Interview With The Policy And Information Center For International Solidarity (PICIS) 1. When was PICIS formed? What is the aim of your group? We gathered in 1996 and prepared for organizing a group. We studied international affairs, the Internet, and so on for about one year. Officially, PICIS was formed in July 1997. After the general strike during 1996-97, we felt the Korean movement was too isolated and limited in its view. So we wanted to introduce foreign struggles to Korean activists and our struggles to foreign activists, too. We think that in this world of globalized capitalism, international solidarity among exploited people and workers is more important than ever. We hope our activity is helpful for this. Why did you decide to focus on "international solidarity"? Well, we are not traditional internationalists. Every member of our group has different ideas and viewpoints. The reason we focused on international solidarity was because there was a vacuum in the Korean movement. A lot of Korean workers and activists don't know much about foreign struggles and we don't have such a tradition. So we wanted to provoke ideas about international solidarity in Korea. At present, what are the most important political issues which social movements in Korea are dealing with? After the IMF's intervention in Korea, social movements, including the labor movement, were faced with a difficult situation. Massive layoffs are affecting workers indiscriminately and millions of unemployed workers suffer from difficult living conditions. This social and economic situation is now becoming a political conflict. Social movement groups are focusing on organizing unemployed people. Korea has a history of militant struggle by both workers and the student movement. What is the condition of these movements at present? To what degree do labor and student organizations work together? After the military dictatorship, the militant struggle by both workers and students got weakened. There have been some turning points after the collapse. In 1991, millions of students and workers staged a great struggle against the government. But, there was also a national dispute about the militancy and violence of the movement. Some students lynched prime minister Chong Won-Sik and the situation changed abruptly after the accident. In 1997, students who gathered for a rally for reunification lynched a police spy and killed him. After that, a lot of people who had been positive towards the student movement turned their backs against the movement. Meanwhile, the labor movement has focused on economic struggle and lost its militancy. It is also somewhat negative towards solidarity with the student movement. The government has manipulated anti-communist ideology to split them as well. In the Western media, the new President Kim Dae-Jung [known as "DJ" in Korea] has been called the "Nelson Mandela of Korea". Have conditions for social resistance improved under the DJ regime? For example, has the National Security Law been changed at all since DJ took office? We totally oppose such propaganda. DJ has tried to arrest union leaders in the aftermath of the May Day rally. Since he took power, the government has arrested 198 workers and activists under the National Security Law, the Act on Rallies and Demonstrations, and the Act on Special Intervention in Official Business. 129 of these people were arrested under the National Security Law. Before his election, DJ promised to change the law, but he now only takes advantage of it. What is the condition of political prisoners in Korea? Korean prisons are notorious for their violence and lack of freedom. Political prisoners suffer from censorship and arbitrary punishment in prison. Political prisoners organize themselves in prison for reform of prison discipline and their conditions, but the answer they get is more violence. The prison system doesn't guarantee the basic rights of prisoners. The conditions have improved somewhat, but there remain many problems. PICIS describes itself as an information and solidarity group. What role does the Internet play in your work? How do you envision left-wing movements utilizing the Internet as a tool for the resistance? What sort of groups do you communicate with over the Internet? We are a small group, but have we introduced a lot of foreign movements to Korean activists. This was made possible thanks to the Internet. We also publish a weekly newsletter covering Korean movements for foreign activists. We were surprised when U.S. activists demonstrated in San Francisco for Korean political prisoners last spring. Thanks to the Internet, we, all left-wing activists, can share each others' experience and collaborate for common aims. We want to be of use to oppressed peoples with our skills, so we want to communicate with as many various groups as possible. We want to be a kind of bridge between Korean movements and foreign movements. Political ideologies are not important now. This is the time to reconstruct the tradition of solidarity, we think. What projects do you have planned for the future? We are organizing the First People's International Conference in Korea. The conference will be held from September 8-12 this year. We will continue to publish our two newsletters (one for foreign movements and the other for Korean activists). And if there is an important issue abroad, we will be at the front of the solidarity struggle in Korea. Thank you very much for your time. PICIS can be contacted on the Net at http://kpd.sing-kr.org/~picis/ (Interview by Arm The Spirit - August 1998) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist information collective based in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of material, including political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings, research, and translation materials on our listserv called ATS-L. For more information, contact: Arm The Spirit P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada E-mail: ats@etext.org WWW: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/ ATS-L Archives: http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l -----------------------------------------------------------------