Towards A Society For All: Korea’s Disabled People’s Movement
edited by Hwang Jeong-eun (General Secretary)
translated by Dae-Han Song (Networking Team)
The 2004 campaign to abolish discrimination against the disabled (through the Seoul subway and bus occupations) was able to achieve the installation of elevators to 90% of Seoul’s subways. Nonetheless, disability access to buses, taxis, and subway platforms is still lacking. As the Republic of Korea's constitution states, "all must be equal before the law." However, discrimination against race, LGBTQQ and disabled people still exists. On May 21, the International Strategy Center invited to our Progressive Forum Park Kyung-seok, co-President of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination, to hear about the history, achievements and tasks ahead for the disabled people’s struggle for mobility. This May Progressive Forum was co-organized by the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination and the Korea Disability Forum, and co-hosted with the Democratic Socialists of America Disabilities Working Group and the Justice Party's International Progressive Politics Forum. Below is a summary of the conversation.
Protests on Sept. 11, 2002 by mid to severely disabled activists on the
subway tracks of Balsan Station demanding an official apology for a
wheelchair lift accident and a guarantee to the right to mobility.
Source: mediatoday.co.kr
International Strategy Center (ISC): Could you briefly introduce yourself? How did you first get involved with the disability rights movement?
Park Kyeong-seok (Park): My name is Park Kyeong-seok, and I am the co-President of the organization Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination, an organization fighting for disability rights by blocking subways and streets during rush hour. While people are less bothered during the afternoon, protesting during rush hour incurs all manner of insults and hateful remarks. Since our name Solidarity Against Disability Disrimination is so long, there are instances when people call it Solidarity Against Disability by mistake. This may seem like a joke, but at times I have the sinking feeling, this anxiety, this fear that perhaps it might reveal a deeper fundamental truth about Korean society.
In the past, during Hitler’s time, there was operation T4, when Hitler conducted biological experiments on 200,000 disabled children, who were not fit for war, developing the poison gas that would kill 6 million Jews. During Hitler’s time, the disabled were people perceived to be of no use, especially useless for conducting war. Of course, the Korean situation in 2022 is very different. Yet, if we peer into society’s hidden consciousness, it has much in common with this history.
Why doesn’t the state and society guarantee the very basic rights of disabled people? In 2001, we chanted that disabled people should have safe and convenient access to public transportation. In 2001 at Oido Station, a disabled person died after falling off a wheelchair lift. Like much of the rest of the world, when South Korea started building the subway system, they didn’t consider its use by disabled people and, thus, excluded them from the very beginning. It was during the 1988 Paralympics that the first wheelchair lift was installed. A total of three lifts were installed: one at Gimpo Airport where foreigners entered, another in Jamsil where the stadium was located, and another in the city’s main tourist center. Because installing wheelchairs was relatively cheap, a policy was passed installing them on all subway stations. Then in 2001, at Oido Station, a disabled person fell off a wheelchair lift and died. These accidents are still happening.
However, the City of Seoul has not officially acknowledged any responsibility, blaming the deaths on the actions of the individual. The thing that is most infuriating is that the government has failed to take responsibility for the most basic rights to safety and mobility and has ignored the deaths of disabled people. That’s why in 2001, we protested by going down to the subway tracks. Even today, on the 21st year, we are chanting “Guarantee Disabled People’s Rights to Mobility” while holding up the subways during rush-hour. Back then, there wasn’t even one elevator. Today, 90% of subway stations have elevators. Soon, 100% of them will. In addition, we are fighting for the 100% introduction of low-floor city buses by 2025. However, we still have a long way to go for inter-city, and high-speed buses.
ISC: Recently, you decided to adopt the strategy of holding up subway trains. What was the reason?
Park: Ever since 2001, when a disabled person died falling off a wheelchair lift, we demanded an official apology and the right to mobility by getting on and getting down on the subways. On March 26, 2001, we fought around the Republic of Korea’s budget for disabled people’s rights. For the past year, we have been fighting for a budget supporting disabled people’s independent living, education, and deinstitutionalization so that disabled people could live, not in collective facilities, but together with others integrated in society. That’s why last year, on Dec. 3, the International Disability Day, we carried out an overnight occupation of the National Assembly. Then, we got on the subway to visit the home of the Minister of Economy and Finance. A hundred disabled people trying to get on a subway at 7 AM created an uproar. Since we were holding up the rush hour commute, all manner of insults were hurled at us and the police even tried to block us with even instances of violence. If we’d simply gotten on in the afternoon, there wouldn’t have been any problem. But, getting on during rush hour flipped Korean society upside down. We witnessed how when a disabled person died while taking public transportation alongside non-disabled people society carried on, but when disabled people tried to get on public transportation during rush-hour, society flipped upside down. So, mustering the courage to flip Korean society upside down, we got on the subway everyday during rush-hour. The current chair of the ruling party has called our struggle an uncivilized action, and the hatemongers that follow him started targeting and attacking us.
Activists from Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination and Solidarity for Mobility Rights for the Disabled pack a subway car in commemoration of the 21st year of the Oido Station death from a wheelchair lift accident Source: Newsis.com
ISC: What has changed and what has not as a result of the past 20 years of struggle?
Park: Many non-disabled people ask: compared to the past, haven't the rights and lives of disabled people improved a lot? I reply with a question: compared to the 1950s, in the aftermath of the war, hasn’t life in 2022 drastically improved for non-disabled people also? The system for disabled people has changed due to the fierce 20 year struggle carried out by disabled people. Before 2000, people with mild disabilities were the main agents of change. The goal for them was to pursue a strategy of integrating into society by accepting the competitive capitalist market, inequality, and discrimination. So, they won a disability employment quota (companies with 300+ people must reserve 2% of positions for disabled people) in the capitalist market and competed against each other for these positions. Among disabled people, the educated and those with the less severe disabilities could benefit and join society.
In 2000, those with medium to severe disabilities used their own bodies to be heard. It was the fruits of our 20 year struggle that were able to change society’s standards. I believe that little by little we have change the standards of this society firmly founded upon discrimination. As these standards changed, we started to get elevators in subway stations and a budget for disabled people. For example, the 2006 Disabled People’s Independent Living Support Disabled People’s Activity support services budget was 1.5 billion won (~1.3 million US dollars). Today, it is 1.9 trillion won (~1.6 billion dollars).
We fought hard, but we still live in a society centered on the non-disabled. In particular, capitalist values, which justify and view competition and ability as supreme, have not changed. Even as they perpetuate inequality and discrimination, the government and those with power fool us into thinking that they are not discriminating policies and continue discriminating and excluding the disabled.
In a non-disabled-centered competitive system, the disabled are still humans. We are still chanting that we are citizens also. Yes, much has changed through the 20 year disabled people’s movement that started in 2000, but, you can't measure change by itself. Based on criteria of not allowing humans to live like humans, the criteria of basic citizenship rights (getting an education, moving, working, living together in the community), the Republic of Korea still needs to change its standards.
Park Kyeong Seok crawling through a subway train car demanding deinstitutionalization of disabled people. Source: Yonhap News
ISC: Could you please introduce the issue of deinstitutionalization? What is the difference between facilities for the disabled in Korea and those overseas? What are you demanding as alternatives?
Park: When you talk about deinstitutionalization, most Korean people don't really understand. The current government has justified its policies around facilities for the disabled (that house 300-400 people in group homes) as being for protection. There are other countries with similar histories around the disabled. Recently, Switzerland was examined under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Disabled. When reporting on the status of the human rights of disabled people, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Disabled investigates based on the Convention on the Rights of the Disabled. Initially, on March 25th, Switzerland submitted a proposal to fund group homes, not in large facilities but in houses. Yet, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Disabled stated that, as institutions, they should be closed and that the Swiss government should provide housing and services so that the disabled could live independently. If we look at Korea’s situation internationally, if it were to heed such warnings, Korea has a long way to go. We still have many facilities with over a hundred people. During the two years of COVID19, those facilities with over a hundred people had COVID infection rates of up to 50%. For two years, residents weren’t able to leave the facilities.They couldn’t even leave wearing masks. They were left in the facilities during COVID19. Their fatality rate was 23 times that of non-disabled people.
This is the reality of South Korea. There is a discriminatory history of housing those with mid to severe disabilities in collective housing facilities, confining and isolating them. The struggle to change this is the deinstitutionalization struggle. However the ruling party, those that fuel the hatred, those that seek to isolate and confine the disabled, those that seek to gain from operating these facilities are instigating the parents of the disabled to attack us.
Currently, people don’t know, nor care very much, about this issue. They just think it’s fortunate that those with severe disabilities are able to live in a facility. Thus, we are left isolated. We are calling for deinstitutionalization because the UN Convention on the Rights of the Disabled specifically mentioned the right of disabled people to live integrated into society. It’s a lonely demand. It is barely now where we are building a consciousness around deinstitutionalization.
ISC: What is the vision of society that you want to achieve?
Park: The United Nations has called for achieving a sustainable world. To be sustainable, we have to create a society where no one is excluded. I wish that those comrades in the disability rights movement and all those interested in the fight against disability discrimination set as our goal the creation of a society where no one is excluded.
It has to be a society not just for capital and for the non-disabled, but one where we can all live together. Such a space would strengthen those with more severe disabilities to live integrated in society where they can meet and develop relationships with other people. A society where when you get older, you don’t have to live in a nursing home but one that can connect them to live in society. The state would take responsibility by providing the necessary personnel for them. The work of these caretakers would be respected, thus creating more good jobs. I want to create a society where instead of wasting money on useless things, budgets would be allocated to these needs and people would be connected together.
We need to actively shift from facilities to social integration not only for those with mid to severe disabilities but also for the elderly. I think we need a strategy and tactic for guaranteeing mobility, education, and social integration so that no one is excluded.
ISC: What can people around the world do to support Korea’s disabled people’s movement?
Park: Everytime the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination goes to struggle on the subways, we post a video of it on Facebook. Everyday, we are getting on the subways and also doing our ceremonial shaving of one’s hair. Whenever such videos come out, it would be great if others could share. Please stay interested in our struggle and try to connect with us. The 2023 budget guidelines get determined in May. We are demanding from the Ministry of Economy and Finance Budget and Economy that the proposal for Disability Rights be reflected in the budget. We are planning on gathering from across the country to have a march at the home of the Minister. Because the forces perpetuating hatred will post negative comments and frame the situation negatively, we need your support.
With the firm belief that solidarity is stronger than hatred, I will continue the fight.
