Protesters celebrate after the announcement of parliament’s vote to impeach president Yoon (Picture: Workers’ Solidarity)
The South Korean parliament voted to impeach right wing president Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday. Mass mobilisations have rocked the country this week—and the working class is playing a pivotal role in the movement.
Yoon launched a failed coup at the beginning of the month and defended its legitimacy this week.
Millions of people took to the streets on Saturday, with huge protests in the capital Seoul and other cities across South Korea. After the impeachment vote passed, protesters celebrated and danced. The chants shifted to “Arrest Yoon immediately!”
Yoon’s impeachment must still be approved by the Constitutional Court, which is supposed to deliver its verdict within 180 days.
People have protested outside the National Assembly in the capital Seoul every day, with the demonstration on Friday reaching over 100,000.
Thousands of students rallied on the same day, in the biggest inter-university student rally for more than a decade that was backed by 30 different student unions.
Yoon defended the coup on Thursday and appealed to all of the right to help him fight against demands for his impeachment and resignation. He called the National Assembly a “monster that is destroying the constitutional order of liberal democracy”.
Workers at Kia Motors struck for four hours on two days this week—and are pushing for more action.
Kim Woo Yong is a trade unionist who works at Kia Motors, in the second largest car factory in South Korea and part of the Metal Workers’ Union. He spoke to Socialist Worker about the movement a day before the impeachment vote.
He said, “The KCTU union federation declared an indefinite general strike and half an hour later the martial law was lifted. The threat of a general strike helped press the ruling class into backtracking.”
But after Yoon retreated from martial law, the KCTU union leadership didn’t follow through with its call. “Despite this many workers are responding to the initial call from above and many trade unionists are participating in street protests,” Woo Yong said.
The KCTU called the strikes “is because of the huge historical anger of workers that forced them to”.
“Many workers remember the previous military dictatorship, remember martial law and the harsh repression towards trade unions.”
Within Woo Yong’s workplace “many of the workers are very angry” that the metal workers’ union is “only calling for four hour strikes”. “Many think we should strike until Yoon is impeached or arrested,” he said.
He described a meeting of a committee of the metal workers’ union, made up of 110 delegates. Woo Yong said, “When I called for a statement in favour of an all-out strike, 30 of them agreed with me.
“Together we announced a statement for all metal workers to strike until Yoon goes down. Although the trade union leadership does call for strikes they are also acting as a brake on the strike movement. The trade unions are not fighting enough, just acting like they are.”
Pressure from below pushed the metal workers’ union to call strikes this week. “Last week Kia Motor workers didn’t participate in the first day of strikes and many were angry,” he said.
“There was a big protest about why we weren’t striking and many phoned up our leadership.”
He added, “This week Kia Motor workers did strike but Hyundai didn’t—there is a feeling that we would be stronger together.”
Woo Yong said some workers are “saying who are we to intervene into politics”, but they remain a “minority”. “Many workers are feeling that we can fight and beat the ruling class. I don’t think it will be easy for the ruling class to turn the tide,” he said.
“Things won’t go smoothly, there will be many ups and downs and reactionary moments. But the working class has the power to stop another coup from happening.”
One of the dynamics behind Yoon’s attempted coup is a prolonged economic crisis, with South Korea suffering from low growth rates. And, because of this, “Yoon was under pressure to squeeze workers so South Korea could be competitive on the international stage.
“But workers throughout his presidency have fought back. Although they didn’t win they inflicted political damage. Yoon was under pressure to respond to the capitalists’ demands but his time was running out.
Because “he couldn’t push healthcare, pensions and wage reforms through parliament,” Yoon turned to martial law.
Imperialist rivalry between the United States and China is worsening the economic problems. For instance, the three major industries in South Korea are semiconductors, cars and petrochemicals.
Woo Yong explained, “The rivalry between China and the US is affecting those industries. The largest semiconductor company has seen its share price fall in half in the last six months.”
He concluded by remarking that all revolutionary socialists “face challenges with the trade union bureaucracy” that balances between workers and bosses.
For instance, the rail workers’ union stopped their strike this week without any significant victory. Lee Jae-Myung, the leader of the liberal Democratic Party that dominates parliament, mediated the dispute and the union bureaucrats took the first chance to stop the strike.
“The struggle goes forward and back,” said Woo Yong. South Korean socialists face an “opportunity to use the official call to strike and turn it into actual struggle” on the ground.
Thanks to Jong Kim for translation
Fort Hood killer was terrified of being ordered to kill other Muslims
