Workers' Liberty

On 19 January Housmans bookshop in King’s Cross was packed with around fifty people coming to hear Loren Goldner speak on the recent history of the militant South Korean working class. Goldner, a left communist and a former Shachtmanite talked about modern labour movement activism in the face of rapid economic development, and the post World War Two era and the labour movement’s attitude to the Stalinist state in the North.

From the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

Update on Repression against MTU: Three Leaders Deported, Morning of Dec. 13!

By Sacha Ismail

North Korea’s underground detonation of a nuclear device on 9 October, with the threat of more tests to come, should be a cause of major alarm for the labour movement and left internationally.

400,000 teachers, firmly united in accordance with conscience and truth, would make this wicked regime and these selfish profiteers' attempts futile. We act not out of fear of their threats or lies, but for our students' smiling faces and shining eyes.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) began a general strike on 28 February against the government moves to impose greater “flexibility” on Korean workers.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions called a general strike on 28 February against Korean government moves to impose greater "flexibility" on Korean workers.

Bolivia

The Bolivian elections on 18 December are being hailed as the end of 20 years of neoliberalism.

Rosalind robson reviews dispatches, undercover in the secret state, Monday 17 October, Channel four

News from working-class struggles around the world...

Disturbing news in the "Pyongyang Times" this week: http://www.kcckp.net/

"The chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) said that Kim Il Sung is the great leader of the Korean people who won back the country and built a powerful socialist country and the iron-willed commander and the brilliant strategist who defeated the US imperialists that boasted of being “the strongest” in the world.

Korean trade unions are heading for a clash with the government over its anti-union harassment.

ARGENTINA

Last month a judged ordered that a public notice of ownership be posted at the ceramics Zanon factory in Argentina.

The notice would have allowed a venture capitalist or the previous owner to buy Zanon Ceramics for pennies.

Around 160,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions took industrial and protest action on 1 April. Some 120,000 workers at 231 workplaces struck for four hours.

The Korean Federation of Trade Unions organised a six-hour general strike on November 26 as part of its campaign against the government’s proposed anti-union laws.

The two major union federations in Korea — the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and the more militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) — have formed joint headquarters for a proposed general strike.

By Pablo Velasco

Inside:

• Strike wave in South Korea

• Soldiers terrorise workers Haitian workers
• Victory for Colombian banana workers' strike
• General strike in Nigeria stops petrol price rises

By Pablo Velasco

• Colombian oil workers halt privatisation: solidarity works!

• "Massive summer strikes" planned in Korea
• ANC against anti-privatisation activists
• Argentine workers fight for a six-hour day

The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) won 10 seats in South Korea's general election on 15 April and emerged as the third largest party in its parliament, the National Assembly. The Uri Party, which supports the president Roh Moo-hyun, won 152 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly, giving it a slim majority.

• Zanón factory - two years under workers' control

• Anti-privatisation protest in Thailand
• Korean workers win wider union rights

Zanón factory - two years under workers' control

Militant class struggle has been a feature of South Korean politics for many years. In April there are elections to the National Assembly (parliament) and some workers' candidates are standing.

This critical assessment is written by Won Youngsu, a member of the South Korean Marxist group, the Power of the Working Class. It is abridged from International Viewpoint No 356, February 2004.

By Pablo Velasco

• Workers will stand in Korean election

• Appeal by Korean migrant workers union
• Crackdown in West Papua

Workers will stand in Korean election

By Pablo Velasco

• Israel: attacks on unions

• Korean unions defend migrant workers
• Salonika seven free, for now

Israel: attacks on unions

The Israeli government is preparing to dock the wages of workers taking industrial action, and introduce anti-union laws.

By Harry Glass

Tens of thousands of Korean workers staged a one-day general strike on 12 November against the government's anti-working class policies.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said more than 150,000 of its members joined the one-day walkout - including more than 25,000 workers from the Hyundai Motor Company. Demonstrations took place in 20 cities across the country, despite the police banning street rallies.

by Pablo Velasco

• Oscar Olivera wins case
• Urgent appeal for Chinese workers' leaders
• P Diddy uses sweatshops
• Brazilian car workers walk out
• Korean workers' demonstrations
• Colombian Coca Cola worker visit

by Pablo Velasco

• Indonesian party fights for legal recognition
• Hong Kong: Article 23 postponed
• Korean unions to stand in parliamentary elections
• Yale University strike
• General strike in Bangladesh
• Colombian Coca-Cola workers face the sack

• South Korea: a summer of discontent

• Free Brazilian landless workers!
• General strike in Chile
• Support locked-out Indonesian workers
• Protests at WTO Cancun, Mexico

• French strikes over: we'll be back

• 50th anniversary of East German uprising
• Strike wave in South Korea tests the new president
• Zimbabwe extends strike bans
• Demonstration against Lula's government
• Cambodian police kill demonstrators
• No jobs for sacked Venezuelan oil workers
• Celebrate 100 years of the car industry?
• ICFTU figures for deaths of trade unionists

By Pablo Velasco

Korean truck drivers' strike

A strike by 1,000 South Korean truck drivers has escalated into a national dispute after thousands of other drivers walked out in solidarity. The dispute began on 2 May in Pohang, with workers from the Korea Cargo Transportation Workers' Union demanding better wages and trade union rights. The strikes paralysed steel shipments from the city, the hub of Korea's steel industry.
Drivers in the capital Seoul and other cities such as Inchon came out in solidarity. The strike has held up car manufacturing, shipbuilding and other export industries. The strike shows the power a small number of strategically placed workers have in disrupting the economy.

by Pablo Velasco

South Korean trade unions have forced President Roh Moo-hyun to scrap part-privatisation of the railways after threatening strike action.

The Korean Railway Workers' Union argued that privatisation would result in mass layoffs, fare increases and cancellation of routes. Korean National Railroad (KORAIL) reported 219.5bn won (£116.6m) in net losses in 2002, blamed on poor management. The union organises 24,000 of KORAIL's 30,000-strong workforce.