Struggle Continues to Win Final Victory

Struggle Continues to Win Final Victory

Further intensifying is the south Korean people’s struggle to gain democracy and the rights to existence against the government’s pro-conglomerate anti-people policy.

On August 27, over 30,000 unionists affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions held in Yoido, Seoul, a meeting of the two major labor bodies to vow a joint struggle in public sectors and a general strike of the workers in financial domain.

It was the first time that the two biggest trade unions in south Korea held a grand anti-government rally since the emergence of the current regime.

The participants asserted that they would continue the struggle to punish the regime from the upcoming October by-election of the Seoul mayor to the general and presidential elections slated for next year, and warned they would, for the time being, conduct a general strike in October.

The chairman of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions stressed that they would judge through the joint struggle of the two major labor bodies the regime which ascribes all the responsibility of the policy failures to the workers.

On August 27 and 28 there took place a rally of the 4th hope-buses for making a society without layoffs and temporary jobs in Seoul.

The first event of the hope-buses began on June 11 in solidarity with Kim Jin-suk, a Committee member of the Busan area headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions who commenced a sit-in on a 35 meter-high crane at the Yeongdo shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (August 31 is her 238th day), and the dismissed workers.

On August 27 some 5,000 people from different public circles, civic organizations and opposition parties held at Cheonggye Plaza a performance and seminar demanding the repeal of the layoff and part-time job system.

The participants drummed up their fighting spirit holding placard reading “We want a society without layoffs” and chanting slogans such as “Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, abandon at once the layoffs and secure the safety of Kim Jin-suk striking on a high-altitude crane”.

On August 28 thousands of participants in the 4th hope-buses campaign got together on Mt. Inwang standing in front of the presidential office and the head office of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction putting up placards reading “Punish Jo Nam-ho, chairman of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction” and “Retract the layoffs”.

They appealed to more closely unite and not to stop the struggle till win the final victory for a new society without layoffs and part-time jobs and the people are the masters.

Appalled by the ever-growing people’s anti-government struggle, the security authorities mobilized some 9,000 policemen from 112 companies to suppress the workers firing water cannons. However, they could not daunt the elated enthusiasm and fighting spirit of the participants desiring for the rights of labor and existence, democracy and pea