Korean airline unions won't transport troops to Iraq
By Deirdre Griswold
Organized workers in South Korea are solidly
opposed to their government's sending any troops to bolster the
U.S. occupation of Iraq. And they are doing something about
it.
On June 24 the unions representing flight attendants, pilots
and airport employees announced they would refuse to transport
either troops or equipment to Iraq. They are part of the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions, which has led the militant labor
struggles of the past decade.
In announcing the decision, KCTU President Lee Soo-ho said
that union leaders had also discussed a general strike to stop
the deployment, but failed to reach a conclusion. "The means of
struggle is flexible, along with changes to the situation,"
said Lee.
Back in February, when the South Korean parliament was still
dominated by conservative parties, it had yielded to U.S.
pressure and voted to immediately send 600 South Korean troops
to Iraq and to deploy 3,000 more this summer.
But in April President Roh Mooh-hyun, who is an
establishment liberal and former labor lawyer, weathered an
impeachment attempt by the reactionary parties. Parliamentary
elections at that time resulted in a major shift to the left,
leaving his new Uri Party with a clear parliamentary
majority.
The people expected Roh and the new parliament would act on
their demand to cancel the deployment. But he did not, and now
the people are angry.
However, the Korean Democratic Labor Party--a left
opposition party that draws strength from both the unions and
the movement to get U.S. troops out of Korea, and which for the
first time gained parliamentary seats in the April
election--has been making cancellation of the deployment a
major demand.
When a Korean translator, Kim Sun-il, was killed recently in
Iraq, the population back home responded with even greater
anger at their government's policies. The vigils and marches
that followed stressed the demand to end the violence by
getting out of Iraq.
These demonstrations had a similar character to those in
Spain in March after more than 200 people, most of them
workers, were killed and 1,500 injured in the horrific bombing
of four commuter trains in Madrid. The people blamed the
attacks on the U.S. war and occupation, and on their government
for being part of it. Three days later, the center-right
government of Jose Maria Aznar, one of Washington's few
European allies in Iraq, lost the election. His successor,
social democrat Juan Zapatero, quickly announced he would bring
the Spanish troops home.
For over half a century, U.S. imperialism, which has
occupied South Korea with tens of thousands of troops ever
since World War II, was able to pretty much tell compliant
governments there what to do, in both domestic and foreign
policy. But public opinion has changed enormously in recent
years. Millions of South Koreans have risked repression and
been active in progressive movements--of workers, students,
immigrants and a broad cross-section who want the United States
to sign a peace treaty with the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea in the north, end the military occupation of the south,
and allow the Korean people from both societies to work toward
the reunification of their nation.
Inside the U.S. capitalist establishment, there are quite a
few who fear that the Bush administration's obsession with Iraq
has only further weakened the position of the class of U.S.
multi-billionaires in other parts of the world, such as Korea.
They have been arguing in various forums--such as think-tank
conferences, op-ed col umns and television commentaries--for
more threats and pressure on the DPRK.
U.S. workers, however, have nothing to fear from the growing
progressive movement in South Korea. On the contrary, the
airline unions there, by refusing to cooperate in sending
troops to Iraq, will weaken this horrible occupation, thus
saving the lives of Iraqis and young Korean and U.S.
workers.
Unions here should reach out in solidarity to their Korean
sisters and brothers and say no to the bosses of Halliburton,
Bechtel, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and the other billionaire
corporations behind the war.
Reprinted from the July 8, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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