The working class will rise again!

Workers' Liberty
the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class

                                     Workers Liberty Australia


Newsletter May 2000: international stories

Workers of the world, get organised!

The increase of the wage-working class is not just one economic statistic among others. It has huge political and social implications.

We sell our labour power for a wage because other people, the capitalists, monopolise the means of production - large-scale means of production, which the individual worker cannot hope to own. Around those large-scale means of production, we are educated, trained, and organised, and assembled in large numbers, primarily in cities. More and more these days, we move from job to job, the constant in our lives not being a particular trade or location but the social fact of being a wage-worker.

Built into the wage-bargain is constant conflict. How high or low will the wage be? Once having bought our labour power, how much labour will the boss squeeze out of us? Against the boss, how far can we assert, against the boss, the priorities of our health, our nerves, and the human interests which we can pursue generally only outside the tyranny of work?

Wage-workers organise, in a way no other basic producing class ever has done. Today there are 164 million trade-unionists world-wide (latest ILO figures, dated 1995). Although in some parts of the world trade unionism is in decline (in Western Europe for instance) in many key areas trade-unionism is growing. In South Korea trade-union membership grew 61%, in Taiwan 50%, in Thailand 77%, and in South Africa 127%, between 1985 and 1995. There are now 34 million trade-unionists in Asia, not far short of the 41 million in Western Europe.

Here we print two articles - from South Korea and China - to illustrate some of the issues and character of the new trade union movement.

In South Korean workers organised a tremendous general strike in January 1997. Their Confederation of Trade Unions finally won legal recognition from the government in November last year. Increasing numbers of strikes and underground trade unions are challenging China's Stalinist state.

The workers of the "old" industrial countries do not dominate the world labour movement as they used to, but they are far from a spent force. In both "old" countries where most active trade unionists would describe themselves as "socialists", and "new" countries where often, as yet, the labels "socialist" and "communist" convey only images of brutally-imposed uniformity and bureaucratism, big working class struggles have a society-changing logic. A large-scale class struggle inevitably raises the question of who owns and controls the social wealth, the means of production. It points towards a definite answer - that the means of production should be owned in common, and their use democratically planned for the common good rather than being governed by a destructive, greedy race to expand the already-gross wealth of rival profiteers. That is why socialists should do everything in their power to organise solidarity for these workers' movements.

Chinese workers begin to move

This is an extract from an interview with Ca Chong Guo, editor of the French edition of China Labour Bulletin, an independent workers' newspaper published in Hong Kong by Chinese trade unionists. It was first published in the August 21-27, 1999, issue of Informations Ouvrieres (Labour News).

One fundamental thing is the crisis of the state-run companies. Seventy-seven percent of them are officially bankrupt. The Chinese government intends to organise their privatisation. Corruption has become widespread, especially in the state enterprises. Bosses and directors force workers to buy stocks and then they declare the state company bankrupt. After this they put the company up for sale at a low price, and members of the families of the ruling bureaucracy buy the company.

These measures bring about massive lay-offs and unemployment. There are 35 million to 40 million unemployed, not to mention the 150 million peasants who must abandon their land, look for work and live in dreadful conditions. The latter are known as the "floating population."

The 40 million unemployed are mostly workers without any benefits, except the miserable sum of US$25 a month, which often comes late or not at all. After a brief interruption caused by the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, the Chinese government resumed its negotiations aimed at including China in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The regime has stated that it is ready both to lower customs taxes and to open the country even further to foreign capital and goods. The situation facing Chinese workers is alarming and will only get worse.

Strikes and demonstrations occur daily. Even the Chinese government has recognised that 200,000 strikes and demonstrations have taken place over the past year. These are movements to demand the payment of unemployment benefits, the payment of back wages, and an end to corruption and to the closure of state-run factories.

At one time, the workers sought the support of the official unions when they took to the streets. The trade unions would reply that they could not help them. The fact is that no one, neither the government nor the official unions, is able or willing to help the workers. So the workers have taken to the streets by their own means and in their own name. The government, in turn, has ordered the official trade unions to maintain "social stability," which it considers threatened by all these strikes.

This general discontent worries the government. But it cannot repress all the movements because they are really occurring daily in every region of the country. Therefore the officials are often forced to yield and to pay one or two months of back wages to try to calm the workers.

The Chinese government has focused its repression on any attempt at organising these protest movements or forming independent trade unions. Over the past three years, hundreds of trade unionists have been jailed and sentenced to very long prison terms. I will give two examples: Chang Shanguan was sentenced to 11 years in prison for founding an association of unemployed; and Yue Tianxing was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fighting for the payment of back wages and forming a workers' monitoring group. Those who want to recognise the official trade unions should look at the heinous role played by these so-called trade unions. It is an illusion to think that it is possible to influence or to transform these trade unions into independent trade unions. These trade unions are paid and appointed by the government.

China Labour Bulletin is edited in Hong Kong by Han Dongfang, who, as you know, was the founder of the Autonomous Workers' Federation of Beijing in May-June 1989. From Hong Kong, the bulletin is shipped to various regions of China. Its aim is to encourage Chinese workers so that they can better defend their own interests by their own forces.

We seek to increase awareness that the working class must rely only on its own independent strength and self-organisation. We inform the Chinese workers that they are not isolated, that trade unions on an international scale support them. [International labour organisations] must learn to respect each other and to work together for independent trade unions. Without trade unions, there cannot be freedom for the people as a whole. The present situation in my country shows this fully.

Korean workers fight against layoffs

May Day in South Korea saw massive demonstrations by workers intent on protecting jobs. Their focus was on the Daewoo Motor works which are at risk of being sold by creditors. Daewoo is a company facing mounting debt with more than US$13.9 billion owed, while assets amount to US$18.3 billion. The most likely bidders for Daewoo Motor are the US companies Ford or General Motors. But whoever takes over will have as their first priority the slashing of jobs.

In April, workers at the nation's four major carmakers - Hyundai, Daewoo, Kia and Ssangyong - held a week-long strike, demanding that Daewoo be nationalised. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU, the second biggest trade union group after the tame, government-influenced FKTU) plans to stage nationwide indefinite strikes in defence of jobs from 31 May.

Prisons Starting to Fill with Workers, Again

KCTU, in its written intervention to the meeting of the OECD's Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs Committee on April 13, 2000 devoted to monitoring the industrial relations reform of the Korean government, pointed out that "the fact that there are only 7 trade unionists held in prison currently should not and could not hide the fact that this very government had put more than 300 workers in prison." It went on to warn that "as the workers are beginning to build up their collective bargaining campaign and workers try to influence the way in which key industry -- such as the automobile industry -- should be restructured, the government is making loud threats of arrest. Already the government has issued warrants of arrest against many trade unionists."

Dawn Raid to Arrest Trade Union Leaders

The KCTU premonition is, sadly, coming true. 03:40 April 25, 2000, more than 100 battle-geared police raided the office of the Daewoo Motors Workers Union in Pupyung near Seoul. They captured everyone in the union office. The 20 trade union leaders and activists had made the union office their temporary home for the duration of the continuing campaign to shape the outcome of the restructuring of the ill company.

The morning raid is seen as a signal of the government attitude towards the demands of the automobile industry workers to set up a special taskforce composed of the representatives of the workers, company, creditor banks, the government, and experts and other interested stake-holders to undertake a comprehensive examination and discussion on the best way to rescue the troubled Daewoo Motors. The trade union took a step back from the original position of an immediate and unconditional end to the plan to sell the second largest car-maker to an overseas operator. The government responded that it was not willing to participate in kind of consultation and joint decision making process with the trade union movement.

The recalcitrant position of the government led to the April 6 strike by automobile industry workers in the four major car makers that lasted for 7 days. In response to the strike, the government -- through its Public Prosecutor's Office -- issued arrest warrants against 34 leaders and activists. It was only a matter of time, it was widely anticipated, before the government would begin to move in.

Of the 20 people dragged away by police, 13 low-ranking activists were released, but 7 leading unionists are held by police, expected to be charged and kept in detention. The seven unionists, including the union president CHOO Young-ho are
* LEE Nam-mok Vice-President
* CHANG Soon-kil Organising Director
* KIM Jo-hyun Industrial Action Director
* BOK Jae-hyun rank and file member
* YOO Young-ku Sports Activities Director
* LEE Bong-yong Industrial Health and Safety Director

Vice-President Lee and Sports Activities Director Yoo are expected to be charged for their part in organising a protest public meeting in front of the Central Office of the ruling Millenium Democratic Party before the April 6 strike. The rest, including President Choo, had been wanted for arrest, with warrants issued out on them. With their arrest, 11 activists are remaining from the original list of Daewoo workers with arrest warrants. Key unionists from Hyundai Motors Workers Union - including President Jeung Kap-deuk -- and others involved in the current automobile workers' campaign are also wanted for arrest.

The early morning raid on the Daewoo Motors Workers Union is a clear indication of the intention of the government to sweep away what it regards as a thorn -- or an obstacle -- in its best plans for restructuring.

KCTU in its written intervention at the OECD-ELSAC meeting called on the members not to be satisfied with the half-hearted adherence to international standards by the Korean government which feels it justified to overlook them in times of 'economic crisis' or in pursuing 'structural adjustment'. What the Korean government overlooks is the fact that while removing trade union 'opposition' may make the structural adjustment process easier in the short term, but it will certainly sour the industrial relations endangering the long-term confidence.

But, the Korean government, feeling that it had achieved what it had hoped for in the OECD-ELSAC meeting, and feeling confident that everything can be justified in the name of "pushing ahead with restructuring", has began a calculated assault on the trade unions. The Korean government led by President Kim Dae Jung perhaps believes that it has earned time -- 18 to 24 months -- to sweep away all the problems and also have all the unionists released from prison in time for the next review process.

The opportunistic cynicism of the Korean government has been the key reason for the continuing industrial relations problems in Korea. This, together with bureaucratic missionary zeal, has created an oppressive and repressive environment.

President Kim, in the summit meeting with the leader of the opposition party, on April 24, referred to the actions of workers to present their views and demands as "illegal collective self-interest" and that his government will deal with them "sternly".

The expression of the -- what we feel to be valid -- concerns and fears about the impact of crisis and restructuring are regarded as obstacles or willful interference of standing in the way of realising some pure general interest or will pursued by the government. We are beginning to see the story about to be repeated over the Daewoo Motors issue and the mounting pressure of the the KCTU May Campaign. Stay ready to with your usual protest letters.


Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
5th Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga,
Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea
Tel.: +82-2-2636-0165 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter@kctu.org. Web http://kctu.org

Blow to Blair in London

The London Socialist Alliance (LSA), an unprecedented united effort by almost all the Marxist left groups including Workers' Liberty, scored well in some constituencies for the Greater London Assembly elected at the same time. Cecilia Prosper, a black local government worker victimised by Islington's Labour council, won 7.0% of the poll in the London North-East constituency, standing against an official Labour candidate who had been Mayor of Islington while she was being victimised. Theresa Bennett, another black local government trade unionist, got 6.2% in Lambeth and Southwark.

Every elector had two votes, one for a local candidate (14 to be elected), and another for a cross-London list (11 Assembly members to be elected by proportional representation). The LSA got 1.63% of the cross-London "list" vote, 27,073 votes. Livingstone had called for a vote for the Green list, which scored 11%. Labour and Tory have got nine members each in the Assembly, with the remaining seats divided between Lib-Dem and Green.

The LSA list vote was reduced by the presence of minor left slates which ran only in the list section but not in the constituencies. Peter Tatchell, a former Labour leftist and well-known gay activist, won 1.38% for a personal list; the Campaign Against Tube Privatisation scored 1.05%; the Socialist Labour Party, which scarcely exists any longer as a party but can still trade on the name of miners' union leader Arthur Scargill, gained 0.85%.

______