Jeon Tae-il

Jeon Tae-il (28 September 1948 – 13 November 1970) was a South Korean sewing worker and workers' rights activist who committed suicide by self-immolation at the age of 22 in protest at the poor working conditions of South Korean factories during the Third Republic era.

His death brought attention to the substandard labor conditions and helped the formation of labor union movement in South Korea.

Jeon Tae-il was born on 28 September 1948.

He was the son of Jeon Sang-soo, a poor worker in Namsan-dong, Daegu, and his wife, Lee So-sun.

At one time, his father, Jeon Sang-soo, also tried his hand at the domestic water industry, but failed repeatedly.

His maternal grandfather was killed by a Japanese police officer on charges of joining the anti-Japanese independence movement.

In 1954, he and his family members came to Seoul, but were homeless under the Yeomcheon Bridge near Seoul Station.

His mother begged in Manni-dong while Jeon Tae-il's father, who did sewing work, got a job, so the family could live in a monthly rental room.

However, the family returned to Daegu in 1960.

He did not finish elementary school.

After that, he had an underprivileged childhood with little formal education and began peddling on the street to live.

In March 1963, he entered Cheong-ok High School in Daegu, but due to family circumstances, he dropped out of school during his first year in December of that year.

His father, Jeon Sang-soo, forced his son to drop out of school to do sewing work at home.

He was frustrated that he couldn't go to school and he ran away from home and returned home in three days.

His father said that he had to earn money to study, and kicked him and beat him, forcing him to leave school.

He learned to sew from his father, but he ran away from home again with his younger brother in 1964 and went to Seoul.

He peddled at Dongdaemun Market, delivered newspaper, and did other small labour work such as shoe polishing.

He was employed as an assistant at the Seoul Peace Market's clothing store by the sewing skills that he learned from his father.

He worked for 14 hours and was paid 50 won per day for a cup of tea.

When he turned 17, he became a sida ("chore" in Korean) at Sam-il sa in the Peace Market and soon became a tailor.

As a tailor, Jeon witnessed the horrendous working conditions in the Seoul Peace Market.

Such conditions included rampant tuberculosis due to poor ventilation (or the lack thereof) in the sweatshops, and the enforced injections of amphetamines to keep sleep-deprived workers awake and to work them overtime without proper compensation.

In 1968 he noticed that there was a work standard law that is law to protect workers' human rights.

After that he bought manual of work standard law and studied by that.

While studying the contents of the law, he was angry at the reality that even the minimum working conditions prescribed by law were not observed.

In June 1969, he founded the Fool's Association (바보회), the first labor movement organization in the Peace Market.

The name "Fool's Association" reflects Jeon Tae-il's thoughts as a worker.

Rather than struggling to argue that workers also have human rights, his point were that they were fools who conform to an exploitative working environment.

He informed the workers of the Peace Market the contents of the Labor Standards Act and unfairness of their current working conditions.

Also, he surveyed the current status of work through a questionnaire.

Also, protesting against such was, by association, protesting against the oppressive rule of Park Chung-hee, South Korea's then-dictator president.

Although Jeon succeeded in briefly creating awareness, he soon met with resistance from the government, which almost entirely ignored labor regulations and frequently sided with the employers who were accused of exploitation.

Scornful Labor Department officials told Jeon and his colleagues they were unpatriotic for complaining, and employers simply cracked down harder.

Ultimately, in order to force attention onto the issue he set himself on fire and ran through the streets of downtown Seoul shouting slogans such as, "We workers are human beings, too!"

"Guarantee the Three Basic Labor Rights," and "Do not let my death be in vain".

He was transported to a nearby hospital but did not survive the wounds suffered from burning himself.

Jeon Tae-il received emergency treatment but his body was not able to stretch out because it was too hard.

Jeon Tae-il left a testament to his mother, Lee So-sun, "Mother, please do something I could not do."

Jeon Tae-il's mother took off her apron to cover her shivering son and went to the doctor.

Doctors told her that the injection to relieve her son's burns would cost 15,000 won, but she replied that she could not pay that amount.