South Korea: The Tiger Strikes
Independent Working Class Party
A new independent party must be forged to champion the interests of the class that has created "Korea Inc." and borne it on its back. Of course, in the absence of such a party the church has also become a channel for the expression of discontent in the population. It has provided a protective cover against state repression for many of the labour movement’s activists. Its bravest representatives are themselves no strangers to police brutality and prison walls.
Professors, lawyers, doctors have all played an important role in giving valuable moral and practical support. But, if, by the unanimous opinion of all the participants, in the recent movement it is the organised workers who now call the shots with their strikes and demonstrations, surely it is they who should call the shots in any party that is the very product and natural expression of that movement. Its leaders should not be squeamish about the facts of life.
Two great classes are ranged against each other. Intermediary classes and friends of the movement will align themselves with the strongest force. If they see the workers moving to transform society along lines which give them the truest freedom of action and best opportunity to develop their own talents, they will back them. Small farmers and shopkeepers would find life under the rule of democratically elected workers’ representatives far preferable to today’s struggle for existence, when debts are always going up and incomes going down.
A government that had taken over the giant Chaebol and the banks would be in a position to extend cheap credit to these layers. Its "envoys" would agitate amongst them for the most co-operative, safe and efficient use of equipment, of land and of buildings for the production, storing and distribution of food and other essential consumer goods. Decisions would be made according to what ordinary people needed in order to live a comfortable existence and not for the profit of a few in order for them to live in luxury.
Capitalism’s Alternative
Surely these ideas have not lost their validity. Look at the horrible prospects if capitalism, large-scale or small-scale, is left to run things its own way! World capitalism will exert relentless pressure to open up the Korean economy to the icy winds of globalisation, to loosen state control over trade, banking, investment and over wages policy. These measures will be accepted by the South Korean industrialists and financiers. If they can drive ahead with deregulation and "liberalisation" at the expense of the living and working conditions of the mass of the population.
The much-demanded reform of the banking system has been predicted to be about to put a third of all bank workers out of a job through mergers and acquisitions (‘Economic Report’). Some economists predict a leap in the general level of unemployment from 2-6% within a very short space of time. The Korean bourgeoisie have already participated in the globalisation process themselves. An explosion of overseas direct investment is taking place. Hyundai is responsible for the building in Oregan of the largest memory chip factory in the world. Daewoo is spending $6 billion to establish production outside Korea over the three years until the end of the century. Six South Korean firms are now among the 200 largest in the world.
According to the Samsung Economic Research Institute, at least 200,000 jobs producing for the home market, have been lost to areas of cheaper labour in South East Asia. A shoe factory employing 20,000 workers in Pusan, the largest in the world in the 1980s, is now closed and the work transferred. Multinationals like Nike and Reebok have moved on to places like the Philippines, Vietnam, China and Indonesia.
Even here they have found resistance to their super-exploitation strategies. Towards the end of April this year, half the 10,000 workers employed by a Nike sub-contractor in Tangerang, Indonesia were involved in mass protests at the factory - burning cars, smashing windows, doors and furniture at the firm’s refusal to pay even the agreed $2.50 a day minimum wage.
‘Reform’ of the South Korean financial system - increasing the cost of borrowing in an attempt to reduce the over-indebtedness of Korean firms - it is feared would itself lead to recession. At present, direct foreign investment in Korea is still low. The entry of foreign capital would mean further problems for the Korean bourgeois. Lifting subsidies and protection would lead to many more collapses. Continuing them would leave Korean capitalism inefficient. Without the state protection of the past - in the form of tax wavers, over-generous credit arrangements and other more dubious methods - many more jobs would go.
If capitalist commentators now say that the state is an encumbrance pointing to 11,000 different bureaucratic regulations, they at least recognise its dominant role. They admit the absence of their beloved "free play of market forces". The state involvement was all right when it was fuelling growth but now, with the dramatic collapse of exports, it is the over-involvement of the state that is to blame. The South Korean economy is described as so top-heavy that it resembles "Schwarzenegger’s body on the legs of Woody Allen"!
Globalise the Struggle!
As long as capitalism survives it will try to solve its problems at the workers’ expense. Globalisation - the "centrepiece of the presidency", as the KCTU puts it - means "sharing the suffering". Workers will not be fobbed off by any anti-luxury campaign aimed at protecting Korea’s domestic market. They know (and figures from the National Statistics Office in Seoul bear them out) that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. The more contact they have with workers elsewhere, the more they see this as a world-wide phenomenon. A greater awareness of what is happening in the world feeds conclusions about the need for the "globalisation" of the struggle.
As the general strike, with all its phases subsided, attention was turned to the annual wage battles and, particularly amongst the activists and trade union leaders, to the question of taking political initiatives. The ‘great strike’ was followed by the ‘great debate’ over putting forward a candidate for the presidential elections on 18th December and over the creation of a party. Illusions still persist that the best chance of workers interests being pursued would be through joining forces with the existing opposition parties. But the KCTU’s own press statements during the strike movement condemned the parliamentary opposition for dragging its feet and for "looking over their shoulders for the wishes of the big business".
An independent class position would be much more consistent with all the KCTU propaganda that puts the blame for workers’ problems squarely at the feet of the Chaebol. If, for example, the known and respected leader of the strike, Kwon Yong-kil was put forward as a presidential candidate, he could get a big response. A bold campaign could be taken into every working class area and industrial estate, championing the demands of the movement and explaining the ‘dictatorship’ of big business.
Clear demands
A party could be rapidly put together around the demands for an end to repression and corruption, for a living wage and shorter hours, for jobs and homes for all. It could link them with the need to take the 30 biggest Chaebol out of the hands of their super-rich founding families. It could convince workers not to trust any of the parties who defend them and to organise themselves for the democratic control and running of society.
Any party arising from the winter strike movement and created by its participants will represent a giant step forward. Whether it is based on clearly socialist principles depends on how far its founders can be persuaded to go. But it would seem that, in the context of a struggle that has embraced many diverse groupings within its sweep, convinced socialists would have a place in such a party. Provided they prove their worth in any and every struggle of the working class, they will find great scope for arguing the position of genuine Marxism.
There are some similarities to the situation in Russia as the 20th century began; but there are huge differences. On the verge of a new millenium, the Korean working class starts from a far higher industrial and cultural plane. Its weight in society and experience at organisation is far greater. The literacy rate is higher now than that of the USA. What could be done if all of Korea’s modern technology was harnessed to need and not to profit?
The Korean working class has a proud history. In the ‘Great Political General Strike’ they have once again proved their mettle. The workers of Korea have brought to the attention of the world how far there is to go before their country becomes the paradise that many made it out to be. Only through transforming society along socialist lines as argued in this pamphlet can the long years of sacrifice be rewarded.
Not a moment should be lost in struggling to create a leadership that is capable and worthy of that task. Only the programme of socialism embodies the aspirations of the movement and safeguards its traditions. In the spirit of its message to the KCTU in January, the CWI pledges its fullest support to all engaged in this endeavour and applauds the courage and tenacity of Korea’s class fighters. They remain an inspiration to all those who struggle against injustice and oppression and towards the final goal of a socialist world. Solidarity!