7th Congress of GFTUK Held

                                            

  Pyongyang, October 27 (KCNA) -- The 7th Congress of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) was held at the People's Palace of Culture Tuesday and Wednesday.
    The Congress reviewed the successes and experience gained after the 6th Congress and discussed tasks and ways for all the trade union organizations to creditably discharge their mission and duty as the reliable assistants and supporters of the Party in thoroughly carrying out the decisions made at the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
    Present there were delegates who were elected at conferences of the provincial trade unions.
    Officials of the party, administrative and armed forces organs and a delegation of the Union of Korean Teachers in Japan attended the congress as observers.
    The Congress approved the following agenda items:
    On the review of the work of the Central Committee of the GFTUK.
    On the review of the Central Auditing Commission of the GFTUK.
    On the revision of the rules of the GFTUK.
    On the election of the central leadership organ of the GFTUK.
    Conveyed at the congress was a letter "The Duty of the Working Class of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il for the Times and the Tasks Facing Trade Union Organizations" sent by supreme leader Kim Jong Un to the participants in the 7th Congress of the GFTUK.
    Introduced there were congratulatory messages and letters sent by trade union organizations and figures of political and social circles of different countries and international bodies on the occasion of the 7th Congress of the GFTUK.
    Also introduced there was a joint congratulatory message sent by the Labor Headquarters of the South Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration.
    Ju Yong Gil, chairman of the Central Committee of the GFTUK, made a report on the first agenda item.
    The reporter said that Kim Jong Un sent the letter to the participants in the 7th Congress of the GFTUK, thereby brightly indicating the duties assumed by the working class of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il before the times and the path to be followed by the trade unions.
    Over the past period since the 6th Congress of the GFTUK, the organization has been further strengthened into the one of the leader and the party and it was the proud days in which the organization successfully performed its mission and duty in the grand revolutionary advance for ushering in the new era of the Juche revolution, the Songun revolution, the reporter noted.
    He called on the GFTUK to play its role as dependable assistant and defender of the Party in the drive for implementing the tasks set forth at the 7th Congress of the WPK true to the letter sent by

Kim Jong Un.
    The head of the delegation of the Union of Korean Teachers in Japan made a congratulatory speech.
    It was followed by speeches on the first agenda item.
    A decision on the first agenda item was adopted.
    Sin Pong Ryol, chairman of the Central Auditing Commission of the GFTUK, made a report on the second agenda item.
    The third agenda item was discussed.
    A decision on the revision of the rules of the GFTUK was adopted.
    Then there was a discussion on the fourth agenda item.
    The congress elected the Central Committee and the Central Auditing Commission of the GFTUK.
    A decision of the First Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee of the GFTUK was made public.
    Ju Yong Gil was elected chairman of the C.C., GFTUK and Choe Su Dong, Pong Won Ik, Han U Phal, Kim Tong Son, Choe Pong Man, Rim Chang Bok, Ri Chol Jun and Kim Song Su were elected its vice-chairmen.
    Department directors of the C.C, GFTUK and the editor-in-chief of Rodongja Sinmun, the organ of the C.C, GFTUK, were appointed.
    The results of the election of the chairman and vice-chairmen of the Central Auditing Commission of the GFTUK held at the First Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Auditing Commission of the GFTUK were made public. -0-

Apeal of Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front south Korea

Appeal to the fellow countrymen

Dear fellow countrymen!

Now south Korea is vibrant with fiercer actions against the Park Geun-hye regime which has committed thrice-cursed treason and sycophancy unprecedented in history of the Korean nation.

Cheer of actions is resounding across south Korea including Busan, Gwangju, Seongju and Gimcheon as well as Seoul where Cheongwadae, a cesspool of treason, and other government institutions are located. 

Righteous and gallant workers, who would not tolerate the conservative group strangling the lives of the workers with brutal labor policy, are at the head of the actions.

In the wake of general strike in July and September, many unionists and civil servants have launched an indefinite general strike against the introduction of piecework system resulting in sweated labor and massive dismissal.

The actions of the peasant organizations including the Association of Rice Producers and the National Federation of Peasants Associations against the agricultural policy of the Park clique are getting fiercer.

Thousands of peasants from eighty regions of south Korea went up to Seoul to hold rallies in demand of right to live and resignation of the Park regime and marched toward Cheongwadae to make the authorities rigid.

The nationwide action against the government is getting more intense with death of Baek Nam-gi who breathed his last after he was hit by water cannon fired by the riot police.

The emergency measure committee for inter-Korean economic exchange, 1, 140 business groups and people took to the streets to denounce the authorities that bedeviled inter-Korean ties. The actions against deployment of THAAD in Seongju and Gimcheon and other regions are mounting.

The escalating struggle against the “government” in different parts is the brave eruption of resistance and will of all the people not to tolerate the Park Geun-hye regime's unpopular rule, corruption and incompetence, pro-US policy and policy of confrontation with compatriots any longer.

The conservative authorities should know it is none other than the Park group that propelled the people to launch the nationwide campaign.

The murderous labor policy, anti-popular rule, and revival of “yusin” and manslaughter of the Park group kindled the south Korean people’s pent-up wrath.

In retrospect, Park has deceived the public sentiment after she took the presidency by advertising honeyed words such as “Era of people’s happiness”, “Stabilization of the people’s livelihood”and “Unification bonanza”.

The Park regime has reduced south Korea into a veritable hell and turned it into a theater of nuclear war of foreign forces.

The youth unemployment is on the increase and people get low wages and hunt jobs. It is the Park regime that made south Korea rank itself top in poverty and suicide under the signboard of “welfare”.

It is the Park group that has cracked down on the righteous action of people demanding those responsible for the sink of ferry Sewol for thirty months.

Fascist suppression, and illegality and corruption are twin brothers.

The public curse on Park, who mentions“uprightness” and “clean politics”before the public and devotes herself to illegality and corruption behind the screen, has reached a boiling point.

Park, who is the very spit of her father Park Chung-hee, has embezzled billions of money from conglomerates for her retirement when the working people suffer abject poverty. 

The scandal of the MI-R Foundation and the K-Sports Foundation that sparked off public furor reveals that Park is a boss of illegality and corruption and political charlatan without an equal in the world.

The south Korean people would suffer holocaust of a nuclear war, far from peace, if THAAD is deployed.

Nevertheless,the Park clique is making last-ditch efforts to deploy THAAD, clamoring about deceptive “security crisis”.

All the crimes of the Park's regime are a vicious challenge to the mindset of the people desirous of justice and truth and a declaration of a war against the fellow countrymen hoping for peace and reunification.

The history of south Korea has been stained with treachery, sycophancy, anti-popular policy and fascist rule, however, it never witnessed the worst people’s livelihood and volatile situation.

The south Korean people will be driven deeper into the slough of poverty and they cannot escape the miserable disaster of a nuclear war entailed by the evil cycle of the confrontation with compatriots as long as Park Geun-hye, hateful pronoun of arrogance and self-complacency, misunderstanding, arbitrary practices, incompetence and ignorance, stays in Cheongwadae.

The current situation urgently requires the nationwide action against the Park regime, the enemy and the root of evil of the people,

The nationwide action being waged across south Korea is not only for the right to live but the action of punishment and justice to ostracize the Park group which inflicts all sorts of misfortune and pains, war and destruction upon the people.

Now is the time to throw the Park group into the dustbin of history by intensifying the nationwide action.

Dear fellow countrymen!

The duration of the Park clique multiplies the people’s misfortune and pain.

Turn out in the nationwide action to ostracize the Park group!

Decisively smash the system of the piecework system, new slave system, with united struggle!

Smash the anti-workers policy of Park resulting in filling purse of vicious business groups, wage reduction and massive dismissal!

Withdraw Park from Cheongwadae by introducing the piecework system to herself, the good-for-nothing!

Decisively reject “four-point restructuring reform”and eradicate the Park regime!

Dear peasants! Overthrow the Park Geun-hye regime devastating land of life of peasants with unprecedented murderous agricultural policy and build a new world where peasants live as befitting human being by our own efforts!

Resolutely block the import of American rice killing the peasants!

Youth! Take the lead in the anti-Park Geun-hye struggle to get out of disgraceful plight!

Youth should lead the van of democracy and reunification in unity.

Let all women bravely join in the nationwide resistance judging the Park Geun-hye regime which brought the era of disregarding women with sex inequality and wage distinction!

Let all religionists bravely turn out in the just struggle to push into hell the evil group of Park Geun-hye trying to turn religious Holy Land into a military base of outside forces and target of nuclear strike!

The Park clique has made frantic bid to tide over its serious political crisis by escalating inter-Korean confrontation and launching war games against north Korea.

Let all the people throw into the rubbish heap of history pro-US traitorous group of Park Geun-hye trying to deploy THAAD in this land at any cost going against mindset of the people!

Ensure peace and security to check deployment of THAAD by pooling efforts of the nation!

Let us give the Park regime, which is justifying deployment of THAAD by trumpeting “security crisis”,quietus!

Develop the people’s drive for the right to live into a patriotic action for peace and independent reunification!

Resign the Park regime and realize reunification and prosperity by reviving the June 15 era!

The sense of organization and solidarity is a key to victory.

The action to achieve democracy, people’s rights, the right to life and independent reunification is strange to difference of class, strata, party affiliation, political view and religion.

The withdrawal of the Park regime is a shortcut to provide a sure guarantee for democracy and right to life desired by the people and no-deployment of THAAD.

Wage a continuous and strong nationwide drive until the close of the Park group!

The working people of every circle should wage a joint action, transcending affiliation, groups and regions.

Shatter the authorities’ fascist suppression of righteous action by united efforts of the nation!

Victory is in store for the people who turn out as one in a righteous drive in high spirits. 

Let all the people turn out in the anti-Park Geun-hye struggle through death-defying resistance and bring about a new world of a reunified powerful and prosperous country, genuine world of working people free from subordination, submission, exploitation, oppression, flunkeyism and treachery, at an early date!

AINDF Central Committee

October 15, 2016

DPRK GFTU Building Revamped

This is the DPRK's equilavent to the British TUC it certainly puts Congress House to shame. The DPRK has genuine revolutionary trades unions that unlike many trade unions in the capitalist countries are free from bourgeois ideas.
   Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- The Central Hall of Workers located in the picturesque Munsu area in Pyongyang was successfully remodeled and opened to public with due ceremony Tuesday.
    The house is equipped with enough seats for international and internal events, rooms for hobby groups, training and make-up rooms and exhibition hall.
    Present at the ceremony were Choe Ryong Hae, Ju Yong Gil, chairman of the Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, officials concerned, officers and members of the Speed Campaign Youth Shock Brigade who took part in the project, officials concerned, officials and members of the trade unions and workers in Pyongyang.
    Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, made an address.
    He said that the hall is a gift Marshal Kim Jong Un provided to the working people and members of the trade unions, and a monumental edifice in the era of the Workers' Party.
    He called upon employees of the hall to eternally glorify the leadership feats of the peerlessly great men of Mt. Paektu and meticulously organize the management and operation in order to make sure that the Party's love and care reach the working people and members of the trade unions. -0-

WFTU Congress Supports Independent Reunification of Korea

Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- The 17th Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) adopted a solidarity resolution supporting the independent reunification of Korea. It took place in Durban of South Africa from Oct. 5 to 7.
    The resolution said:
    Korea is one.
    Korea should be reunified by the Korean nation itself at the will and in line with the demand common to the nation. This is the common desire and aspiration of not only the Korean nation but also world progressives.
    Reunification only can provide the Korean workers and other broad masses with genuine peace, happy life, independent development and prosperity.
    The three principles of national reunification-- independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity--jointly agreed by the north and south of Korea, the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo and the ten-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation serve as the three charters for national reunification, the June 15 joint declaration the keynote of which is the idea of By Our Nation Itself is a historic landmark for the independent reunification and the October 4 declaration is a programme for implementing it.
    In solidarity and alliance with progressive trade organizations of the world and international organizations, the WFTU will stage a series of protest actions of diverse forms in succession to put pressure on the U.S. to clearly understand the strategic position of the DPRK and the trend of the times and drop its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK, replace the Armistice Agreement by a peace treaty and withdraw all its aggression troops and war equipment including nuclear weapons from south Korea.
    It strongly demands the south Korean authorities stop all reckless politically motivated military provocations and war drills against the fellow countrymen in the north which are in pursuance of the U.S. policy and are imperiling the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.
    It expresses solidarity with the workers and other people of the DPRK in their efforts to ensure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and reunify the country by a federal formula under the uplifted banner of national independence and great national unity, ardently calling on trade union organizations of all countries and international bodies to extend support and encouragement to the just struggle of General Federation Trade Unions of Korea in the future, too. -0-

From ITUC

Human and trade union rights News

Korea: Imprisonment of KCTU President a Travesty of Justice

4 July 2016

• Human and trade union rights
,
• Korea, South

The ITUC has described the sentencing of KCTU President Han Sang-gyun to five years’ in prison on charges of “obstruction” as a travesty of justice.

Photo: KCTU

The sentence was handed down by Seoul Central District Court following allegations by government prosecutors stemming from a series of legitimate protest assemblies in 2015, including a November 14 2015 rally in Seoul in which 100,000 demonstrators were met with tear gas and water cannon used by some 20,000 police. Dozens were injured, some seriously, and criminal procedures were launched against 585 KCTU leaders and members, 20 of whom are in custody and seven facing indictment. KCTU Secretary General Lee Young-joo remains under self-imposed house arrest at the KCTU headquarters after receiving an arrest warrant in December.
Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said: “This criminalisation of legitimate protest is totally unacceptable, and reinforces the power of Korea’s Chaebol industrial conglomerates which already dominate the economy. President Park Geun-hye’s governing party already lost its parliamentary majority in the elections in April, but she seems determined to continue to allow business to call the shots regardless of the harm caused to working people. The sentencing of Han Sang-gyun shows that the courts are subjugated to the political agenda of a government that has no majority, rather than standing up for the rule of law. The international trade union movement will continue to press for his release and the withdrawal of all the charges against those facing court proceedings for simply standing up for workers’ rights and other fundamental freedoms.”
In a letter to Park on 15 June, the ITUC wrote: “Criminal charges against union leaders and members are a clear violation of fundamental rights and in particular the right to freedom of association. Regrettably, these repressive measures seem to have become a common response by the Korean government against dissenting voices. We therefore urge your government to drop all charges against trade unionists for actions undertaken as part of their peaceful and legitimate trade union activities, including Han Sang-gyun and Lee Young-joo; and stop criminalisation of trade union leaders and activists. Moreover, we call on you to review the national legal framework in consultation with trade union and civil society organisations in order to prevent such abuses in the future.”
Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union (KPTU) Vice President Cho Sung-deok is also facing charges arising from the 14 November demonstration. Prosecutors are seeking a five-year prison sentence.
Maina Kiai, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council in June concerning the cases of Han Sang-gyun and human rights defender Park Lae-goon stating that “charging assembly participants with certain criminal offenses, such as the general obstruction of traffic, de facto criminalises the right to peaceful assembly.”

Trade Union Officials Tour Revolutionary Battle Sites in Area of Mt. Paektu

    Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- Officials and primary information officials of the trade unions toured the revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu from July 20 to 28 on the 63rd anniversary of the victory of the Korean people in the great Fatherland Liberation War.
    They laid floral baskets and bouquets before the statues of President Kim Il Sung at the Monument to the Victorious Battle of Pochonbo, Pochonbo Revolutionary Battle Site, Chongbong Bivouac, Monument to the Victorious Battle in the Musan Area and at the shore of Lake Samji and before the mosaic depicting the three commanders of Mt. Paektu at leader

Kim Jong Il's birthplace in the Paektusan Secret Camp before paying tribute to them.
    At Pochonbo they went round the then command post of the Battle of Pochonbo, police sub-station and subcounty office.
    At Chongbong Bivouac they looked round revolutionary historical relics associated with the traces left by Kim Il Sung on his way to the homeland.
    While going round the groups of subsidiary theme sculptures at the Samjiyon Grand Monument and revolutionary historical relics at the shore of Lake Samji against the background of Mt. Paektu, they learned about revolutionary exploits of Kim Il Sung and the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners' spirit of devotedly defending the leader and patriotism.
    They also visited the Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station and toured the revolutionary battle site in Sinsadong and the Monument to the Victorious Battle in the Musan Area.
    They climbed Mt. Paektu, where they hardened their will to glorify for all ages the exploits of the great leaders and accomplish the cause of the Juche revolution under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea.
    They visited the Paektusan Secret Camp and held an oath-taking meeting in front of Kim Jong Il's birthplace.
    During the tour they held various political and cultural events like meeting to hear impressions of the reminiscences of anti-Japanese guerrillas read by them, poem-reciting and sports and amusement games. -0-

Workers’ drive against retrogressive labour reform

South Korean workers’ action against the south Korean authorities’ retrogressive labor reform is fiercer.   The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) entered into a large-scale general strike across south Korea on July 20 The workers staged general strike at more than 250 worksites in 14 areas demanding the abrogation of anti-worker policy, stop to suppression of the KCTU, stop to restructuring sacrificing workers, wage-hike and ensuring of the rights of part-time workers, teachers and government employees. The KCTU held a rally for the general strike with attendance of over 11 000 workers in Seoul. The acting chairman of the KCTU said that the government and capitalists branded the general strike as an illegal and egoistic and asked back that who take an illegal act and drive the part-timers to death.    The business groups are discharging the workers by enforcing the labor restructuring and suppressing righteous trade unions activities, and neglecting to take appropriate measures when the part-timers are killed or wounded by accident, he noted.   The chairman of trade unions of public transportation warned that unless the piecework system aiming at mass dismissal is withdrawn until September 27, the workers of the key industries and public sectors would launch an indefinite general strike. They went to the building of the national assembly to hold another rally. They poured out their hearts that a high-ranking public official defiled the popular masses as dog and pig. They branded the high-ranking bureaucrats of the "government" and the police, servants of the power, as dogs barking at their owners and the plutocrats as pigs as they betray even the people to meet their interests. The righteous action of south Korean workers, who want to lead a life worthy of man, would keep a vigorous progress.

Seventh Congress of GFTUK to Be Convened

Hyesan, July 20 (KCNA) -- Officials of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) and primary information workers started the study tour of revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu on the 63rd anniversary of the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.
    A kick-off meeting was held before the Monument to the Victorious Battle of Pochonbo on Wednesday.
    The participants laid bouquets before the statue of President Kim Il Sung at the monument and paid tribute to him.
    A reporter and speakers said that the revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu are eternal treasures which cannot be bartered for anything as the Songun revolution started there and the Korean revolution struck its roots.
    The battle sites associated with the revolutionary history and exploits of the peerlessly great persons of Mt. Paektu reflect the intention of the Workers' Party of Korea to achieve a final victory of the cause of the Juche revolution at any cost, they noted, adding:
    All members of the study group should deeply grasp the greatness of the peerlessly great persons of Mt. Paektu and the history of the Songun revolution and thoroughly arm themselves with the revolutionary tradition of Paektu, eternal bedrock of the Korean revolution.
    At the end of the meeting, they went round the monument and visited the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery in Hyesan. -0-

Seventh Congress of GFTUK to Be Convened

  Pyongyang, July 20 (KCNA) -- The Seventh Congress of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) is to be held here late in October, Juche 105 (2016).
    It will review the 35-year-long course in which the GFTUK has been strengthened into the mass political organization remaining loyal to the Workers' Party of Korea since the Sixth Congress of the GFTUK and discuss the tasks for its organizations to discharge their mission and role as the organizations for ideological education in the general offensive and charge for implementing the decision made at the Seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea. -0-

No Deployment of THAAD!

On July 8, the U.S. and the south Korean belligerent group decided to deploy THAAD in south Korea, despite the unanimous opposition and rejection of the south Korean people and many other countries.

They mislead the public opinion by saying their decision is an inevitable option as north Korean rockets and its test-fire pose a serious threat to south Korea and the Asia-Pacific region.

The THAAD deployment is a direct product of the sinister ambition of the U.S. to dominate the world by holding its military hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region and the south Korean puppet group's vicious moves to escalate the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north in a bid to invade the north, backed by its master.

The deployment is aimed at establishing an Asia-version NATO with the U.S.-south Korean alliance as an axis to contain great powers and take military supremacy in Northeast Asia.

There are strong protests against the U.S. and south Korean authorities’ decision of deployment of THAAD throughout south Korea.

On July 9, there took place a large-scale rally with the participation of more than 3,000 people under the sponsorship of the Chilgok measure committee against the deployment of THAAD composed of various circles of people.

The people in the county would not offer even one pyeong (one pyeong equals 3.3 square meters) for the deployment of the THAAD, they stressed.

The civic organizations noted that the decision of THAAD deployment was released one-sidedly without public consensus as it is an issue vital to security of the people. They urged the U.S. and south Korean authorities to withdraw the decision at once as the decision would heighten military tension on the Korean Peninsula.

The opposition parties including the People’s Party and the Justice Party said that the decision of deployment of THAAD should be cancelled and reexamine it as it would touch off arms race in the Northeast Asia and constitute a threat to peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula.

The introduction of THAAD to south Korea shows the Park Geun-hye regime is a group of an unparalleled traitor.

Struggle is the only way out for workers

South Korean workers’ actions against the authorities’ anti-workers policy is brisk.

20, 000 construction workers under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions launched a general strike in front of the Seoul Station on July 6.

Saying that they are forced to work for long hours with a low wage, they denounced the authorities’ unpopular policy inviting these awkward situations.

They marched along the street holding placards written “No suppression of the construction trade unions”.

The unionists assembled in front of the Seoul City Office to hold a large-scale rally.

Deploring that backbreaking work only brings overdue wages or industrial disaster, they said that they have struggled in demand of guarantee of working hours and wage raise for over a decade.

Far from lending an ear to the workers, the Park Geun-hye regime put a brake on the motion of livelihood in the 19th “National Assembly” by presenting the retrogressive revision of labor reform.

They advanced 18 demands of the trade union on the law related to the construction work.

The demands are designed to keep elementary rights of the workers and maintain low life, they noted and stressed that the Park clique should accept it to settle them.

The south Korean workers’ action will be fiercer as long as the conservative ruling quarters batten a tiny conglomerates by granting all privilege to them whereas inflict suffering and poverty upon the workers.