. Korea." Under these conditions, it would be more important to know who is in charge of policies to the N. Korea in the U.S. State Department and which viewpoint he has, than know the profiles of domestic Ministers. This is not only a situation in the range of S. Korean ruling class. According to a NGO newspaper, National Committee for Independence & Peaceful Re-unification, non-government re-unification movement organization, sent a letter to persuade hawks in the U.S. Congress and White House, as getting in touch with news of Korean peninsula crisis. And it plans to meet constituency of the hawks with Quakers in order to support lobbying toward the U.S. Congress. Even though it has the word of 'independence' in its own organizational title, I suppose, it has to choose 'realism' instead of 'self-respect' for the purpose of achieving its own aim, 'independence'. I guess, N. Korean authorities would have the same interest in the U.S. policy-makers. Even though the N. Korean media haven't been circulated freely until now, according to the domestic daily newspapers, the North Korean Central News Agency reported the news carefully that Gingrich, former president of the U.S. House of Representative retreated and Livingston was winning public expectations for alternative last year. South Korea gained independence in 1948. But during the last 50 years, the full independence of Korea has never been guaranteed. This may seem more obvious to foreigners. Thankfully there was no recurrence of the war but the 'peace' in Korea was a balance that was being maintained between fully armed powers. Will Korea be able to gain true autonomy and peace in the 21st century? Will Korea be able to move away from it's strategy of observing the 'big powers' for survival? These questions are for all of those who long for true peace and domocracy in a world that is dominated by the 'big powers,' and are also related to the important conditions which control the livelihood of the true owners of the peninsula; the people. From UR, IMF to the Millenium Round At 13:00 on May 25 at the Social Service Hall in Soongshil University there were a forum titled "From UR, IMF to the Millenium Round" (subtitled the "Catastrophes of Liberation, Open Trade and Deregulation and the Alternative to them"), hosted by PICIS and sponsored by the Citizen Movement Support Fund under the presidency of Lee Chang-geun(PICIS). The general presentation was given by Lee Jae-hoon(PSSP; People's Solidarity for Social Progress). He maintained that globalization and open trade is the inevitable condition of accumulation and that the rise of neoliberalism reflects the capitalistic crisis of accumulation structure. He said subordinate accumulation structure of Korean capital had undergone the crisis due to the dismantlement of subordinate perpendicular labor division system. The debate on the general presentation was presided over by Choi Jin-gook, president of KFL(Korean Farmers' League). Mr. Choi said, "Peasants, who were most deprived all through the history, have proceeded severe struggles, but now they cannot continue their struggle any more without desperate solidarity." On the second subject titled "Blessing or Catastrophe?", Han In-im(WIMA; Workers' Instutute for Management Analysis) and Lee Seung-eun(PSSP) gave presentations named "Anti-laborer Neoliberalistic Globalization" and "the Catastrophe of Liberation/Open Trade/Deregulation" respectively. Ms. Han maintained, "the capitalistic structural panic, generated from permenant decrease in profit rates, has never been solved, and the capital is to skip over the limitation of accumulation in extremely exploitative ways. She impeached neoliberalistic labor reorganization with the thorough persecution of laborers. As the alternative she presented tight controls over foreign investment, overall people-oriented structuraladjustment, laborers' particapation and protection of rights to live. With various statistics, Ms. Lee blamed neoliberalism for the overall destruction of public sectors and for the recession of democracy: less social welfare expenditure, less education expenditure, more private debts, less public health expenditure, more defense expenditure, recessive taxes and the curtailment of the social security net. Kim Jong-bae, leader of the education team of KFPSU(Korean Federation of Public & Social Service Workers' Unions), impeached the inconsistency of the government that alledges ownerless public corporations should be controlled by responsible owners, while it asserts the professional management system. As the alternative to the crisis of the public sector, he presented tax reforms, the publicization of private sectors and democratic conrol over bureaucracy After a while's break, Lee Chang-geun(PICIS) gave a presentation named "a Critical Review of Various Debates on the Global Control over Capitals". Underthe premise that the present period gives the opportunity not only to expose the essence of transnational capitals, but also to suggest how to cope, he critically reviewed debates on financial crisis, MAI struggle and their meanings for class struggle. Classifying various NGOs' policies into the "regulation of short-term capitals", "control over investment in general" and "control over various investment and investment treaties", he made a comparative review of NGO policies. These presentations and debates on three subjects were followed by a general debate. For the question about the meaning of being "public" in Korea, Han In-im answered that "publicity" has various contexts from nation to the socialization of the means of production, admitting that national ownership can be a transitional stage toward publicity even if they are discriminated from each other. For the question about the evaluation of the Tripartite Committee of Laborer, Corporation and Politics, Kim Jong-bae admitted it can be a strategic means of negotiation, though it is virtually a solution to laborers' struggle for their rights to live. For the inquiry about public workers' level of consciousness, Kim Jong-bae admitted militant unionism often gives way to the parial interests of individual unions, but maintained that laborers have ever proceeded strong struggles together in direct anger with neoliberalism. He also acknowledged the limitation of the individual union system(in compare with the industrial union system) that prohibit thinking in the perspective of social justice. Asked how the labor union could intervene in the objects of privatization, Han In-im spoke of her experience that unions had rejected her proposal to make the workplace a national corporation through the conversion of bank debts into shares. Finally, professor Kim Sung-gu said, "The fountain of speculative capitals is nothing other than stock exchanges. Tobin taxes or FDI taxes cannot be even a slight alternative. The fundamental, if not actual, alternative is a direct assault over the stock company system." He also criticized, "The potential of realizations lies not in international organizations but in nation-states. It is only Utopianism that the protocol made by non-governmental organizations could control capitals. Realization is brought only by national movements." For the criticism Lee Chang-geun elucidated, "I've been misunderstood. My alternative is not to negate the bound of nation-states,but to gain common interest for complementary struggles between nationality and internationality." About 50 participants made enthusiastic debates till six o'clock. They were of an opinion that this forum gave a clue of new prospects for following movements. The heated atmosphere of this forum succeeded to the dinner party. The Debate on the Reduction of Working Hours Editor's Commentary: It is under the control of IMF that 'layoffs and unemployment' came into social issue in Korea. In spite of the flippant remarks of the bourgeois press that various economic indices have got elevated, the number of the jobless has already mounted up to four million. KCTU, therefore, determined the core issue of 1999 struggle to be the "reduction of working hours", that is to say, the suspension of layoffs and the distribution of jobs. Now KCTU demands the government should found the "Committee for the Reduction of Working Hours". In this course, a leftist activist group called "the Representative Committee of Workplace Organizations" is holding "working-hour absolutism" in check. They criticized the slogan of working-hour reduction unaccompanied by wage protection and other demands upon rights to live, in that it canneither persuade laborers nor avoid getting misused for the capital's interests. It is really notable that such criticism is being remarked among labor activists, and it is expected that active debates willbe brought in Korean labor movement. Let's review the demand on the "sharing of jobs through working-hour reduction" that is spotlightedas a popular demand. Under the circumstance of high-rate unemployment, the demand on working-hour reduction imports not only the expansion of leisure and cultural enjoyment but also the sharing of jobs. In short, it is the problem of employment that raises the demand on working-hour reduction. Although the slogan has a positive meaning that enables people to participate in far-reaching struggle, the threat to jobs or unemployment is fundamentally beyond solution in capitalism, which is illustrated by the fact that the unemployment rate in Europe, where working hour has reduced to 35 per week, is still over 10%.The demand on working-hour reduction, therefore, has explicit limitation in spite of the positive meaning. In addition, working-hour reduction is demanded by labor activists as a sole feasible means to solve unemployment. In the latest struggle of Seoul Subway Union, laborers have complained that the capital never accepted the negotiation though they had submitted "working-hour reduction" as a reasonable alternative to layoffs; that is, the capital only abides by layoffs without any review of the alternatives that the capital can accept without demage. If the demand on working-hour reduction is considered not to be a means of struggle but to be a reasonable alternative policy, its meaning cannot but fade away. On the unions' demand on working-hour reduction as a reasonable policy, capitalists assert, "We cannot accept such demands because the reduction of working hours would result in higher cost; the reduction of wages is prerequisite." Reasonable policies mean demands that do no harm to capitalists; so seemingly, more reasonable is the capitalists' insistence that they can allow working-hour reduction if wages are saved, than demands on "working-hour reduction without wage reduction". To tell the truth, capitalists are asserting bourgeois wage dogma that the wage is a charge for labor: "Isn't it natural that less works result in less wages?" On the contrary, laborers' demand on "working-hour reduction without wage reduction" is based not so much upon reasonablility as upon proletariat ideologie that the wage is a reproduction cost of labor power, or a livelihood wage. In addition, such demands can get accomplished only when the struggling power encroaches on profits. The demand that capitalists accept with their kneels down is generated not so much from reasonability as from physical struggles. Late year, Hyundai Motor Co. maintained "Since the operating rate of production reduced to less than 50%, working hours should be cut down to 26 hours to preserve jobs by means of working-hour reduction," and early in this year, NCNP, ruling party, reviewed the possibility of reduction to 36 hours. What the capital and the regime calls working-hour reduction, however, is on the assumption of the preservation of profits through less wages, higher productivity, cooperative labor-company relationship and wage system reforms. We should hold the demand on working-hour reduction as a thorough contribution to struggles; the demand on working-hour reduction fundamentally stems from the goal to protect rights to live. We should be again assured of the fact. Working-hour reduction should be demanded together with every struggle against every trial to fortify such explotation as wage system reforms(i.e. the introduction of annual salary), detrimental revisions of collective agreements, suppressions over labor unions and higher intensity of labor. Under the circumstance of remarkable detriments in unions' struggling power due to the capital's assault, the demand on working-hour reduction may be only a partial demand to elevate struggling power in workplaces. According to the KCB's, Korean Coalition of the Business men, "1999 guideline for collective bargaining of wages", the capital's core goal is more flexible wages(i.e. performance wages) and more flexible employment(i.e. the expansion of part-time jobs and labor contracts): "the destruction of the linkage between laborers and unions through the incapicitation of collective bargaining is revealed as the insertion of economy/productivity ideology in concrete items of collective agreements( cited from Committee for Labor Education, the analysis of KCB's 1999 guideline ) As for industries whose operating rates are drastically decreasing(i.e. auto companies), working-hour reductions accompanied by wage reduction can lose persuasive powers for the mass. Europian public corporate laborers have organized the struggle against working-hour reduction. Additionally, working-hour reduction should be demanded under the clear notion that it cannot overcome the capitalistic contradiction of vulnerability to panics that result in unemployment and the demolition for laborers' rights to live. As for the United States' boom lasting for a decade, bourgeois ideologues are alleging that capitalistic business cycles are no more valid due to technological development and internet popularization. They assert that there exists no more panic in American capitalism. Yet capitalists have never suspected the eternality of capitalistic booms whether the business cycle are on the process of booming or at the peak of boom. Even in the eve of 1929 panic, capitalists were toasting in the Wall Street. Though it is possible that the present peak of booms is followed by depressions that result in world panics, still economic necessitarianism is unreasonable and impractical. In spite of the inevitablility of panics, the capital is fortifying offset factors to prevent the crisis of panics through the suspension of profit-rate drops: assaults on the working class, structural adjustment, financial & monetary policies, more intense explotation of the Third World, armament races and warfare. To be sure, nevertheless, capitalism cannot get rid of panics based upon capitalistic anarchism. Yet American boom can be elongated and the catastroph of panics can be reduced. Criticism without the intervention in actual struggles cannot bring any spontaneous change. Rather the capital is to overcome its crisis through the assault on the working class. Only through the organization of intransigent struggles against the capital's assaults in the panic stage can the working class protect their rights to live, enlarge their rights and rupture capitalism. Insecure Employment Rapidly Increasing, and Part-Time Jobs on the Rise: 85.3% of Counseling calls about Insecure Employment; Calls about part time jobs doubled From January to March of this year, calls seeking counselling have increased dramatically since the same period last year and among the workers affiliated with the KCTU, the female union member's job transfer is on the increase in the Korean Federation of Clerical and Financial Workers Union and the Federation of Construction Workers Union sector is on the increase. This is according to the 'Report on Female Employment Trends for the First Quarter of 99' published by the KCTU and the Korean Council of Female Workers based on an analysis of the counseling calls from female workers and research conducted on the female worker's conditions of employment. Of the 470 calls that were registered at the Korean Council of Female Workers 'phone of equality' in the first quarter of 99, calls about insecure employment took up 85.3% of the 245 calls(excluding calls that were irrelevant). This was a dramatic increase from the 131 calls that were registered in the same period of last year. Of the callers, 80% were married, 89.4% were non union members, 53% were workers belonging to businesses with 10 or few workers and counseling calls from part time workers doubled in number from last year. In detail, 61.6% ofcalls were about delayed payment of wages, 18.4% about layoffs, and 5.3% about unjust labor practices. According to this report, of the 710 Korean Federation of Hospital Trade Unions(KFHTU) female unionmembers who responded to the survey, 162(22.8%) had experienced misccariages of some kind: twice the average for females. Kim, the head of the Female Workers Department at the KFHTU, gave her analysis, saying, "Pregnant workers still have to work on the 3 shift schedule and the night shift, causing problems in their bio-rythms." According to the research on female workers from the Federation of Construction Workers Union, the reduction of female workers is much higher than that of the male workers, and part time jobs have also gone up. It also revealed that the number of female union members has gonedown 47% while the male workers reduction rate was 32%, proving that the female workers were suffering more from insecure employment. The percentage of female part time workers averaged 23.8% and there were instances where all the female workers were part time workers at certain companies. At the Korean Federation of Clerical and Financial Workers Union, cases revealed that 'voluntary' retirement plans were being applied on a sexualy discriminatory basis to female workers. At the H Fire Insurance Company, which carried out it's 'voluntary' retirement plan in April of last year, 75% who retired were females and 80%of these were married females. At the L Fire Insurance Company, 60% of the 267 who voluntary retired were females. ------------------------------------------------------ Policy & Information Center for International Solidarity Website : http://picis.jinbo.net/ E-mail : picis@jinbo.net, hanboss@nownuri.net Adress : PICIS, 1410-3, Taekwang Bdg. 4F, Shillim 5 Dong, Kwanak-Ku, Seoul, Korea Fax : ++ 82 2 877 4353 Tel : ++ 82 2 886 2853 Mailinglist : inter-picis@list.jinbo.net(To join, send a message to this address, with the word 'subscribe picis' as the only text in the message. 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