By PatchA, BASE21 staff reporter
Korean public sector workers launched a strike against the Korean government’s privatization policies on February 25th. Although the railway workers and gas workers had called off their strikes due to agreements with the government a few days after, the electricity workers had been relentlessly continuing their strike for 38 days. [ Related article – http://base21.org/base21hot/antiprivatisation.html (BASE21), http://picis.jinbo.net (PICIS), http://www.kctu.org (KCTU) ]
At first, about five thousand workers came together and launched the strike in a ceremony at Seoul National University on February 25th. In an attempt to stop the strike going ahead, the government deployed riot police units to arrest the strikers. On February 28th, striking electricity rank-and-file workers scattered around the country in small groups of six to twelve to avoid the police crackdown. It came to be called the ‘scatter struggle.’ The number of scattered groups was about five hundred. The headquarters of the electricity workers union, which was composed of fifty representatives, was located at Myongdong Cathedral from which they co-ordinated the strike.
Because the rank-and-file was scattered, it was very important to communicate with each other and headquarters. There were websites, cell phones, and many video activists to report their struggle.
The Korean electricity workers website for online communications and solidarity is http://baljeon.nodong.net.
Everyday, the headquarters uploaded information sent by groups of strikers onto the website and the rank-and-file reported their situation on the bulletin board. Except for the confidential strategies of the headquarters, all information for this strike struggle was provided through the website. The internet was the most important communication tool.
There as also a family struggle bulletin board, an online discussion bulletin board, press release and news archive pages, and a solidarity bulletin board. More than 1,000 materials were uploaded everyday. Sons and daughters could get the news about their fathers and mothers at the site and wrote their messages of concern to them on the family board. The workers also left replies on the board. Many progressive organizations and groups including NGOs and student movement groups in South Korea sent statements of support for the struggle. Also many other foreign groups sent their solidarity messages to the workers by email or uploaded them onto the bulletin board. (You can see the English bulletin board at www.base21.org)
Cell phone communication
Most workers had their own cell phone. The headquarters could convey their secret orders and ideas to the workers by cell phone call and messages. The workers also held sudden demonstrations divided into groups of 1,000 or 2,000 at several universities. The chair made a speech to the workers via his cell phone, because he stayed at Myungdong Cathedral and could not go out due to the police’s continuous surveillance.
Media activities to support the workers struggle
About ten video activists filmed every demonstration and uploaded the footage onto the multi-media web-page (http://baljeon.nodong.net/strike/html/live.php). They made live videos about the Korean electricity workers’ anti-privatization movement. And also they made video messages of the branch leaders at the cathedral. All people including the workers could watch the videos, and even new materials which the mainstream media, press and broadcasting didn’t report, for example, the police’s illegal oppression on workers, the core problem with the privatization, family’s solidarity struggle and so on.
Korean Government tries to shut down the workers’ website
March 5th, the police requested the Information & Communication Ethics Committee (ICEC) to close the Electricity workers’ struggle website. The police said, “The Union has tried to continue this struggle by using the website. The workers are delivered the struggle messages and orders from the headquarters through this website. The police think that this strike is illegal. So the police requests the closure of the workers’ website.” On March 6th Jinbonet held a press conference denouncing the police’s attempt to close the website of the electricity workers’ general strike struggle as a violation of the Korean people’s right to democracy and free speech.
Rapid Response Network System to cope with the police’s attack to the workers website
Jinbonet had asked many progressive groups, for example, Associations for the Progressive Communications (APC – http://www.apc.org), JCA-Net (http://www.jca.apc.org/), LaborNet Germany (http://www.labournet.de/), Nodo50 (http://www.nodo50.org/), Mediajumpstart (http://www.mediajumpstart.net) etc. and already established solidarity networks to make mirror site of the Korean workers struggle website, on other countries’ server computer. This is Rapid Response Network System (RRN)
After the conference, the police and Information & Communication Ethics Committee decided to delay the attempt. It seemed as though the police were taking a step back. Solidarity activities like RRN from many progressive organizations all over the world helped to stop the polices attempt. Also in Korea, many workers’ unions and social organizations were trying to support and strengthen this workers conflict after this assault on free speech.
Information & communication technology such as the internet, cell phone, and multi-media etc, played an important role to unite them and establish solidarity The strike ended April 2nd, but the headquarters are still at Myungdong Cathedral and prepares another struggle. We hope that workers and activists will find inspiration from the events surrounding the Korean electricity workers’ struggle to find innovative ways to support workers actions in the future.
2002-05-14
