Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 15:02:32 -0500
Subject: M-G: From KCTU-Intl: Korean General Strike - Onto the 14the Day


>Date: Wed, 08 Jan 1997 03:09:10 +0900
>From: KCTU-International <kctuint-AT-chollian.dacom.co.kr>
>Subject: 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
>
>Attachment converted: SONY:law_21a.doc (WDBN/MSWD) (00000027)






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