Movement of People

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Korean Resource Center and the 28th anniversary of the Gwangju People’s Uprising, the Korean Resource Center, 5.18 Memorial Foundation, the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium and Young Koreans United of Los Angeles invite you to:

The Movement of People
building a New Agenda from Asia to the U.S.
developing a common understanding on the rights of (im)migrant workers

Globalization of the economy has spurred a phenomenal surge in the transnational migration of workers. Here in the U.S. one of the major domestic policy issues of this era is immigration and immigrant worker rights. For Korean Americans, a predominantly recent immigrant population, immigration and immigrant integration policies define our past and determine our future in this country --- from our ability to reunify with family members, earn a living wage or enroll our children in public schools. This day-long symposium is designed to enable us as Korean Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, immigrants and workers to develop a deeper and broader perspective of America’s “immigration challenge” by linking our individual experiences with those of migrant workers in Asia. From sharing organizing successes & methods to an overview on the difficult conditions and barriers faced by (im)migrant workers, we seek to formulate a common vision for advancing the human rights for all workers regardless of origin or immigration status.

The event also marks the 25th anniversary of the Korean Resource Center and the 28th anniversary of the May 18th Gwangju People's Uprising - a seminal political moment that sparked the movement for democracy in Korea and human rights in Asia. Similarly in the US, Korean Americans came together to provide decades of solidarity work that laid the seeds for the grassroots Korean American progressive movement today. For this reason, the May symposium will begin with a look back at our organizing history as the first step to charting the course of our work for the next year.

Featuring organizers, advocates, and academics from Australia, the Philippines, South Korea and the United States, this daylong symposium invites the whole family!

May 31st (Sat), 2008

Korean Education Center in Los Angeles
680 Wilshire Pl., Los Angeles, CA 90005
(로스앤젤레스 한국교육원)

Contents 1 Registration Form 2 Speakers 3 Kids Corner! 4 Youth Program 5 Adults/College Student Program 6 On This Day, Two Decades Ago 6.1 The Gwangju Democratic Uprising, May 1980 7 Initiating Organizations 7.1 Co-Sponsors 7.2 Outreach Materials

Registration Form

This event is free to the public.

You may send the registration form in any of the following methods:

• the online form above
• Fax: 323.937.3526
• Mail: Korean Resource Center, 900 S Crenshaw Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90019
• Email: symposium@krcla.org

Speakers

Featured speakers to date include:

Jeanne Batalova, PhD

Migration Policy Institute (United States)

Jeanne Batalova is a Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, where she focuses on the impacts of immigrants on social structure and labor markets; integration of immigrant children and elderly immigrants; and the policies and practices regulating immigration of highly skilled workers and foreign students. She is also Manager of the MPI Data Hub, a one-stop, web-based resource that provides instant access to the latest facts, stats, and maps covering US and global data on immigration and immigrant integration.

John Delloro

Dolores Huerta Labor Institute (United States)

John Delloro is the Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute. He is also a visiting lecturer at UCLA, where he will teaches a course on leadership development and strategy in Asian American communities and is on the faculty of the Los Angeles Trade Technical College Labor Studies Center. In addition to his academic background, he previously served as a manager of the southwest California area of the 90,000 member SEIU Local 1000, the Union of California State Workers and a staff director for the acute care hospital division of SEIU Local 399, the Healthcare Employees union. He has also worked as an organizer for the Culinary Union (HERE Local 226) in Las Vegas and AFSCME International organizing Los Angeles Superior Court clerical employees. He was one of the co-founders of the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, and recently served as the president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the largest national organization of Asian / Pacific Islander working families.

William Gois

Regional Coordinator, Migrant Forum in Asia (Phillipines)

Mr. Ashley William Gois is an educator, sociologist and human rights advocate. He has been working on Human Rights education for more than a decade and has been teaching social consciousness among University students across the Asia Pacific Region. From 1990 to 1995 Mr. Gois has worked extensively with Religious and cross cultural dialogues in Pakistan. He was a member of the Pax Romana Asian Regional Team from 1995-2000.

Marielena Hincapié

Director of Programs & Staff Attorney, National Immigration Legal Center

As NILC's director of programs, Ms. Hincapié manages the employment, public benefits, and immigration work of the organization; and she specializes in protecting and advancing the rights of immigrant workers. Ms. Hincapié has dedicated her legal career to protecting and advancing the rights of immigrant workers, particularly those who are undocumented. She writes articles and policy analyses, provides technical assistance, and presents trainings to legal and social service providers, labor unions, and community-based organizations. Her work also focuses on using legal tools to help support community and labor organizing efforts, as well as to help build and strengthen community coalitions working to improve working conditions for all low-wage workers. Ms. Hincapié litigates law reform and impact litigation cases dealing with the intersection of immigration laws and employment/labor laws, and specializes in cases following the Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB decision. Before joining NILC, she worked for the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco's Employment Law Center, where she founded the center's Immigrant Workers’ Rights Project. Ms. Hincapié holds a juris doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law.

Jin Euk Kim

Policy & Planning Director, Seoul Regional Council, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)

Joann H. Lee

Board Member, Korean Resource Center

Directing Attorney, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Joann H. Lee is the directing attorney of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Community Outreach Unit of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA). She provides direct legal services to the growing indigent API immigrant population in the Los Angeles area, specializing in the areas of family and immigration law. Joann coordinates outreach efforts, media work, and projects designed to provide monolingual APIs better access to legal services. Joann received her J.D. from George Washington University Law School and a B.S. in Social Policy and Women's Studies from Northwestern University. She currently serves on the boards of the Korean American Bar Association of Southern California, Korean Resource Center, and Center for the Pacific-Asian Family.

JinSook Lee

Korea

Sung-Ok Lee

Assistant General Secretary, Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) of the United Methodist Church

Sung-ok Lee is the Assistant General Secretary (AGS), Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), United Methodist Church. The GBGM is the mission agency of the denomination. As AGS within the Women’s Division, she heads the work of social justice advocacy and justice education, and enables its constituency, United Methodist women, to gain awareness about issues of gender equity, institutional racism in church and society, immigrant and civil rights, peace and economic justice. She leads the work of implementing the organization’s social policies and resolutions, serves on the staff cabinet which provides management coordination and as liaison representative in various denominational and ecumenical responsibilities. She coordinates major justice education and leadership development training events across the country to help members participate effectively in mission both locally and globally.

Joon Shik Shin

President, Korean Resource Center in Sydney, Australia

Inbo Sim

Former Executive Director, Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles

Former President, Young Koreans United-USA

Kids Corner!

ages 6 - 11

Through books, games, and team-building activities, kids will explore three important questions: What rights do all people have, including kids? Why is sharing important? How did my parents come to America?

Youth Program

ages 12-17

How does my story relate to movement and migration? Tell it through a digital media workshop presented by Visual Communications (www.vconline.org).

Adults/College Student Program

[Morning]

9:00 - 10:00 Registration

10:00 - 10:50 Opening & Panel "Looking Back History May 18 People's Uprising and its impacts on the Korean American Community"

10:50 - 11:35 Immigration in the U.S.

11:35 - 12:30 Workshop I (Looking Back History/U.S. immigration policy & Workers' Rights/Korea after May 18 People's Uprising)

[Afternoon]

1:20 - 2:30 Opening & Panel "Challenges to Global Village - Migration"

2:30 - 3:30 Workshop II (Asia/ Koreans in Australia & Korea)

3:30 - 4:30 Cultural Performance

On This Day, Two Decades Ago

The May 18th Gwangju People’s Uprising

On May 18, 1980, President Chun Doo Hwan's hard-line military rule led to a confrontation in the city of Kwangju, located south of Seoul. The uprising, triggered by student demonstrations led to Chun’s deployment of Special Forces unit trained for assault missions. Shocked and angered by the indiscriminate shooting of tear gas and rubber bullets, workers, shopkeepers and parents took to the streets to defend their children. In the end, 200 people were killed and hundreds wounded. The Gwangju Uprising gave birth to the national struggle for democracy in South Korea after decades of dictatorships following the Korean War. The spirit and legacy of the Gwangju Uprising resonates today with Koreans all over the world in the global movement for democracy and human rights.

The Gwangju Democratic Uprising, May 1980

Produced by Young Koreans United of USA and the Korean Alliance for Peace and Justice

Following the Korean War, the South Korean people discovered that democracy was not to be their reward. The United States viewed South Korea as integral to its strategic defense against Communism and supported any pro-US regime, regardless of its human rights record or views on democracy. Thus, when Park Chung Hee took power through a military coup and instituted a military dictatorship from 1961 through 1979, the US supported his government.

President Park was assassinated in October of 1979 on a wave of pro-democracy student protests. After Park's death, South Korea went through a brief period of political liberalization but this liberalization was abruptly ended by a military coup d'etat on December 12, 1979 led by Chun Doo Hwan. He, like President Park Chung Hee used the tensions between North and South Korea to legitimize martial law in the name of “national security”.

The May People’s Uprising

On May 18, 1980, President Chun Doo Hwan's hard-line military rule led to a confrontation in the city of Gwangju, located south of Seoul. The uprising and bloodbath lasted from May 18 through May 27. The Gwangju massacre became an important landmark in the struggle for South Korean democracy.

According to reports, the uprising was triggered by student demonstrations on the morning of May 18 in defiance of the new military edict closing the universities and stifling any political dissent. City police were unable to control the crowd so the military dispatched a Special Forces unit trained for assault missions to quell the protest. The troopers used tear gas, batons and rubber bullets to put down the uprising but still workers, shopkeepers, and parents took to the streets to defend their children. Then the military opened fire, killing dozens of people, and wounding hundreds more.

On May 20, some 10,000 people demonstrated in Gwangju. Due to heavily militarization, most major workplaces in South Korea had caches of weapons. Protestors seized these weapons, buses, taxis, and even armored personnel carriers, forming armed militias. They fought against the army until finally, on May 21, the Special Forces withdrew and the city was left to the citizens.

The next five days were unprecedented in Korean history. Instead of trade, people shared. Massive

communal meals for hundreds were cooked and distributed. Motor vehicles were handed out to keep the city safe and to create a new distribution system that depended on neither state nor capital. 15,000 citizens attended a memorial service for those killed on May 24.

On May 25, 50,000 people gathered for a rally and adopted a resolution calling for the abolition of martial law and the release of Kim Dae Jung, a leading pro-democracy political prisoner. The citizens were sure that the massacre and resultant victory would surely convince the United States to come to their aid.

Instead, the US, who held joint-command with the South Korean military, gave the military government the go-ahead to take troops from the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea to take back Gwangju. On May 27, at 3:30 A.M., the army swarmed Gwangju in Operation: Fascinating Vacations. After light skirmishes, the army quashed the revolt in less than two hours. They arrested 1,740 rioters, of whom 730 were detained for further investigation.

Lessons From Gwangju

Looking back, the uprising started as student demonstrations but the military’s random killings angered citizens into joining the student demonstrators, escalating it into a massive uprising. According to later reports, nearly 200 persons were killed, including 26 soldiers and policemen; of the more than 150 civilians killed, only 17 died on the final day of assault.

South Koreans were shocked that the government would use such brutal force against its citizens. They felt further betrayed by the United States after discovering that General John A. Wickham, Jr., had released South Korean troops from the DMZ to end the rebellion and that President Reagan had strongly endorsed Chun's actions.

Clearly, the Gwangju Uprising had an enormous impact. It ignited the floundering pro-democracy movement in Korea culminating in 1987 when the People's Power movement finally broke the power of the South Korean military. In Asia, first-hand accounts of the uprising were passed around Tiananmen Square in 1989 and Indonesia in 1999.

Sources

• “Korea, South The Kwangju Uprising “, (The Library of Congress Country Studies, June 1990)
• Mamatas, Nick. “Kwangju Twenty Years Later: A Guide to Urban Insurrection“, (July 02, 2001)
• Watkins, Thayer. “The Regimes of Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo in South Korea” (San Jose State University Economics Dept, May, 2002)

Initiating Organizations

The May 18 Memorial Foundation was founded in 1984 to promote the spirit of the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising, advocate for human rights, and protect the gains of peace and democracy through an emphasis on international solidarity. Programs include the Gwangju International Peace Forum, Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, and the International Intern Exchange Programme.

NAKASEC is a national organization founded in 1994 by our affiliate Korean American community organizations: Korean Resource Center (KRC) in Los Angeles, Korean American Resource and Cultural Center (KRCC) in Chicago, and YKASEC-Empowering the Korean American Community in New York. The founding organizations felt a need to come together through a national entity to better coordinate organizing, advocacy and education programs and to project a national voice for the Korean American community. Since our founding, our signature issue has been immigrant rights ---- from protection of immigrant benefits to providing opportunities for immigrants to integrate into American society and increasing immigrant access to programs and services.

The Korean Resource Center was founded in 1983 to empower immigrants and people of color communities, particularly Korean Americans, through advocacy, social services, education, culture, and organizing. Korean Americans are recent immigrants to the United States, therefore the Korean Resource Center’s programs are geared towards New American integration. Some of the programs offered are legal services, naturalization services, civic participation education and assistance, financial literacy and empowerment, health access services, and youth leadership development. NAKASEC and the community centers work together with a unified goal of equal rights & justice for immigrant, minority and working families.

Young Koreans United of USA (YKU) is a national organization founded in 1984 to promote peace, human rights and social justice in Korea and the United States through education, grassroots organizing and advocacy. Significant campaigns include the 2000 “Quest for Justice: The Story of Former Comfort Women As Told Through Their Art” North American tour, “Feed the Hungry Children of North Korea” fund drives in collaboration with the Friends of the World Food Programme, 100,000 Signatures Campaign to Remove Nuclear Weapons in Korea, and the International Peace March and Study Tour for Peace and Reunification of Korea in 1989.

Co-Sponsors

• Advisory Council on Democratic & Peaceful Unification of Korea - LA Chapter
• Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Office of Justice and Peace
• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
• California State University Dominguez Hills, Labor Studies Department
• California State University Northridge, Asian American Studies
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
• Committee to Commemorate 5.18 Gwangju People's Uprising
• Dolores Huerta Labor Institute
• Korean American Grocery Association
• Korean Apparel Manufacturers Association
• Korean Ho-Nam Friendship Association
• Korean Real Estate Brokers Association of Southern California
• K.W. Lee Center for Leadership
• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
• National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities
• National Immigration Law Center
• Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress
• Service Employees International Union
• Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education
• Strengthening Our Lives
• Sweatshop Watch
• UCLA Asian American Studies Department
• UCLA Center for Korean Studies
• UCLA Labor Center
• UFW Foundation
• University of California Riverside, Department of Ethnic Studies

Outreach Materials