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Issue No. 128 | 15 March 2002 |
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Why I'm Marching
Interview: The Wedge Buster History: Fighting for Peace Unions: Rattling the Gates International: Facing Retribution Technology: How Korean Workers Used The Web Industrial: Working Futures Review: Rumble, Young Man, Rumble Satire: GG Survival Doomed: Fox-Lew In Charge Of Rescue Bid Poetry: PSST
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review
 Carr and the Fire FightersOn InequalityHarmony Day
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Technology How Korean Workers Used The WebBy Andrew Casey
Groups of electricity workers, who are now in the 3rd week of what has been deemed an 'illegal strike', are 'hiding out' around the capital, Seoul, and the rest of the country. Twice a day they log into union run internet bulletin boards where they pick up topics and materials for group discussion, as well as news about the latest developments in the negotiations with the government and their employer. More than 5,300 workers are continuing the strike in this way - dispersed around the country in groups of 5 to 10. Trying to find these workers, and arrest their leaders, are some 10,000 police who have swept through tens of thousands of motel rooms in the 2 to 3 hour vicinity of Seoul. The traditional Korean strike Traditional mass strikes in Korea are normally based on thousands of unionised workers gathering at their workplace, university campuses, cathedrals, retreat centres and railway stations where they stay together - camping out - in noisy mass protests. It is unusual in Korea for striking workers merely to just "stay away" from their work during a dispute - or organise rag-tag picketlines outside their workplace. Both the moderate national trade union center, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions ( FKTU) and its smaller and militant competitor the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), traditionally use this mass camp-out tactic during strikes. The major reason behind the Korean union tactic, of gathering the membership into one place for the duration of the strike, is to maintain solidarity and an esprit-de-corps. These sit-ins and camp-outs are normally accompanied by a great deal of theatrics with chants and flag-waving - and even competitions between small groups for the best new union chant during a particular strike. This traditional tactic of mass sit-in strikes usually ends with the workers marching back together into their workplace - again with theatrical mass chants and flag-waving - after a negotiated outcome to the dispute. However, sometimes, the employers are able to convince the police to bring about a 'resolution' to the strike by bringing in the riot police and violently breaking up the sit-ins - especially when the government has declared a strike 'illegal'. Pictures of bloodied union leaders and workers with broken limbs as a result of beatings by riot police are, unfortunately, all too regularly beamed across the world An Untested 'Internet Strike' The electricity power workers union is part of the KCTU. While the KCTU is the smaller national trade union centre it has been growing faster than the FKTU - in part because the smaller grouping is seen as being more dynamic and web-savvy, using the 'net to organize and gather local and international support. In the current anti-privatisation campaign both the gas workers and rail workers unions have threatened to change allegiances from the FKTU to the KCTU because of their dynamism and militancy. So this time the striking electrical power workers have chosen a new, untested, course of action to continue their 'illegal' strike of dispersing workers in small groups- rather than keeping them together. Each day, the power workers union and the KCTU provide the striking workers with topics and materials for group discussion and news of developments in the negotiations through the union's website. And through mobile phone contact, the situation rooms are able to ascertain the well being of all the striking workers, including whether any of the striking workers have returned to work. Striking workers are able to leave messages for each other and their families on the bulletin boards in the website from the easily available 'internet cafes' wired with broadband (usually for internet games). Situation Rooms' Sends Info Korea is famous for being one of the most wired societies in the world - with cheap and easy access to the WWW via 'internet cafes' on almost every city and town corner. As well close to seventy per cent of Korean households will have high speed connections to the internet by the end of this year, with government plans to have ninety-percent of households with high speed connections by the end of 2005. The local media is reporting, with fascination, this new-style use of the internet by Korean workers organizing a prolonged strike. The strike leaders have set up a number of "situation rooms" at the Myongdong Catholic Cathedral, the KCTU and the KPSU offices where union staff are in regular contact with the "dispersed" striking workers. From these 'situation rooms' they link up with all the groups of striking workers who have taken "submarines" twice a day through mobile phones and the union's website. Govt Tries To Shutdown Union Websites The Korean government hasn't been blind to the effective use by the union movement of the modem. On March 4, the police applied to the "Information Communication Ethics Committee" of the Ministry of Information and Communication requesting permission to shut down the website of the electricity workers union saying that the "website is being used to instigate illegal activities, including delivery of 'struggle orders', assisting the hide-out efforts of the leaders of the union wanted for arrest, and the continuation of the illegal strike." In response, the KCTU has set up a mirror site of the electricity workers union's website as a directory of the KCTU's own website at http://www.nodong.org/baljeon. In order for the police to block the striking workers access to their website, it would have to shut down the KCTU's website. The KCTU is also looking for methods to set up mirror sites overseas in case the police take the extreme act of shutting down KCTU's own site. KCTU Cyber-Action Plan To Paralyse Govt Websites KCTU has issued a special campaign directive in the event of the government's attempt to shut down the union's website. It will call for a concerted cyber-action to paralyse various government websites, including that of the Presidential Palace Blue House, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, and the National Police Agency. The unprecedented internet "guerrilla" strike tactics of the electricity workers union has enabled the workers to continue the strike without the constant threat and danger of a riot police raid hovering over their heads. It relies, apart from the availability of means of effective communication, on the strength of camaraderie, discipline, and confidence amongst the workers and between the members and the leadership.
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