Imagination and Creativity: 20 years of KWWA- Workshop on Visions of KWWWA

In celebration of 20 years of Korean Women Workers Association (KWWA), KWWA is under discussion on setting up its visions. KWWA evaluated and reviewed its activities for the past 20 years, and conducted a survey on its activities for the 20 years and the examination of reality, targeting all the staff. Between 19-20th October, 2007, a workshop on KWWA’s vision was organized in Daejeon to discuss where we are, and how and where we should go in future.

 

About 90 staff members took a part in the workshop. Substantial lectures carried out first were hits with the participants. In the first session about ‘women workers’ changing lives,’ professor Cho Soonkyung gave a lecture on struggles and solidarity for analyzing male regular workers-centered labor market in the feminist perspective and improving discriminatory situations, and professor Lee Youngja, a sociologist talked about the theme of ‘making solidarity beyond labor issues against globalization and carrying out the life movement with a new perspective.’ Although the long titles sounded like headaches, we were able to feel her pains and sincerity during the first lecture, and the latter lecture was energetic, cheering and heart-warming. The lectures were so substantial that participants asked so many questions to the lecturers. We were just sorry that we didn’t have enough time to discuss fully.

 

The lectures was followed by the announcement of results on the survey where full-time staffs and important members participated and talks about the evaluation of KWWA’s 20 years and development tasks carried out by KWWA’s chairperson. Because we wanted to know what ideas other staff and activists have, the survey result draw our attention a lot. According to the survey result, staff members and activists shared our vision on this organization relatively well, and 75.9% took pride in our organization, which is quite high, and 77.6% evaluated they have grown a lot through KWWA’s activities. However, the people surveyed raised several points that the vision of this organization should go with visions for individual members, capability building is important in the organization, training opportunities should be expanded, and there should be decreases in workloads and increases in payment.

 

After dinner, we had a get-together, a highlight of the workshop, lasting for 6 hours until the next morning. Kim Kwang-sook from a gender education center introduced how to establish philosophy for individual members and this organization and set up the vision for this organization together. In the following session, we spent time on praising others. At the beginning, participants were so embarrassed that we did not know how to do nicely. But over time we became so engaged in this session that we could be good at finding other people’s good points. We also had a good time to write down ‘what I want to be like’ and let others know it with confidence, and to make a practical and reliable plan in the 4 areas of knowledge, virtue, health and spirit. The participants were so full of self-esteem and confidence through this session that they could be fully engaged in the establishment of vision for this organization, which were organized in the following day. Although it was too hard to finalize the project for setting up the vision for this organization, it was a very impressive and valuable moment in which we can check the image and vision for this organization together.