Leverage of the Weak: Labor and Environmental Movements in Taiwan and South Korea

246 Pages·2015·2.136 MB·English

by  Hwa-Jen Liu

LEVERAGE OF THE WEAK
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Social Movements, Protest, and Contention
Series Editor: Bert Klandermans, Free University, Amsterdam
Associate Editors: Ron R. Aminzade, University of Minnesota
David S. Meyer, University of California, Irvine
Verta A. Taylor, University of California, Santa Barbara
Volume 42 Hwa- Jen Liu, Leverage of the Weak: Labor and Environmental
Movements in Taiwan and South Korea
Volume 41 Swen Hutter, Protesting Culture and Economics in Western
Europe: New Cleavages in Left and Right Politics
Volume 40 Lisa Leitz, Fighting for Peace: Veterans and Military Families in
the Anti– Iraq War Movement
Volume 39 J acquelien van Stekelenburg, Conny Roggeband, and Bert
Klandermans, editors, The Future of Social Movement Research:
Dynamics, Mechanisms, and Processes
Volume 38 Ashley Currier, Out in Africa: LGBT Organizing in Namibia
and South Africa
Volume 37 G regory M. Maney, Rachel V. Kutz- Flamenbaum, Deana A.
Rohlinger, and Jeff Goodwin, editors, Strategies for Social
Change
Volume 36 Zakia Salime, Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and
Sharia Law in Morocco
Volume 35 R achel Schurman and William A. Munro, Fighting for the
Future of Food: Activists versus Agribusiness in the Struggle over
Biotechnology
Volume 34 N ella Van Dyke and Holly J. McCammon, editors, Strategic
Alliances: Coalition Building and Social Movements
Volume 33 S tefaan Walgrave and Dieter Rucht, editors, The World Says No
to War: Demonstrations against the War on Iraq
Volume 32 Rory McVeigh, The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan: Right-W ing
Movements and National Politics
Volume 31 Tina Fetner, How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay
Activism
(continued on page 228)
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LEVERAGE OF THE WEAK
Labor and Environmental
Movements in Taiwan and
South Korea
Hwa- Jen Liu
Social Movements, Protest, and Contention
Volume 42
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
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Portions of chapter 3 were published in “When Labor and Nature Strike Back:
A Double Movement Saga in Taiwan,” Capitalism Nature Socialism 22, no. 1
(2011): 22– 39. Portions of chapter 5 were published in “Chongsin sikao
yundongguiji: Taiwan yu nanhan de laogong yu huanjing yundong” [Rethinking
movement trajectories: Labor and environmental movements in Taiwan and South
Korea], Taiwan shehueixue [Taiwanese sociology] 16, no. 1 (2008): 1–4 7.
Copyright 2015 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2 520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Liu, Hwa-Jen.
Leverage of the weak: labor and environmental movements in
Taiwan and South Korea / Hwa-Jen Liu.
(Social movements, protest, and contention ; v. 42)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-8951-4 (hc)—ISBN 978-0-8166-8952-1 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Labor movement—Korea (South)—History. 2. Labor movement—Taiwan—
History. 3. Environmentalism—Korea (South)—History. 4. Environmentalism—
Taiwan—History. I. Title.
HD8730.5.Z8L58 2015
331.880951249—dc23 2014032697
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To my parents, mentor, and students
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note to Readers xiii
Abbreviations xv
Introduction: Strategic Comparison of Two Movements and 1
Two Late Industrializers
1. The Power Bases of Labor and Environmental Movements 15
2. The Tangles of Movement Histories 39
3. The Emergence of Early-R iser Movements 55
4. Movement Legacy and Latecomer Movements 93
5. Labor and Environmental Trajectories 129
Conclusion: What Now? 159
Appendix: Notes on Methodology 171
Notes 179
Bibliography 189
Index 219
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Acknowledgments
Completing this book convinces me that research and writing of any sort, no
matter how lonely one may feel in the process, can never be an individual
project. Every word I have written here is either a public salute to the many
intellectual giants who came before me or a warm echo of brainy exchanges,
cutting critiques, and margins full of densely written comments that inspired
sleepless nights and bad headaches. Every word is an invitation to, as well as
a product of, dialogue, repudiation, and transcendence.
The research for this book received financial support from public and
private institutions. Foremost among them was the University of California
at Berkeley, including the Graduate Division, the Institute of International
Studies, and the Department of Sociology; and National Taiwan University,
including the College of Social Sciences and the Department of Sociology.
The Social Science Research Council, Academia Sinica, the Chiang Ching-
Kuo Foundation, and the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard
University all supported the early data collection and fieldwork. The National
Science Council provided research grants (NSC 97-2 410- H- 002-006-MY2,
NSC 98- 2410- H- 002- 128, NSC 99- 2410- H- 002- 174- MY2, NSC 101-
2410- H- 002- 102-M Y3) for the collection of a comparable, time series pro-
test data set on this book’s four movements. If such generous financial support
had been lacking, I would have been mired in economic necessity and toil,
and this book would have remained a figment of my imagination.
This book owes a great debt of gratitude to those who provided intel-
lectual guidance, logistic support, and encouragement at all stages. Michael
Burawoy read and commented on earlier drafts of this project multiple times
ix
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