On August 3rd, sixteen Korean Americans embarked on a journey, as part of Nodutdol’s Korea Education and Exposure Program (KEEP), to learn about the people’s movement in South Korea. We sought to connect to our ‘homeland’ in a meaningful way, beyond simple birth right. This was the largest group of KEEP since its inception in 1995, with thirteen participants and three coordinators. We represented a diverse spectrum of the Korean community in the United States, with biracial Koreans and adoptees, and the largest contingent of LGBTQ Koreans in KEEP history. We traveled throughout South Korea, visited important historic sites like Gwangju and Jirisan, farmed in Naju and met with residents of a village fighting to keep a naval base off their shores in Jejudo. In Seoul, we learned about the struggles of the adoptee community and unmarried mothers in Korea, about the crackdowns under Lee Myung Bak against migrant laborers and the administration’s attack on the media in many forms. We learned from people fighting forced eviction due to redevelopment and the poverty neoliberal policies have left behind. While it is impossible to capture the entirety of our two week trip, here are a few snapshots from various KEEPers. There will be fuller report backs in New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Bay Area and Los Angeles in the coming months so be sure to come out to hear more of our stories!

Migrant Trade Union -- by Mark Roh Beyersdorf 
When we arrived for a site visit with the Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU), we were stunned to find Michele, MTU’s President, waiting for us.  Just the night before, Michele had been hospitalized after a ten-day hunger strike.  But he was sitting right there waiting for us. 

Over the next couple hours, a conversation unfolded that captivated our delegation.  As Korean Americans of immigrant backgrounds, we were moved by the challenges the migrants face as they navigate a virulently anti-migrant government and society.  As a predominantly LGBT delegation, we were moved by Michele’s courage as an openly transgender leader in the Korean movement.  As American people of color, we were moved by MTU’s battles to create spaces for immigrant communities in a society that imagines itself to be racially pure.

As Yul-San Liem, KEEP co-coordinator, reflected in our evaluation later that day, “The introduction of different races is going to change the way Korea looks.  It’s going to change the way the movement organizes.  It’s going to change Korean nationalism.”  Indeed, with the growing visibility of mixed-race Koreans, migrant brides, migrant workers, and other marginalized racial minorities in Korea, Korea is at a moment in which its ideology of “racial purity” is being shaken to the core.  MTU’s struggles showed us just how painful and difficult the daily labor of challenging that ideology can be.



Poi-dong (포이동) Shantytown Villagers --by Meejin Richart
On August 13, 2010, KEEP met with women leaders of the 포이동 (Poi-dong) community. The women told us of their long struggle to gain rights and recognition for members of their community.

The Poi-dong community has existed since 1989, when the Korean government forcibly relocated 14 families in order to make room for development and promised them new housing that never materialized. The buildings of the shantytown were never officially registered with the government, so residents had no addresses, and mail sent to Poi-dong went to a single location, where it was left unsorted. The community’s children were not only without much money, but also without the chance of an education.

In 2003, the women of Poi-dong built a network, and while the men of Poi-dong work to support their families, the women fight for their community. They talked about the challenge of dealing with public officials. The frequent turn-over of elected officials and their staff means they often have to start all over and re-educate them on their community issue after they had already invested years into building a relationship with the previous official.

After seven years, the women’s efforts have been largely successful. The residents of Poi-dong now have registered addresses and resident ID’s. We had a brief tour of a library/school where a university student teaches class to youth from the community. They even got the government to pay to build restrooms and paved walkways.

During our meeting, the women emphasized the importance of solidarity for their work. They are part of the Korean People’s Solidarity Movement against Poverty, and they appreciate opportunities to meet with social justice groups, such as KEEP. I feel very fortunate to have been able to meet with and learn from such incredibly motivated women. Their spirit and determination to assert their right really resonated with me, and makes me want to re-evaluate my own struggle.

Socially and politically, Korea and the United States are very different. What remains the same, however, is the necessity for action and struggle when basic human rights are violated. Human rights are visibly violated in Korea. And here, while U.S. policies make it seem as though we have equality, they mean nothing if not fully implemented. They remain mere words on paper until they’re realized through persistent action. Whether we are struggling for social justice in the United States or abroad, we can all learn from the action and perseverance of the women of Poi-dong.



The Four Rivers Project --by Sarah Ahn
On a rainy Monday, we traveled to a site outside of Seoul to see the contruction of a dam in the Han River. This dam is one of sixteen to be constructed in all the four major rivers of Korea. Along with the dams, the plans include widening the rivers by scooping out the river banks, enough dirt to make ten mountains.

The strangest part of the day was the visit to the government public relations building- a brand new, sparkling building, all for the purpose of showing people the “wonders of the Four River’s Project”. We were almost forbidden entrance because our hosts had recently taken pictures and exposed all the lies that were being told in the building. But we did manage to get in and learned that Lee Myung Bak’s plan for the waterways is to make Korea into one giant amusement park, with golf courses, swimming pools, over-water shopping arcades, and pedestrian bridges!

It was a reminder of how the social and environmental costs of “development” are so easily masked by glittery lights and sold as “progress”. This so-called development will be at the cost of hundreds of lost plant and animal species, farmers losing their lands, and irreparable environmental damage, i.e a complete alteration to the natural flow of all major riverways in Korea. The only beneficiaries will be the major corporations in South Korea, including Hyundai, Samsung and LG, which will continue to make profits even as housing and other contruction in Korea are at an all time low.

On top of one of the towers sit three environmental activists who have been there for close to a month. As their radios had been confiscated, we communicated with them by shouting across the river and seeing each other wave through telescopes. We chanted and sang a song to give them strength. They refuse to come down until their demands are met, but the Lee Myung Bak administration has created a media blackout so that most people don’t know about their struggle. We were awed by their determination and inspired by their conviction that this must be stopped now before it’s too late. Our spirits remain with them even from across the seas as we follow the progress of their struggle.



People’s House – by Sharon Chung
The People’s House is a community center in the Angok neighborhood of Seoul. It was created in July 2008 by the combined forces of local people, unions, and organizations. Its purpose is to provide a common community space for local residents as well as a space for the community to network with progressive organizations and unions. Financially, it is not dependent on any provincial, city or governmental funding or private grants, but rather fully supported by the people of the community. All programs and services offered by the People’s House are free of charge and honor people’s skills as currency and payment.

An important focus of the People’s House is education, offered to everybody in the community, both young children and adults. Their aim is to provide education that is accessible for children who may not have opportunities to attend public school, and provide arts and literature education that is considered non-essential and therefore absent in public schools. For adults, their goal is to provide access to adult education - as educational opportunities for adults tend to be scarce and very expensive - as well as education in areas of common interest for citizens, e.g. arts and politics, and everyday living, e.g. health, education, skills and crafts. The concept of teaching embraced by the People’s House holds that anybody can be a teacher as we all hold knowledge and have things to teach and learn from each other. Teachers are often professionals in their respective areas, and sharing knowledge gained from experience is used as the educational framework.

In addition to education, the People’s House organizes a local flea market as a way to create local economy, and often uses informal bartering and exchange as currency. Recycling is also a valued practice and promoted in all the programs and community spaces provided for residents. Every Tuesday, there is a dinner table program where the People’s House prepares and hosts dinner, and creates a comfortable place and time to connect with the community and new residents.

Our host, Ahn Sung Keng, explained that due to the rapid process of industrialization and modernization in South Korean society, long-standing social relationships began to break down and fracture, and people did not have the time and space to process, reflect and respond to these accelerating societal forces. For social activism, people need to rebuild social relationships and need a space to deepen these relationships, and the People’s House seeks to rebuild these networks. Ahn Sung Keng explained that the essential goal of the People’s House is to literally reconstruct the idea of community and society.

The goal and mission of the People’s House, it seems, is the practice of daily living that is not only liberatory but also radical. The People’s House is living community organizing and social change not only by reconstructing the theory of community change on a local and societal level but also through the daily liberatory practices of individuals and the collective community.

About Nodutdol eNews

Nodutdol eNews is the monthly e-mail newsletter of Nodutdol.Through grassroots organization and community development, Nodutdol seeks to bridge divisions created by war, nation, gender, sexual orientation, language, classes and generation among Koreans and to empower our community to address the injustice we and other people of color face here and abroad. Nodutdol works in collaboration with other progressive organizations locally, nationally and internationally as part of a larger movement for peace and social change.

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