hankyoreh

a Yongsan District Council candidate for June 2 regional elections who is a member of the civic movement for free school lunches

Lee Chang-rim, a 33-year-old candidate for Seoul’s Dobong District Council who has decided to run in the June regional elections, is a ‘citizens’ candidate.’ Lee does not belong to any political party. His support base consists of grassroots groups like Korean Womenlink, Hansalim, the National Association of Parents for True Education, the Saenggeul Jageun Library and the Dobong Citizens‘ Association. Lee said, “In Dobong, grassroots groups have maintained a tradition of staying active in their own areas and then running a ‘citizens’ candidate’ in every local election.”

This is Lee’s second attempt at a regional election. In 2006, he ran for district council, emphasizing the issue of free school lunches. The response from the community was enthusiastic. Middle and high school students without the right to vote took pictures of menu boards with their cell phones and sent text massages saying, “Chang-rim, please change this.” Student parents patted his shoulders and said, “It is a really great thing that you are doing.” But in the end, he was unable to overcome the Grand National Party’s forceful wind. Lee said, “In the regional elections over the years, we have constantly seen the wind of centralized politics sweeping through, contrary to the intention behind introducing the local government system, which was to spread grassroots democracy.”

The reason that he has decided to once again run for office is again the issue of free lunches. The painful memories of his election loss and the failure of the free school lunches movement, together with new growing calls for free lunches throughout the country brought Lee into the fray once again.

In the wake of a series of large-scale food poisoning incidents at school cafeterias in the 2000s, a nationwide school campaign began, for the direct management of school lunches, the use of high quality, environmentally friendly agricultural products, and the provision of free lunches. In Dobong, the campaign presented no problems, as two citizens’ candidates had already been elected to the district council. The district created a budget of 50 million Won ($44 thousand USD) in 2006, with the goal of creating a model program with their own budget because of the burden of passing an ordinance. However, the citizens’ candidates were both defeated in the 2006 elections, and the money was classified as ‘unused.’

Jeong Mi-ra, a 45-year-old homemaker who was present at Lee’s election office, said, “The free school lunches movement was stagnant before, but it picked up again after the candlelight vigil demonstrations in 2008.” Grassroots activists in the Dobong area marched with candles to Gwanghwamun and agreed that they needed to do something about the situation. They made a goal of focusing on enacting a school lunch support ordinance in the first half of 2009, and in November of last year passed an ordinance for environmentally friendly school meals.

The free school lunch movement has been regaining its previous energy in other areas as well. In 2006, ordinances pursued through citizen signature campaigns between 2003 and 2005 in Seoul’s Guro, Geumcheon, Nowon, Dongdaemun, Mapo, Yongsan and Eunpyeong districts were either discarded when the council session ended or voted down. However, local government council members have recently been taking up the presentation of related legislation. While there was only one district in Seoul with a school meal ordinance before the candlelight rallies, this had increased to eleven as of Sunday.

Having picked up steam, the school lunch campaign is now targeting the June 2 regional elections. On March 4, groups such as iCOOP, the National Association of Parents for True Education, and the Citizens’ Campaign for Safe and Free School Lunches agreed to create a limited-time joint organization, similar to the 2008 citizen alliance against mad cow disease, in order to make free school lunches a key issue in the regional elections. The organization is set to launch on March 16.

Shim Jae-ok, who first joined the Seoul Metropolitan Council in 2002 with a background in a progressive politics, said, “In the regional elections, progressives need to present progressive livelihood issues that connect with the real lives of residents, but also lead the way forward to a better society.”

Shim added, “It seems like we have learned from the failures of the past and established something of a course for ourselves.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]