Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 18:43:38 GMT
From: KCTU-International <kctuint-AT-chollian.dacom.co.kr> (by way of itusc-AT-gn.apc.org (Keith Standring))
Subject: M-G: Korean General Strike - Onto the 14the Day


      KOREAN CONFEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

             Struggle for Labour Law Reforms
                 Campaign News XXI
                   January 7, 1997



                   General Strike
          The Final Count Down Has Begun



      The Tentacles of Repression Just Around Corner

On January 6, 1997, two well-built policemen budged into the 
KCTU office.  The purpose of the unwelcomed visit was to serve 
summons to the 8 top leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade 
Unions.  The next day, this time four thick shouldered policemen 
tried to push through the door to the KCTU office.  This was the 
second serving of the summons.  By 10 p.m. January 7, 1997, all 
together 217 unionists were summoned for questioning by the public 
prosecutors.  And the 8 p.m. television news indicated that the public 
prosecutors were going to apply for warrant of arrests for these 
people tomorrow.

And some sympathetic reporters kindly passed on information that 
public prosecutors are preparing to raid the KCTU office during the 
night of January 7, or on January 8 for "search and confiscation".  
This piece of intelligence made the KCTU activists busy.  Important 
documents and computers were taken out to safe house for future use.  
The reason that computers were taken away is not because there are 
any confidential or incriminating information stored in them.  It 
reflects the police custom of seizing the whole computers as evidence 
when all that is required is few floppy discs to copy the contents of the 
hard drive. 

The Scenarios for Crackdown

It has been expected that the weekend would the critical moment 
for the current wave of general strike led by the Korean Confederation 
of Trade Unions.  This is because it is more difficult to bring workers 
out on to streets for demonstrations and protest rallies on weekends.  
Most strikes in Korea are sit-down strikes where workers, instead of 
staying at home away from work, report to work and begin the day 
with union meetings, rallies, and various other strike programmes, 
including mass street rallies.  Weekend, therefore, can spell a lull in 
the mass action, creating an opening for police intervention.

The leaders of KCTU are camping out * despite the extraordinary 
cold weather * in improvised tents in the compound of the 
Myongdong Cathedral.  It would be difficult for the police to raid the 
cathedral compound without the church authorisation.  Therefore, the 
leaders may be safe for a considerable time.  

However, police may enter the factory compounds with ease while 
workers are out for the weekend.  When workers return to work on 
Monday, they may find the factory ground under police control.  This 
can generate two kind of reaction.  One is a subdued atmosphere.  
Another is angry, volatile outburst. Whatever the reaction it will bring 
an end to the well disciplined and peaceful rallies orchestrated by 
over 200,000 workers weaving through all the streets of the major 
cities throughout the country everyday.  

The KCTU leaders may continue to hold out in the sanctuary of 
the catholic church for few days and either go into hiding or soon end 
up in prison.  The KCTU may be without stable leadership for a 
considerable time.  Then the KCTU may become easy prey to the 
pernicious labour law that aims to weaken the trade union movement 
and worsen the working condition of majority of the working people.  
It is, then, simple to see who will benefit the most from the weakening 
of the trade union movement or the possible irrecoverable damage 
suffered by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

The Crisis and Opportunity:  
the resilience of the KCTU general strike 

This, of course, is the worst case scenario.  The KCTU 
leadership, forged by more than ten year of struggle to build an 
independent representative trade union movement, will undertake all 
possible effort to maintain the restraint and peaceful nature of the 
current wave of general strike to induce the government to make a 
sincere commitment to reopen the whole process for the genuine 
reform of the labour law.

The upcoming weekend looms as the most critical moment of the 
current general strike.  If the ranks of the general strike is maintained 
without serious damage, then the KCTU unionist can look forward to 
the resumption of some protest action from the brothers and sisters of 
the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.  The KCTU leadership will, 
therefore, prepare the most effective strategy for the rest of the week 
to maintain the momentum of the general strike into next week.  One 
important source of strength for the KCTU in the current situation is 
international solidarity.  The combined force of creative resilience of 
the KCTU and effective international solidarity will make difficult for 
the government to target the KCTU.

            The Twelfth and Thirteen Days of 
                   General Strike

January 6, 1997 heralded the full return to the height reached 
before the temporary suspension at the year-end.  The major unions 
at the large conglomerate companies, such as, the Hyundai Motors 
resumed their strike positions they had left for the New Year's Day 
holidays. This day also saw the participation for the first time by many 
white collar unions of insurance, stock, and securities companies.  

All together 150 unions and 190,893 workers took part in the 
second phase of the second wave of the general strike.  Many of the 
striking workers took part in various public rallies held in 19 major 
urban centres throughout the country.  

In Seoul, some 20,000 workers converged at Jongmyo park in 
downtown for a vibrant protest rally.  The workers were soon joined 
by many ordinary citizens, non-union workers, and students as they 
marched about 4 kilometres towards the Myongdong Cathedral where 
the strike headquarters is set up.  The rallyists filled the shopping 
mall nearby the cathedral, singing protest songs, workers songs, and 
democracy songs.  

In Cheju-do Island, the southern most island of Korea, farthest 
>from Seoul, 19 unions affiliated to KCTU held public awareness 
raising campaigns, collected signatures for petition calling for the 
nullification of the anti-worker labour law and the anti-democratic 
National Security Planing Agency Act. 

The continuing strike campaign began to stimulate other social 
organisations.  A major citizens movement organisation issued a 
special statement calling for an immediate re-amendment of the 
labour law and the National Security Planing Agency Act.  The 
organisatiion also launched a nation-wide petition campaign for this 
purpose.  The National Council of Churches in Korea called a 
meeting of 52 regional human rights committees to set up a pan-
christian taskforce for the re-amendment of the labour laws.  A 
national body catholic priests decided to hoist special placards in the 
church compounds, make the compound available as sanctuary to 
striking workers, and to hold special mass in support of the striking 
workers.  Buddhist monks organisation formed an emergency 
taskforce, while the Association of Lawyers for Democratic Society 
made an official application for access to all the relevant records of 
the extraordinary session of the National Assembly that saw the 
commando style passage of the problematic bills. University 
Professors Association for Democracy began a petition campaign to 
collect 2,000 signatures among the university professors calling for 
the nullification of the errant laws. Similar efforts are being 
undertaken by medical practitioners and cultural artists. 

On January 7, 1997, the KCTU-led general strike branched out 
into a new dimension.  The day's strike action began by the walkout, 
at 5 a.m. of the unionists at the four major television and radio 
networks.   The unionists at the two major broadcasting network, the 
Korean Broadcasting System and the Munhwa Broadcasting 
Corporation had immediate effect.  The morning news programmes 
came on air with replacement presenters who had no little difficulty in 
keeping up the programme.  While the pre-recorded programmes 
were not greatly affected, the live programmes, especially, the news 
programmes suffered the most with the work out of the journalists and 
technicians.  The familiar faces who brightened the television 
screens were out in the streets or park mingling with technicians and 
uniformed workers from factories and white collar workers from the 
stock exchange singing songs together. 

The broadcasters were joined by hospital workers who resumed 
their strike following a brief return to work over the holidays.  The 
unions at the 24 major hospitals in Korea, including the most famous 
Seoul National University General Medical Centre,  The striking 
unions, as in their first spell at strike last year, made special 
arrangements to staff the intensive care units, the emergency unit, 
and emergency (non-pre-arranged) surgery, to minimize the 
inconvenience and crisis in medical delivery.  The care the unions 
had taken in preparation of the strike had wiped clean the concern 
and anxiety about the possible chaos that may be caused by a strike 
at a hospital.  In a sense, the current general strike had succeeded in 
lifting the taboo attached to a hospital strike, breaking the grounds for 
a co-existence of industrial action and patient care.

Some 15,000 striking workers in Seoul gathered at the downtown 
Jongmyo Park for a public meeting.  They did not stay long for the 
rally as they dispersed themselves in groups of tens and twenties to 
some 100 local centres in Seoul for public awareness raising 
campaign.  The KCTU Newspaper Department printed one million 
copies of a special strike edition for general public reading.  The 
striking workers took bundles of the newspaper and other leaflets and 
petition papers to shopping centres, department stores, subway and 
railway stations, to meet with the general public.  Similar campaigns 
were repeated in some 20 regional centres, from the southernmost 
Cheju-do Island to the northernmost cities in Kangwon-do province 
backgrounded by snow-capped mountains.

The Plans for the Days to Come

On January 8, striking unionist will hold a special day with 
ordinary people.  The unionists at automobile service companies will 
set up 27 car check-up points throughout the country for free service.  
The members of the KCTU Chullabuk-do Province Council will go to 
various rural villages hit by the recent heavy snowfall to assist in the 
recovery work.  And other unionists, mainly in the especial industrial 
estates, zones, and complexes, will conduct a clean-up campaign in 
the nearby environmentally distressed areas.

The white collar unionists of the Korean Federation of Clerical 
Workers Unions, the Korean Federation of Professional and 
Technicians Unions, the Korean Construction Company Workers 
Unions, the Union of the Employees of the National Federation of 
Medical Insurance Cooperatives, the Korean Federation of Press 
Unions, the Korean Federation of University Employees Unions, the 
Korean Federation of Hospital Workers Unions, and the Korean 
Teachers and Educational Workers Union will hold a special "white 
collar workers" assembly in downtown Seoul.  This marks the full 
entry of the white collar workers into the current wave of general 
strike.  This will, it is believed, set the stage for a reenactment of the 
Great June Democratic Struggle in 1987 which catapulted into a 
massive democratic uprising led by the "neck-tie corps" of the white 
collar workers.

January 9, Thursday, is designated as a day of protest against the 
ruling New Korea Party led by the President Kim Young Sam.  The 
striking unions will hold protest rallies in front of the NKP branch 
offices throughout the country. January 10, Friday, is set as a day of 
protest against the "thief" government which commandeered the 
stealthy passage of the two repressive legislation.  Striking unions 
will bring their cars into the heart of the city to undertake a massive 
"car demonstration". On Saturday, the KCTU members will join with 
other citizens and social movement organisation for a nation-wide 
coordinated public rally to call for the nullification of the anti-worker 
labour law and the anti-democratic National Security Planing Agency 
Act.

The KCTU leadership is currently working on the plan of action for 
Sunday, which will mark the turning point for the general strike.  A 
successful 'stroll' through Sunday will lead the general strike into its 
third week which will bring the general strike in sight of success.  The 
most important question for third week will centre around the decision 
of the FKTU which has delayed its decision for resumption of its 
protest action to January 13, 1997 having left the strike trail for a little 
more than a week. Regardless of FKTU's decision, the Korean 
Confederation of Trade Unions will be able, if it can course the 
general strike into its third week, to force the government to come to 
discussion table for the reopening of the process for re-amendment of 
the errant labour law. 

          Appeal for International Solidarity

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has called for 
international solidarity as it prepares for the critical weekend.  The 
KCTU's general strike provides the international trade union 
community to undertake effective international solidarity which can 
make real contribution to the defense of workers rights and welfare.  

The following is an appeal for international solidarity issued by 
President Kwon Young-kil of the Korean Confederation of Trade 
Unions. (Another version of this letter was sent to the presidents, 
general secretaries, and international directors of the International 
Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Trade Union Advisory 
Committee to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and 
Development, various ITSs, and major national trade union centres.)


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Warmest greetings to melt all the snow and cold of this 
extraordinary winter.

I would like to express our sincerest appreciation for the 
international solidarity which was instrumental in putting the 
Korean labour law reform in compliance with the ILO 
standards on the agenda of the international trade union 
movement. 

The general strike of Korean workers, led by the KCTU and 
FKTU, in defense of the trade union and labour rights and the 
welfare of workers, now in its thirteenth day since December 
26 last year, has already succeeded as indicated by the failure 
of the government to react immediately with a harsh 
crackdown.

I write at a time when the government has began to take 
steps to swoop down on the striking workers and unions with 
harsh crackdown and arrest.  This is clearly indicated by the 
summons for questioning and the public prosecutors' 
announcement of the plan to apply for warrant of arrest for 
some 200 union leaders including myself and 7 other KCTU 
elected officers.

If there ever were an opportunity for international 
solidarity to have a real impact and influence on a situation, I 
believe, this is the moment. 

We would like to request international trade union 
movement to organise a special mission to come to Korea to 
investigate to the new anti-worker, anti-union labour law.  
Such a mission will have a very important effect of delaying the 
government crackdown and arrest of large number of union 
leaders that is already in motion.

We would also like to request all trade unions and human 
rights, and democratic organisations to issue protest letters 
addressed to President Kim Young Sam to be hand delivered 
directly to the Korean embassies.  This can combine with 
public rallies/pickets outside the Korea diplomatic missions.

We believe the impact of such a solidarity action can be 
maximised if it is held on the same day.  So we suggest that 
this may be done on January 10, 1997, as much as possible.  
This will magnify the international attention on the 
undemocratic action of the Korean government which is 
already well reflected in the international media coverage.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions will, we assure 
you, will maintain our struggle until the government makes an 
official commitment to reopen the parliamentary discussions 
involving the trade union representatives for a re-amendment 
of the labour law.  This will pave the way for a peaceful 
settlement of the general strike and an end to the pernicious 
labour law which aimed to set back the clock on both the 
working conditions and trade union rights.

We do not hesitate to acknowledge that the length and 
intensity of our struggle would not have been possible without 
the strength of international solidarity and vigilance, not only 
during the period of current strike, but through out the course 
of drawn out debate for the entire year of 1996.

The resilience by Korean workers and the international 
trade union movement till the last moment will, we believe, 
bring about unimagined results that will usher in an entirely 
new setting for trade union activities in Korea.

With a renewed appreciation of the power of international 
solidarity,


Kwon Young-kil
President
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

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