Welcome to BASE21

Trade union leader sues sexual violence victims and women activists

Victims of sexual violence and the Women Activists' Committee against Sexual Violence inside Progressive Sector(WAC) have been sued for deformation by the aggressor, Kang Cheol-Gu, the trade union vice-president of the huge national public broadcasting service, KBS. WAC publicized 16 names of sexual violence aggressors last December and in February, renewed its list to include Kang. He had sexually harassed and attempted rape at two women who were working in the union with him. The two women, after years of forced silence by the union, reported their case to the WAC. According to a report written by the union prior to Kang, there are 3 more victims, making Kang the aggressor of 5 cases of sexual violence. WAC decided that Kang could not be left any longer, and publicized the case along with his full name on the progressive website, Jinbonet. The union issued a statement saying that they will do whatever means possible to 'support' the aggressor, and publicly denounced the victims as forming a plot to overthrow the union - a statement being broadly criticized as being ridiculous and offensive. WAC, along with 19 other social and civil organizations formed a Joint Committee to convince Kang to seriously face investigation taken up by the Federation of Media Trade Unions, and to withdraw the suit. Kang and his supporters are even rejecting a meeting proposed by the Joint Committee on the basis that the Joint Committee is a 'ghost organization'. The Joint Committee includes PICIS, the Korean Youth Progressive Party, the Democratic Labour Party and even a renowned women's organization consisting of scholars. The Joint Committee has been demonstrating in front of KBS for the last three weeks. Many radical scholars and activist leaders have issued statements calling for the union to be responsible, and 94 KBS workers have petitioned for the impeachment of Kang and the president of the union. All the while, Kang is not saying anything other than that he is determined to use 'the law' as his weapon. At the moment. two victims, WAC and four reporters who had written about the case are undergoing prosecutors investigation.
A long time ago, there was a cartoon in the newspapers - the title which was 'Victims of sexual violence cry three times'. The story was that women cry at the time she is violated, again when she goes to the police, and then again when she goes to court. The two KBS women workers cried when they were harassed by whom they believed to be their comrade in their fight for a better world, again when they reported the case to the union which did nothing but silence them, and now they are crying as they ended up as 'aggressors of deformation' because they used their very last resort - telling the public what had happened to them, and warning other potential victims.
Victims of other aggressors who were on the WAC list have been actively participating in resolving their cases and making the aggressors acknowledge and apologize for the their violence towards women. One aggressor decided to 'run away' abroad. Lee Young-Ju, who continuously harassed 7 to 8 women who were working with him in the student movement, flew to UK. He is apparently starting a 'new life' of activism in England, visiting various workers' movement groups.
PICIS believes that our fight against global capital can only be successful when activists themselves make the effort to overcome the oppression and violence that the present system has imposed. One of the most serious oppressions amongst others in this strongly-patriarchal Korean society is the one against women. PICIS, in our struggle against neo-liberalism, will also fight any injustice and violence based on gender, sexuality or race inside the progressive sector. For more on women's oppression under the IMF restructuring and also within the progressive sector, refer to the 'In-Depth Look' series in PICIS Newsletter No. 78∼81.