IKTU

EU and Canada launch trade talks

2009-06-29T02:50:00.001+09:00

Worth repeating (since I carry a Canadian passport)

EI’s consultant on international trade, David Robinson, says the negotiations are not primarily aimed at reducing tariffs --- which are already less than 3 per cent in the most traded sectors.

“When we speak about an economic partnership agreement between the EU and Canada, we’re not talking about a traditional free trade agreement where the focus is on cutting tariffs for trade in goods and services,” he explains. “What we’re really talking about is a second generation trade agreement where the aim is to harmonize or weaken regulatory measures that might affect trade, such as standards, qualification requirements and licensing procedures.”

Stop suppressing democracy and basic labor rights right now

2009-05-26T20:44:00.001+09:00

The KCTU’s position over the May 16th massive arrest

Democracy and human rights are in retreat in South Korea. With extreme violent acts, the Korean government and the police are tramping upon democracy, human rights and basic labor rights. The May 15th massive arrest in Daejeon was an ‘intended violence' of the police to mask oppression on labor unions taken by the government and management of Korea Express, a major logistics company. Despite the emergency intervention of the ILO and the criticism from the international community, the government has ignored them and continuously resorted to forceful measures. We strongly denounce the Lee Myeong-bak Administration on its oppression on labor unions.

On May 16th at a workers' rally in Daejeon alone, as many as 486 union members were arrested, which was the largest number since the inauguration of the Lee administration. In addition, more than 100 people were injured. It was the government and the police that caused the clash. If a peaceful march had been secured, the conflict would not have occurred. The police blocked the peaceful march and provoked protesters. Then the police arrested them with an excuse of a clash that followed. All people wearing a raincoat or a union vest were arrested indiscriminately even after the rally was finished. Some people were arrested at the expressway exit, restaurants or even sidewalks. It was not legitimate law enforcement but a revengeful act.

Many arrestees complained of their suffering from being beaten with batons and shields, but the police did not provide emergency medicine with them properly. Most people wearing wet clothes stayed the night on the floor of police stations or in a hall of the buildings without any single blanket. People who were severely injured were forced to make a confession statement before getting treatment. Even a prisoner of war would not have been treated in this way. It was an outright violation of human rights, which could only be seen under the dictatorial regime in the past.

It is regrettable that the protesters clashed with the police. Both the police and protesters got injuries and their vehicles damaged. Behind the collision, however, are the president's anti-labor policies. The confrontation was caused after Korea Express Inc. broke a collective agreement on 30-won increase in transportation fee. Rather than reflecting on its behavior, the company now insists that they will not negotiate with the Cargo Transportation Workers' Union (CTWU). The company dared to do so because the government has continuously taken anti-labor stance. The government does not recognize a union of specially-employed workers like truckers. The ILO has been deeply concerned over the Korean government's attitude and recently declared to intervene in this matter.

The ILO's May 4th letter informed us that the organization accepted our request to intervene in the Korean government's order. The government had ordered the Korea Transport Workers Union and the Korea Construction Workers Union to ‘voluntarily’ deprive workers in special employment such as ready mixed concrete-carrying truck, dump truck and freight drivers of the union membership and had threatened to cancel the registration of the unions if they did not follow the order. The ILO's ‘intervention’ means that the government's order and threats to labor union constitute severe violation of labor rights. The denial of rights has become the subject of derision in the international community to the extent that the ‘intervention' was carried out by the ILO. The government's outrageous oppression on labor unions led to the death of Park Jong-tae, the freight trucker union’s Gwanju branch leader, and the May 16th violence.

The KCTU has considered a series of recent events as the government's attack on democracy, basic labor rights and human rights. We will take proper measures against it. We warn the government that if the pending issues which drove Park to death are not solved, we will launch mass strikes. In addition, we will conduct joint struggles to defend democracy with human rights, civic, social organization as well as progressive political parties.

The KCTU urge the government to change its view on labor policies. We also ask for the resignation of chief of the National Police Agency and a direct apology of the president for the massive arrest. We want to make it clear that if our requests are not accepted, we will have no choice but intensify our struggle and the whole blame will fall on the government.

May 18th, 2009

Korea Confederation of Trade Unions

Lee Changgeun
International Executive Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9118 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter@kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea

The KTU makes news in the north!

2008-12-29T03:30:00.001+09:00

It's not every day that the KCNA mentions the Korean Teachers Union ...

December 27. 2008 Juche 97

Lee Myung Bak Group's Suppression of Jongyojo under Fire

Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- The Youth and Students Solidarity for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration of south Korea released a statement on Dec. 20 denouncing the Lee Myung Bak puppet group for their crackdown upon the Teachers' Union of south Korea (Jongyojo).

The statement accused the prosecution authorities of perpetrating such violent actions as searching the office of the Seoul branch of Jongyojo and confiscating documents there on Dec. 11 on unreasonable charges and committing similar crimes in the office of Progressive Network on Dec. 19.

This rowdyism is nothing but an undisguised targeted search and suppression perpetrated by the Lee regime under the pretext of "security" as it is aimed to destroy Jongyojo at any cost, regarding it as a thorn in its flesh, it charged.

It urged the prosecution authorities, a waiting maid of the Lee regime, to immediately halt the suppression of Jongyojo and the Lee regime to step down at once as it is keen to bring back the era of dictatorship.

Hankyoreh on the challenges facing the KTU

2008-12-14T21:53:00.001+09:00

[Editorial] The KTU’s long road back to achieving ‘true education’

“Who has called us educators?”

So started the founding declaration of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) on May 28, 1989. The document starts with introspection about what teachers had become. “We have infringed on students’ ‘right to learn’ (hakseupgwon) by not responding to the demand for honest education and for having allowed ourselves to become the propaganda brigade of the ruling forces, because of the harsh coercion of the dictatorship regime as it tramples on the independence and political neutrality of education.”

The accomplishments in democratizing education that teachers, parents and students have achieved with sweat and blood in the two decades since the KTU began with that self-reflection as its point of departure are now like a lamp facing the wind. Just like the dictatorships, the Lee Myung-bak administration has made a concerted effort to turn education into part of the propaganda apparatus of the political establishment, turning local boards of education into the administration’s puppets. It has come to the point where teachers are being fired just for informing students of the mere fact they have a choice as to whether to take the state-administered examination, the ilje gosa. You are watching a return of the barbaric era of years ago, when roughly 1,500 teachers were fired at the time of the KTU’s early beginnings.

The administration’s attacks on history textbooks, in order to distort them to its liking while ignoring the scholarly and educational accomplishments in the area, are just one of its many barbaric actions. More basically, the problem is how education marketization policy is tearing education apart and causing extremes of socioeconomic polarization in education in general, this under the name of school autonomy. It is making students into test machines with “school diversification policy” and the policy on “giving schools choice,” which essentially means the revival of the fiercely competitive ipsi university entrance system. It is worsening education’s dependence on extracurricular, supplementary tutoring and turning education into a tool for handing down wealth and social status among the few from one generation to the next.

The KTU has chosen a new leadership team. It feels awkward having to congratulate the new leadership at a time like this. On the other hand, when has KTU ever enjoyed peaceful times? The dictators always tried write off democratic and humane “cham (true) education” as “communist indoctrination” while dismissing teachers who were aware of what needed to be done. The way current administration, the old establishment media, government education authorities at various national and local levels, and public security agencies have joined together as one in the effort is just like it was two decades ago.

The KTU achieved legality despite all the suppression, and it has been the main promoter of the democratization of education. It has been powered by the full support of parents and students, which itself originated in the KTU’s dedication and passion for cham education. In these dark times, we hope to see the KTU rise again for the long march of educational democratization, renewing the resolve it had at its founding, respecting the will of students and parents, and standing tall as the main doers of education that is true.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Posted on : Dec.13,2008 13:25 KST

[kctupower] KCTU President Arrested - Calling for Solidarity!

2008-12-13T01:18:00.000+09:00

KCTU President Arrested!

Bro. Lee Suk-haeng, President, was arrested on 10:40 pm, December 5th by the police due to organizing an “illegal” general strike on July 2nd, 2008 and solidarity struggles to support E-land Retail Precarious workers strike in 2007. The July 2nd general strike was conducted to call for protection of people’s right to health and renegotiation of April 18 Protocol on US beef import to reflect food safety concerns. Since the June, 2007, the E-land Retail precarious workers union has conducted strike to protest against the termination of contract and illegal subcontracting by the employer which was aimed at evading relevant provisions in the new irregular workers bill that went into effect on the 1st of July, 2007. The KCTU organized various solidarity actions to support the E-land Retail Shop precarious workers strike.

Bro. Lee Suk-haeng would be mainly charged with “obstruction of business” provision in section 314 of the Penal Code due to the role in July 2nd General Strike and solidarity actions for Eland Retail precarious workers. However, we believe that workers organization should be able to use strike action to pursue solutions to problems posed by social and economic policies. And it should be noted that the ILO strongly urges that no one should receive criminal sanction or be deprived of their freedom for the fact of simply exercising the right to strike. In particular, we would like to emphasize that the ILO has recommended continuously that South Korean government “adopt a general practice of investigation without detention of workers and bring section 314 of the Penal Code (obstruction of business) in line with freedom of association principles.”

At the hearing to review a detention warrant against Bro. Lee on December 8th, the Court ruled the detention of him.

Facing this urgent situation, we are calling you to conduct every possible measure to urge the South Korean Government to stop trade union repression, implement and respect fully the ILO CFA recommendations and principles of freedom of association, and adopt a general practice of investigation without detention of workers including an immediate release of Bro. Lee Suk-haeng. [KCTU]

SMOE screws teachers

2008-11-12T23:32:00.002+09:00

The Hankyoreh:

Seoul Education Office to nullify collective bargaining agreement

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education notified the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) and other teachers’ unions that it has fully scrapped collective bargaining agreement it signed with the unions in 2004. Tensions began to flare when the union voiced its opposition to the move, calling it an “an attempt to incapacitate unions.”

The KTU:

This illegal and arbitrary decision indicates very clearly that SMOE does not recognize teachers’ organizations as partners in public education, in direct violation of United Nations agreements to which South Korea is party.

SMOE says: Unions can’t 'intervene' in education policy, so policy 'accords' need to be corrected.

CEART would say: if policy affects

1) teachers' freedom or responsibility, or
2) perceptions of teachers' professional competencies, or
3) the functioning of the education system as a whole, or
4) the ability of teacher organizations to participate meaningfully in dialogue on any of the above,

then teacher organizations must be negotiated with.

SMOE, not the KTU, is 'intervening' where it should not!

(And if there is a committee responsible for monitoring the teacher assessment plan, every member should read these 2008 reports very carefully. They could prove to be very effective weapons.)

Support Migrant Workers Freedom of Association and MTU [kctupower]

2008-07-15T17:00:00.001+09:00

Dear Friends and Allies,

Please show your support for the Migrants Trade Union and the right of migrant workers in South Korea to form and join trade unions. Send a statement expressing support for MTU’s right to freedom of association to the South Korean Supreme Court.

The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU), an affiliated of the Korean Confederation of Trade unions, was formed in 2005 as a union for and by migrant workers regardless of visa status. We seek to improve working conditions, stop the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers and win migrant workers’ human and labor rights.

Since we were found the government of South Korea has sought to stop our activities, refusing to acknowledge our legal union status and targeting our leadership for arrest and deportation. This repression has grown even stronger in recent months. MTU’s second president, vice president and general secretary were arrested in a targeted crackdown and deported at the end of last year. And again, on May 2nd MTU’s third president and vice president were arrested by immigration officers who had been waiting in hiding for them and then deported on May 15th. The Ministry of Justice carried out the deportation despite the fact that the National Human Rights Commission had made a decision calling for a stay of deportation until its investigation into human rights violations during the arrests into was complete.

This heighten repression comes right as the Supreme Court decision that will decide on MTU’s legal union status draws near. The Ministry of Labor and South Korean government have been refusing to grant MTU legal union status based on the assertion that undocumented migrant workers do not have the right to freedom of association under Korean law. MTU has since been fighting to gain recognition. On February 1, 2007, the Seoul High Court, overturning a pervious decision, ruled in favor of MTU’s legal union status, stating clearly that undocumented migrant workers are recognized as workers under the South Korean Constitution and the Trade Union Law, and therefore the subjects of legally protected basic labor rights, including the right to freedom of association. The Ministry of Labor appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court where a decision is expected wit! hin this year, as early as next month.

International human rights conventions which South Korea has signed, and which it is bound to respect under its own Constitution, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) all protect the rights of workers regardless of social status to freedom of association. In particular, the CERD General Recommendation No. 30(2004) states that “guarantees against racial discrimination apply to non-citizens regardless of their immigration status” and that “all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of labor and employment rights, including the freedom of assembly and association, once an employment relationship has been initiated until it is terminated.&! rdquo; In addition, ILO Convention No. 87 protects the right to freedom of association for all workers, “without distinction whatsoever” and has been shown to apply to undocumented migrant workers through Committee on Freedom of Association recommendations (UGT, 2001 and AFL-CIO/CTM, 2002). While South Korea has not ratified Convention No. 87, it is bound to uphold the rights protected in it as a member of the ILO under the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998).

Despite this basis in domestic and national law, the Ministry of Labor is still refusing to acknowledge MTU’s legal union status. The new conservative president Lee Myeong-bak has also stated he will not tolerate MTU. MTU’s needs the support of organizations around the world to assure it will gain the legal recognition it deserves!

International human rights and labor organizations and the South Korean National Human Rights Commission have all decided to send position statements in support of MTU to the Supreme Court. We are asking that your organization also issue a statement supporting MTU’s legal union status and send it by fax to the Supreme Court. Please also send a copy to the Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Justice. All statements will be announced at an upcoming press conference.

A sample statement is included below. However, we welcome self-written statements reflecting the position of your organization as these send and even more powerful message.

Please send a copy of your statement to the KCTU at inter@kctu.org, and MTU at MTUintl@jinbo.net

Sample Position Statement

Supreme Court, Republic of Korea
Teukbyul 3bu
219 Seocho-ro, Seocho-gu
Seoul 137-750
Republic of Korea
Fax: 02-2-533-2824

Ministry of Labor
427-718 Government Complex II,
Jungang-dong1, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do,
Republic of Korea
Fax: 82-2-3679-6581

Ministry of Justice, Republic of Korea
Building 1, Gwacheon Government Complex,
Jungang-dong 1, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do
Republic of Korea
Fax: 82-2-2110-3079

Regarding Supreme Court Case No. 2007du 4995

To the Honorable Justices of the South Korean Supreme Court

The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union was founded in 2005 and has been carrying out legitimate union activities since. The South Korean Ministry of Labor and South Korean administration have refused to acknowledge MTU’s legal union status because its founders are undocumented migrant workers. However, as was shown in the Seoul High Court ruling of February 1, 2007, the South Korean Constitution and the Trade Union Law protect the right to freedom of association of all those who enter into employment relations as workers, including undocumented migrant workers.

International law to which South Korea is party including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) all protect the rights of workers, regardless of social status, to freedom of association. In particular, the CERD General Recommendation No. 30(2004) states that “guarantees against racial discrimination apply to non-citizens regardless of their immigration status” and that “all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of labor and employment rights, including the freedom of assembly and association, once an employment relationship has been initiated until it is terminated.” In addition, ILO Convention No. 87, which South Korea is bound t! o uphold as a member of the ILO, protects the right to freedom of association for all workers, “without distinction whatsoever” and has been shown to apply to undocumented migrant workers through CFA recommendations (UGT, 2001 and AFL-CIO/CTM, 2002).

We are concerned that the Ministry of Labor’s denial of MTU’s union status is in contradiction to these international conventions and to South Korean domestic law. It is our position that countries that adhere to international human and labor rights standards must protect the right of migrant workers, regardless of visa status, to freedom of association. As such, it is our position that the denial of MTU’s legal union status should be reversed and MTU should be granted recognition.

We hope that the Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court will take these matters into consideration and make a decision that upholds the South Korean Constitution and the international conventions to which South Korea is party.

Sincerely,

Representative’s Name,
Organization

Lee Changgeun
International Executive Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9234 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter@kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org

Solidarity Appeal to Support the Branch of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union, KFCITU [kctupower]

2008-07-14T18:43:00.003+09:00

Background

From July 1 to September 20, 2006 over 4,000 members of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Local Union, an affiliate of the Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Union went on strike. Their demands were a 15% increase in wages, implementation of a five-day work week, safe and healthy working conditions, and dignity and respect at the work site. Although the union members were hired by subcontractors, they worked at the construction plants operated by POSCO, a major steel production company in South Korea. Thus, POSCO had a direct influence over the sub contractors as they controlled the conditions and the ultimate approval of all contracts with these subcontractors.

During the strike the union engaged in several industrial actions, the most public was the sit-down demonstration conducted by 3,000 union members at POSCO headquarters in Pohang for nine days starting July 1st. In an effort to support the workers who were holed up inside POSCO headquarters and surrounded by more than 10,000 riot police, local unions affiliated with the KFCITU conducted rallies that were brutally suppressed by the riot police.

In the end, the workers peacefully concluded the sit-down demonstration and the strike came to an end when over 67% of the membership agreed to accept the agreement. It should be noted that the agreement the union had signed in September, 2006 specifically contained language that would ensure that union members would be not be barred from work in POSCO facilities even though they were hired by subcontractors. Nevertheless, at the time both the sub contractors association and POSCO had stated that at least 25 union members including the key leadership would be barred from working at POSCO.

Members of Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union Still in Jail

The strike would come at high costs to the local union, as it resulted in the arrest of close to 100 union members. Currently eight are still in jail having been sentenced to two and a half years to three and a half years for their leading role in the sit-down demonstration and strike. With the exception of Lee Ji Kyung, former President of the local union, all are expected to be released later this month. In addition, close to 200 members were injured in the various industrial actions that took place during the strike and as a result many were hospitalized. However, the most tragic result of the strike is the tragic death of Ha Joong Keun.

Ha Joong Keun, who was brutally beaten on the head by several riot police during a demonstration on July 17 in front of POSCO headquarters, while his colleagues were conducting a sit-down demonstration inside POSCO headquarters died on August 1 due to his injuries. Even though nearly two years have passed since his death the government has still failed to take full official responsibility for his death. The union’s calls for an impartial government investigation have yet to materialize.

Relationship between Sub Contractors and POSCO

The members of the Branch of Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union are categorized as subcontract and irregular (non-permanent) workers. Since regular (permanent) workers are hired directly by the company they are guaranteed three basic labor rights---the right to organize, the right to strike, and the right to bargain. On the other hand, sub contract workers must negotiate with the sub contractors as they are hired by them but in reality the real power in terms of determining wages, working conditions, and work hours lies with the user company, the principal contractor, in this case POSCO.

In many cases user companies have terminated contracts with sub contracts once the workers organize and form a union. Because of this, many sub contract companies refuse to negotiate with the union. Furthermore, both the user company and the sub contract company shift the blame between each other in refusing to recognize and negotiate the union.

POSCO Repression of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union

Since the 2006 strike conducted by the union, POSCO has used its political and economic clout in Pohang, where they control at least 70% of the economy to implement a deliberate and strategic plan to break the union through the following tactics:

1. Linking employment with Union Disaffiliation

 Workers who are members of the Branch of Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union are refused employment and are barred from working on POSCO facilities until they disaffiliate from the union.
 In order for union members to work in POSCO construction sites even though they are hired by subcontractors they must possess entrance passes issued by POSCO. However, POSCO refused to issue entrance passes to union members. This is in violation of South Korean labour laws.
 POSCO exercises preference over subcontractors that refuse employment to members of the Branch of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union.

2. Rejection of the Collective Bargaining Agreement

 A collective bargaining agreement is a promise between the trade union and the employer that was agreed upon in good faith bargaining. Even though the POSCO was not the party to the agreement between the Branch of Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union, they have a strong influence in the implementation of the CBA through their role as the principal contractor.
 After the 2006 strike, POSCO filed a civil lawsuit against the union seeking compensatory damage of one million and eight thousand US dollars.
 POSCO auctioned off a tract of land acquired for the construction of a building for the labour union. Thus, POSCO is using financial tactics to break the union.

3. Union Officials are Barred from Entering POSCO Facilities

 Prior to the strike officials of the union routinely visited POSCO operated construction sites to address the needs and concerns of union member; however, they are now limited access to the site to twice a week. This clearly restricts and interferes with the union’s ability to conducting trade union activities.
 Since the union officials and staff have limited access to the construction site, there is also less scrutiny or questions raised on occupational safety and health standards resulting in a greater increase in the number of work-related accidents.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Please send your letters (a sample letter is enclosed) to Mr. Ku Taek Lee, Chairman and CEO
POSCO, 89-2 POSCO Center, Kangnam-gu, Dae Chi Dong, Seoul, Korea, Via fax : +82-2-3457-6000

2. You can also send your protest comments (see a sample below) on the POSCO website at www.posco.com

3. Please send copies of letters (sample letter is below) to the KFCITU headquarters at 82-2-843-1436 (Fax) or e-mail it to kfcitu@hanmail.net

SAMPLE LETTER

Mr. Ku Taek Lee
Chairman and CEO
POSCO
89-2 POSCO Center
Kangnam-gu, Dae Chi Dong
Seoul, Korea
Via fax: +82-2-3457-6000

Dear Chairman Lee

On behalf of the ____, I am writing to express our outrage at your repression against the Branch of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union affiliated to the Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Unions.

In July 1, 2006 the union had engaged in a strike that was amicably resolved through a collective bargaining agreement between the union and the subcontractors association on September 20, 2006. As you know this agreement included language that specifically stated trade union members would not be discriminated or barred from working in POSCO facilities. However, it is our understanding that your company has been using your strong influence as a principal contractor to link union membership with employment. Union members have been denied identification passes to POSCO facilities and we have been told that you have asked union members to disaffiliate to remain employed or be employed. This is a violation of South Korean Industrial Labour Laws 81.

More importantly, I would like to point out this is violation of the ILO Convention 87---Freedom of Association. This also goes against POSCO’s policy of Codes of Conduct which you adopted in June 2003. According to your company’s Code of Conduct, the goal of POSCO is to “implement corporate ethics that meet internationally accepted standards thus making another bold step toward becoming a globally respected and trusted company.” In both the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, there are specific articles pertaining to the right to organize, the right to join a union, and the right to strike. Even though the members of the Branch of Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union are not directly hired by POSCO, they still work in a POSCO work site and thus the international conventions comply.

POSCO is internationally recognized for being a major global company. Your company prides itself in having a vision that ensures ethical and social responsibilities. We would like to point out that a major social responsibility of your company should be the workers who work at your facilities regardless of how they are employed because as a principal contractor you have major responsibilities regarding the working conditions particularly around the issues of health and safety. Since your company has deliberately restricted the access of union officials and organizers to address issues of their members, we have been told there is a lack of adherence to safety and health regulations resulting an increase of work-related accidents at POSCO construction sites. This is unacceptable and worrisome for us because workers safety should come first before any form of profit.

We urge you to immediately stop repressing the Branch of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union by immediately stopping all anti-union campaign against the union. Be a positive corporate leader by respecting trade union rights for all workers in your work sites. In doing this your company will be truly a leader in the international business community.

Sincerely,

Your Union President

E-mail Sample Comment

I am writing to express our outrage at your repression against the Branch of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union affiliated to the Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Unions.

It is my understanding that POSCO has utilized its influence as a principal contractor to link union membership with employment. Union members have been denied identification passes to POSCO facilities and we have been told that you have asked union members to disaffiliate to remain employed or be employed. This is a violation of South Korean Industrial Labour Laws 81. This also goes against your company’s policy of Codes of Conduct which you adopted in June 2003. According to your company’s Code of Conduct, the goal of POSCO is to “implement corporate ethics that meet internationally accepted standards thus making another bold step toward becoming a globally respected and trusted company.” In both the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, there are specific articles pertaining to the right to organize, the right to join a union, and the right to strike. Even though the members of the Branch of Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union are not directly hired by POSCO, they still work in a POSCO work site and thus the international conventions comply.

We urge you to immediately stop repressing the Branch of the Pohang Construction Plant Workers Union by immediately stopping all anti-union campaign against the union. Be a positive corporate leader by respecting trade union rights for all workers in your work sites. In doing this your company will be truly a leader in the international business community.

Lee Changgeun
International Executive Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9234 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter@kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea

Guarantee Democracy and Human Rights at all Moments [kctupower]

2008-07-08T23:19:00.002+09:00

Protesting the Denial of border entry of the KCTU Delegation to the G8 Summit by the Japanese government.

Statement from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions G8 Delegation

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) with a membership of 800,000 is a major confederation of South Korean trade unions actively fighting to advance democracy, human rights, and a democratic trade union movement. At this very moment, we are conducting a General Strike against the importation of U.S. beef; privatization of public services, and the failure of the current Lee Myung Bak government to address the genuine concerns raised by South Korean citizens about food safety. The negotiations around the importation of U.S. beef within the context of the unequal KORUS FTA has denigrated South Koreans the right to food safety and privatization will force the working poor to undergo more social sacrifices.

The G8 Summit is a gathering of representatives of corporations and governments that support their interests to further the advance an agenda of neoliberalism, privatization, and free trade. The neoliberal economic agenda has not only failed to resolve urgent issues that affect workers in general, but have triggered a global emergency on financial markets, food supply, and the environment. This is a moment when we truly need to seek another path, another direction, and another praxis.

Therefore, the KCTU delegation consisting of 9 representatives of various KCTU affiliates traveled to Japan to participate in the G8 Summit on July 4 to ensure that workers’ voices and interests were addressed. It was the goal of the KCTU delegation to join other civil society groups and popular movement to oppose the neoliberal agenda. We believe this is a fundamental human right and responsibility we carry in these momentous and challenging times.

Four members of the delegation arrived in Haneda Airport, where they were forced to undergo a lengthy individual examination without any proper explanation. The other members of the delegation that included KCTU Vice President Huh Young Goo were denied entry to Japan by the Japanese Immigration Department without any explanation. Their passports were confiscated and during the process Vice-President of the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union, Lee Keun Sun was detained when he protested the actions of the Japanese Immigration officials.

Prior to entry, the KCTU had notified the Japanese Immigration Department the purpose for their visit and the details of the activities during the G8 Summit. The KCTU had been invited by the Japan-based G8 Action Network to participate in their planned events. Despite having followed all proper standard protocol and procedures, the Japanese government unfairly denied the entry of the KCTU delegation
to the G8 Summit.

The KCTU believes that the irrational denial of entry by the Japanese government is politically motivated and an attempt by the government to pre-emptively block any dissenting voice during the G8 Summit. This is clearly a repression of people’s right to freedom of expression, right to dissent, and against human rights as guaranteed by all international conventions. The KCTU challenges the undemocratic actions of the Japanese government.

The KCTU determines that the denial of entry of the KCTU G8 Summit Delegation is an overprotective measure to ensure “peaceful” proceedings of the G8 Summit without any disruption or dissent. This is of course a repression of democracy and human rights. The KCTU will continue to organize for the right for workers to express their voices and raise concerns as a fundamental human right in solidarity with other trade unions and civil society groups in Japan as well as the social movement at the international level. At the same time, the KCTU will focus on revealing the corporate greed of the G8 Summit and to show that there are people’s alternatives to neoliberalization through dialogue and solidarity.

Finally, the KCTU wishes to convey its sincere thanks to Japanese and international trade unions and civil society groups for the support in this difficult time. In solidarity, we will stop the neoliberal agenda and achieve true democracy and human rights.

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
July 7, 2008

The KCTU Launches a General Strike Against the Announcement of South Korean government on April 18 Protocol on US beef [kctu power]

2008-06-30T22:05:00.001+09:00

On June 25th, the KCTU Central Executive Committee voted to launch an unlimited General Strike to support the South Korean people’s movement against the government’s announcement to import U.S. beef as stipulated in the Protocol of April 18.

Upon immediately taking office, Lee Myung Bak rushed to make an agreement on import health requirements for US beef in order to promote the ratification process of KORUS FTA without any consultation with concerned parties including trade unions, peasants groups and civil society. With the publicity of agreement on the April 18 Protocol, South Korean people began to raise concerns about the safety of the U.S. beef that would be imported to South Korea. These concerns would galvanize into mass demonstrations in the form of candle light vigils that was attended by all sectors of South Korean society deeply concerned about the safety of the food put on their table. More importantly, South Koreans became increasingly angry over the indifferent attitude of the new government under the administration of Lee Myung Bak who refused to acknowledge the concerns of the people. His actions were reminiscent of “authoritarian-like” acts conducted under previous dictatorships and conservative governments. Since the agreement was announced, candlelight vigils and rallies have taken place on an almost daily basis. Especially, on June 10th, more than one million people gathered to protest against the April 18 protocol and other 'business-friendly' policies of the new government including privatization.

Due to the huge demonstration, the government had to postpone the announcement of April 18 Protocol and conduct additional consultation with the US government. According to the USTR News, "the June 13-19 discussions in Washington, led by Ambassador Schwab and Trade Minister Kim, focused on ways to facilitate the commercial, private-sector agreement between Korean importers and U.S. exporters to ship U.S. beef from animals less than 30-months for a transitional period until consumer confidence in South Korea improves. To support these voluntary commitments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will establish, once the import protocol is in force, the "Less than 30 Month Age-Verification Quality System Assessment (QSA) Program for Korea" administered by the U.S. government under the Agricultural Marketing Act. This program will verify that all beef shipped to Korea under the program is from cattle less than 30 months of age."

The contents of the beef deal that the government will notify to the public in an official gazette on the 26th regarding is exactly the same as what it had planned to make public last month. The only difference is the 3 supplementary provisions that were the result of the April 18th additional consultations. These added provisions state that 1) 'the two government support the transitional voluntary measures through the verification quality system assessment regarding less than 30 month age" cows, 2) that brains, eyes, skull bones, and spines will not be imported if importing firms do not put in orders for them, and that 3) regarding on-site inspections, the South Korean government can add beef processing sites that it judges to be necessary to the inspection list. Ultimately, the intestines, AMR, crushed meat, spine bones, leg bones, tail bones, and tongues, all previously denied release into domestic markets, will be imported without restrictions.

Regarding quarantine authority, the approval and revoking rights for export processing plants remains with the American government, and finally, there is no mention of regulating animal feed. This means that none of the concerns that have been raised so far have been properly addressed. Moreover, there are significant discrepancies between the South Korean government's announcement of the negotiation result and the American government's letter regarding it, adding fuel to the speculation that the South Korean government has intentionally 'gift-wrapped' the contents of the consultations in order to press ahead with the notification process and also to take the momentum away from further candlelight protests.

First of all, the U.S. government's letter has characterized the recent additional consultations not as a 'negotiation' but as 'discussions' between the two trade representatives to facilitate transitional measures based on commercial understanding. This means that the results of the talks are not binding. Furthermore, although the South Korean authorities have announced that import of the brains, eyes, spines, and skull bones have been 'stopped,' the U.S. letter states solely that "There have been no transaction up to the present regarding the brains, eyes, spines, and skull bones, for which no demand exists in Korea. We confirm the expectation that such commercial practices will continue." It seems clear that 'additional negotiations' were just a means to buy time so that the popular resentment at the international trade system, which does not allow the people access to the means to control the safety of the very food they eat.

Nevertheless, the government has disregarded the demands of the people for their right to healthy food and the defense of the country's sovereignty regarding inspections. It has instead focused on putting out the candles. The government announced the results of the additional negotiations on the 21st, and has pushed forward with notification on the 26th. This is equal to neglecting the basic rights of the people. It is also commensurate to a declaration by the Lee Myung-bak government that it is not willing to represent the will of the people, and that it is solely interested in constructing a market fundamentalist system, for the benefit of 1% of the privileged class of the population.

The KCTU has gone on a general strike to support the people's right to their health and the candlelight demonstrations, and also to oppose the privatization drive and neo-liberal policies of the Lee Myung-bak government. Taking into account the urgent nature of the situation, the KCTU's general strike will commence with those workplaces that are able to immediately commence on collective action, and the current plan is to progressively extend it to other federations and industrial unions.

Lee Changgeun
International Executive Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9234 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter@kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea

One million South Korean people and workers protested against the Unfair US beef import agreement and the government policies!

2008-06-12T11:08:00.001+09:00

[kctupower] One million South Korean people and workers protested against the Unfair US beef import agreement and the neoliberal government policies!

On June 10th, around one million people and workers gathered to demand renegotiation of US beef import agreement across the country. In case of Seoul, around 500,000 people participated in the candlelight vigil and march.

In spite that this protest was mainly coordinated by the People’s Countermeasure Council against Full Resumption of Imports of US Beef Endangered with Mad Cow Disease, an umbrella group of civic and labor organizations, the protestors were composed of various spectrum such as middle and high school students, workers and families with small children. And many KCTU members refused to work overtime and joined in the protest. Today's rally and march was held on the 21st anniversary of the June Grand Struggle of 1987, which was the most important momentum for the development of democracy in South Korea.

The peaceful candlelight vigil and marches have been kept almost on a daily base since May 2. The People's Countermeasure Council organised the "72-hour People's Action Relay" from June 6 to 8th. During the "72-hour relay of people's action", demonstrators tried to march to the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae(Blue House) after the candlelight vigil so as to make their voices heard to the President. A number of citizens were injured, arrested or detained.

Today on June 10th, the police blocked the street toward the presidential office by the big containers. For the citizens, the container-wall was considered as a symbolic sign that the government is not ready to respect and implement the people's opinions.

Facing the huge people's anger and demonstration, all the ministers of the current cabinet had to offer the resignation including Prime Minister Han seung-soo on June 10. And all the top advisers for the President Lee Myung-bak including Chief Secretary of Presidential Office, Ryu Woo-ik, already offered to resign on June 7th.

It is natural that the ministers and top advisors of the presidential office who have to take responsibility for this situation should resign. However, it should be pointed out that the people's anger and demands cannot be solved only by the resignation of the cabinet.

The government of South Korea have to recognize that it lost the people's confidence and the people are also questioning other government policies on education, health care and consumer prices. Therefore the only solution is for the government to take immediate actions to implement the people's demands of renegotiation of the US beef import agreement, repeal of privatization scheme of public services including education and health care and the construction plan of the Korea Grand Canal. This is a matter of democracy and the fundamental right to exercise one’s expression and protest.

Lee Changgeun
International Executive Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

KCTU - Repression against the Migrant Trade Union leadership continues

2008-05-05T21:33:00.002+09:00

Repression against MTU Leadership Continues!

The South Korean government has attacked MTU (Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union) once again. On May 2, only one day after workers around the world celebrated May Day, MTU's newly elected president and vice president were forcibly arrested by immigration officers, the president in front of the union office and the vice president at his home. We are deeply enraged by this act of repression against MTU and migrant workers' organizing in South Korea!

Description of the Incident
At roughly 8:20pm on the night of May 2, President Torna Limbu and MTU's vice general secretary were walking out of the MTU office when they were suddenly confronted by 10 to 15 immigration officers who were waiting hidden around the corner. The officers surrounded the president and without presenting a detention order violently forced him into a van waiting nearby. When the vice general secretary attempted to protest he was physically restrained by officers who shouted at him not to interfere with public affairs.

Soon after, at around 9:00pm the same night, union officers become unable to contact MTU Vice President Abdus Sabur. When a union officer and a Korean supporter went to check on him, they found his house empty. A neighbor informed them that immigration officers had been their shortly before. At 12:30am it was confirmed that the vice president had also been arrested and that both men were being transported to Cheongju Detention Center 2.5 hours south of Seoul.

The arrests of both MTU leaders were clearly pre-planned. Immigration officers had followed the president since the previous day when he participated in May Day activities. The vice president recognized a person who had sat nearby him at a fundraiser the week before among the officers who arrested him. That President Torna heard the officers in the van carrying him communicating consistently with those stationed near Vice President Sabur’s house and in other areas in Seoul also shows clearly that the arrests were coordinate with one another.

Long-term Attack on MTU
This outrageous act of repression comes only several months after the targeted crackdown against MTU leadership on November 27 of last year in which the former president, vice president and general secretary were all arrested. In the wake of that attack MTU, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and supporters from the labor movement and civil society carried out a 99-day sit-in protest calling for an end to the oppression against migrants and migrant organizing and at the same time rebuilt MTU. On April 6, MTU elected a new leadership, with President Torna at the forefront, and moved forward determined to fight the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers and win migrant workers' labor and human rights.

The new conservative government of Lee Myeong-bak, however, has only strengthened the policy of repression against migrant workers. A mass crackdown against undocumented migrant workers has again begun and Lee Myeong-bak has stated that he will not tolerate undocumented migrant workers' unionizing.

Supreme Court Case
Lee Myeongbak’s statement is a direct reflection of the attitude the South Korean government has taken towards MTU since its founding in 2005. At that time the Ministry of Labor rejected MTU’s official union status, claiming that undocumented migrant workers do not have the right to freedom of association and union activities. MTU carried out a legal battle against this decision and eventually won in the Seoul High Court on 1 February 2007. However this verdict was appealed to the Supreme Court, where a decision is expected to be reached by the middle to end of this year. The Ministry of Labor bases its appeal on the claims that the right of undocumented migrant workers to freedom of association is not protected in the South Korean Constitution or stated clearly in international law. However, we know that workers are workers, entitled to the same labor rights, no matter what country they reside in under what visa status. This was clearly shown in the High Court decision, which ruled that undocumented migrant workers are the subjects of equal labor rights under South Korean law and in rulings of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association (UGT [2001], AFL-CTM [2002]) and the Inter-America Court of Human Rights (17 Sept. 2003), which show that international law protects the union rights of undocumented migrant workers.

Stop the Repression!
The arrests of President Torna, Vice President Sabur and previous union leadership, and the South Korean government’s refusal to recognize MTU’s legal union status are clearly an attempt to break MTU's opposition to oppressive policies towards migrant workers. This repression is not only against MTU, but against migrant workers’ organizing in general and, indeed, the entire labor movement.

Despite the attacks, MTU stands unwaivering in our opposition to the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers and in our position that migrant workers, regardless of their visa status, are entitled to equal labor and human rights. We therefore make the following demands:

1. Stop the repression against MTU and release President Torna Limbu and Vice President Abdus Sabur immediately!
2. In the name of the right to freedom of association of all workers, recognize MTU’s legal union status!
3. Stop the crackdown against legalize all undocumented migrant workers!

Call for Solidarity
Ours is a fight not only for migrant workers in South Korea but for migrant workers all over the world. Therefore, once more, we ask for your support. Please show your solidarity in the following ways.

1. Organize a solidarity protest in front of the South Korean embassy or consulate in your area.
2. Send a protest letter in your organization’s name to the South Korean Ministry of Justice and Commissioner of Korea Immigration Service. (See the example letter below, please send to all the fax numbers given)
3. Encourage your members and networks to sign the online petition at this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/StopMigrantRepression/.
4. Please send us a copy of protest letter and a word of any actions you take and pictures if possible. inter@kctu.org , mtuintl@jinbo.net

Let’s struggle together for the rights of all workers!

Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

--------------------
Sample Protest Letter

Ministry of Justice, Republic of Korea
Building 1, Gwacheon Government Complex,
Jungang-dong 1, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do
Republic of Korea
Fax: 82-2-2110-3079

Commissioner of Korean Immigration Service
Fax: 82-2-500-9059, 82-2-500-9128, 82-2-500-9026

To the South Korean Minister of Justice Kim Gyeong-han:

We, the ___________(organization’s name), write to express grave concern and outrage at the recent arrests of the President and Vice President of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU). We see this attack as an assault not only against MTU but against the migrant workers movement and labor movement worldwide.

On the evening of May 2, only one day after May Day, MTU President Torna Limbu and Vice President Abdus Sabur, were arrested at separate places between 8:20 and 9:20pm. The President was coming out of the MTU office with the MTU Vice General Secretary when they were suddenly confronted by 10 to 15 immigration officers who were waiting hidden around the corner. The officers surrounded the president and without presenting a detention order violently forced him into a van waiting nearby. When the vice general secretary attempted to protest he was physically restrained by officers who shouted at him not to interfere with public affairs.

Soon after, 10 to 15 immigration officers banged on door of Vice President Sabur’s residence, entered and forcibly arrested him. Both men were transported that night to Cheongju Detention Center 2.5 hours south of Seoul. These arrests were clearly preplanned and carefully carried out in an attempt to stop MTU’s rightful union activities. Even more maddening, they come only several months of a similar attack against MTU’s leadership in which the previous president, vice president and general secretary were arrested and later deported at the end of last year.

We are aware that this targeted crackdown against MTU’s leadership coincides with the pending Supreme Court Case concerning MTU’s legal union status. We are concerned that despite a Seoul High Court Ruling on 1 February 2007 in favor of MTU, the Supreme Court decision, most likely to come out in the middle or end of this year, may deny South Korean migrant workers’ right to freedom of association, in contradiction with South Korean and International Law. We wish to assert that all workers, regardless of their visa status or the country in which they reside, are entitled to equal labor rights, including the right to form and participate in trade unions.

The arrests of President Torna, Vice President Sabur and previous union leadership, and the South Korean government’s refusal to recognize MTU’s legal union status are clearly an attempt to break MTU's opposition oppressive policies towards migrant workers. We see this not only as repression against MTU, but as repression against migrant workers’ organizing and the labor movement worldwide.

We therefore make of you the following demands:

1. Stop the repression against MTU and release President Torna Limbu and Vice President Abdus Sabur immediately!
2. In the name of the right to freedom of association of all workers, recognize MTU’s legal union status!
3. Stop the crackdown against legalize all undocumented migrant workers!

Sincerely,

___________________
(name, title, organization)

Lee Changgeun
International Executive Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9234 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter@kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea

KCTU Newsletter: Ministry of Labor, Chaebols, Layoffs, MTU

2008-04-14T23:36:00.001+09:00

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
Monthly Newsletter
The Second Edition, 2008

KCTU Position on the Ministry of Labor’s 2008 Report to the President

1. On the 13th of March, the Ministry of Labor stated in its report to the President that it would focus on the advancement of industrial relations as the main driving force behind improving the economy and creating new jobs. The Ministry's 'advancement of industrial relations' signifies cooperation between employers and workers, at the center of which is restraint from strikes and pay raises on the part of the unions. It has been presented to buttress the Lee Myung-bak government's economic policy and in essence, forces the workers to make unilateral sacrifices. This is unacceptable in a situation where inflation means that real wages are decreasing and irregular workers can barely scrape by with making only 1200$ a month on average. With economic polarization deteriorating by the day, the employment stability of the irregular workers and wage increases for them are in order, but the Ministry of Labor has continued to present policies in line with the market principle of the Lee government. The Ministry has forgotten that it needs to represent the rights and interests of the 14 million workers in this country, and has solely stressed pro-corporate policies that are designed to increase labor flexibility.

2. The Ministry of Labor also stated that it would resolve industrial disputes based on the principle of the rule of law, and come up with a tailored response to various types of conflicts in order to further this type of industrial cooperation. Even though restraint of demands for wage raises and the urging of no strikes in effect constitutes a violation of basic labor rights, this statement has taken the position that it will repress with state power collective action, as in the case of Koscom. However, the reality is that after the irregular workers' bill went into effect last year, mass lay-offs have ensued and despite clear demonstration of unjust labor practices by the employers during this process, the government has failed to take measures to reprimand non-compliance, and has rather stepped up oppression of collective action. The Ministry had previously announced that it would deal severely with illegal acts regardless of whether they were perpetrated by the employers or workers, but has deleted articles in the industrial relations act that stipulate unjust lay-offs on the part of the employers will be dealt with the criminal code. This means that even when an employer unjustly lays-off a worker in order to intervene in trade union activities, this act cannot be disciplined according to the criminal code, while collective action on the part of the workers can be punished under the name of obstruction of business. Taking this into account, the Ministry of Labor's principle of the rule of law is likely to translate into unilateral repression of just struggles on the part of workers for guarantee of rights and their livelihood.

3. The Ministry of Labor has stated that it would come up with various complementary measures, including revisions to the law and institutional changes, in order to resolve the issue of irregular work. However, such changes are being pursued with the flexibilization of labor as the objective, and would expand irregular work and not contribute to protecting their rights. The problem with the current irregular workers' bill is that it is impossible to attain irregular workers' employment stability by simply limiting the period of their use, and that you need to limit the grounds on which precarious work can be used in order to do so. However, the Ministry is adhering to the line that the period of irregular workers' can be used needs to be extended from 2 to 3 years: the employers' position. Moreover, the Ministry of Labor is planning to expand the areas in which dispatch work can be used, which is a clear sign that it seeks to further neo-liberal labor flexibilization, and thereby exacerbate the employment crisis which the irregular workers face.

4. The Ministry of Labor has announced plans to improve the wage system from one based on seniority to one based on productivity, and also for the expansion of flexible work schedules for a revitalized labor market. Flexible work schedules is a employer-centered institution which forces longer working hours onto the workers, and which also cuts their wages. A wage system based on technical proficiency and level of skill at the industrial level is the right path, while one based on productivity can lead to wage cuts for older workers. Changes to the wage system and working hours are issues that have a direct effect on the wages of workers, and should never be decided upon uni-laterally. It should be decided at the industrial level by applying the principle of equal wages for equal value labor in order to reduce wage disparities.

5. Coverage through the industrial accident insurance is due to be extended to specially employed workers such insurance salesmen, golf caddies, cement mixer drivers, and home study teachers. However, the number of specially employed workers, resulting from diversification of the economy, is not just limited to these workers but also includes quick delivery workers, screenwriters, dump truck drivers, tele-marketers and others. Industrial accident insurance, as a form of social insurance, needs to be extended to all these workers. ■

[Comment] Relaxing the separation between financial and industrial capital : the Lee Myung-bak government goes all out for the Chae-bol

April 2nd, 2008

Corporate taxes will be lowered, public corporations will be privatized, and now the restrictions industrial capital owning financial firms will be lifted. There is no end to the pro-chaebol policies of the Lee Myung-bak government. The national finance committee, in its report to the President on the 31st of March, made official its three-stage plan to relax the laws which had restricted industrial capital from owning banks.

With the crisis management abilities of financial institutions yet untested, and a transparent and rigorous monitoring system still not in place, allowing industrial capital control over banks and thereby allowing banks to become bigger in size would not increase competitiveness, but rather raise the level of risk in the financial sector. Taking into the account the illegal practices of the chae-bol and their culture of collusion, a downgrading of financial transparency is a real possibility. In the case a chae-bol conglomerate finds itself insolvent, market logic dictates that a bank that has lent to it stop additional lending and attempt to recover the money. However, what bank owned by a chae-bol would be able to turn against its mother company if the restrictions between industrial and financial capital were relaxed? The bank would then delay recovering the funds, with the company potentially going into further debt. The situation could lead to tax money being injected to save the chae-bol and bank in order to rescure it, with re-structuring programs being instituted that would seriously effect the workers. This is exactly what happened with the Daewoo securities, which was mobilized to try to save the Daewoo group from falling into further crisis.

The relaxing of such regulations also leads to concern that financial firms could be abused to become the monetary source for reckless expansion into other areas of business, while they could also be mobilized to strengthen chae-bol control over subsidiary companies through circular/mutual financing. The most salient example of such practices was the circular financing between the Samsung group's subsidiaries. This method of financing connected various subsidiaries in a ring of complex mutual financing(‘Everland- Samsung Life Insurance- Samsung Electronics- Samsung Card -Everland') and allowed the Lee family to retain control over the Samsung group. With restrictions on financial firms controlling non-financial enterprises, Samsung Life Insurance had been forced to lower the percentage of stocks it owned in Samsung Electronics. If these restrictions and regulations are revoked, it will open up the way for Everland to restore the circular network of control that it had previously had. Everland's largest shareholder is an individual: Lee Jae-yong, the son of Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee. This is the reason why the Samsung Economic Research Institute has constantly called for the relaxation of regulations and restrictions governing the relationship between industrial and financial capital.

In the end, the Lee Myung-bak government's policies regarding such regulations will only strengthen the monopolistic control of the chae-bol, while consolidating their inner control structure. It is the clearest sign yet that its policies are geared toward solely the chae-bols. ■

[Statement] The lay-off of 99 Allianz Life Insurance workers is the responsibility of the Lee Myung-bak government

April 1st, 2008

The administrative committee at Allianz Life Insurance has decided to lay-off the 99 trade union members that have been on strike. This is a clear case of unjust lay-offs and needs to be immediately retracted. Those responsible also need to be held accountable. The 99 workers were all managers of branch offices, but they were legally trade union members with the right to strike. Nevertheless, management decided on their dismissal after the Minster of Labor stated that they "were not subjects that could join a union." The grounds for dismissal were identical to the Minister's comment. In effect, the Minister of Labor has taken sides with the managers and shown a disregard for legal rights that has lead to mass lay-offs.

Allianz Life Insurance acquired Che-il Life Insurance in 1999, and has gone through a restructuring process that has seen the number of employers decrease to 1600 from 2700. They are now attempting a second round of re-structuring by implementing a performance based pay system. However, the employers and union had previously agreed "to implement a performance based system that is acceptable to both management and union" in 2005 and again in 2006. The strike was sparked when the company broke the agreement in Jan of this year and tried to force through the new wage system. The breach of agreements between management and employees is itself illegal, as are the lay-offs.

According to the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, those that have been laid off are sales managers that have only had their titles changed, and "the Ministry of Labor in the past has recognized trade unions formed by sales managers, and recognizes them at most companies as trade union members." Moreover, Supreme Court rulings in 2003 and 2004 have confirmed that trade union membership of branch managers is legitimate, rendering the Allianz employer's argument that branch managers aren't entitled to basic labor rights because they are part of management groundless.

Regarding such unjust labor practices by the employers, the Lee Myung-bak government much touted 'principle of the rule of law' has disappeared. What's more, the labor minister has taken the lead in siding with the employers while disregarding basic labor rights, further reinforcing the Lee government's 'principle' of favoring the employers. The KCTU urges the Allianz Life Insurance company to revoke its unjust lay-off of workers and to take back the new performance-based wage scheme which it had uni-laterally forced upon the workers. We also urge the Ministry of Labor to intervene to stop the repression of the workers and call on the government to recognize the unjust nature of the current situation at the company and take measures to correct them. Ignoring such calls will result in the KCTU, in solidarity with the Allianz Life Insurance union and the KCFLU(KOREAN FEDERATION OF CLERICAL & FINANCIAL LABOR UNIONS ), organizing a national struggle on the issue. ■

MTU Continues the Struggle for the Labor Rights of Undocumented Migrant Workers

Since 2005, when the KCTU-affiliate, the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU) was first formed, the South Korean government has been trying to stop its activities. The government claims that because MTU’s leadership is made up mostly of undocumented migrant workers, it does not have the right to legal union status. Repression against MTU increased last November with the arrest and deportation of MTU’s president, vice-president and general secretary all at the same time in a targeted crackdown. MTU was not silent in the face of this attack. Supported by KCTU, the Korean labor movement and Korean civil society, we responded with a sit-in protest that lasted over three months, culminating in a mass protest on 24 February, attended by over a thousand migrant workers, Korean workers, activists and Korean citizens. At the same time MTU carried out an intensive campaign to reorganize our chapters and branches, which had been severely weakened to the government’s crackdown against undocumented migrant workers and its targeting of MTU.

MTU is now ready to push forwarded to expand our work and continue to strengthen our union. Our sit-in protest concluded on 11 March with closing ceremony attended by supporters from all sectors of the labor movement at which MTU’s acting leadership, union members and supporters made pledges for continued struggle in the future. Many MTU members have also come forward as leaders elected in chapter and branch elections, demonstrating their courage in the face of continued repression. On 6 April, we also held our general assembly to elect our new president, vice presidents, general secretary and other central officers and adopted our organizing and campaign plans for 2008.

The road ahead is not easy. After the Seoul High Court ruled last year that undocumented migrant workers’ right to freedom of association is protected under South Korean law and MTU therefore deserves legal recognition as a union, we are now awaiting a Supreme Court decision. However, recently on March 19, President Lee Myeong-bak made a statement that a union by undocumented migrant workers would not tolerated, clearly referring to MTU. This statement demonstrates that the Supreme Court ruling is by no means a foregone conclusion in our favor; it will take our determined effort and support domestically and internationally before MTU’s legal union status and the right of migrant workers to union organizing is respected.

Last December KCTU filed a complaint with the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association concerning MTU’s case. It is clear that the complaint and MTU’s struggle has already received considerable attention from the international labor and human rights communities. This was demonstrated on 18 March when MTU spoke at a side event at the 7th Session of the UN Human Rights Council co-sponsored by Migrant Rights International, Forum-Asia and KCTU. MTU and KCTU are also planning am international campaign to further raise awareness about MTU’s case and build support for the right to freedom of association of all migrant workers regardless of their immigration status. Through this campaign we seek to demonstrate that MTU’s struggle is not only for migrant workers in South Korea, but a struggle to win recognition for the labor rights of migrant workers worldwide. ■

NCLB, Lee Myung-bak style

2008-03-26T15:54:00.002+09:00

Sickening.

(More sickening:

Government unveils debt rescue scheme

The government yesterday announced plans to bail out as many as 290,000 credit delinquents and extend more credit loans to struggling small enterprises.

Under the initiative named "New Start 2008," individual credit delinquents will be allowed to get loans with their deposits in the national pension fund as collateral, and pay back their debts, beginning in August.

They can borrow half the amount of their accumulated pension contributions.

There are currently up to 2.6 million credit delinquents, and financial authorities are considering various possible measures to rescue them from snowballing debt and interest.

A separate rescue plan is expected to be announced later this week.

"New Start is our way of putting people back on their feet, while at the same time preventing the abuse of the system and burdening state finances," said Lee Dong-kwan, the presidential spokesman.

But to prevent possible moral hazard, the government said that the redemption scheme will be implemented temporarily.

The rescue project comes amid mounting criticism that the new Lee Myung-bak government - with its very rich ministers - has little regard for the economically disadvantaged.

Civic groups have been calling on the administration to assist viable participants in the market to help them get back into the competitive economy, since the growing number of delinquents and other social outcasts has been taking a toll on the overall health of the economy.

Addressing such demands, Cheong Wa Dae said the New Start project aimed to offer aid to those who have been pushed to the margins because they were underprivileged to start with, or as a result of certain policy errors.

"If we don't get these people back on their feet again, there is no way we can ever ease the structural polarization that defines our society today," said the presidential office, explaining of the program's mission.

New Start also outlines plans to extend a total of 1 trillion won ($1 billion) in loans to struggling proprietors via provincial credit guarantee funds. The loans, however, will be limited to 10 million won or less per company.

Up to 125,000 companies may become beneficiaries, assuming that they each receive an average of 8 million won, the presidential office said.

To provide better protection for temporary workers, the government said it would urge companies to provide all workers with employment insurance.

Regarding local farms, the government vowed to use some 4.35 billion won to start a state-run lending business for farming equipment. This is in response to the fact that farms spend so much money to buy new equipment. In addition, livery farms will be given access to 1 trillion won in loans, which the government plans to extend at a low interest of 3 percent. These loans are to be used for purchasing feed, as prices have lately surged due to soaring demand.

To help attract more people to the nation's struggling traditional markets, the administration devised a plan to allow government officials to use their "welfare points" at such markets. Officials are currently given up to 640,000 won a year to cover costs related to education and health care.

The presidential office has designated every last Saturday of the month as a day for visiting traditional markets.

By Kim Ji-hyun*

(jemmie@heraldm.com)

2008.03.26

*Kim Ji-hyun, if I should some day have the pleasure of meeting you, you will regret getting out of bad that day.

KCTU Newsletter: POSCO in India, Lee Myung-bak

2008-03-06T15:17:00.003+09:00

I haven't seen these newsletters posted anywhere so I'll put them here when I get them

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)

Monthly Newsletter - The First Edition, 2008 (Feb 25th, 2008)

For the Lee Myung-bak government: the realization of democratic values is the key, not a "global Korea" of savage market competition

Lee Myung-bak will take office today as president. The key themes of his government have already been outlined: advancement, practicalism, a global Korea, revitalizing the economy, change/autonomy/creativity, etc. This simply means that he will closely adhere to the logic of neo-liberalism as the principle for managing the country. He has already stated that standard for enacting all policies would be how 'business friendly' they were, and in reorganizing the government structure has made clear that he wants a 'corporate-style' government. Regarding public enterprises and the public sector in general, his plan is not to raise the quality of services for the people of the country, but to restructure them through marketization. Comments have been made regarding introducing market logic into the social welfare system as well. The Lee Myung-bak government is thus fully prepared to implement and systemize a winner-take-all neo-liberal competition regime. We are deeply concerned that a new age of authoritarianism, based on the sacrifice of the workers, peasants, and the socially dispossessed, may be approaching.

Our society has experienced a rapid polarization of the economy from the neo-liberal policies instituted after the financial crisis of 1997. The reason that the previous Roh government was defeated by such a large margin in the last presidential elections was due in large part to the fact that he wasn't able to alleviate the polarization that had excluded the socially weak. Therefore, if Lee Myung-bak, voted in by a large margin, wishes to serve the people and revitalize the economy as he has promised, then he must urgently resolve the structural problem that is economic polarization. The task that Lee has been bestowed with by the people and history, is to redistribute in a balanced way the wealth that is concentrated in a small group and to realize economic democracy in order to protect the socially dispossessed.

However, the Lee government has pushed forward with policies that have disappointed the public, such as deregulation regarding corporate activities, relaxing the restrictions on the finance industry, and unprepared proposals regarding english education. The view of the new government regarding industrial relations has also stressed the law and principle over dialogue and compromise, while pursuing the flexibilization of the labor market, privatization of the public sector, and 'advancement' of industrial relations law and institutions. In a nutshell, this means that the new government will continue to increase the number of irregular workers in order to further flexibilize the labor market, and will oppress the workers that resist in the name of the law and principle. The Lee government's labor policy is equal to sacrificing the workers in order to create a 'business friendly' environment. Furthermore, Lee has already made clear his anti-worker stance through various disparaging and distorting comments aimed at unions and workers. This renders questionable his competence as the leader of the country, and his view on labor needs to undergo a fundamental change.

A core task that our society faces in its battle to overcome polarization is reducing the number of, and guaranteeing basic labor rights to, the irregular workers that face constant employment instability, exclusion from basic rights, and low wages. However, the Lee government has not only promised to ratify the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, but has also declared that it will seek the conclusion of multiple FTAs, exposing the Korean economy to indiscriminate competition and the public sector to private capital, thereby exacerbating polarization.

Furthermore, regarding the formulation and implementation of policies, the Lee government has tended to bulldoze them through rather than subject them to democratic processes and social debates. This leads us to the concern that his time in office could be detrimental to democracy. President Lee has repeatedly spoken about running his political party and the government as a CEO, and about the need to resort to authoritarian means to control demonstrations. Nowhere is this more clear than in his view regarding the construction of a canal that runs across the country: he has said that the majority of the public is opposed to it because they haven't seen it and that they will change their minds once it is finished. He remains adamant and plans to push through with the building of the canal. This is why many are concerned that democracy, nurtured through a difficult historical process after 1987, is in danger of moving backward under this government.

President Lee Myung-bak owes a lot to the people of this country. They have selected him as their president despite a past of numerous counts of collusion and wrongdoing, on the hopes that he would bring economic democracy. The people, in terms of their livelihood, are that desperate. That is why if the Lee Myung-bak government fails to deliver on resolving economic polarization and further improving democracy, he will face the backlash from the public, as well as from history. ¡á

Denouncing Human rights violations during the construction of a POSCO still mill in India

Joint Statement of Korean Social and Civic organizations and KCTU (Feb. 19th, 2008)

"POSCO must state its position regarding the human rights violations that are occurring in the state of Orissa"

We, the social and civic organizations of Korea, express our serious concern at the violence that is being perpetrated in the Jagatsingpur region of the state of Orissa, where a steel mill is scheduled to be built by POSCO. We have come together to demand that POSCO, as a relevant party, take responsibility and respond accordingly to the incidents.

The site of the violence is the region where POSCO is planning to build the largest steel plant in Asia. On the 22nd of June, 2005, the state government of Orissa and POSCO signed a MoU regarding mining, the building of a steel mill that can produce 12 million tons annually, and the construction of ports and other relevant facilities needed for the operation of the steel mill. POSCO's investment is the largest ever single case of foreign direct investment in India's history, as well as one without precedent in Korea. However, international environmental and human rights groups, as well as NGOs in India, have voiced concern that if the still plant were to be built, the livelihood of the more than 20,000 residents in the region, mostly still living according to traditional methods of life, would be threatened. The destruction of the environment is also a major issue.

The concerns have become reality with the serious violation of human rights in the region. According to Indian organization and Amnesty International, the violence started when the state government tried to forcefully relocate the residents in the site designated for construction and the residents resisted. In February, April, September, and November of 2007, there were repeated clashes between the state government and the residents. On the 29th of November, residents that had been on guard at the main roads and bridges into the region were attacked by 100 armed personnel. They threw home-made bombs at the tents of the demonstrators and went on to beat and sexually harass the mostly-female demonstrators. They also destroyed the residents' property and in the process left 50 injured, 15 of them in serious condition. What has shocked international human rights organizations, however, is the fact that the police, stationed just 5 kilometers from the site of the attacks, stood by without doing anything while the attacks were perpetrated. Moreover, the police took over the barricades that the demonstrators had erected as soon as they dispersed. The Orissa state police not only blocked off the village and stopped food from being supplied, but they also in effect allowed the armed men to violate the human right of the villagers and demonstrators. The village, with the police in control and the possibilities of another attack, have led to a state of de facto martial law, and the villagers are afraid that the situation may become worse.

With construction to start on the 1st of April, full-scale repression of the villages that are still resisting is expected. The appalling human rights that we have witnessed in Korea on the part of police and hired thugs during forced evacuation of shacks is being repeated in India.

We are seriously concerned that the Orissa state government and the federal government of India have not engaged in sufficient dialogue with the residents while they have endured human rights violations while demanding measures for their livelihood. Sacrifices have mounted across the country as Indians have taken a stand for their livelihood against the special economic zones that the government has vigorously pursued. We believe that ignoring the plight of the residents in favor of the needs of corporations, especially foreign ones, is a position that needs to be fundamentally reconsidered.

There is no way evade raising the responsibility that POSCO, as a concerned party to the project, has regarding the human rights violations. As a company that has stressed corporate social responsibility, it needs to accept its responsibility for the human rights violations and environmental damage that this large-scale investment has resulted in. POSCO has objected that it has no direct responsibility for the violence, but pressuring the Indian government for a rapid implementation of the project is translating into the violence against the villagers. The social and civic organizations of Korea remember the violence perpetrated by POSCO against construction workers union a few years ago in Pohang, and therefore are worried that we might see a similar ending in India. A truly respected corporation is not one that succeeds on the base of the tears of villagers and destroyed environment. It is still not too late for POSCO to come forth with its position to the relevant parties on the violence and environmental destruction, and to present a viable solution.

We urge POSCO to recognize the seriousness of the issue and initiate a dialogue with the residents before the situation deteriorates further.

< Our Demands >
- POSCO, as a concerned party, should take measures to stop further violence from occurring.
- POSCO needs to present a concrete resolution to the incidents occurring in India.
- POSCO needs to initiate a transparent and democratic process to take into account the demands of the villagers and residents.

Lee Changgeun
International Executive Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

Upon participating in a language teachers association symposium

2008-02-22T14:53:00.004+09:00

I suppose I was more than a little out of place. Most of the educators in attendance were promoting and developing arguments against English language education. Less being better, none being best.

Someone asked my opinion of Lee's approach. I said it made little sense for the entire population to become fluent in the same two languages. Silence. For this audience, it made little sense to become fluent in any additional language, if this meant that the first language would receive less attention. I was immersed in monolingual pride.

But there was also anger in the room. People are angry that skill with a foreign language is virtually a passport to yangban status, for example. And maybe some of the anger is fueled by anxiety over loss of culture. Perhaps above all, English is simply equated with greater integration into a vicious empire-network that these people want no part of.

We all know that there are people in Washington and London who are quite pleased that East Asians are learning so much English. These people know whose voices dominate international flows of information. So, no English, and those voices are more easily ignored. I think I get it.

Mais ce n'est pas la guerre.

Another peace education activist behind bars

2008-02-17T23:11:00.002+09:00

Sorry I didn't catch this sooner. Teacher Kim Hyung-geun was arrested January 29 and charged with violating the National Security Law. He remains in Seoul Prison. Police had raided his home in April 2007, but hadn't charged him with anything.

Why the delay? Some things change, some things get worse.

Two other teachers charged a year ago are awaiting trial. See here and here for background.

Konglish is the future of Korea

2008-02-12T20:41:00.008+09:00

TEE and the classroom

I want to talk (more) about the curriculum policy formerly known as English Only, and which is now trumpeted and tromboned as Teaching English in English (TEE).

I want to begin with an anecdote. In 2004 I taught at a middle school in Incheon. One fine day, there happened a demonstration lesson, conducted by an ambitious and competent English teacher. Parents, teachers and officials from the Incheon Office of Education observed the lesson. It was English Only and was by all accounts a resounding success - the accounts of its refugees excepted, of course. Two learners spent the entire lesson hiding out in my office. They had been excluded from the Big Event because they did not possess the language required to participate in the demonstration learning activities.

They had the skills necessary to describe the situation to me, however. They used the dictionary at naver.com and found the word they wanted: 재해: "disaster." Very apt: a teaching approach that deliberately excludes the learners who most need it is disastrous.

This, I want to suggest, is TEE.

Lee Kyung-sook is fond of saying that TEE and "English immersion" (by which she means, I think, content-based language teaching) are based on "decades of research." And she's right. Unfortunately, that research was done decades ago. Most SLA theorists and researchers have long since moved on, and those who care about what actually happens in classrooms now stress the importance of social interaction, the negotiation of meaning, and attention to language form in addition to content. And if a first or shared language, i.e. Korean, can help learners discover features of language form, then it should be used.

There is very exciting work being done with bilingual education in the U.S. I would suggest that Ms Lee explore it, if bilingualism is what the government wants to achieve.

The thing is, I am not aware of a single language learning expert who believes that L1 should be excluded from lessons. The government has adopted a position that is far more extreme than that of the most ardent supporters of content-based language instruction elsewhere. The government’s proposed policy is bad pedagogy. But it is not only bad pedagogy; I think that it is bad for Korea.

I summarized Canagarajah's critique of English Only earlier. "Linguistic genocide" was mentioned: English Only "challenges the validity" of newer varieties of English. I want to talk about what this might mean.

Konglish is the future of Korea

I do not mean to suggest that Konglish is the future of 대한민국, Daehan Minguk. But I believe that it is the future of Korea. "Korea" is itself a Konglish word, likely derived from 고려, Goryeo.

I'm using Konglish to refer to Korean English. Some folks like to say that Konglish is just "bad" or "broken" English. While I'm not sure, I assume that folks used to say the same about Singlish or Singapore English. Indeed, the government of Singapore still says this — I guess that they don't care that Oxford puts Singlish words in its dictionaries.

What is language for? Many things of course, but I would suggest that a very important function of language is its use as a vehicle for culture. Knowledges, experiences, histories, worldviews, rituals, songs, foods, philosophies, all are constantly (re)created with and through language.

So then what is an international language for? It is used as a vehicle for cultures. It carries the knowledges, experiences, histories, worldviews, rituals, songs, foods, philosophies of nations.

Anime, sushi, karaoke are English words, used throughout the world, and these words carry Japanese culture with them. How did this happen? Yes, the Japanese economy is powerful. But simply, concretely: people, real people at real times and in real places, mixed languages. One can imagine an American diplomat in a restaurant in Osaka, asking "What is this?" His fellow diners could have answered "It's just what it looks like, slices of uncooked fish served on fingers of boiled rice." Or they might have done something more daring. They might have said "This is sushi." This would have been a challenge, a dare: recognize this as an addition to your language, your knowledge, your worldview.

Everyone in Korea could one day be fluent in English - but whose English? Or rather, which Englishes? Will they all be "borrowed?" If so, great opportunities will be missed. The vehicles will belong to others - there will be no Korean-made vehicles. Other nations will lose the contributions and challenges of Koreans, and "Korea" will stay in 대한민국, unknown.

I can think of a number of words that would make excellent additions to English. Han (恨), cham, jeong. Maybe minjok, since "folk" was abused by Nazi propagandists.

"Glocal" is a very clever portmanteau. The expression "I'm so poor at x" is interesting, the way it ties poverty to a perceived lack of ability. I don't say "It's nice to meet you" if I have already met someone, but I appreciate how the expression recognizes that you never meet the same person twice (as you cannot throw a rock into the same river twice).

But if TEE is enforced, these can never be English words or expressions. Neither can these: pansori, chaebol, ondol, kimchi, hanbok

Because if Korean words are excluded from classrooms, there can be no mixing of languages. When I delivered that quiz, about 40% of students said that "handphone" didn't belong, though they all knew what a cordless phone was. They said it was Konglish and as such didn't belong with the "English" words. This is TEE: there can be no mixing. TEE means that Korean culture will not be represented in the world of Englishes. Korean English will never join Cameroon English, India English, Fiji English, or any of the many Englishes used by millions of people but ignored by the current national curriculum.

I can think of a few ideological supports for TEE. A more obvious one is simply that the elite study in the U.S., and usually come to believe that (Standard) U.S. English is "superior" to the English that is developing in Korea. Others simply associate English with CNN, Hollywood, and the New York Times, so ignore the contributions of other English users.

But there may be something else at work as well. Many people believe that Koreans are one homogeneous - think "pure" - ethnic group, one "race." For these people, mixing means dilution. A subtraction, not an addition. Perhaps, to some, Konglish is not a vehicle for culture but rather a "mongrel" that must be put in a sack and drowned while it is still young.

If this happens, if TEE is enforced, countless students will be excluded from their classrooms, and the world will be poorer for it.

Education Reform, brought to you by YBM

2008-01-26T19:51:00.000+09:00

Best read as a Bill Hicks monologue, but you'll need to include a generous audience, because this shit isn't very funny.

.. So apparently president-elect Lee Myung-bak, otherwise known as the Second Coming (was Roh similarly obsessed over in the weeks following his election??), has a rehab plan for the country's hagwon and overseas schooling dependence. Anyone hear about this? Have you read about this? Well he's going to take action, yes he's a Man Of Action, our LMB.

The key elements of his Action Plan: he's going to 1) see that the the English-Only Policy is enforced; 2) encourage competition among high schools by dropping university admissions regulations; and 3) have "easy" high school subjects, like sciences and maths, delivered in English.

Call me a conspiracist if you like, but hagwon directors themselves might have designed this Plan.

First, "English through English." Half the country's English teachers report that they could deliver lessons wherein the first language of everyone in the room is conspicuously absent. But forget for a moment that this bad pedagogy, that most English teachers KNOW that this is bad pedagogy, and that this is the reason most teachers are resisting the policy (for a superb example of L1 use in an English lesson see this article (subscription).) And forget what will become of teachers unable or unwilling to teach "English through English."

No tarot deck is needed here. The enforcement of this policy will force many families into debt in pursuit of private English-intensive preschooling, and exclude entirely those children whose families cannot afford it. English will soon be taught from first year elementary, and if Korean is not used, children who are not already familiar with English will be so lost that they won't even find the starting line.

Already there are middle school students who do not know even the (latin) alphabet. In 2006, two such students spent a class hiding out in my office - they had been excluded from the teacher's English-Only "demo lesson," because they could not participate in the innovative activities that parents, teachers and ministry officials had come to admire.

Second, high schools and university admissions. Most high schools in the country are privately owned and administered, even if they're heavily funded by provinces. And every city or gu has its elite high schools. The kids who attend these schools expect to get into a good university. As for the kids in other schools .. let's say that the curriculum at these schools is less challenging, and expectations rather lower. President Roh attempted to change this by forcing universities to base admissions partly on students' performance at their particular school. This was to encourage bright students to attend lower-perfoming high schools and thus help raise their school's academic profile.

Allowing universities complete freedom in admissions will allow them to select from high schools of their choosing. Which will in turn force middle school students into hagwons, and parents further into debt, to better kids' chances of getting into choice high schools. Indeed, the KTU warns that universities may soon be looking at students' middle school records as well, which will force more elementary students into hagwons, etc.

Third, English-medium instruction in high schools. LMB wants high schools delivering "easy" subjects like maths and sciences in English by 2010. These are the easy subjects?! Who the fuck does the transition team pretend to be kidding? "Easy" subjects, for second language use, are art, physical education, and later, geography (see this research article, sub required). No doubt hagwons are already hanging "Learn Science English Here!!!" banners.

Now if our messiah were actually serious about education reform, he'd set up a nation-wide fully-subsidized preschool system, start funding universities so that exlusion from the elite schools does not doom young people to drudgery, address regional imbalances in education funding, wrest control of secondary schools from petty oligarchs, and help create learning communities that foster social, moral, and intellectual development rather than enforce regimens of testing, ranking and standardization.

.. And since teachers are abandoning the KTU, the organization that is best placed to challenge Lee and his education-as-business model, soon we'll all be "service providers," encouraging failing kids to absent themselves from standardized tests so that we can receive our pay incentives, and our schools their funding.

I hope our uniforms are tasteful.

So THAT's how the Chosun Ilbo comes up with editorials!

2008-01-01T17:51:00.000+09:00

with http://www.pakin.org/complaint ...

The Korean Teachers Union's paroxysms have been getting a lot of undeserved attention recently. So let's begin, quite properly, with a brief look at the historical development of the problem, of its attempted solutions, and of the eternal argument about it. Having endured countless hours of listening to the Korean Teachers Union's paltry, odious gibber, I can say with confidence that after hearing about its politically incorrect attempts to divert our attention from serious issues, I was saddened. I was saddened that it has lowered itself to this level.

In the past, it was perfectly clear to everyone with insight and without malice that the Korean Teachers Union's snow jobs are tinctured with imperialism. Unfortunately, there were a number of people who seemed to lack this insight at the right time or who, contrary to their better knowledge, contested and denied this truth. The objection may still be raised that animalism is a viable and vital objective for our nation's educational institutions. At first glance this sounds almost believable yet the following must be borne in mind: I want to make this clear so that those who do not understand deeper messages embedded within sarcastic irony -- and you know who I'm referring to -- can process my point. The Korean Teachers Union says that it's perfectly safe to drink and drive. That is the most despicable lie I have ever heard in my entire life. You may be wondering why putrid tricksters latch onto the Korean Teachers Union's politics. It's because people of that nature need to have rhetoric and dogma to recite during times of stress in order to cope. That's also why a colleague recently informed me that a bunch of intellectually challenged fault-finders and others in the Korean Teachers Union's amen corner are about to pooh-pooh the concerns of others. I have no reason to doubt that story because were he alive today, Hideki Tojo would be the Korean Teachers Union's most trustworthy ally. I can see Tojo joining forces with the Korean Teachers Union to help it do everything possible to keep abominable busybodies lewd and violent.

Every time the Korean Teachers Union tells its habitués that superstition is no less credible than proven scientific principles, their eyes roll into the backs of their heads as they become mindless receptacles of unsubstantiated information, which they accept without question. Speaking of cuckoo bloodsuckers, I have a plan to make an impartial and well-informed evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of the Korean Teachers Union's convictions. I call this plan "Operation help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world". (Granted, I need a shorter, catchier name but that one will do for now.) My plan's underlying motif is that if we are to redefine in practical terms the immutable ideals that have guided us from the beginning, then we must be guided by a healthy and progressive ideology, not by the benighted and intransigent ideologies that the Korean Teachers Union promotes. For those of us who make our living trying to speak up and speak out against the Korean Teachers Union, it is important to consider that when it says that two wrongs make a right, that's just a load of spucatum tauri. The Korean Teachers Union's companions get a thrill out of protesting. They have no idea what causes they're fighting for or against. For them, going down to the local protest, carrying a sign, hanging out with the Korean Teachers Union, and meeting some other grotty barrators is merely a social event. They're not even aware that the Korean Teachers Union's rejoinders are like a Hydra. They continually acquire new heads and new strength. The only way to stunt their growth is to launch an all-out ideological attack against the forces of materialism. The only way to destroy its Hydra entirely is to provide more people with the knowledge that the impact of the Korean Teachers Union's choleric fairy tales is exactly that predicted by the Book of Revelation. Evil will preside over the land. Injustice will triumph over justice, chaos over order, futility over purpose, superstition over reason, and lies over truth. Only when humanity experiences this Hell on Earth will it fully appreciate that if we look beyond the Korean Teachers Union's delusions of grandeur, we see that I recently heard it tell a bunch of people that newspapers should report only on items it agrees with. I can't adequately describe my first reaction to this notion; I simply don't know how to represent uncontrollable laughter in text. Finally, any mistakes in this letter are strictly my fault. But if you find any factual error or have more updated information on the subject of the Korean Teachers Union, the Korean Teachers Union-inspired versions of mysticism, etc., please tell me so I can write an even stronger letter next time.

Poor investors, they can't open a school fast enough in Songdo

2007-12-27T16:46:00.000+09:00

Yes, let's everyone look to the UK for successful education models, ha. And that's what young learners in Korea need, more testing. Thanks for that, Simm.

And thanks to you, Kang, for promoting the privatization of public education. How very .. daring! You'll be an editor before you know it.

OECD ranks South Korea ahead of Japan in scientific literacy

2007-12-04T21:16:00.000+09:00

The latest OECD International Student Assessment report is out. The report is published every three years, and this one focuses on "scientific literacy." Korean teachers may be relieved to find that their students rank ahead of Japan's, though Finland continues to dominate.

For those who like to give learners the equivalent of sports scores, the report can be found here (volume one is 390 pages).

Dear Cho Jeon-hyeock

2007-10-24T21:42:00.000+09:00

UPDATE: Cho is a member of LMB's transition committee. Of course.

Christ, professor, you need a lot of words to say nothing at all. A complex issue requires a return to “basics”? How insightful.

First: Korean students continue to score at or near the top in OECD achievement rankings in reading, writing, and mathematics. The patient is anything but terminal. You should know this.

Second: Many countries have centralized, bureaucratic, top-down public education systems. South Korea is hardly aberrant in this regard. You should know this.

Third: Name one country that allows entirely independent, unregulated schools to operate. I mean countries with functioning states, not Somalia.

Fourth: Most OECD countries allow for some local and democratic oversight of schools, e.g. “school boards” with members elected from and by the public. You should know this, but your elitist worldview blinds you to its significance.

Fifth: You’re an education professor, obviously able to write in english. I challenge you to publish something in a peer-reviewed journal to justify your refreshing neoliberal approach to education reform in Korea.

I’m kidding with this last, of course. Serious academics would shred your “arguments." Best stick with The Korea Times - and keep those transfers from the Center for Free Enterprise’s stipend account coming!

Fucking weasel

2007-10-11T10:25:00.000+09:00

"I will make a society in which poverty is not passed from generation to generation by ... creating two education systems. Specifically, wealthy families will have 100 more schools to choose from. To ensure that these systems are firmly divided, I will encourage universities to rank high schools. Teachers who resist will be evaluated into early retirement." So saith Lee Myung-bak.

And in the newsrooms of the nation, there was much rejoicing.

What's "Juche" in English?

2007-09-27T10:23:00.000+09:00

KM Lawson at Frog in a Well, looking at a piece in the Chosun Ilbo by New Right intellectual Shin Ji-ho, notes

how easily the “New Right” can expose the hypocrisy and backwardness of the nationalism of Korea’s mainstream left, and champion, with apparent ease, the forces of tolerance, international cooperation, and cosmopolitan identities.

"English" obviously plays the leading role in the construction of "cosmopolitan" identities, and the NL Left wants nothing to do with it. (Never mind that "English" could help the movement make connections with communities of resistance elsewhere.) It's only response is to attack "English" in all its manifestations: the hagwons, the publishers, the foreigners who teach it.

This is a mistake, this refusal to engage with the discourses surrounding "English." People have invested enormous resources, financial and emotional, into Englishes. Desire, even when it is "manufactured," will not be challenged by denial, the absence of challenge.

NL intellectuals in the DLP need some new ideas, desperately. I think this is what 47% of the membership was in part telling them.

Recommendations

2007-09-14T21:32:00.000+09:00

Education International sent quite a fierce letter to Roh this week, recommending that school management be more transparent, that the government lift limitations to collective bargaining, and that teachers be allowed to speak freely during election campaigns.

Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation recommends that the U.S. should:

Begin efforts to reach out to and win over the post-386 generation of South Korean voters who are more amenable to U.S. interests. Although not a yet a strong political power, this generation is a long-term "potential client" for the U.S.

Isn't it nice when folks make an effort to reach out?

Hankyoreh and KCTU draw attention to ILO report

2007-06-23T05:40:00.000+09:00

The International Labor Organization (ILO) cited South Korea, along with Cambodia, Colombia, Philippines and Iran, as a country in which workers' right to assembly is not well guaranteed.

Great company that, countries where labour activists are daily threatened, beaten, tortured and disappeared. I wonder how many workers will be imprisoned, or killed on the streets of Seoul this summer.

Park Geun-hye vows to save public education - by killing it

2007-06-12T19:02:00.000+09:00

It seems Park Geun-hye plans to dismantle public education in the country, so that "quality human capital" might be better produced - oh wait, she won't have to, since apparently it has already "collapsed."

She also says "deregulation" and the "rule of law" will allow Korea to prosper. Quite comfortable expressing nonsensical contradiction, is Park Geun-hye.

And about those tax cuts, Ms Park ...

The Korea Times won't provide an URL for the story, so here's most of it:

"Failed Public Education Undermines Economy"

By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

Presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) has diagnosed that failed educational policy has undermined the economy.

Among others, she stressed that the next government should put top priority on public education.

``The collapse of public education and soaring household spending on private education are two core problems which should be addressed during the next administration,’’ the former GNP chairperson said.

Park claimed the poorly managed public education system has generated many social ills including a growing number of broken families.

Therefore effective programs for training quality human capital should be given primary importance as a key item on the national agenda.

Successful educational reform will pave the way for the prosperous economy and consequently job creation will follow, she said.

She pointed out that Koreans are estimated to spend some 31 trillion won per year on private education. English education takes the lion’s share of the spending.

Park, the eldest daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee, said her camp is reviewing various policy options to enable the government to support families to take free foreign language programs.

Park singled out tax cuts, deregulation and the rule of law as the three core elements that can revitalize the Korean economy.

She added these three elements will create jobs and improve welfare for low-income families.

Regulations hold the economy back, she said.

According to her, about 500 more regulations have been introduced during the incumbent Roh Moo-hyun administration.

Park promised to ease regulations, if elected president.

Korean teachers lodge complaint with the ILO

2007-06-01T19:42:00.000+09:00

The KTU has submitted a complaint to the ILO. The ILO will ask the government to respond this month, but there will be no formal discussion of teachers' charges before November.

Calling on the KTU to support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel

2007-06-01T19:27:00.000+09:00

Inspired by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Britain's National Union of Journalists and now the UCU, I am going to submit a motion to the KTU executive, that the union join the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. I realize it's a longshot ...

Free Trade will save your parents' jobs, and whiten your teeth too!

2007-05-22T15:33:00.000+09:00

It wasn't easy to get - the teacher responsible for distributing stuff like this denied any knowledge of it - but I've uploaded the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development's 한미/KOR-US FTA propoganda (.ppt, in Korean).

Slides 42 and 52 will be of particular interest to educators. Slide 42 states explicitly that access to education as a public service remains to be negotiated. Slide 52 lists the "education service" areas that the Americans intend to discuss - in short, ALL OF THEM, from primary to tertiary and beyond.

I hope someone familiar with the agreement will find the time to comment on this material ;-)

... because Big Brother is Always Right

2007-05-21T22:42:00.000+09:00

"State-mandated net filtering" is in the news:

"What's regrettable about net filtering is that almost always this is happening in the shadows. There's no place you can get an answer as a citizen from your state about how they are filtering and what is being filtered."

The survey found evidence of filtering in the following countries:

Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burma/Myanmar, China, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen.

Of course, with a little effort, blocked content is very accessable.

Which reminds me, I must give a lesson on using proxies.

The filters are extra thick for school networks, and we're not talking about protecting kids from fisting in barnyards. About once a week, I have to call the local Office of Education and ask politely and firmly for access to sites that contain material good for young (and less young) minds, e.g. Common Dreams and Cryptome.

But I was refused access to reddit.com!

(For the timorous: I was eventually able to confirm that downloading files from sites like the KCNA is not illegal, though the "distribution" of files containing content deemed too sympathetic to The North can get you jailed - unless you're singing in tune, of course.)

And here's a good article at ZNet: The Harsh Reality of Migrant Labor in South Korea

Ministry distributes FTA propaganda to schools

2007-05-14T20:15:00.000+09:00

Well, isn't that a nice little effort in inter-ministry cooperation ..

From today's Hankyoreh:

The ministry sent documents to nationwide educational offices and colleges on April 30 - including 60-page promotional materials - urging them to cooperate in raising understanding of the FTA negotiations. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education then conveyed the message to regional [educational] offices to step up efforts to make teachers and students have "a correct understanding" of the FTA and to use the ministry's materials in instruction.

I'll try to get my hands on the material and post on it later.

"it is possible to re-imagine such projects"

2007-05-05T21:51:00.000+09:00

Trip to the Kaesong Industrial Complex at Two Koreas and A Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul (CounterPunch, by Tim Shorrock) deserve links.

Denying student agency in the adolescent rights movement

2007-05-03T16:11:00.000+09:00

by Jeon Nu Ri
translated by Kim Seok Cho

Within the adolescent rights movement, teachers are known to share certain tendencies. These are assumed to be occupational symptoms. For example, they tend to speak for a long time in meetings or discussions, as if they were in a classroom. Another symptom, which is to be discussed here, is their ‘excessive responsibility’ for their students.

It’s natural for teachers to be responsible for their students in that they are educators who are capable of changing their students’ lives. However, this ‘responsibility’ sometimes strays from what teachers originally intend and can have negative effects on students who are working to improve school communities.

A few days ago, a student was caught and punished by the school authority for organizing a paper plane demonstration against hair regulations. When I visited the school to protest the disciplinary action, the teacher responsible for the case told me, “You can’t be responsible for his life, but I can.” I was angered by the remark. He seemed firm in his belief that he is responsible for the student’s entire life, so firm that he was mistaking the student for a lamb which is expected to obey its master. He failed to understand that his student could also fight for his rights as a human being.

Even some members of JeonGyoJo, whose goal is chamgyoyook or ‘True Education’, are not free from this ‘excessive responsibility’. When JeonGyoJo launched a ‘Saving-Students Center’ last July, people in the movement supported the project, as teachers were finally showing an interest in the issue of students’ rights. However, the name of the project itself is revealing. It implies that students are merely premature beings who need the protection and care of adults. In other words, students can’t be responsible for changing their realities, but rather are objects to be taken care of by adults.

In fact, this attitude towards students is easy to find even in schools which have a lot of union teachers. Speaking to a student engaged in a one person protest, a union member told him, “It’s time to leave your protest to us.” This attitude tells students that even union members don’t regard students as companions and partners in the True Education Movement.

It’s difficult for teachers, out of love and care for students, to avoid ‘responsibility’. But is what we call ‘love’ for our students a love truly for living human beings? Is it not more like ‘raising cattle’? What kind of ‘education’ requires that students develop and grow only under the control of teachers, ignoring the students’ own needs? This may be due to teachers’ arrogance, a result of the mistaken legacy of Korean education.

True Education should overcome the problem of ‘excessive responsibility’. This will be possible only if teachers and students work together, and help each other grow. This is the True Education we have pursued.

Private school teachers critical of Uri cowardice

2007-04-30T21:47:00.000+09:00

Here is the very sexy Hwang Hyeon Su, engaged in a one-person demo (common in S.Korea, as demos with two or more participants must be approved by local police) against the weakening of legislation to make the administration of private schools more accountable.

The sign can be translated as: "Will the Uri Party, which is trying to form an illicit connection with the Hannara Party in rejecting democratic changes to private schools, be like the Hannara Party, which always supports private school owners? [Publicly-supported] private schools should be transparent and democratic."

Hwang Hyeon Su, who teaches at a private high school in Incheon, has this to say: "It's the conservative Christian groups that are forcing Uri lawmakers to reverse changes to the law. They claim that Jesus doesn't want the administration of private schools to change."

Well I say, if the Good Lord was happy with the way schools were being run, then the blasphemous changes made by the Uri government must surely be undone!

Memo to English Teachers: English-Only Lessons are a BAD IDEA

2007-04-22T21:23:00.000+09:00

Or, Why My Korean Should Be Better.^*

That's right, this "Native Speaker" thinks that all English, all the time is a BAD IDEA. Allow me to offer a brief summary of all the things that Korean provides language learners and teachers in any given English lesson, in any given school in Korea.

At the Micro Level

Classroom Management
Teachers use Korean for dramatic or rhetorical effect. When it's used, students can't pretend that they don't understand a directive: Korean means that the teacher "means it." Korean is also used to show solidarity with students. It encourages students: it warms, it mitigates, it reduces inhibitions. Korean is used to discuss community happenings: teacher asides, gossip, references to current events, all are done in Korean, as its more "personal," with the sense that teacher and students are members of a community, and not only an institution.

Lesson Content
Where students and teachers possess competence in both languages, both should be used, as this facilitates learning. Switches to Korean are often unconscious, but have valuable pedagogical results. Korean is used to explain language points, and to provide repetitions, definitions, reformulations, clarifications, qualifications, and exemplifications. Korean provides the "crucial bits." Code-switching allows Korean and English to complement each other. Korean can be used to provide examples, anecdotes, and illustrations, so that teachers can delve into local knowledge to clarify lesson content, and fill the gaps between the classroom and the world outside it. The use of Korean allows greater detail, depth, and complexity, which is what any lesson is supposed to provide. The use of Korean taps forms of knowledge that students already possess.

Underlife Language
Korean is used in students' private exchanges, in order to explore lesson content in greater depth. Students use Korean to prompt correct answers, translate phrases and sentences, repeat the teacher's questions and directives, and clarify content. These uses have obvious pedagogical consequences. Should students really be punished for using Korean in these ways?? If, as I believe, students learn more (and more efficiently) from their peers than they can from their teachers, depriving them of the use of Korean will only inhibit learning.

Language socialization
Code-switching, either inter- or extra-sentential, develops students' competence in either language, and develops meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive competence. I'll try to provide examples from a classroom shortly. Further, the Ministry's proposal encourages the mislabeling of content or conceptual problems as language competency problems, and so leads to teachers' linguistic insecurity. Which, I imagine, pleases the Ministry.

At the Macro Level

The Monolingual Fallacy
The English-Only proposal supports the erroneous assumption that a learner's first language "interferes" with second language acquisition. This is known as the "monolingual fallacy." And while it was originally propagated by linguists who had little understanding of the bilingual experience, it is now, ironically, largely maintained by bilingual teachers, who really should acknowledge that a learner's first language assists language learning, in that it provides strategies that can facilitate communication, in situations where communication would otherwise be difficult or even impossible.

The Native Speaker Fallacy
The proposal also supports the "native speaker fallacy," where "Native Speakers" are seen automatically as the best teachers of English. This fallacy is clearly at work in Korea, as evidenced by the Ministry's determination to provide a "Native Speaker" in every middle school in the country.

US English, Please?
An English-only policy strengthens the dominance of "standard" dialects of English, and puts into question the validity of newer Englishes - tantamount, according to one author, to "linguistic genocide." Korean students are not attempting to mimic centre-based English speakers. Were a Korean to use an idiomatic expression like "out of left field" during a conversation with someone from New Delhi or Johannesburg, she would likely receive a look of confusion or pity from her interlocutor. After all, Korean students want to be functional in the communicative norms and purposes of English, but English as an "International Language" or as a "Lingua Franca," and NOT the English that is spoken among cottagers in Connecticut. I hope.

The policy will very likely lead to a greater reliance on materials developed in the centre, and thus inhibit the development of an endonormative Korean English, which is still in its infancy. The policy also serves to strengthen the dominance of centre professional circles of ELT.

Lessening Shock and Awe
The use of Korean reduces the degree of language stress and culture shock experienced by students, and therefore increases students' openness to learning English.

In short, a shared L1 is an invaluable resource for language teachers, and denying access to this resource will have serious pedagogical and political consequences. The government's plan, as with any plan that denies resources to teachers, must be resisted.

^*Thank you, Suresh Canagarajah!

"un accord qui dérange"

2007-04-22T12:22:00.000+09:00

Note to le Monde diplomatique, because I'm sure that its editors are avid readers of this blog:

I wish you had noted that people were demonstrating against the agreement even though these demonstrations had been declared illegal.

I wish you hadn't suggested that the Korean peninsula has been a "strategic zone" for the White House only since 2002.

And I don't think "Parlement" is the best translation for 국회 - I suggest "le Gukhoe."

Vote Samsung for president!

2007-04-20T17:44:00.000+09:00

That's right, Eric Werker, Harvard Business School professor, says it's time for corporations to run for election!

This is not just the privatization of services, the [Forbes] article asserts. Instead, private corporations could actually hold a local position, such as mayor, offering credibility and, of course, making a profit from the taxes .... While many may argue that we already have such a system in place, the deliberate substitution of human thought and action with profit-seeking entities further extends the ideology that all human interaction be based on exchange rather than social good.

Yes, an HL-S5679W on every corner in your community! Imagine the Possibilities!

In other news, the OECD is to decide next week on whether to continue its Special Monitoring Process of labour conditions in South Korea. Don't give the government the stamp of approval it so desperately craves, you fuckers.

English for the masses

2007-04-07T23:15:00.000+09:00

... because Roh has trouble flirting with the wait staff in European cities:

"During visits to foreign countries, I don't have any problem in communicating with heads of state thanks to interpreters. But during my free time after summit meetings, I have a problem as I'm not fluent in English."

What to say. Robert Phillipson has pointed out that the British empire was not interested in teaching English to the majority of its subjects. Language training was limited to small local classes of imperial coordinators. That changed following WW2, when the British Council and various US state agencies began spending huge sums to promote the use of English worldwide. (Socialist governments tended to resist, for example the Freedom Party in Sri Lanka excised English from the curriculum when it took power.)

Propaganda had really come into its own during WW2. So did they foresee the spread of mass communication? Hell yes, and they didn't need crystal balls. The first color TV was patented in 1942. An honest expression of what the US (military) elite had, has and will always have in mind might be something called From PSYOP to Mindwar: The Psychology of Victory, published in 1980. Excerpts here. The authors, one of whom now a military analyist for Fox News, knew their Gramsci and le Bon.

Yeh I know, folks aren't thoughtlessly reproducing the discourses that have accompanied "globalization" to Korea, at least not all of them. But after more than 3 years on the peninsula, I can say with confidence that most language teachers most certainly are. Mention critical literacy and you get a blank look. Tell them what it involves and the look changes to one of confusion or distaste. "I teach reading" you will be told. "I teach listening" they will say. "A teacher must be neutral." But what the fuck are the kids reading and listening to? How about encouraging them to ask some questions about the texts that are steam shoveled into their heads? Fuck VOA, fuck CNN. If you must use this shit, then put on some gloves and examine it with your students. If "grammar" and "vocabulary" is all you know how to teach, then get some books.

(ECE teachers, kindly ignore this rant, keep teaching social skills.)

More Koreans to lecture Koreans in English

2007-04-04T01:41:00.000+09:00

the ministry plans to require universities to raise the amount of English-only classes to 3.1 percent by 2010 from the 2.19 percent level in 2006.

Oh, you'd rather not talk about, say, Korean history in English? That's fine:

The ministry will also require each university to hire more foreign professors in order to raise the number from the average 3.67 percent of the faculty at Korean universities in 2006 to 5.0 percent by 2010.

But education is not to be "opened" by the FTA.

That's nice.

Respect for Teachers Diminishing

2007-03-30T19:12:00.000+09:00

From the Korea Times:

There is nothing we can do as we are closed out of key discussions and decision making that could make the quality of education better. And we are forced to connect with our students only under a big, machine-like process that has the single purpose of sending them to a four-year college in Seoul, which makes our job similar to goal-oriented sports coaches

said high school teacher Huh. AMEN.

The ILO recognizes that the worsening social status of teachers and teaching is a global phenomenon. Education has been commodified, and teachers are service providers. Not happy with the service? Well then the teacher is responsible. The Ministry will happily provide you with a teacher evaluation form, rate her service as you see fit.

The irony of course is that teachers must, in the end, accept responsibility for what, why and how we teach. If we fail to organize, if we're unwilling to demand substantial structural changes in every area, then we will deserve the contempt of students and parents, and maybe even the occassional slap.

Note to staff reporter Kim Tong-hyung: the inclusion of KTU in stories like these would help the cause. KFTA, not so much.

Korean economists in denial

2007-03-17T21:09:00.000+09:00

Owen, aka kotaji, left a great post over at Lenin's Tomb. As Angry Arab would say, read it NOW.

LIST OF WORKERS IMPRISONED DUE TO TRADE UNION ACTIVITIES

2007-03-06T22:16:00.000+09:00

1. Yoo Ki Soo, KFCITU General Secretary.
Pohang Local Union Strike (August 9 Rally). Sentence: 2 years. On appeal.

2. Cho Ki Hyun, Daegu Local President.
Daegu Local Union Strike (June 2006), Extortion/Bribery in signing CBAs. Sentence: 3 years.

3. Kang Woo Seung, Daegu Local Member.
Daegu Local Union Strike (June 2006). Undergoing Trial.

4. Lee Ji Kyung, Pohang Local President.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 3 years and 6 months. On appeal.

5. Jung Eun Sik, Pohang Local First Vice President.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

6. Jung Seung Jong, Pohang Local Vice President.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

7. Kim Byung Kyul, Pohang Local First Organizing Director.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

8. Sim Jin Bo, Pohang Local Second Organizing Director.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

9. Kim Myung Seun, Pohang Local Strategic Director.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

10. Kim Bong Tae, Pohang Local Campaign Director.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

11. Kwon Young Dae, Pohang Local Campaign Leader.
Pohang Local Union Strike (Sit-down demonstration at POSCO). Sentence: 1 year and 6 months. On appeal.

12. Ji Kap Ryul, Pohang Local Vice President.
Pohang Local Union Strike. Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

13. Choi Kyu Man, Pohang Local General Secretary.
Pohang Local Union Strike. Sentence: 2 years and 6 months. On appeal.

14. Jin Nam Soo, Pohang Local Strategic Director.
Pohang Local Union Strike (August 17 Rally in Seoul). Sentence: 2 years. On appeal.

15. Byun Moon Soo, Remicon Truck Drivers Local Team Leader.
Woori Remicon Strike (2007). Undergoing Trial.

16. Han In Koo, Dump Truck Drivers Local Branch Director.
Pyeongtaek Demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

17. Chang Seuk Chul, Kyonggido Local First Vice-President.
Extortion, Bribery in Signing CBAs in Kyonggido Region. Undergoing Trial.

18. Jung Seung Hoon, Kyonggido Subu Local Organizer.
Extortion, Bribery in Signing CBAs in Chunahn Region. Undergoing Trial.

19. Park Hae Wook, Ulsan Local President.
Ulsan Local Union General Strike (April to June, 2005). Imprisonment. 2 years & 6 months.

20. Choi Seuk Young, Ulsan Local Union Delegate.
Ulsan Local Union General Strike (April to June, 2005). Imprisonment. 2 years & 6 months.

21. Kang Sang Kyu, Ulsan Local Union Member.
Ulsan Local Union General Strike (April to June, 2005) Imprisonment. 1 year & 6 months.

22. Kim Hyun Ho, Film Industry Union, KPSU Policy Director.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: 1 year.

23. Kwon Soo Jeung, Hyundai Motors Asan Subcontract Workers Local, KMWU Former President of Union Local.
Hyundai Motors Asan Subcontract Workers Union Struggle. Sentence: 8 months. On appeal.

24. Park Jung Hoon, Hyundai Hysco Irregular Workers Local, KMWU President of Union Local.
Hyundai Hysco Irregular Workers Union Struggle. Sentence: 1 year and 6 months.

25. Hwang Woo Chan, Korean Metal Workers’ Union, Chair of KMWU Pohang Branch.
Pohang Local Union Strike. Sentence: 2 years. On appeal.

26. Kim Moon Young, Korean Metal Workers’ Union, Union Delegate.
Pyeongtaek Demonstration. Sentence: 1 year and 6 months.

27. Hong Jin Seung, Korean Metal Workers’ Union, Union Delegate.
Pyeongtaek Demonstration. Sentence: 1 year and 6 months.

28. Kim Ki Young, Korean Metal Workers’ Union Organizing Director.
Anti-KORUS FTA demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

29. Kim Moon Seub, Korean Metal Workers’ Union, Union Delegate.
Anti-KORUS FTA demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

30. Bae Eon Gil, Korean Metal Workers’ Union Branch Director.
Anti-KORUS FTA demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

31. Ryu Bong Sik, Korean Metal Workers’ Union Former Organizing Director (Kwangju).
Anti-KORUS FTA demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

32. Yeon Jae Il, Korean Metal Workers’ Union, Fired Workers’ Union Struggle Director.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: One year and 6 months.

33. Kim Chang Geun, Korean Federation of Taxi Workers Union General Strike Campaign Director.
KCTU General Strike (November, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

34. Kim Mang Kyu, Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union Reunification Director.
National Security Law. Undergoing Trial.

35. Choi Hwa Seob, Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union Previous Reunification Director.
National Security Law. Undergoing Trial.

36. Hong Jong Seon, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
Jaechun Asia Cement Struggle. Sentence: 8 months.

37. Park Kyung Yeon Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
JaeChun Asia Cement Struggle. Sentence: 8 months.

38. Seung Ki Seuk, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

39. Kim Dae Yoon, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

40. Kim Tae Sang, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

41. Park Jae Ho, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

42. Son Yong Choon, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

43. Lee Sang Deuk, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

44. Eom Ki Hyun, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

45. Choi Sang Jin, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

46. Lee Tae Jin, Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, Union Member.
KCTWU General Strike (December, 2006). Undergoing Trial.

47. Cha Hyun Ho, Korean Chemical Textile Workers Federation General Secretary.
Keunkang Chemical Struggle. Undergoing Trial.

48. Hwang Chi Kyung, Korean Chemical Textile Workers Federation Union Member.
KCTU General Strike againt KOR-US FTA. Undergoing Trial.

49. Hwang Byung Seon, Korean Government Employees Union Previous Branch Director.
KGEU Campaign to stop forced closure of union office. Undergoing Trial.

50. Kim Byung Il, KCTU: Kyongbook Regional Branch, Branch Director.
Pohang Local Union Strike. Sentence: 2 years.

51. Lee Seung Geun, KCTU: Ulsan Regional Branch Organizing Director.
Protest of passage of Irregular Legislation. Undergoing Trial.

52. Kim Jong Soo, KCTU: Kangwon Regional Branch, Branch Director.
Anti KORUS FTA demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

53. Cho Han Kyung, KCTU: Kangwon Regional Branch Organizing Director.
Anti KORUS FTA demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

54. Kim Young Soo, KCTU: Kangwon Regional Branch Organizing Director.
Anti KORUS FTA demonstration. Undergoing Trial.

55. Kang Seung Chul, Fired Workers Union Previous Acting President.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: 1 year and 6 months.

56. Byun Wae Seung, Fired Workers Union Previous Executive Committee President.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: 1 year.

57. Park Sang Gil, Fired Workers Union Director of Organization.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: 1 year.

58. Kwak Young Soo, Fired Workers Union, Union Member.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: 1 year.

59. Kim Nam Myung, Fired Workers Union, Union Member.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: 1 year.

60. Lee Ki Woong, Fired Workers Union, Union Member.
Protest Against the Tripartite Agreement. Sentence: 1 year.

61. Kim Seung Hwan, Samsung Ilban Union President, Samsung Ilban Union Struggle.
Sentence: 3 years and 5 months.

Note: Kim Seung Hwan has been declared a political prisoner by Amnesty International.

Source: Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, January 2007

Well that's a bit strange, innit?

2007-03-03T21:04:00.000+09:00

This has to be the most surreal bit of video I've ever seen ...

Private schools to remain fiefdoms

2007-02-28T11:11:00.000+09:00

Surprise, surprise, Uri lawmakers have agreed to abandon their extremely modest gesture toward making the administration of private schools more transparent and accountable. This is bad news for teachers and students, but great news for GNP politicians, many of whom rely on "donations" from private school directors to fund election campaigns.

...

Note to Jung Sung-ki and the Korea Times: when combatants (e.g. sergeants in an occupying military force) are killed, they are NOT "victims of terrorism," even if it is sad. When NON-combatants are killed, THEY are victims of terrorism. You newspeaking weasel hacks.

Educational International protests the detention of unification teachers

2007-02-23T18:40:00.000+09:00

EI sent a letter of protest this week to president Roh over the continuing confinement of two union teachers.

From EI, below are the posters that the Ministry of Love, sorry, the Ministry of Justice felt were a threat to National Security, paired with posters available on other sites in Korea:

On the left is a poster available at nk.chosun.com, a Chosun Ilbo site. On the right is a poster that the teachers uploaded. Maybe it's the glossy guns? The woman in uniform?

To the right are posters available at a Ministry of Education site, on the left are posters uploaded by the teachers. Attention spooks: I don't like any of these, I prefer propaganda from the Spanish Civil War.

When classes resume, I'll have students try to guess which posters are legal. Those who choose the wrong posters will be sent to the school dungeon, where they will think about their crime. Harsh, perhaps, but some of these kids want to be prosecutors, and they should learn something about how the system works.

EI sends letter of protest to Roh

2007-02-22T21:59:00.000+09:00

Education International, the global federation of teachers unions, has issued a protest to president Roh. EI is responding to the use of police intimidation, as well as the government's continuing avoidance of meaningful dialogue.

[2007-02-22] Korea: Korea: government should involve teachers in social dialogue

EI has written to the President of the Republic of Korea, expressing its concern about the disciplinary action taken against the 430 teachers who publicly protested against the imposition of the teacher evaluation system.

The government has refused to involve teachers in the development and implementation of a teacher evaluation system, prompting widespread criticism from the teaching community.

The 430 teachers took leave and rescheduled their classes to voice their protest by assembling outside the Ministry of Education.

However, they were forcefully taken away by the police, and were forced to accept financial penalties.

EI affiliate the Korean Teachers and Education Workerts Union - Jeongyojo communicated to EI that when the disciplinary committees of district education offices convened on 25 January, the teachers were refused the right to respond to the charges. Jeongyojo also reported police intimidation and the summary dismissal of the committees while teachers were delivering statements.

In its letter dated 21 Feb, EI asked the Government of Korea to involve teacher unions in the preparation and implementation of all education policies, and the penalty imposed on the 430 teachers be lifted.

Below is the content of EI's letter in English:

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

H.E. Mr Noh Moo-hyun
President of the Republic
Korean Presidential House
Chongwadae
Seoul
Republic of Korea

By fax: +82-2-770-4937

Brussels, 21 February 2007

Dear Mr President,

Education International – the global union federation of teachers representing over 30 million members in 169 countries which has the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, KTU or JeonGyoJo, as one of its affiliates – is very concerned about the lack of social dialogue and attempts by the Korean authorities to restrain the activities of the teacher union.

Education International is alarmed by the disciplinary action of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development against 430 teachers who assembled to publicly protest against the imposition of the teacher evaluation system. This action was prompted by the refusal of the Ministry to involve the teacher union in the development and implementation of the teacher evaluation system.

Social dialogue is a cornerstone of democracy. Korea, as a member of the tripartite International Labour Organisation, is well aware that workers’ organisations (including teacher unions and associations) need to be consulted. The main goal of social dialogue is to promote consensus building and democratic involvement. "Successful social dialogue structures and processes have the potential to resolve important economic and social issues, encourage good governance, advance social and industrial peace and stability and boost economic progress," states the ILO.

Education International shares KTU's concern that the Ministry of Education developed a teacher evaluation system without input from teacher representatives. As education policies shape the present reality and future opportunities of students, these policies must be implemented only after careful, considered, and comprehensive discussion.

The Republic of Korea ratified ILO Convention 135 on Workers' Representatives which states "Workers' representatives shall enjoy effective protection against any act prejudicial to them, including dismissal, based on their status or activities as a workers' representative or on union membership or participation in union activities, in so far as they act in conformity with existing laws or collective agreements or other jointly agreed arrangements."

On the basis of the information provided by the KTU, Education International believes that the 430 teachers have respected the law of the country: they applied for legal holiday and rescheduled their class so that there would be no disruption of the school timetable. The disciplinary action against them, in the form of financial penalties, can be considered as unfair labour practice.

In addition, when the disciplinary committees of district education offices convened on 25 January, teachers were refused the right to respond to charges. KTU also reported police intimidation and the summary dismissal of the committees while teachers were delivering statements.

Education International invites the Government of Korea to authorise collective action by the teacher unions as long as the national law and Korea's international labour commitments are respected.

Education International respectfully asks the Government of Korea to involve teacher unions in the preparation and implementation of all education policies. Education International also asks that the financial penalty imposed on 430 teachers be lifted.

Education International sincerely trusts that this message is one your Government can support.

Sincerely yours,

Fred van Leeuwen
General Secretary

You WILL kneel before my god

2007-02-18T02:14:00.000+09:00

More evidence of the political power of the directors of private school foundations, if more evidence were needed.

Update on detained teachers

2007-02-06T21:14:00.000+09:00

A judge rejected a union application for a review of the legality of the confinement, and sent the teachers to Seoul Prison. National Security triumphs. The union is suing the Chosun Ilbo for libel.

Economic theory as taught in high schools?

2007-02-06T19:47:00.000+09:00

Today I learned something rather revealing from students in my discussion group.

Apparently, first year students attending the elite Gyeongju High School get some odd ideas from their economics teacher. They learn that:

Adam Smith was a libertarian,

a mixed economy is one where governments "referee" producers,

government intervention is the sole cause of "market failures,"

Marx failed to anticipate technological advances, and

a "free market" is the best way to achieve equality!

When this last bit was revealed, I could no longer contain my hilarity, and was forced to apologize to a very sincere young man for interrupting his introduction to the wondrous merits of capitalism.

Gibson and Ross on standardized testing

2007-02-03T19:17:00.000+09:00

At CounterPunch a thorough, devastating critique of No Child Left Behind. You may decide which of the following might also apply in the Korean context:

Here is what we think is a reasonable litany of objections to the NCLB, its national curriculum, and the attached noose, high stakes exams.

High-stakes standardized tests, an international phenomenon, represent a powerful intrusion into classrooms, often taking up as much as 40% of classroom time in preparation, practice testing, and administration;

The tests are flawed in technical adequacy. They invoke a fallible single standard and a single measure, a practice specifically condemned by the Standards on Educational and Psychological Testing;

The tests are implemented and used to make high stakes decisions before sufficient validation evidence is obtained and before defensible technical documentation is issued for public scrutiny;

The tests are employed without credible independent meta-evaluation;

The tests are flawed in accuracy of scoring and reporting, for example in New York in 2000 when thousands of students were unnecessarily ordered to summer school on the grounds of incorrect test results;

The tests pretend that one standard fits all, when one standard does not fit all;

These tests measure, for the most part, parental income and race, and are therefore instruments that build racism and anti-working class sentiment against the interest of most teachers and their students;

These tests deepen the segregation of children within and between school systems, a move that is not in the interests of most people throughout the world;

Inner-city families and poor families are promised tests as an avenue to escape the ghetto and poverty, when the tests are designed to fail their children, boosting dropouts, leaving more children trapped in the ghetto and poverty, deepening inequality and all forms of injustice;

The tests set up a false employer-employees relationship between teachers and students which damages honest exchanges in the classroom;

The tests create an atmosphere that pits students against students and teachers against teachers and school systems against school systems in a mad scramble for financial rewards, and to avoid financial retribution;

The tests have been used to unjustly fire and discipline educators throughout the country;

The exams represent an assault on academic freedom by forcing their way into the classroom in an attempt to regulate knowledge, what is known and how people come to know it;

The tests foment an atmosphere of greed, fear, and hysteria, none of which contributes to learning;

The tests destroy inclusion and inquiry-based education;

The high-stakes test pretend to neutrality but are deeply partisan in content, reflecting the needs of elites in a world becoming more inequitable, less democratic, promising the youth of the world perpetual war;

The tests become commodities for opportunists whose interests are profits, not the best interests of children.

Most applicable, I'd say.

During times of universal deceit

2007-01-31T01:12:00.000+09:00

... telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

Apparently, Park Chung-hee believed this fervently:

A junior high school teacher, Mr. Choi, was not so fortunate. He served eight months for saying that "the Yusin Constitution was created to ensure a prolonged one-man rule. An indirect presidential election by delegates from the Unified Citizen’s Conference the National Conference for Unification is an undesirable system."

Another school teacher told students that "Park is a dictator. The capitalists are abusing workers, and workers cannot claim their rights. After [labor activist] Cheon Tae-il burned himself to death, the treatment got better. But the government raised the price of fertilizer by a whopping 60 percent, worsening the lives of farmers." The teacher was sent to prison for three years.

As of June 2004, 48% of the populous remained quite attached to the deceit.

And teachers must still watch what they say.

Remember, it's the KTU's fault!

2007-01-26T18:23:00.000+09:00

Learn the Right lyrics

2007-01-23T19:45:00.000+09:00

Two teachers are being treated to an extended stay in the "anticommunist investigation room" in the basement of the Seoul police station in Jangandong. See the Hankyoreh and KTU for details.

This is an old and tired story, but apparently the Right never bores of it. In 2004, the GNP - with help from the courts - blocked a bill that would have abolished the National Security Law. In 2005, the prosecutor's office charged a sociology professor under the law when the professor publicly attacked the reverend Douglas MacArthur. (He said that the good general was ... unbalanced, among other things. Any American historian would agree.)

When a government minister told prosecutors not to detain the academic, the prosecutors were incensed. How dare the government pretend to know which members of society were a threat to national security! There's a law against thought crimes, see, and we decide who breaks it. The head prosecutor submitted his resignation in protest. His resignation was duly accepted. And lo! there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the pages of that unholy triad, the Chosun, the Dong-A, and the JoongAng.

The professor was eventually convicted. He received a sentence (suspended) of two years in prison for his thought crime.

But what REALLY irks the Right is this "unification" nonsense. Not that many Uri party ministers are much interested in unification. But there is a Unification Ministry, whose bureaucrats are quite attached to the idea. And there is the Ministry of Education, with its Internet Peace School, which promotes understanding of the folks to the north. These initiatives are altogether distasteful to the Right, but there's not much they can do about this, not until the next general election.

But teachers are fair game, and the hunt has been on for some time. In 2006, police in Busan investigated a reunification teacher workshop there, but they found nothing titillating. Then a middle school in Junbuk province held a reunification event where teachers might have expressed too much sympathy for a communist partisan, but again prosecutors were disappointed by the temerity of the material. The unholy triad, however, howled throughout.

When a couple teachers uploaded images of posters to the union website in Seoul, the chorus returned to the stage. Of course, North Korean posters are available to teachers on Ministry of Education sites, and to the public at a Chosun Ilbo site. But the teachers who uploaded their posters had the audacity to identify and define sungun (i.e. military first) politics! This word is unfamiliar to most students and many teachers, of course, as folks here aren't in the habit of discussing policy/propaganda in the North. A definition might be useful to teachers who want to introduce a discussion in their classrooms.

Alas for these teachers, their definition of sungun politics was apparently not condescending enough. It's a question of tone, see? And theirs didn't harmonize well enough with the chorus.

Again, it's the Ministry of Education that is the desired target. The ministry suggests that teachers ask questions such as "What is sungun politics, and why does the North Korean government emphasize this?" and "What are the characteristics of North Korean politics?" Perhaps the detention of these teachers is a Ministry of Justice signal to its enemies in other ministries?

If teachers in the North ask similar questions about propaganda in the South, do the police come for them?

You mean we have the right to withhold labor???

2007-01-19T14:01:00.000+09:00

S.K. students recieve poor education on labor issues

The ministry's response: "We have included five sentences. It is unreasonable to include more. The primary purpose of an education is to prepare human resources to accept that salary level indicates worth of social contribution."

For those few english teachers interested in introducing learners to labor issues, I have designed a few lessons. Contact me.

We don't talk about that

2007-01-12T18:08:00.000+09:00

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." - George Orwell

After reading Pak Noja's observations about how, in Russia,

strongly nationalist/masculine/militaristic “anti-hegemonism” is largely destroying the ground for the real anti-imperialism/anti-capitalism - just like the way it happens with the NL (”national liberation”)-dominated Korean left today

I got to thinking about some of those topics that aren't included in the CSAT study manuals:

the massacres of Vietnamese peasants by ROK forces
political prisoners, imprisoned for 40 years
WW2 crimes committed by Korean soldiers
the widespread and calculated terror pursued by Rhee's regime, from 1948 and continuing into the civil war
reference to the war as a civil war
patriotism as something other than loyalty to the state
a defence of the right to withhold labour
the dangers lurking in "pure blood" mythologies
feminist, race, queer theories of any kind

I'm working on it, the trick is to disguise the text as a conventional study manual, else students - and publishers - will have no use for it ...

Will the KTU respond? We can't if we're to stay "in the classroom" ...

2007-01-05T20:03:00.000+09:00

UPDATE: After 3 months of beatings, the activists have been released.

* * *

Today, from Education International:

Urgent Action Appeal for Ethiopia

Torture of Ethiopian Teachers’ Association activists

Dear colleagues,

Education International calls on your solidarity to support the elected union officers of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA). Currently, two ETA officers are reported to be subjected to torture while in detention without warrant. A third one is reported missing since December 15.

For years now, EI has been concerned by the actions taken by the Ethiopian authorities to dismantle the ETA, which has been representing the legitimate interests of the teaching profession in Ethiopia since 1949.

Since the creation of another Ethiopian Teachers' Association in 1993, the first ETA, a member of Education International, has been subjected to repression and interference seeking the destruction of the independent union.

The harassment was so intense in 2006 that EI and the ETA submitted complaints to the International Labour Organisation (Committee on Freedom of Association) and to the ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART). Fortunately, despite the harassment of ETA leaders and interferences in ETA affairs which hamper the day-to-day work of the union, the ETA continues to enjoy the support of teachers and gains new members every month.

With your help, EI aims to encourage the Government of Ethiopia to respect freedom of association and to stop immediately the ill treatment of our three colleagues. You will find attached a model protest letter which can be used by your organisation to express your concern about the continued harassment, and now torture, of ETA activists. More information about EI's action can be found on the EI website.

December 2006: Abduction and torture of ETA activists

On 14 December, the family of Tilahun Ayalew reported his arrest on his way from his school to his residence in Dangla. Government security agents took him to the police station of Bahir Dar, in the North of the country. He was later transferred to the Addis Ababa Criminal Investigation Bureau, known as Maekelawi. He is reported to have been "heavily tortured". On 1 January, Tilahun Ayalew was brought to the Lideta Borough Initial Court in Addis Ababa. "He was so heavily beaten that he could hardly walk on his own from the police van to the court room," reported the ETA General Secretary. The judge adjourned his case to 15 January to allow the police to undertake further investigation. Tilahun Ayalew, aged 49 and father of 7 children, teaches at a primary school in his city of Dangla. He is a prominent ETA activist and is Chair of the ETA Awi zone. Earlier in 2005, Tilahu! n Ayalew was among the 68 teachers arrested after the post election demonstrations in November 2005. No arrest warrant was ever produced and he was finally released on bail without explanation. Since 14 December, he has been detained incommunicado and was refused access to a lawyer and/or to medical assistance. His relatives and colleagues are unaware of any charge filed against him.
Meqcha Mengistu was reported missing on December 15, 2006. He had been under constant surveillance by government security agents following his participation in an ETA conference held on 8-9 December in Addis Ababa. His relatives know nothing about his whereabouts. Meqcha Mengistu, aged 38 and father of 4 children, teaches at a secondary school in Dejen, in the Eastern part of the country. He is chairperson of the ETA East Gojam Zonal Executive and is member of the ETA Committee for the implementation of the EI/ETA Education For All-HIV/AIDS programme (EFAIDS). Meqcha was arrested along with Tilahun Ayalew and 66 other teachers in November 2005.
Education International is also concerned about the fate of Anteneh Getnet, a male teacher aged 42. On 8 May 2006, Antenech Getenet was abducted and tortured by unidentified men. He almost died and will never be able to teach again. A prominent ETA activist, he was elected to the ETA Addis Ababa Regional Council in August 2006. Antenech Getnet was arrested on 29 December and detained incommunicado at the Maekelawi Investigation Bureau. He is reported to have been severely beaten again. On 1 January, he appeared before the court, together with Tilahun Ayalew. The court also adjourned his case to allow for further investigation by the police.
The ETA leadership knows these three men very well. Their only offence is that they are members of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association.

What can you do?

When informed about the tragic events, EI immediately addressed a protest letter to the Ethiopian Prime Minister; EI also approached the International Labour Organisation, the International Trade Union Confederation and Amnesty International to denounce the detention without warrant and acts of torture against trade union officials in the context of their legal trade union activities.

As a national teacher association, you can undertake the following action:

Protest to the Ethiopian authorities - a model letter can be found on our website (http://www.ei-ie.org/en/urgentactionappeal/show.php?id=6&country=ethiopia). The letters should be addressed to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and to the local Ethiopian embassy. A copy of your letter should also be forwarded to EI for our records.
Contact the ETA to express your solidarity > Ethiopian Teachers' Association, Gemoraw Kassa, General Secretary, P.O. Box 1639, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Tel: +251-11-552.46.68 - Fax: +251-11-551.28.26. (Bear in mind that phone is not always safe and the fax is often disrupted. Email messages can be forwarded to EI which will forward them to the colleagues in Ethiopia).
Give visibility to the situation of teachers in Ethiopia in your magazine, on your website, during meetings and via other appropriate means.
Approach your embassy representatives in Ethiopia. This step requires some care and concerted action. EI therefore invites you to be in touch before acting upon this recommendation.
EI will of course keep you updated on all development or when the Urgent Action Appeal is closed. For additional information or to discuss possible action, contact the EI Human and Trade Union Rights Coordinator dominique.marlet@ei-ie.org

I thank you in advance for your support of our Ethiopian colleagues.

Yours sincerely,

Fred van Leeuwen
General Secretary

update

I forgot to note that yes, the union did respond.

Enslaved in Incheon

2006-12-29T23:56:00.000+09:00

SHIT LIKE THIS is why both UNESCO and the ILO recommended, back in 1966, that teacher organizations have the same rights as other labour organizations.

Incidentally, the KFTA missed that particular recommendation in their recent report to the CEART. Not that it matters much: I'd wager half a limb that no one in either the ministry of education or the national KTU executive has even read the recommendations.

Ah well, at least the KFTA is aware that folks beyond the peninsula might occasionally have something to offer teachers. This, and their posh resort beside Bomun Lake, justifies their knee-scuffed existence.

No defense like a good offense

2006-12-24T15:57:00.000+09:00

Our new president, Jeong Jin Hwa, won support for her pledge to focus on the principles of chamgyoyook, or as the Hankyoreh put it, go "back to the classrooms."

I wasn't aware that we had left the classrooms. It's disheartening to watch: the union has been forced to use the rhetoric of its opponents to define itself, its methods and goals.

Members I spoke with hope that she will establish a rapport with "the public." It may be that members hope she can placate the media before an extremist moves into Cheong Wa Dae. And who knows, editors might call off their attack dogs if the national exec prostrates itself before them.

But as I've said before, a union that fails to spend a single won on advertising is entirely at the mercy of the red-baiters. It's past time for a very public and continuing campaign. Subway cars, billboards, radio, newspapers, websites, TV. Beg borrow or steal the money to hire a marketing agency to see it through. I'd recommend nothing (overtly) ideological: simple shit like "If you can read this, thank a teacher" and "We are committed to your child's learning." Yes, columnists will make snide remarks, it won't much matter.

The strategy, I think, should be to associate teachers with learning. (This may sound absurd to readers outside Korea but trust me, when a parent hears the words "education" or "school," the last thing that comes to mind is a teacher.) Members will return, new ones will join, and the sanctimonious invectives of our opponents will be less effective. Then we might have more space and, eventually, more resources to pursue chamgyoyook.

Whither the money for this campaign? Kill the weekly newspapers. Encourage members to use all those great sites the union has developed, and save the trees.

"The bills are expected to help narrow the gap on working conditions between regular and non-regular workers to a great extent"

2006-11-30T22:50:00.000+09:00

The vicious fucks did it.

Non-regular workers, estimated at 8.5 million, account for almost half of the total workforce, the highest among OECD countries.

They receive no more than 60 percent of regular workers' wages doing roughly the same work, with no social security nets such as medical and unemployment insurance.

The sharp increase of contract workers, since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, is said to be the main culprit of economic polarization.

At least 270 Iraqi academics dead

2006-11-19T21:22:00.000+09:00

Education Under Siege

Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily

BAGHDAD, Nov 18 (IPS) - The recent kidnapping of scores of academics in Baghdad highlights the desperate situation of the educational system in occupied Iraq.

Armed men wearing Iraqi police uniforms abducted as many as 150 academics from the Ministry of Higher Education on Tuesday.

Alaa Makki, the head of the Parliament's education committee called the action a "national catastrophe" and the minister of higher education, Abed Dhiab al-Ujaili, announced that teaching in all of Baghdad's universities would be halted "until we find out what happened," and because "we are not ready to lose more professors."

While 70 of the academics have been released since then, others remain missing.

Academics, along with other professionals, have been increasingly targeted by sectarian violence which continues unchecked across much of Iraq. Thousands of professors and university researchers have long since fled the war-torn country.

An administration manager of a large university in Baghdad spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity: "Iraqi universities have turned into militia and death squad headquarters... Pictures of clerics and sectarian flags all over are not the only problem, but there is the interference of clerics and their followers in everything."

The university employee, who said he fears for his life each day he goes to work, explained that religious clerics now had the authority to "sack teachers and students, forbid certain texts, impose certain uniforms and even arrest and kill those who belong to other sects or those who object to their behaviour."

He angrily added, "Our government seems to approve all that, as no security office ever intervened to protect teachers and students or make any change to the situation."

Iraqi security forces have been accused of taking part in, or at least ignoring several mass kidnappings, which are widely believed to have been carried out by sectarian groups. The Sunni minority have blamed many of the kidnappings on armed groups from what are now the dominant Shi'ite political parties, who also control the Ministry of Interior.

The higher education ministry is currently headed by a member of the main Sunni Arab political bloc.

The 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, with the broken promises of reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq's educational system, have not been the only cause of the current disaster.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) had reported before the 1991 Gulf War that Iraq had one of the best educational performances in the region. Literacy rates were extremely high and primary school enrollment was 100 percent.

The number of schools in Iraq under the Saddam Hussein regime (1979-2003) increased due to the compulsory learning law enacted in the 1970s. A huge campaign for the eradication of illiteracy was organised and people had to send their children to school to avoid legal repercussions.

The Ba'ath party had influence on the kind of subjects studied concerning religion. In addition, education administrators and teachers preferred to join the ruling party, mostly for job security, but they still had to be scientifically qualified as teachers.

Being members of the Ba'ath party when the U.S.-led occupation began, particularly when CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) Administrator Paul Bremer instituted the "de-Ba'athification" plan, caused most teachers and administrators to be fired, arrested or later to be assassinated by death squads and replaced by others who were selected by new ruling parties, which tended to be Shi'ite religious fundamentalists.

These factors, on top of the harsh economic sanctions and the current occupation, have left Iraq's education system in shambles.

"The newly employed teachers are either selected for being members of Islamic parties in power or those who paid bribes in order to get the job," a chief education supervisor in Baghdad told IPS, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He has managed to keep his job since he had never joined the Ba'ath Party, and added that other problems had arisen because, "Some of them [teachers] are too old to teach and others brought fraudulent graduation certificates that we could not deny because they were sent to us by parties who have militias."

Billions of dollars were supposedly spent for rehabilitating schools that were severely bombed by U.S. war planes during the 2003 invasion. However, the quality of work by foreign contractors, such as Bechtel Corporation, and their subcontractors was so poor that thousands of schools across the country remain in a state of disrepair.

Most of the money was spent on repainting and supplying the schools with cheap equipment that has not stood for long.

"The money for rebuilding schools just vanished between the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and the western contractors and so we still need a lot to be done," Abdel Aziz, an education manager told IPS, "We are doing our best to facilitate the educational operation, but we are facing a great deal of problems with the capacity of our schools and teachers."

Another problem in some areas is the misuse of school buildings. People in conflict-ridden areas like Ramadi and parts of Baghdad have complained that U.S. soldiers use school buildings as combat posts, especially for snipers.

Other schools are used by militias and death squads in areas of Baghdad and southern provinces of Iraq.

Today, security is perhaps the major problem facing the education system. Teachers and students find it too dangerous to move between their homes and schools under such a chaotic security situation. Further complicating matters, there is great fear of abduction for ransom and an even greater of for assassination by death squads.

And the poor state of Iraq's economy has exacerbated the situation.

"There is no possible way for me to cover school expenses," Omar Jassim told IPS. Father of four from Baghdad, Jassim said, "I am unemployed and life became too expensive, as well as the high school bus fare and clothes for the children. I had to cut them from school and make them help me provide food for the family."

Many families have decided not to send their children to school and have instead pushed them to work as cleaning boys or beggars in the streets.

Last month Iraq's Ministry of Education released statistics which indicated that only 30 percent of Iraq's 3.5 million students were attending classes. This is less than half the number from the previous year, which, according to the Britain-based non-governmental organisation Save the Children, was 75 percent attendance.

Attendance rates for the new school year which started on Sep. 20 were at a record low, according to the ministry.

According to the Ministry of Education, 2006 has been the worst year for school attendance since U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The immediate pre-war level of attendance in 2003 was nearly 100 percent.

At least 270 academics have been killed during the occupation, according to the Iraq study group Brussels Tribunal.

Posted by Dahr_Jamail at November 18, 2006 04:56 PM

_______________________________________________
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
All images, photos, photography and text are protected by United States
and international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's
Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a
prominent link to the http://DahrJamailIraq.com website. Website by
photographer Jeff Pflueger's Photography Media http://jeffpflueger.com . Any
other use of images, photography, photos and text including, but not
limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing
requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward
Dahr's dispatches via email.

Teachers Sour Over English Training Plan

2006-11-16T12:25:00.000+09:00

A little article in the Korea Times on the response of English teachers to the ministry's audacious plans.

Many Korean English-language teachers are nervous about the planning of the nation's English education system as many of them would face forcible premature retirement unless they can conduct classes in English by 2015.

Those lazy, selfish teachers, always with the griping and the gnashing of teeth.

Here is some context:

There are sound pedagogical approaches that require the use of L1 in language lessons. It's an invaluable teacher resource. Even input-obsessed Stephen Krashen suggests that 10% of teacher talk should be in L1.

Angel Lin in Hong Kong studied language classrooms with students from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, and argues very persuasively that teacher-led discourse can employ strategic use of L1:

what matters is not whether a teacher uses the L1 or the L2 but rather how a teacher uses either language to connect with students and help them transform their attitudes, dispositions, skills, and self-image - their habitus or social world (Lin, A. 1999. Doing-English-Lessons. TESOL Quarterly 33[3] pp. 393-412).

Of course, teachers are again being scapegoated. Kids can't speak English because their teachers can't.

Never mind that the spoken English of 95% of teachers is better than that of 95% of students.

Never mind that the all-powerful CSAT (which is being taken as I type) requires structural proficiency in English, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the ability to communicate in the language.

And never mind that students in many other countries (including China) learn English from a younger age, and devote up to twice the number of classroom hours to the language.

Professional development is always good, even if it's led by a bloated and backward government department. It would be far better if teachers themselves had access to resources sufficient to develop and facilitate such projects, as is the norm in other UNESCO member countries.

South Korea: Solidarity needed! The crack down on the KGEU still continues today!

2006-09-29T00:28:00.000+09:00

KGEU Breaking News 060927
September 27, 2006

[URGENT]

Your solidarity is needed!

Today is the 4th day of the crack down on the KGEU local offices. 111 local offices were forcefully closed down nation wide. Every working day has seen the violent attacks on the union offices and the arrests of the union members since last Friday. The riot police and the specially hire thugs have raided the union office from dawn till midnight.

Many KGEU offices were violently broken into and closed down. Riot police and thugs armed with fire extinguishers, fire-fighting dust, hammers, claw hammers, hammer drills and power saws broke through the windows or even by making an opening in the wall to storm into union offices. KGEU members were forcefully pulled out of the union offices and arrested. The union offices the union offices were sealed off with iron plates or bars in many cases.

KGEU members struggle all around the country against inhumane and barbaric raids by local governments and riot police.

It was a war between a democratic and independent trade union and an authoritarian and barbaric government. It was a war between those who believe in freedom of association for all workers and those who believe that trade union rights could be subject to government rulings.

We need your solidarity now!

Please send your solidarity message to the KGEU! It will greatly encourage and empower our members in this critical moment. It will let our members know we are not alone.

Please send your protest letter to the Korean government! Let them know that the world is witnessing and that this brutal repression can not be accepted.

The addresses and contact points will be attached in the end of this news break.

Today's targets were the KGEU Chapters in Gyeonggi.

From 06:00, the riot police were deployed around the union office in Bucheon City in Gyeonggi-do(province). And the execution officials with the riot police began to try to break into the union office. Welding machines and hammers were used. At 07:00, the doors were removed. 25 union members were resisting the violent closure inside the office, to which they even chained themselves. But the riot police and the execution officials took over the office at 07:45 and the union members were pulled out. (Photos from struggles at Bucheon)

An attack on the KGEU Gyeonggi Gwacheon Chapter started from 10:20 with the riot police deployed. The riot police broke the walls with hammers to sweep into the union office. The union members inside were severely beaten up and arrested at 11:30. 18 members from KGEU and solidarity organisations were arrested and taken to the local police stations. 4 of those were seriously injured and hospitalised.

In Suwon, the riot police and the execution officials broke into the union office at 09:30. The doors and the whole walls were broken down. The union members were pulled out by the riot police and a woman member was just thrown away.

7 more KGEU chapters in Gyeonggi-do were forcefully closed down.

The KGEU Osan Chapter office was closed down at 11:30, Hwaseong Chapter at 15:40, Anyang Chapter and Goyang Chapter at 18:40, Pocheon Chapter at 19:00, Pyeongtaek chapter at 19:10 and Icheon Chapter was also shut off today. Besides Ansan Chapter was also warned that it would be closed down tomorrow.

The KGEU Jinju Chapter, the only case that defeated the attack on the union office is now facing forceful closure again. The riot police began to be deployed from 17:30 today. At 18:00 the municipality warned that they will implement the warrant of administrative execution for forceful closing down of the union office at 07:00 tomorrow morning. The riot police already deployed at the 7th floor where the union office is located. The aisle of the floor is filled with the riot police and they are blocking union members from walking around the union office. The unionists are substantially confined. If the unionists go out for toilet, they are not allowed to come back to the office. Hundreds of the unionists and the members from solidarity organisations are blocked at the lobby of the building. Now a protest rally is being held in front of the building and sit-in protests inside and outside the union office will be held overnight.

The addresses and contact points

KGEU (Korean Government Employees' Union)
7th F1. Daeyoung Bldg. 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga. Youngdeungpo-gu
Seoul 150-982, Korea
Tel : +82-2-2631-1949 / Fax : +82-2-2631-1949
Email : kgeu@kgeu.org

Contact points and addresses of the Korean Government

Mr. Roh Moo-Hyun
President of the Republic
1 Sejong-no, Jongno-gu
Seoul 110-820, Republic of Korea
Tel: +822 770-0018; Fax: + 82 2 770-03 47 or 770-0001 / + 82 2 770-25 79. E-mail: president@cwd.go.kr president@president.go.kr webmaster@president.go.kr webmaster@korea.net

Ms. Han Myeong-sook
Prime Minister
77-6 Sejongno, Jongno-gu
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Fax: + 82-2-720-35 71
Email: m_opm@opm.go.kr

Mr. Ban Ki-moon
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade
91-5 Doryeom-dong, Jongno-gu
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Fax : 82-2-2100-7913

Mr. Kim Sung-ho
Minister of Justice
1 Jungang-dong, Gwacheon Government Complex
Gyeonggi Prov., Republic of Korea
Fax: + 82-2-504-5724 / +82-2-503-3337 / +82-2-503-3532

Mr. Lee Sang-soo
Minister of Labour
2 Jungang-dong, Gwacheon
Gyeonggi Prov. Republic of Korea
Fax : + 82-2-3679-6581

Mr. Lee Yong-sup
Minister of Government Administration and Home Affairs
77-6 Sejongno, Jongno-gu
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Fax : + 82-2-3703-5531

National Human Rights Commission of Korea
16 Euljiro 1-ga, Jung-gu
Seoul 100-842, Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 2 2 125 98 11 / 96 66
E-mail: nhrc@humanrights.go.kr

KIM Seok
C.P. : +82-(0)16-237-5940
email: kisto@jinbo.net kisto@kgeu.org
Executive Director of International Relations
Korean Government Employees' Union
Tel: +82-2-2631-1948 Fax: +82-2-2631-1949
Web: (Kor) http://www.kgeu.org (Eng) http://inter.kgeu.org

Return to LabourStart

another great article on Oaxaca teachers

2006-09-21T17:37:00.000+09:00

On ZNet: "Oaxaca's dangerous teachers"

"Education is a very noble field, which I love," Gutierrez says. "But today it means confronting the government. You have to be ready to fight for the people and their children, and not just in the classroom."

a more enlightened social engineering

2006-09-19T15:46:00.000+09:00

The Ministry of Education is finally, finally, going to write some of its more egregious nonsense out of primary school coursebooks, according to the Hankyoreh.

Some of the changes:

Family Planning Good	→	Family Planning Bad
We are One Blood	→	We Might Have Chinese, Mongol and Japanese Blood Too But That's OK As Long As They Have the Right Name
The Elderly are Useless Eaters	→	Maybe Grandmother Helps Too
Father’s hard work as a breadwinner and mother’s supportive role to other family members, which enables them to concentrate on their work, are not only important for the well-being of the family but also that of the country.	→	The Country Needs Mother to Work Too

But teachers shall remain "politically neutral" as they continue to teach kids how to be good citizens. Those who encourage kids to question what they read need not apply.

(just doing my bit to move this file up google's pagerank)

2006-09-04T01:29:00.000+09:00

"He's the idiot son of an a**hole"

new minister of education

2006-09-02T22:07:00.000+09:00

Kim Shinil is the newest education minister. So I looked at a paper he published in Korea Journal, "Korean education: past and present" in 1987:

"social taming, indocrinating, instrumentalizing, anti-intellectualization and dehumanization processings are all being done under the name of education."

He discusses the "intrinsic value" of an education! The Chosun Ilbo will love this guy.

No, not really. The theme of any given Chosun editorial on education: Give us more pliant, semi-literate serfs! None of this liberal humanist nonsense for Korea!

Teachers in Oaxaca will not be cowed

2006-08-24T20:48:00.000+09:00

ZNet article
counterpunch essay
BBC coverage

Teachers in Oaxaca continue to lead the revolt against corrupt governor Ulises Ruiz.

Meanwhile, teachers in Korea upload posters to internet sites (Seoul) and make videos critical of free trade agreements (Busan).

I understand that folks are proud of what was accomplished in 1987, and they should be. But there is a great deal of work yet to be done.

You do it to yourself, you do

2006-08-19T10:57:00.000+09:00

noja at Frog in a Well points out that the english craze isn't exactly new:

... English was also an OBLIGATORY subject in the colonial Advanced Normal Schools after the 1922 reform - it was taught 5-7 hours a week on average, while Japanese was taught 6-8 hours.

Kind of reminds me of the old Radiohead song, "Just."

Education International speaks out on Lebanon - sort of

2006-08-02T17:50:00.000+09:00

Education International, of which the KTU is a member organization, issued a statement on July 25th:

Populations have been caught in the middle, with suicide bombings that have stretched the nerves of Israelis to the limit, with Palestinians subjected to repression and humiliation, and the Lebanese being kept hostage by a pervasive climate of fear.

Yes, we are often told of the frayed nerves of Israelis. The Lebanese, those who have managed (thus far) to survive Israel's terror attacks, are "being kept hostage"? By whom? Not Hizbullah, whom a majority of Lebanese (including Sunnis and Christians) now support. Why does EI accept that Palestinians are victims, yet use such vague language to describe the plight of the Lebanese?

Of course, EI issued this statement prior to Qana. And I do not believe that the KTU has issued a statement of any kind. EI has also set up a solidarity fund for teachers in Lebanon, to which it donated 20 000 euros. An excellent use of our union dues!

On the nature of the english camp

2006-07-26T00:34:00.000+09:00

From the Korea Times:

"The number of students joining English camp programs during the summer vacation this year surpassed 90,000, up 135 percent from last year."

Now if I were a sociologist, or cultural anthropologist, or a member of any number of academic discourse communities, I'd consider this news evidence of overt cultural imperialism. After all, these camps offer training at the "Bank of America" and "Holiday [insert e.g. Flag Day, Thanksgiving] sing-along chorale."

But I am a mere language teacher, happy in my role as miniscule imperial adjuvant. O who will help me to carry the heavy burden of the White Man?

BWI online solidarity campaign

2006-06-17T01:18:00.000+09:00

Click over to the Building and Wood Workers' International site and support their campaign on behalf of worker rights in Korea.

From the petition:

Respect and Implement the Recommendations made by the CFA of the ILO;specifically:
- Ensure that public servants at Grade 5 or higher obtain the right to organize and limit any restriction of the right to strike to public servants exercising authority in the name of the State an dessential services in the strict sense of the term.
- Bring the Section 314 of the Penal Code of the TULRAA in line with Freedom of Association Principles
- Recall the prohibition of third party intervention in industrial disputes incompatible with freedom of association principles.
- Refrain from any act of interference in the activities of the KGEU.
- Cease all actions of intimidation and harassment against the KFCTIU.
- Review all convictions and prison sentences to compensate the KGEU and KFCITU officials for any damages suffered as a result of prosecution, detention, and imprisonment.

ICFTU publishes report on attacks on workers in 2005

2006-06-09T17:06:00.000+09:00

For those deluded or cynical souls who do not recognize class warfare:

Brutal Suppression of Workers’ Rights Detailed in Worldwide Report

115 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers’ rights in 2005, while more than 1,600 were subjected to violent assaults and some 9,000 arrested, according to the ICFTU’s Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights violations, published today. Nearly 10,000 workers were sacked for their trade union involvement, and almost 1,700 detained.

South Korea receives dishonourable mention:

Kim Tae-hwan, of South Korean trade union centre FKTU was one of 17 Asian trade unionists killed during 2005, run over by a truck driver who was following police orders to drive through a picket line at a cement works.

I quit.

2006-06-06T00:19:00.000+09:00

This is what happened.

A Korean-American teacher at the English Village in Seongnam (allegedly) assaulted primary school students while they were on a nature walk. Not long after, a Korean teacher at the English Village in Ansan (allegedly) assaulted middle school students in their dormitory.

Sohn Hak-kyu, the governor of Gyeonggi (where both Villages are located), apologized for the incidents and promised to improve supervision at the facilities.

This wasn't good enough for the Gyeonggi KTU office, which issued a press release entitled "It is not enough to increase supervision of sexual assault." The release claimed that the governor was ignoring "structural problems" with the Villages:

(1) teaching positions do not require a degree in education, and so underqualified people are hired;
(2) foreign teachers have a "free attitude" to sex, which a few hours of cultural education cannot remedy;
(3) foreign teachers are merely tourists, in Korea for the money or the "experience," and so are not suffiently devoted to their profession; and
(4) with 40 students in a classroom, teachers cannot conduct effective lessons.

The solution, the statement concluded, was to stop spending money on these Villages and to invest instead in public education.

First, I'll attempt to explain what I think Gyeonggi KTU was doing with the release.

The English Villages in Gyeonggi were founded by Governor Sohn, who is an important member of the conservative Hanarra Party. Public education is not a big priority for Sohn or Hanarra, and the KTU used the publicity surrounding the incidents to score some easy political points against Sohn, and to promote public education. Worthwhile goals, in my opinion.

But this is NOT an apology.

Gyeonggi KTU is cynically exploiting the currents of xenophobia that exist in Korea, to its own ends. The release deliberately targeted ill-informed and biased newsreaders, and I was shocked that teaching professionals would do this. The statement attacks EVERY FOREIGN TEACHER IN KOREA.

Unfortunately, despite appeals from various union members and foreign teachers, the Gyeonggi office has refused to retract their statement.

As SOMEONE must accept responsibility for this inane and hateful piece of propaganda, I will resign from the KTU.

This causes me a great deal of pain, as I have made many friends in the union, teachers who are wholly committed to their students and to their profession, and I still believe in the stated goals of the organization (even if the meaning of '참' continues to elude me).

안녕 KTU.

At least now I'll have more time to indulge in my depraved sexual pursuits. Oops, I mean I'll have more time to learn proper, Korean attitudes to sex.

The horror ...

Jason Thomas
Incheon

p.s. My apologies for all the CAPS. I'M ANGRY.

Hail to the Chief

2006-04-02T20:42:00.000+09:00

We have a new president. Frets about her "militancy" should be ignored - as the president is to complete the previous chief's term, which ends in December, she won't be making changes to the executive.

Though why her term should be so abridged, I can't say. She was already vice-president, why did she have to be elected again, merely to complete the previous president's term? I suppose she has somewhat more "authority" now, but why not give her a full term in office? I may be obtuse, will someone please explain the logic at work here?

ILO Panel Calls for Civil Servants' Right to Strike

2006-04-02T20:20:00.000+09:00

"An international labor committee has recommended that the South Korean government guarantee civil servants’ right to organize and minimize restrictions on their right to strike."

Whether teachers would avail themselves of this right if it were to be guaranteed is of course another question. Coming (as I do) from a work culture where the (convincing) threat of collective action is a time-honoured route to concessions at the negotiating table, I sometimes wonder how the KTU earns credibility with the Ministry of Education ... is it the weekly newspapers the union publishes and distributes? the conferences it organizes? the offices it maintains? the allies it finds in "civil society?"

How any of these, important as they are, would be perceived as even a marginal threat to government schemes, I can't say.

Give me a picket line or give me nothing!

open belated congratulatory message to the Berlitz Union Korea

2006-03-18T20:09:00.000+09:00

Fantastic! Incredible! Rockabilly Howlin Amen! I don't know the words that might describe what you have accomplished. It had been muttered about for years, but YOU DID IT!

Hats off, shoes off, for one giant leap for every teacher in every institute in every town in the country.

Love, respect, solidarity,

International Working Group
Korean Teachers Union (Incheon)

To All College Faculty Members Taking Job Action:

2006-03-11T14:17:00.000+09:00

March 11, 2006

Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Ontario, Canada

To All College Faculty Members Taking Job Action:

Public service workers throughout the world continue to be attacked by forces determined to create "cheap labour" and hegemony for "market forces."

Your members' collective refusal to retreat in the face of these attacks is an inspiration to workers everywhere.

In solidarity!

Korean Teachers Union
http://english.eduhope.net/

Why is membership on the decline?

2006-03-11T00:45:00.000+09:00

It's the start of a new school year, full of hope and promise. And of a dozen new teachers threatening and cajoling kids in classroom and hallway, only ONE is . Thankfully, the ONE is an activist (I see him at the Incheon office, he does technical stuff) and he likes to drink.

It seems many teachers are simply not renewing their memberships when they transfer schools.

The members I talk to say it's an Image Problem. And while it's true that the Grand National Party and its allies in the unholy media triad are ruthless, reckless and relentless, the union simply doesn't have any coherent strategies designed to influence public opinion. Leaders have sit-ins and hunger strikes, but the union doesn't buy space on billboards, radio, or on websites! I've seen the budget, and NO funds are allocated for "public perception" agencies. (And of course, the "public" includes the rank-and-file.) It's no surprise we're taking a beating.

We at KTU like to praise "purity of intention" ... which is fine. But at the moment, parents have no idea what those intentions are.

I hope other team members will respond?

KTU Welcomes National Human Rights Commission Ruling on Temporary Teachers

2006-03-01T14:54:00.000+09:00

Nearly 40 percent of all education workers in urban middle and high schools are irregular workers

http://english.eduhope.net/news/park010306.htm

As I (and of course all foreign teachers) belong to that 40%, it's good to see the NHRC bringing attention to a few of the ways irregular workers in education are being screwed around. And though I'm glad the union is paying attention, I'm far from grateful, as it could be doing a lot more for 'temporary' teachers.

Hannara Party Encourages Students to Report Progressive Teachers

2006-03-01T14:50:00.000+09:00

Too absurd for comment, really. A marginally cooler GNP head must have seen the board, because it wasn't up for long.

http://english.eduhope.net/news/hwang180206.htm

To the New Teacher: Join the Fucking Union

2006-02-21T01:46:00.000+09:00

So you're a teacher, prepared with social and cognitive learning theories and pedagogical techniques, and determined to inspire young minds with your wisdom and wit.

What they perhaps didn't teach you at Gyeongin University, but is obvious if you read the paper or watch the news, is that your new profession is under attack: we are told teachers are "irresponsible," "selfish," "incompetent." That's fine, you might think, I'm prepared to put up with this, I know how important the job is, I will maintain a noble posture under fire.

If only it were so simple, that it were a matter of individual teachers persevering! For it's not only you and your profession that is being attacked, but the entire structure of publicly-funded education itself, upon which you stand, that is being attacked, undermined, constantly. And, foundations weakened, it's beginning to sway.

Don't feel it yet? To an outsider, the proliferation of hagwons, and legion of private tutors, in this country speaks very plainly that public education isn't working. And look at the new free economic zones, and now the new 'charter schools.' This is the trend--this is the future that is being prepared, with careful intent and ideological zeal: allow publicly-administered education to deteriorate, and let the companies move in, to pilfer resources and scoop up the most advantaged students.

Parents know that things are bad, and of course they blame teachers. As they should.

But perhaps you protest here--I'm only a public servant, I must remain neutral! And if you really believe this, you deserve parents' blame. Parents don't care what your ideals are. They know that their children are not getting the education they need at school. They feel that your first responsibility is to the children you teach, not your employer the state that is abandoning the most vulnerable of its citizens (the kids in Gangnam will be fine regardless, thank you).

In 1966 UNESCO made a number of recommendations concerning the status of teachers and the teaching profession. Perhaps you learned of these in university? UNESCO recommended, among other things, that teachers be allowed to form professional organizations in member countries. By professional it means self-regulating, self-governing. Teachers decide who will be teachers, and teachers decide who is promoted, and disciplined. Countries that are serious about education follow the recommendations--for who better understands education than teachers? And the experts who drafted the recommendations understood that education would always need passionate advocates, and that organizations of professionals would serve this function.

This is why, in Canada, any time a conservative government attempts to cut funding to education, teachers organize to defend it, to remind parents and media of how essential it is. Of course when teachers must strike, when schools are empty and parents are struggling to find people to care for their young children, the government and conservative media outlets call teachers "selfish" and "irresponsible." This is inevitable. Teachers know what they're doing is important.

Koreans spend more money on education than the people of any other UNESCO country. If teachers had the resolve, Korea's education system could rival that of Denmark or Norway. Unfortunately, it appears that Korea will soon have a system that resembles that of the Philippines. Unless teachers organize.

Your silence, your noble posturing, means complicity, and nothing more.

UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers

The End of Public Education?

2006-02-18T19:49:00.000+09:00

The Chosun Ilbo reports ministry plans to fund "charter schools," starting next year.

Never mind that public funds will pour into places where the public is not welcome, and never mind that charter schools often under-perform public schools in the U.S.

It's pretty clear what's happening in Korean education: public schooling is to be allowed to deteriorate further, so that independent, for-profit companies will be welcomed in, to pillage resources and suck up the children of the upper and middle classes. And with "international schools" in the 'free' economic zones opening soon, a three- or four-tier education system, and a brave new republic.

Wealthy enough to emulate a system like Denmark's, Korea will end up with a system like the Philippines'. Nicely done.

the Free Teachers Union?!

2006-02-07T06:53:00.000+09:00

What is the Dong-A Ilbo talking about? "A new teachers’ union opposing the Korean Teachers and Education Worker`s Union (KTU) will be launched in March."

Wishful thinking? Agit-prop? Somebody fill me in?

How to globalize the labour movement?

2006-02-07T06:30:00.000+09:00

A good entry to the Global Labor Strategies blog. Unfortunately, most KTU membership has never heard of Education International, still the best vehicle for building knowledge and solidarity networks across borders.

Calling all English-using members: Promote EI! Translate stuff that interests you for KTU media!

This is the Uri government.

2006-02-02T06:35:00.000+09:00

The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs tells public service workers that their decision to join the KCTU is "illegal": "its collective action of voting is not allowed," said Lee Doo-pyo, an official with the ministry.

They are petulant children, stamping their feet and pouting when people don't listen to them. The KTU response is here.

Find some dignity, gentlemen. You're embarrassing your country.

Don't sing the Alphabet Song - you'll confuse the kids!

2006-01-24T22:01:00.000+09:00

My first entry, and I use it to question the union's position on ministry plans to introduce English at the first year of primary education.

As the committee points out, it's true that the ministry of education didn't consult parents or teachers before announcing its plans. After decades (centuries?) of dictatorship, bureaucrats here aren't much in the habit of asking people for their opinions on policy measures.

. . . Knots, thorns, choose your simile, language policy in ROK is a complex issue. The government banned private tutoring because parents were spending "up to 90% of their disposable income" buying input from expert English speakers. Don't blame parents: when the city of Seoul begins conducting job interviews in English, there's no need to jab a wet finger in the air to know what's coming. The gatekeepers have a new lock to be picked.

But the committee's claim that earlier access to English in primary schools will cause "more inequality in education" is difficult to accept. This implies that the ministry of education is responsible for the country's obsession with English, which is nonsense. Or so it appears to this observer. It seems to me that the ministry is simply responding to the demands of universities and employers.

Indeed, it can be argued that this move will reduce inequality. After all, most parents simply cannot afford to send their children abroad for two years; and those first-graders who are to be shipped to Seattle or Sidney really won't need that hour of English they'll get in class every week.

What the committee doesn't say, and what every elementary school teacher knows, is that there simply aren't enough people in schools with the language skills necessary to instruct all these kids. The ministry hopes that teachers will somehow, from somewhere, acquire these skills over the next few years, without it having to invest the kind of money that such extensive training would require.

(And while the release does suggest a wariness of certain hegemonic forces, and the urge to take protective measures against these, I won't explore this now.)

A public education should prepare kids for meaningful, active, and creative participation in the spaces they will find themselves in when they graduate. If the country's schools were adequate, parents wouldn't feel the need to spend so many millions of won on private instruction. Teachers must organize, and demand that the government invest in public education, before the market swallows it.

What we are to become?

2005-12-06T21:45:00.000+09:00

This is to be, I propose, the blog of the Incheon Korean Teachers' Union International Working Group.

This may become a repository for our observations, calculations, and salutations.

When a news item is posted to the main website, I hope we comment on it here. I hope also that readers will comment.