Labor movement

• exchange and discussion of each country's case from jp, kr, tw, ph.

exchange

jp labornet / ukihiro

labornet was created in 2000, by the reason that labor activists and media activists realized the social neeeds for that. Mr. Ito and me(ukihiro) initiated it. when there was dock workers' strike in liverpoo about 10 years agol, international solidarity from around the world happens. we also had it by organizing it through web tools such as mailing list, which lead jp labornet afterward. (looking at jp labornet website...) includes not only labor issues but social issues... younger generation doesn't care about and even don't know labor union/movement. also looking at uniontube. watching one of videos on it. there is a very good female agitator and young fans of hers there. freeter union was organized 5 years ago, consisting of about 100 members. this is new wave. labornet jp has freeter member also. most of uniontube users are rank and file / grassroots workers. freeter union has membership system.

kr labornet / dongjun

nodongnet. founded in 2003. In 1996, there was jinbonet(korean progressive network) establish. afterward, while jinbonet covers general network, labor, student, ... has its own network. so labor was created. two parts: one is labor info/news-sharing, 2nd is labor media. labornet kr actually makes its media and support media server and TU's website building. KCTU, DLP, ... and other labor-related orgs set up steering committee for labornet kr and full staffs in it. but conflicts grow for last few years and so activities are getting less. when we look at details of what it has done so far are such. syndicated labor news based on xml-rpcs. but TU media group, labor news/video groups, internet media etc. still makes a lot of labor media. mobile, p2p, one man media actions ... are not well developed well recently.

coolloud in tw / yi-hwa

coolloud was created in 1997. labor-centered initially, but covers soical issues in general. at the beginning, founders were un-employee and uni-students. they just gathers infos. but some progresses by this event: there were industrial hazards 15 years ago in factories by a lot of US companies like RCA. so workers who got cancer struggles. then video activists worked on that. there were video, photo, book, for those like that. (missing some...) irregular workers issues. / mainstrean media issues. / teachers can't organize unions. / chinese workers' issues as well. so coolloud support them having online space. but less relationship with labor orgs... some of them are conservative etc. there are workers' band. maybe 3-4 year ago, beer factory, which was previously govt's own and now privately owned. in that factory, some photo exhibition inside ... solidarity ... labor movement year books, which coolloud sell to uni, lib, TU etc. coolloud has both solidarity and criticism with TUs. now we have documentary workers union. they need insurance. but not worker's consciousness, but artist's one. / in jp, there is tu or cooperative in movie industry. similarly.

ph / jong

still traditional. big TU. but very much seperated... like labor 1st movement... organize workers in traditional way. labor condition is getting worse, because of globalization. ex: new law to prohibit organizing TU. drawings, cartoon, graphic, ... "ph worker's solidarity" has some magazine for example. rank and file workers rarely be part of making their story/media through some like uniontube, but leaders and student supporting just helps. and just html-website. as a form of organizing, i hope labor movements use new media. internet is just entertaining thing only basically. in every internet cafe, young ppl always do games.

discussion

member-organizing

it's difficult. in tw, coolloud only 50 members. 300 members in labornet jp. membership fee.

how to organize young ppl

in tw, uni-students works very hard as the part time, arguements happen. but labor problem of young ppl with worse conditions in general are not well addressed: irregular work, no union, precarious ... conflicts btw regular and irregular workers, and old and young workes.

action plan

kr migrant workers are not welcome, 'cause kr workers thinks wrongly they seem to rob their them. so to overcome such un-necessary conflicts, we need to take cultural approaches. not only struggle video but also daily lives videos.

• also... electronic music playing and dancing as a form of demo for example.
• there are still conservative big TU and labor move orgs.

how about international precarious workers film festival at g8? that can be one of programs in night screening (like txap here) of g8 camp and online.

minutes by dongwon