Korean labour leader runs for president four representative titles to the censorship authority to see if this would be possible. They rejected Derek Jarman's Jubilee, Nancy Meckler's Alive and Kicking, and Mel Chionglo's Midnight Dancers. Dirk Shafer's Man of the Year, was the only one they said was legally OK. Actually, I think that one is the most explicit in terms of what they are worried about, but on the surface it seems OK because it has no depiction of homosexual acts."
In the face of this situation, the organisers decided to try a technique used by other festivals which have faced censorship: to show the films on video only in a public institution such as a university, in the hope that the authorities would turn a blind eye In South Korea today, many unclassified films and videos are shown informally in university classes and clubs and similar "non-commercial" screening situations.
Many gay and lesbian-themed films are being shown commercially in Korea. But, according to Seo Dongjin, "the distributors and exhibitors of those films say they are not gay or lesbian-related. They have to cover up the truth... in order to be able to negotiate a way round the censorship clause that bans gay and lesbianrelated films."
According to Seo Dongjin, South Korean legislation only recognises homosexual behaviour, "not that there are gay and lesbian people who are citizens and
South Korean union leader Kwon Yong Gil will run for the presidency on December 18, as candidate for dissidents and labour groups. He promises "to introduce a new form of politics ruled by workers, farmers, and urban grass-roots.
Some 2,000 dissidents and labour activists issued a joint resolution nominating Kwon. The 56 year old journalist is president of the 500,000 member Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which he led during the general strike earlier this year.
As well as the KCTU, Kwon is backed by the 50,000 member National Alliance for Democracy and Re-unification of Korea, an umbrella group of dissidents who supported the radical labour movement during the general strike at the beginning of the year.
The first rally, on November 8th, brought 30,000 people to the riverside park close to the National Assembly building. It was surrounded by large numbers of police with clubs and riot shields. The KCTU is still an illegal organisation in Korea. The rally was completely ignored by the Korean press.
Faced with such intimidation and censorship the KCTU does not expect to get a big vote in the election, but sees it as an opportunity to expose the fraudulent nature of Korean democracy and to establish democratic rights for labour and other progressive forces in Korea
While many South Korean politicians face accusations of corruption, Kwon is currently facing trial for Third Party Intervention (involvement in industrial action at Seoul Subway and Hyundai Heavy Industry), Traffic Law (for organising and leading a march following the launching of KCTU), Illegal Collection of Donations (for running a newspaper advertisement for public fund-raising in support of KCTU), Illegal Entry into Private Property (for holding an open air workers rally for the launching of KCTU at a university ground), and Violation of the Law on Assembly and Demonstrations (for holding a workers rally for the launching of KCTU). After many months of working underground he was arrested in November 1995, and released on bail in March 1996. [JD] * Chris Bailey contributed material for this article. Contact: Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), 4th Fl. Samsun Bldg. 12-1 Samsun-Dong 1 Ga, Sungbuk-Ku
Seoul 136-041, Korea. Tel: +82-2-3673-0685 Fax: +82-2765-2011 E-mail: <inter@kctu.org> Web: http://kctu.org See also www.solinet.org/LEE/korea.html
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION:
form communities... In a TV talk show, one of the censors said that Korean society was not ready for gay and lesbian films
The Chinese Revolution and the Shaping of the Maoist Outlook yet. Last Tango in Paris was banned for twenty years, but shown this year, so he
*please, gay and lesbian audiences, said, be patient and wait for twenty years."
Pierre Rousset
23
No smoke without fire
-- South-east Asia's environmental and health disaster