YOUR LAST FREE ISSUE UPPNETUPPNET News See Back Page Official Publication of the Union Producers and Programmers Network Winter 1998 Promoting production and use of tv and radio shows pertinent to the cause of organized labor and working people Historic Seoul L a b o r M e d i a Conference Held International Labor Communication Solidarity Growing by Steve Zeltzer, Producer Labor Video Project LaborNet-IGC Str. Ctte., UPPNET, Str. Ctte. On Nov. 10-12 in Seoul, South Ko re a , a c t ivists in lab o r video, computer, media and labor teachers from around the world met to hold a labor telecommunications conference. It was no accident the confe rence took place in Ko rea. Th e Some of the intern ational guests at Confe re n c e : (L to R) Chris Bailey, m a s s ive Ko r ean labor upheaval and ge n e ral stri ke held in L ab o u rn e t , UK; Steve Zeltze r, U P P N E T / L a bor Video Pro j e c t , USA; Dave December 1996 and January 1997 had brought not only the Ohlenroth, Labor Beat, USA; Julius Fisher, UPPNET/working tv, Canada ignition of the Korean labor movement but an international c o m mu n i c ati on netwo rk that helped back the stri ke. The con- was sponsored not only by many labor video, computer and fe rence also came on the heels of the LaborTECH confe r- l abo r info rm at i o n / e d u c a tion orga n i z ations but also by the ence held in San Francisco in Ju l y and co-sponsored by Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). UPPNET and LaborNet-IGC. Both these orga n i z at i o n s , The Ko rean Confe d e r ation of Trade Unions had been as well as Lab o u rn e t - U K , a c t ive ly helped publ i c i z e the the leading fo r ce behind the ge n e ral stri ke and had seen the Seoul conference. need to use labor commu n i c ation tech n o l ogy to build labor s o l i d a r ity links. Th e The combination of photo: Steve Zeltzer the computer/commu- KCTU was not only n i c ation revolution with a sponsor of the confe r- the development of an ence but also an active i n d e pendent lab o r p a r ticipant with many m ovement in Ko rea has of its top leaders at t e n d- led to some histori c ing sessions and host- firsts. For the first time ing a re c ept ion for the in the history of lab o r, i n t e rn ational delegat e s . a ge n e r al stri k e wa s The confe r ence it- l i n k ed up with the self was held at Yonsei wo rld wo rking cl a s s University which only t h r ough the use of an last year had been a i n t e ra c t ive web page b at t l eground during the and with videos on the ge n e r al stri ke. Te n ge n e ral stri ke that we re thousand police had s c r eened around the surrounded the univer- wo rl d . The Ko r e a n sity to crush a student Panel on Te ch n o l ogy & E x p l o i t at i o n : (L to R) Kubeshni Gove n d e r, South A f rica; Kang Myoung Ko o , gove rnment was shake n p r otest and had ar- P ro f essor of Commu n i c a tion and Info rm a t i o n , Seoul National Unive rsi ty; Julius Fi s h e r, rested over 1,000 stu- and stunned by the working tv, Canada; A representative of the Ogawamachi Cine Club in Japan, with microphone global actions in soli- dents. Some of them darity with the Korean workers. we re still in jail along with trade unionists, i n cluding a leader These tech n o l ogies helped build an intern ational day of of the public workers union who was framed to prevent the s o l i d a rity on Ja nu a ry 10, 1997 with rallies and protests at action of his union during the strike. d o zens of Ko rean embassies and consulates around the wo rl d. The Seoul LaborMedia confe rence was also held in the The importance of intern ational labor commu n i c ation links midst of a massive political and economic crisis. The cap i t a l i s t was not lost on the Korean labor movement. The conference p a rties we re in disarray with the President of Ko rea re s i g n i n g (Continued on p. 2) Seoul International LaborMedia 97 (c o n t i nued from p. 1) t ry. His part y, wh i ch is called People Vi c t o r y 21 (v i c 2 1 @ h i t e l . n e t) , was fo rmed after a special confe rence of from his own party a week before the conference. The cur- the KCTU decided that wo rke rs needed a political altern at ive rency crisis was knocking the value of the won off 3% a day to the business parties. The gove rnment is refusing to regi s t e r and a successful national strike had just taken place at Kia the party and unions are not allowed to part i c i p ate in politics industries that forced the government to nationalize the con- despite the role of business in politics. Many of the glomerate. L aborMedia delegates joined labor rep re s e n t at ives from aro u n d The fi rst Seoul Intern ational Labor Film and Vi d e o the wo rld who we re introduced from the plat fo rm to loud Festival was scheduled to be held and some were concerned ap p l a u s e. Not surp ri s i n g ly, t h e re was not a wo rd about the that the organizers of the conference would also be arrested ra l ly of the labor political campaign in the two daily English since the films had not been through the censorship board. p ap e rs in Ko re a , The Ko rean Ti m e s and the Ko rea Hera l d. The conference topics and planning had been discussed online prior to the conference and many of the suggestions were integrated into the conference agenda. With a team of n e a rly 100 students, a c a d e m i c s , v i d e ograp h e rs and computer experts, the conference book in Korean and English was put together for distribution at the conference, the videos from a round the wo rld we re captioned into Ko rean and all the logistical and security arrangements were organized. I had come a week earlier and met with the Sam-mi K won Young Ghil holds torch to light fi re at ra l ly. He is president of the KCTU and its can- didate for president in national election. The LaborMedia conference not only faced many logistical pro blems but also the threat of a police raid. Under Korean l aw, eve ry film or video must be sent t h rough a censor befo re it can be scre e n e d. The previous we e k , Suh Jo o n - s i k , a human rights activist, had organized the Second A n nual Human Rights Fe s t ival in Seoul and had been arrested for scre e n i n g films without getting them approved. So t h e re was real concern that our confe r- ence would also face the same fate. The police and gove rnm ent offi c i a l s called the confe rence orga n i ze rs to fi n d out if the films we we r e showing had N ovember 9 national labor ra l ly of 30,000 wo rke rs sponsored by been ap p rove d. The confe rence orga n i ze rs said that since Ko rean Confe d e ration of Trade Unions. LaborMedia 97 intern a - tional guests were invited to the platform. the film make rs we re attending the confe rence these wo u l d be in an “ e d u c at i o n a l ” fo rm at. Because of the presence of Specialty Steel hunger strikers who were fighting their dis- over 15 intern ational delegat e s , and that the Yo n s e i criminatory discharge by POSCO. They had a web page in U n ive rsity dep a rtment was a co-sponsor and, fi n a l ly, the fa c t English and asked for intern ational support for their stru gg l e.