8/11/2019 Dossier revista Libero internacional sobre asia y corea.doc

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Dossier revista Libero internacional sobre asia y corea

The Commune and Autonomous Village Movements

I see your point. Finally, what kind of people are the anarchists now active in

the village movement, concretely speaking?

They are Kropotkinists, to put it briefly. Lee Eul-kyu, a well-known anarchistonce called the 'Korean Kropotkin', is still living in outh Korea today. !is

younger brother, Lee "ung-kyu, also well known as an anarchist, is a leadinglight in the #ove#ent. ince Liberation, Lee "ung-kyu has been president ofthe $onfucianist ung Kun Kwan %'E&uality $reating !all' (niversity.

!ence, #any people in the educational world who have co#e under theinfluence of his ideas have begun to gravitate towards the village #ove#ent.

)ncidentally, #ost people are aware that it was the 'tudent *evolution' of

+pril / that overthrew the outh Korean '0odfather' yng#an *hee.!owever, that revolution's road to victory was not &uite so straight as it has

been portrayed in retrospect. 1efore the student-led riots of +pril 2-23, therehad already occurred the confrontation which beca#e known as '1loody

Tuesday' on +pril th, followed by the celebrated '4aculty De#o', on the

22nd. +ccording to Lee 5un-chang, Lee "ung-kyu was one of the professorswho participated in that second de#onstration. Their appeal used the slogan6

'+t a ti#e when our own students are being beaten before our very eyes, whatcan we teach the# in the classroo#7 Let us respond to the blood of our

students8' The '4aculty De#o' apparently consisted of the professors, lecturers,#iddle- and high-school teachers who responded to this appeal.

)'ve digressed a bit fro# #y #ain point, but the thing ) want you to re#e#ber

is this6 a#ong the teachers and students who gathered at that ti#e, there was astrong feeling that it was 'too late for returning to school8 There is nothing to

teach, nothing to learn. The ti#e re&uiresaction8' )t was when this feelingreached its peak, through / and . that the search for #ethods of actionled the# to the village #ove#ent. ) think, however, that the decision to go

back to the villages also ste##ed largely fro# Lee "ung-kyu's Kropotkinis# -his ideal of a federal society based on autono#ous, self-defensible far#ing

villages. 9hen ) heard of this #ove#ent, ) i##ediately thought6 'The:arodniks of Korea8'

So it was not the same as the commune movement?

) don't know what you #ean by 'co##une #ove#ent', but at any rate it isdifferent fro# the cooperative #ove#ents in "apan. +ccording to the #odel in

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Kropotkin's '4ield, 4actory and 9orkshop', the for#er students and teachers

went to the villages - or rather, went back to their own native villages wherethey beca#e pri#ary-school teachers, far#ers or local functionaries, and tried

to build autono#ous, self-defensible villages.

Is each individual working on his own?

:o, not at all. They keep in touch with each other through an officeestablished in eoul. 4or so#e reason the signboard reads, ':ational $ulture

*esearch )nstitute', although in fact this office is the head&uarters of the':ational $onference of ;illage +ctivists'.

What exactly do they do?

) don't have too #any details, since ) lack #aterials and also because of thelanguage proble#, but one concrete e

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active young people. Bou ca#e away with a very strong i#pression, though

#aybe )'# over-esti#ating...

!ou've told us that "r. #ee $ung%kyu is an anarchist and that the movement

inspired &y him is a arodnik%type one aiming at an anarchist society. Sowhat are they like, the young people who have (oined the movement?

) suppose that there are few who# we could really call anarchists. 5ost ofthese people, however, have probably co#e around to a de facto anarchist

position without the#selves realising it, through e