General strike grips South Korea
By Scott
Scheffer
A general strike called by the militant Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions started with a bang on June
12.
Korean Airlines canceled all but one of its flights to the
United States and all but one of its domestic flights when
its 1,400 pilots walked out. Asiana, the other major Korean
air carrier, had to cancel 82 of 206 domestic flights because
its 3,200 ground-crew workers struck.
Eight thousand hospital staff members are out. Workers in
the metal and chemical sectors as well as public workers have
heeded the call. On the second day of the strike KCTU
reported that 55,000 workers were taking part, affecting 125
businesses.
Each union has its own specific demands about working
conditions and wages. But, in addition, the overall demands
of the general strike address the worsening conditions for
workers since the International Monetary Fund and World Bank
began moving in on the South Korean economy.
The KCTU is calling for wage hikes, for the government to
stop restructuring plans that have resulted in tens of
thousands of layoffs, and for a 40-hour workweek. It is also
demanding an end to the terrible violence against strikers
perpetrated by riot police and troops.
President Kim Dae Jung has in the past promised to revise
the infamous National Security Law, the legal mechanism by
which South Korean regimes have viciously attacked and
imprisoned union activists and other progressives. As of yet,
his promise is unfulfilled. And so, in spite of the liberal
reputation of this president, the workers of South Korea
still face arrest, beatings and military assaults.
Arrest warrants are out for all the top leaders of the
KCTU, who are in hiding. CNN reports that Shin Un-jik,
Executive Director of Organization and Struggle for the KCTU
and a key leader of the general strike, has been
arrested.
Kwang-jun Yu, a policy director for the Daewoo Motors
Workers Union, is currently touring the U.S. At a meeting of
the International Action Center in New York City on June 12
he displayed images of a horrendous attack by police on a
Daewoo workers' rally. Many of those pictures can be seen on
the KCTU website.
Level of violence against
strikers rising
Yu reported that the level of violence against strikers is
rising in South Korea. In the southern city of Ulsan, workers
at Hyosung Corp., one of the largest manufacturers of nylon
in the world, seized their factory in May after the bosses
announced they were getting rid of 14 positions, replacing
them with machines. The workers held the factory for 12 days
and were finally ejected only after a long, hard-fought
battle.
Another battle took place on June 9 when they attempted to
retake the factory. Several thousand police are currently
guarding the plant and are continuing to arrest strikers,
especially leaders. The labor ministry has expressed fear
that the strikes will spread through the Ulsan region,
raising the specter of a strike at a nearby Hyundai
plant.
Since the collapse of the capitalist South Korean economy
in 1997 and 1998, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank
and U.S. corporations have sought to turn the downward
spiraling economy to their favor by buying out banks and
industries with U.S. capital.
New period in U.S.-Korean relations
In the decades leading up to the early 1990s, the
imperialists in the United States and Europe had allowed the
South Korean economy to develop in a way not usual for a
neocolonial relationship. By the early nineties South Korea
had the 11th-largest economy in the world, owned largely by
the South Korean capitalist class.
Though the South Korean capitalists were completely
subservient to U.S. capitalism in all other matters--their
military is under the de facto command of the Pentagon and
allows the territory to be occupied by 40,000 U.S.
troops--they were allowed to exploit their own working class,
and even to trade and invest abroad.
This had been a conscious decision by the imperialists,
who needed a strong capitalist South Korea to counterbalance
North Korea, which had forged ahead in rebuilding the country
on a socialist basis after the 1950-53 war.
The catastrophic collapse of the Soviet state in 1991
created immense problems for all socialist countries, which
was compounded in North Korea by several years of natural
disasters and the death of its revolutionary leader,
President Kim Il Sung. In the years that followed U.S.
imperialism no longer felt the pressure to allow or promote
economic development in South Korea.
The drive for fast profits and markets once again found
its way to the top of their priorities list.
As the result of an IMF bailout of the economy in 1998, 70
percent of South Korea's banks have been taken over by
foreign, mostly U.S., investors. Industries are the latest
target. The takeover of Daewoo Motors by General Motors is
just one example, and has serious implications for U.S. auto
workers as well.
Every takeover has brought more layoffs, speedups and wage
cuts. But tens of thousands of South Korean workers are
unwilling to let themselves be thrown into abject
poverty.
This is a classic clash between the interests of workers
and the interests of U.S. finance capital. This historic
general strike may be the beginning of a new level of
struggle. Workers and progressives in the United States
should use all their resources to build solidarity as it
unfolds.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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