hankyoreh

By Lee Kyung-mi and Kim So-youn, staff writers
New energy is emerging in unexpected places for the crisis-stricken Unified Progressive Party (UPP). The party is seeking to recover from a scandal surrounding its election of proportional representative candidates and an ugly brawl at a recent party meeting.
The bright side of the party’s disintegration is that it is now ripe for reinvention. Just a few days after a central committee scuffle last weekend left them aghast, citizens are joining together in a push to become the prime movers in reforming the UPP. The development has led to the coinage of the term “Occupy the Progressive Party,” reflecting the hope that ordinary citizens can seize initiative in the UPP.
A series of posts went up May 15 on the UPP website carrying calls for enough people to join the party to constitute a new majority of ordinary citizens. Netizens are calling it “Progressive politics, Season Two.” The stated aim of the movement is to prevent “tyranny” by the party mainstream.
A poster using the name “Mayfly Dreaming of Moonlight” wrote, “I just now joined [the UPP] in the hopes that true progressive politics for the sake of universal values can become a reality.”
“Liberation Army” wrote, “I went beyond anger at the current situation to become a party member myself. I want to be part of the emergency committee.” Internet users sent out their support in droves on bulletin boards and Twitter.
“Bright World” posted a bulletin board message calling the current situation “not a crisis for progressives, but a chance to establish broad-based progressive politics.”
A Twitter user identified as @aha**** wrote, “The UPP is being occupied by the people and common sense, not the party establishment. Look ahead to Season Two.”
The movement, which was launched on Sunday at the suggestion of Korea Institute for a New Society director Jeong Tae-in, is also drawing a lively response from progressive camps. UPP special judicial reform committee chairman Seo Gi-ho, who joined the party last year after being denied reappointment as a judge, wrote a blog post Monday night reading, “While it may look right now like the seeds of progressivism are withering away, the truth, I think, is that a movement is beginning for a progressivism for the future, a real progressive party.”
Seo went on to say, “Progressivism for the future is progressive politics of healthy common sense, tuned to the level of the people, rather than political and factional maneuvering.
"This episode of violence with the party establishment actually presents an opportunity for people who had previously occupied an intermediary position to take bold action themselves," he added.
SungKongHoe University professor Kim Min-woong also proposed "sending stale progressivism to its grave and creating a progressivism for the future" in a recent online press contribution. Some notable figures with large followings on Twitter, including novelist Gong Ji-yeong, are sending a message of support through retweets.　
The general feeling in the UPP is that the trend represents an opportunity to turn around a desperate situation. Former Youth Union policy team leader Jo Seong-ju, 34, who stood as a candidate as a youth proportional representative for the UPP, said, "Everyone’s been astonished to find how great citizens‘ expectations for the Progressive Party had become.
“If only to answer this desire from citizens, the members need to get the party’s house in order and figure out what to program for Progressive Politics, Season Two,” Jo added.
Meanwhile, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is doing some soul searching after announcing plans to withdraw its support for the party. The question now is whether to leave the UPP and start a new progressive party or embark on far-reaching reforms that would be tantamount to creating a new party.
Some members hold that the current party should be reformed, since a new party would have no realistic chances of participating meaningfully in the presidential election. Others hold the more militant position that the KCTU has to part ways with a UPP that is no longer a progressive party.
The issue is expected to be discussed at a Thursday meeting of the KCTU‘s central executive committee.
　
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