Stop to Suppression of Railway Trade Union Called for in S. Korea

    Pyongyang, January 21 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Railway Trade Union held a rally at the plaza of Seoul Railway Station on Jan. 18. At the rally they reiterated their will to check the puppet authorities' clampdown upon them and stage actions until their struggle for the right to existence proves successful.
    Present there were more than 10 000 workers.
    Speakers at the rally recalled that the public security authorities recently put core members of their organizations including the chairman of the Railway Trade Union behind bars, adding such method can never hinder the struggle of the workers.
    Warning that they will again opt for a struggle in case the authorities continue laying off workers en masse and taking coercive measures, they urged the regime to stop its suppression of the trade union at once.
    They held that the director of the railway corporation should immediately step down as he is kowtowing to the political camp in a bid to gratify his despicable greed while groundlessly turning down the union's dialogue proposal.
    They warned that they will turn out in an all-out strike if the regime enforces privatization policy despite the opposition of people.
    Stressing they would stage actions until the detained workers are set free and their demand is met, they called on people from all walks of life including workers, the poor and peasants to stage joint actions. -0-

First Friday Labor Done

KCTU Stages Large-scale Anti-"government" Action

 Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- More than 20 000 members of the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) staged the second anti-"government" action in Seoul and other parts of south Korea on Thursday.
    Sin Sung Chol, chairman of the KCTU, at the rally held at Seoul Square declared workers would become permanent slaves unless they fight against the present "government," which tramples down their right to existence.
    He called for dynamic actions to punish the present "government" keen to sell public sectors to the plutocrats.
    The KCTU will launch the third action across south Korea on Jan. 18 and go on a general strike for the resignation of the regime, frustration of the suppression of the labor movement and a halt to privatization in connection with the lapse of a year since Park Geun Hye's coming to power, he added.
    Earlier, the headquarters for general strike of the KCTU held a meeting on Tuesday at which it declared there is nothing to expect from the present regime hell-bent on the suppression of the labor movement.
    The former central executive members of the KCTU held a meeting in Seoul on Wednesday at which they denounced Park Geun Hye for revealing her attempt to push ahead with privatization of public sectors at her New Year press conference. -0-

KCTU Stages Large-scale Anti-"government" Action

 Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- More than 20 000 members of the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) staged the second anti-"government" action in Seoul and other parts of south Korea on Thursday.
    Sin Sung Chol, chairman of the KCTU, at the rally held at Seoul Square declared workers would become permanent slaves unless they fight against the present "government," which tramples down their right to existence.
    He called for dynamic actions to punish the present "government" keen to sell public sectors to the plutocrats.
    The KCTU will launch the third action across south Korea on Jan. 18 and go on a general strike for the resignation of the regime, frustration of the suppression of the labor movement and a halt to privatization in connection with the lapse of a year since Park Geun Hye's coming to power, he added.
    Earlier, the headquarters for general strike of the KCTU held a meeting on Tuesday at which it declared there is nothing to expect from the present regime hell-bent on the suppression of the labor movement.
    The former central executive members of the KCTU held a meeting in Seoul on Wednesday at which they denounced Park Geun Hye for revealing her attempt to push ahead with privatization of public sectors at her New Year press conference. -0-

International trade union movement protests against suppression of south Korean trade unions

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Support for the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) and for Korean workers’ rights continued unabated today, as representatives from the UK Trades Union Congress (TUC), British unions and Amnesty International joined the ITF in protest at the Korean embassy in London, UK.

Representatives from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), Unison, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and Prospect were among those who attended.

This protest followed yesterday’s rally in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian protest was led by ITF affiliates the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union of Australia (RTBU).

The protests were held to coincide with today’s general strike rally in Korea, the second of three organised by Korea’s national trade union centre (KCTU). The KCTU arranged these general strikes in response to the continuing oppression of workers, following the police raid of their headquarters during the recent railway strike.

Police used excessive force, searching and seizing union records from rail union offices during the 23-day strike – the longest in Korean rail history. Some 490 workers are under threat of dismissal from rail company Korail, and further disciplinary sanctions against others are anticipated. Korail has made civil and criminal claims for damages against the union leadership totaling almost KRW7.7 billion. The entire union leadership is facing arrest and three regional leaders have already been detained.

The next KCTU general strike rally is scheduled for Saturday 18 January.

Mac Urata, ITF inland transport secretary, said: “The ongoing ill-treatment of railway workers is of huge concern, and it’s absolutely crucial that the international community, as well as those in Korea, keep showing their support for workers. The Korean government has no place to hide. We will continue to support the KRWU's campaign against rail privatisation.”

Gloomy Future

The south Korean puppet conservative regime has been hell bent on suppression of the general strike launched by the railway trade unionists and other popular masses in demand for the right to existence.

The south Korean authorities held a consultative meeting on security measures for the first time after taking power, at which they branded the strike illegal, and invoked all power bodies to toughen the crackdown upon railway workers. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice, the Police Agency and the Security Administration and other fascist repressive machines have turned out in the crackdown.

They have brought over 190 unionists to the court and dismissed more than 8 500 workers.

On December 22 of last year they called out at least 5 000 riot policemen to break the entrance door of the headquarters of the Confederation of Trade Unions with a hammer and spread tear liquid in a bid to arrest hardcore unionists. Not content with this, the riot police took away one hundred and scores of unionists.

On December 24 the south Korean chief executive gave an instruction to take tough actions against the strike by mobilizing most of the police forces. It is a fascist suppression that can be done only by the descendants of the Yushin dictator.

Amnesty International has criticized the mobilization of police forces against the strike as a flagrant violation of the international standard.

It is so natural for the railway workers to down tools in protest against the "government's" plan for privatization of the railway sector, which would favor plutocrats only.

The south Korean authorities are sticking to anti-popular oppressive rules in disregard of the demand and interests of popular masses.

During the presidential election campaign, the present chief executive made a lot of flattering commitments like "economic democracy" and "welfare", but none of them has been implemented until now.

The Park Geun Hye group's brutal suppression of the bare-handed protesters has enraged south Korean people.

The Confederation of Trade Unions denounced the brutal suppression as a declaration of war against all south Korean workers and declared that it would start an indefinite strike to depose Park from the "presidency". And it went into actions such as massive candlelight rallies and a grand meeting of one million people on the situation.

In support of the strike, the Democratic and other opposition parties and 1 280 civic organizations have staged all-people rallies and candlelight demonstrations one after another. Joining in them are students from scores of universities including Seoul National University, hundreds of thousands of civilians and even students of high schools.

The strike of the railway workers coincides with the growing anger of the south Korean people at the present regime over its illegal election, moves of reviving the Yushin dictatorship and deceptive election commitments, thus shaking Park's regime to its foundations.

It is self-evident that those who go against the interests of popular masses can never go scot-free.