Welcome to BASE21

The latest struggle by the working class in Korea is faltering,
and along with it the bond of solidarity between the two biggest
umbrella unions in Korea as well. It had seemed the government's
plans for privatization and foreign sale of the public sector were
facing the most wide-spread and organized resistance from the
working class to date. The two major umbrella unions in Korea
had agreed to form a 'joint struggle committee' to battleagainst
the restructuring plans being implemented by the government. Dan
Byung-Ho and Lee Nam-Soon, heads of the Korean Confederation
of Trade Unions(or KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade
Union (the FKTU), had agreed two weeks ago on several key
issues, and also layed out concrete struggle plans. The two
unions had confirmed their common perception that the
restructuring drive of the Kim government 'had uni-laterally
forced the sacrifice of the workers in the absence of rational
standards and democratic decision making processes.' The joint
demands: reduction of working hours, a halt to theretrogressive
revision of the labor laws, and a stop to the neo-liberal
re-structuring program of the government, were also announced.
The two organizations were to hold several joint rallies and
warning strikes, and then go on a joint general strike if their
demands were not met by the government. The workers from the
public sector in both unions did hold a joint rally on the 26th of
last month, with 20,000 participating. The strike by the Korea
Electric Power Corporation(KEPCO) Union was to spearhead the
struggle with their strike on the 30th. Workers had been
retaliating against the government's plans to sell off the
corporation to foreign capital after dividing it into 5 separate
companies. The KEPCO strike was both symbolically(the struggle
against privatization of the public sector) and physically(all 30,000
workers belong to the union) at the center of the joint struggle by
the KCTU and the FKTU. However, the strike was delayed
twice, to the 3rd, and then again to the 5th, as the leadership of
the union decided to remain at the negotiation table. The plans at
other unions and at the federation level had to be adjusted with
the delays, and the struggle quickly began to lose momentum.
The final blow came when the KEPCO union came to an
agreement with management and withdrew plans for a strike.
The union leadership agreed to the privatization and separation of
the company, in exchange for pay raises and extended vacations,
drawing outrage from rank-and-file workers who cried out that
they had supported the strike 'not for personal benefits but for
the future of the working class.' A joint rally was again held on
the 5th, with 10,000 participating, but with no major union to lead
the strike and morale low among the ranks, plans for future
struggle have been put on hold. The 'joint struggle committee' is
in danger of breaking up, as discussions between the FKTU and
KCTU on the direction of struggle have been unfruitful due to
differences in opinion.

This had been the first time since the nation-wide general
strike of 97, when practically the whole nation came to a halt
with over 750,000 workers participating in the strikes, that the two
organizations have agreed to act in solidarity with each other.
Regardless of the results, the fact that the two umbrella unions
have agreed to join forces is a reflection of the urgency which the
workers in Korea feel. The so called reform drive by the Kim
government after the IMF crisis of 3 years ago resulted not in the
reform of the true causes of the crisis, but in hundreds of
thousands of workers losing their jobs with nowhere to go. The
burden of corporate and government incompetence as well as
corruption has been transferred on to the workers and the socially
weak in the process of restructuring. The privatization of state
corporations and continued re-structuring is expected to again
bring on mass layoffs and the current struggle had been aimed at
not letting it happen again.

Contrary to the reports of a miracle recovery after the financial
crisis of 97, three years of the IMF's neo-liberal re-structuring
program have resulted in the increasing dependency on foreign
economies, increasing economic instability, lay-offs, unstable jobs,
rise in unemployment, thepolarization of wealth, the dismantling
of social unity: an overall and dramatic decrease in the standards
of living for the people of Korea.

Tensions are high as the economy has shown signs of faltering.
Major corporations have gone bankrupt, which will cause even
more layoffs; and economic figures are deteriorating. The
government has announced that it will disallow any strikes in a
time when 'all need to pull together to overcome this crisis.' The
government has even tried to pressure the trade unions into
giving up the struggle, using the recent economic crisis as
leverage. But no alternatives exist for the working class either, for
which the last three years have been a constant losing battle to
protect basic rights. Although current prospects are not bright,
the exchanges between the FKTU andthe KCTU will be
something to build on for future struggles.