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(The following article is from the February 1-14, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sean Burton

They say the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is the last front of the Cold War, marking the division between the "Juche" socialist North, and the staunchly capitalist (and Americanized) South. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers lie on both sides of the border. But the Cold War was never just a military or economic confrontation. It was also a war of words and ideas. In the United States, such viciousness was manifested in "McCarthyism," named for Senator Joseph McCarthy, who spearheaded anti-communist and anti-progressive witch hunts that destroyed many lives and drummed up a fear of the Left.

     The war of words has never ended, not in the US, nor in South Korea, where many civic organizations are devoted to uprooting anything they perceive as "leftist". One such organization is the People's Coalition Against Antinational Education. "Antinational education"? With a phrase like that, one would assume Koreans were being forced to learn Japanese all over again. But no, it means education "tilted to the Left". Naturally, President Lee Myun Bak and his ministries are supportive of this definition.

     Under attack in particular are history textbooks accused of downplaying South Korea's economic "miracle" after the 1950-53 war, and focusing instead on the excesses of state leaders. By not presenting a "positive view of Korea's economy and democracy," the texts are said to "undermine" the country's values. The latter statement comes from South Korea's defense ministry - no surprise, since several South Korean presidents either owed their position to the military or were generals who seized power themselves.

     The books also place greater emphasis on the struggles of Koreans for national independence in the face of a perceived American occupation. For example, a page from one text apparently emphasises that it was the US flag that was raised in Seoul when the Japanese surrendered, and not the Korean taegukgi. The book also had no qualms about calling Syngman Rhee a dictator, or for that matter any number of his successors, like General Park Chung Hee. This is to the horror of the South Korean right, which balks at the notion that national division might not be due to the North Korean communists.

     Meanwhile, the People's Coalition has done something else to attack the Left, releasing the names of some five thousand members of a progressive union in Seoul, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union. They claim that the "biases" of the members of this union undermine the entire education system. The Coalition has announced that it will soon release over 70,000 names from across the country, according to the Korea Herald. Union leaders had already gone to court in October when they were accused by the coalition of violating the national security law.

     As an educator, I am appalled by these events. The neat and tidy history demanded by the right wingers of South Korea is dangerous. It is a lie that "external factors" such as the United States had no impact on national division. It is a lie that Syngman Rhee or many later presidents were great fathers of democracy. People must know of the massacres of civilians during the war and during peacetime. They must know of the resistance to American occupation and to Syngman Rhee that toppled his government. No matter what kind of economic growth the South experienced under Park Chung Hee, he was a dictator, and assassinated.

     In response to the argument that "money's all that matters," these truths must be made widely known.