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South Korea: "progressive" government cracks down on strikes
Workers Power Global, Vienna: 6 July 2003
In the recent weeks South Korea has been shattered by a series of strikes and a brutal crack down by the government. It represents the first serious clash between the „progressive‰ government of president Roh Moo-hyon and the workers&Mac226; movement since the elections last December.
President Roh Moo-hyon - himself a former union lawyer - was elected by many workers who had the illusion that he might be pro-labour. However as he has now proven beyond any doubt he is a president only for Korean big business. Since his inauguration he has openly betrayed nearly every promise he made during his election campaign.
The main reason Roh Moo-hyon got elected was his (at least rhetorically) stand against the US war drive and its policy of threats against North Korea. Since the 37,000 US soldiers stationed in South Korea are very unpopular among the population this was this was a safe election winner. Anyway after being elected and after „serious negotiations‰ with the boss in Washington Roh „forgot‰ his promises. When the imperialist invasion of Iraq started he expressed his support for Bush&Mac226;s colonial crusade.
Now he broke another electoral promise: despite his assurances during the campaign to stop the practise of arresting union activists he initiated a brutal crack down against the workers&Mac226; movement.
The background of these recent developments are the privatisation plans for a number of major pubic enterprises adopted by the government recently. Among them are Korean National Rail&Mac246; the state rail way system - and the Chohung Bank. In addition the government increases the pressure on the employees in the public transport and education system.
The government sold its majority share in the Chohung Bank &Mac246; which was nationalised during the recession in 1997/98&Mac246; to the Shinhan Financial group. In response most of the Chohung&Mac226;s 8,000 employees went on strike on 18 June and occupied a number of offices since they feared being sacked by the new private employer. The conflict ended with a partial victory for the banking workers since the new owner had to promise not to sack workers for at least three years.
However a much more important struggle &Mac246; in the railway system&Mac246; was lost by the union. A day after delegates of the railway workers&Mac226; union voted for a strike the government declared the strike political and therefore illegal. Deeds followed words and the rulers sent the anti-riot police against the strikers, stormed many university campuses and other places across the country and detained about 1,400 union members.
The strike was quite effective in that thousands of union members who started the action on 28 June disrupted transport across the country, with less than one in eight freight trains and barely half the country's scheduled passenger services running.
However when the railway executives threatened to fire striking workers and aides to President Roh Moo-hyun said that talks were off the agenda, the leadership of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) hastily called off the strike on 1 July. This is a serious defeat and the management already announced that it will nevertheless prosecute union militants who participated in the strike.
In addition to this the union leadership also retreated on its strike plans in the engineering sector. About 100,000 members of the KCTU from 100 companies across South Korea staged protest strikes on 25 June against the government&Mac226;s privatisation plans and in favour of a shorter working week and pay increases. The strike hit hundreds of plants&Mac246; among them those of the big factories of Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Ssangyong Motor. But also here the leadership retreated on its demands and wants to negotiate only about pay increases.
However there have been many more struggles. The teachers went on strike with the support of the school students and their parents to protest against the government plans to introduce a computer system which stores all personal data of all school students, parents and teachers including medical records.
Also the tube workers in big cities like Busan, Incheon and Daegu have been out on strike to fight for higher wages. These strikes ended with a 5 per cent pay increase and some concessions by the management concerning job security.
However these limited successes can not avoid a realistic assessment of the latest round of struggles. They ended mainly in a defeat since the government succeeded in its plans to push forward with its privatisation plans and the union leadership called off the strikes without any gains.
The reason for this is definitely not the lack of militancy and determination of the Korean workers&Mac226; movement. Quiet the opposite&Mac246; the Korean brothers and sisters are among the most heroic working class militants in the world with a proud record of strikes and street fights including the armed insurrection in Kwangju in 1980.
No, the problem is the incapacity of the workers&Mac226; leadership to lead a united and political mass strike against the government&Mac226;s plans. Instead of isolated struggles by the bank workers, the railway workers, the engineering sector, the tube workers and the teachers, the KCTU leaders should have called for a united mass strike against the privatisation and other anti-working class plans. One class, one enemy, one struggle&Mac246; this should have been the strategy to defeat the reactionary Roh Moo-hyun government.
The second lesson is the need for armed mass pickets against a government that is willing to declare a strike illegal and to send brutal anti-riot police forces against peaceful union members.
Such a orientation and its concrete application will not arise spontaneously but necessitates a revolutionary party which integrates the present struggles into a long-term strategy for a socialist revolution and links it to the world developments which determine the political and economic events in Korea as in all nation states.
Such a national party for revolution must be part of a world party&Mac246; the new, fifth International. The League for the Fifth International (LFI) reaches its hand to all militants who are willing to fight for such a perspective.
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