The struggle of the S. Korean workers and peasants for their right to live

The struggle of the workers and peasants is growing active in south Korea nowadays.

Now, the situation of the south Korean workers reached the point beyond that of the financial crisis which incurred the trusteeship in late last century, due to the anti-popular labor and agriculture policies of the authorities.

The sweeping dismissal drive under the pretext of the ever aggravating economic crisis and the rising unemployment rate threaten the subsistence of the workers.

In all economic sectors including financial, electronics, textile industries and many big businesses, dismissal of 5,000 or 1,000 employees was heard once in a while.

The competitive rate of employment in the last half of this year was 87 to 1, recording the highest in history. There were even some businesses of which the rate was beyond 200 to 1.

The circumstance of the part-time workers is tantamount to that of the unemployed.

And the peasants are facing the crisis of their existence owing to the failure of the agriculture policy in the past tens years, the expansion of import markets of farm products, the implementing of free trade agreements, etc.

So, the workers and peasants are protesting against the anti-popular labor and agriculture policies of the authorities by killing themselves.

Only in last October, the trade union chairman of Hanjin Heavy Industry, the head of the Gwanju-Jonnam Headquarters of the Part-time Workers’ Trade Union of the Workers’ Welfare Complex, committed burning themselves to death and the branch chief of the trade union of Sewon Factory in Daegu attempted the suicide.

In early September, Mr. Lee Gyong-hae, former chairman of the Central Association of the Korean Farmers and Fishermen, went to Cancun, Mexico, where the WTO meeting was held, stabbed himself to death in protest against the free trade agreement that kills the south Korean agriculture.

In November, 100,000 unionists of the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation, the Federation of the Chemical Textile Trade Unions, the Korean Rail Workers’ Union, all under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in south Korea, staged general strike demanding the halt to the suppression of the labor movement and the abrogation of the discrimination of the part-time workers.

Rallies of workers were held all at one time in 18 areas involving Seoul, Busan, Daejon,Gwangju, Daegu and JejuIsland.

Some 90,000 unionists of 100-odd factories of the Hyundai Motors Co. and the trade union of the Metalworkers under the KCTU held an “All-people rally” and staged a walkout.

Some 40,000 unionists under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions held a large-scale rally to strongly demand the abolition of the discrimination of the part-time job and the allowance of the public servants trade union.

The “National Solidarity of Peasants” grouping 8 peasant organizations involving the National Federation of Peasants’ Associations held in Seoul a “national meeting of the peasants to defend our agriculture, our rice and achieve the peasants’ right to live”.

Some 100,000 peasants throughout the country attended the meeting and staged a fierce demo.

The ultra rightist conservatives are pursuing now the anti-worker and peasant policy and cruelly suppressing the righteous struggle of the working masses for their right to subsistence.

However, the struggle of the south Korean workers and peasants to achieve independence and the right to live will get more vehement.

The progressive peoples in the world are expected to send firm support and solidarity to the righteous struggle of the south Korean workers and peasants.