Welcome to BASE21

The May Day struggle always starts a day early in Korea, when on the 30th of April, students take center stage for the 430 Student Struggle Rally. Struggling in solidarity with the people's movement has been a long-held tradition for the student movement in Korea, and students gather a day early for their own culture festival before joining the rally on the 1st. Re-structuring of the University was the main concern for students this year, as the government has been implementing a program that gives selective government subsidies to colleges which follow the re-structuring program set forth by the government itself. In the name of 'higher competitiveness' of the university, the government has been enforcing a program which results in the collapse of the less 'practical fields' such as the humanities field and the social sciences. It has also increased the burden of the students, raising tuition fees and taking away from the role of the university as a 'public' entity. About 4000 students gathered at a university in Seoul to raise their voices against the governments plans, and denounced it as being part of the government's neo-liberal re-structuring program: part of the same program that has been causing so much pain to the people of Korea.

At the same time, the Temporary Workers' Rally, organized by the KCTU, was taking place at a nearby university. 10,000 gathered for the new event, which was held in recognition of the growing importance of the temporary worker issue in Korea. Over half the work force in Korea are now employed as temporary workers: a result of the flexibilization of the labor market that has occurred in Korea after the IMF crisis in 97. Most of these workers are discriminated against as compared to regular workers, and do not have the protection of the law or the benefits that regular workers enjoy. Abolishment of the discrimination for temporary workers, and the establishment of equal treatment with regular workers, is an important task that the labor movement in Korea faces. We hope that the voices calling for equal treatment and the rights of temporary workers on the 30th at the Temporary Worker's Rally, signals a start to an effective movement that can improve the state of the temporary workers in Korea.

Close to 30,000 gathered for the main rally in downtown Seoul on the 1st. What characterized this May Day from the previous rallies was the diversity of the participants and the many voices of the marginalized that were heard. Addresses were given to the participants by migrant workers calling for the unity of the working class; there were the women workers denouncing neo-liberalism and its brutal attack on the worker, especially the women workers; there were the temporary workers, coming from the all night temporary workers rally of the day before, demanding equal and fair treatment for irregular workers, there were the phisically challenged workers demanding the government keep its promise of requiring all workplaces to employ diabled workers; and finally there were the Daewoo workers, laid off, then beaten(for an overview of the Daewoo struggle visit: http://cast.jinbo.net/english/ ) and wearing vests that read "we want to return to the factory." The KCTU, which organized had raised the level of their struggle to demand the resignation of Kim Dae-Jung, a departure from the slogans of denunciation of before. The 30,000 marched from downtown Seoul, and were blocked from their destination by riot police; minor skirmishes ensued but the government, under heavy criticism from the public for its violent crackdown on the Daewoo workers, were on the defensive. Protestors than headed to the city hall and occupied the entire 8 lanes in front of it, where they held there final rally and declared that the KCTU would initiate an all out struggle against the government in early June. Protestors dispersed peacefully after the final rally.

It was a day where the voice of the weak, the marginalized, the women, the migrants, the temporary workers, the disabled, was larger than ever; where they were more united then ever with the spirit of May Day, and where they had a clear vision of the direction their future struggles should take.