A short discussion on Korean Labour and social movements
On the occasion of Richard Carleton's death this week (May 06), Tom from Ecology Action posted one of Carleton's recent reports on Indymedia. It was on the amazing Korean shipbuilding industry, mentioning its relatively horizontal wage structure. Knowing
as I do a tiny bit about Korean revolutionary history, particularly the 1980 KwangJu Uprising and the strength of the Korean labour unions, and peoples movements I am not surprised. The Kwangju Uprising of 1980 is a very important event in the modern history of democracy. It in turn
influenced the student movement in China leading to the famous demonstrations in Tianenmen Square.
here and hereare great blogs on politics in Korea and China...
also, there is an analysis of Kropotkin and KwangJu here at NEFAC and also an Anarkismo short article.
United Students Against Sweatshops has just launched an initiative to monitor the "Fair Labor Association", a group that is funded by big corporations, and
hence sometimes is motivated more by the need for 'damage control' to reputations rather than honest promotion of fair labour
standards.
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