Special Prize to a united effort to help SSangyong Motor workers

The Citizens of Sonjabgo’s Yellow Envelope Campaign
Mrs. Bae Chun-Hwan and 25,403 others (as of May 12, 2014)

Early this year, a woman sent a letter to a current-affairs magazine. She stated that she began writing after reading an article about the Supreme Court’s verdict in a damage suit filed by the police and SSangyong Motor Co. The labor union of SSangyong Motor was sentenced to a fine of 4.7 billion won.

“When my husband and I got married in 2008, the only financial aid we received was 5 million won from our parents. We bought everything we needed through a monthly installment plan. 20 million won was all we had, so we got our house with a deposit of 20 million won and a monthly rent of 800,000 won. Both of us worked and we never travelled — neither abroad nor around Korea — but kept asking ourselves if it was possible to survive in this country without one’s parents’ help. What I have been meaning to say is… it is stifling to think that I will be having three children in a country that forces fired workers to pay 4.7 billion won. That is why I would like to do something, albeit petty. 4.7 billion won… for me, is an unreal amount of money. After fiddling with the calculator for a while, I found out that the fine could be taken care of if 100,000 people paid 47,000 won each. I am not sure if the fine must be paid at once or if it can be paid over time, but I can start by first handing in my 47,000 won. As for the other 99,999 people, I will try to send more money, but I also hope that there will be another 99,999 people who are willing to take part.”

Mrs. Bae Chun-Hwan sent 47,000 won along with her letter saying, “I send this money as the wife of an employed husband, the mother of a child, and as a woman whose career has ended due to child-rearing.” The fluttering of this small butterfly soon began to bring a great gust, as many others who had read the letter also donated 47,000 won. This was how the civil social organization “Sonjabgo” (“Hand in Hand” in Korean) was established last February. Soon, the “Yellow Envelope Project,” a fundraiser for the workers who were threatened by counter-indemnity and provisional seizure began. Its goal was to collect 470 million won by April 30, 2014.
Then, the singer Lee Hyori, who lives in Jeju Island, sent a handwritten letter to the Beautiful Foundation. In her letter, she wrote the following:
“For years, I, afraid of being misunderstood by the media, could only watch the fired workers fight on with a heavy heart, hoping for their best. But the letter of a woman who, believing that 100,000 people paying 47,000 won could save the workers and their families, pulled 47,000 won out of her child’s educational expenses was so kind-hearted and pure that I could not help but shed a tear.”
This letter, which Lee had sent with her own 47,000 won, created a great sensation after it was introduced in a weekly current-affairs magazine. After Lee’s letter, the money donated to the fundraiser soon reached 200 million won. By February 22, the collection reached 380 million won, more than 80 percent of the goal. Lee Hyori could have donated 1 million won, or even 10 million won, but chose to send 47,000 won. This affordable sum, functioning as the priming water for social cooperation and participation, prompted many others to join. Soon, MIT professor Noam Chomsky sent 47 dollars to the office of the Beautiful Foundation as a donation for the “Yellow Envelope Campaign.” Many other well-known members of society, such as the movie director Yim Soon-rye, the actress Kim Bu-seon, the cartoonists Kang Pool and Ju Ho-min, the professional wrestler Kim Nam-hoon, also donated to the campaign. The astronaut Lee So-yeon, who is currently studying in the United States of America, sent 50 dollars, saying, “I hope the children will not be hurt.”
Citizens also continued to join the campaign. One citizen, whose 17-month-old daughter was fighting cancer, donated saying, “I hope the world that my recovered daughter will live in will be more just.” A six-year-old boy sent 2,500 won, his entire savings, in an envelope. There also was a prisoner who sent postage stamps that were worth 47,000 won in total.
In addition, the Council of Publishers in Humanities and Social Sciences, a group of over 60 publishers, with the online bookstore Aladin, began a campaign to support the “Yellow Envelope Campaign.” In this campaign, the customer and the publisher both donated 940 won and 470 won respectively, to the “Yellow Envelope Campaign” every time a book was sold.
The “Yellow Envelope Campaign,” which aimed to gather 47,000 won each from 100,000 people to fight against counter-indemnity and provisional seizure, collected 1,371,930,000 won from 25,403 people by May 12, 2014.
In the past five years, a total of 25 fired workers and their have families died. Their lives were taken by the dual burden of unemployment and counter-indemnity.
“Sonjabgo” is a helping hand that understands the situation of the socially oppressed. The campaign is a revival of the Korean traditional virtue of helping one another as well as a 21st century realization of the ideas of Manhae Han Yong-un. The citizens who participated in the “Yellow Envelope Campaign,” and thereby voluntarily helped the needy, deserve encouragement and appreciation.

Translated by Jin Gyu Lee

Jin Gyu Lee is a student of Korean Minjok Leadership Academy.