Greeting from KCTU
I should like to greet heartily as comrade to all the fighting labor
brothers and sisters gathering to the November 9th National Workers Rally.
I am Go Jong-Hwan, President of Seoul Area Local KCTU from South Korea.
Tojen (struggle)! I introduce to you comrade Kim Chang Seob, Vice
President of Seoul Area Local and comrade Mun Mun-Ju, Director of
Organization of Seoul Area Local. First of all we thank comrade TANAKA
Yasuhiro, President of DORO-CHIBA and comrade union members who invited
us. Besides we thank you all present here on behalf of Korean
workers. I am very happy here to make solidarity with workers comrade.
Frankly speaking, I do not feel at ease for the situation of the workers
in Korea is so severe, with which I confront. The Korean government and
capitals are enforcing repression on the lawful exercise of the
fundamental rights of labor, such as right of association and right of
collective bargaining, which is guaranteed by the Constitution and the
ILO, through civil and criminal measures such as seizure of property/wage
for damages, detention etc. They do not keep their promise of abolishing
discrimination against irregular workers. On the contrary they are
intending to revise law to expand irregular employment. Labor policy of
the Korean government is formulated in the recently published "Roadmap for
Industrial Relations Reform". Its essence lies in binding workers by hands
and feet and strengthening counteraction right of employers. Five workers
are driven into suicide this year by the enforcement of the governmental
policy for our regret. Moreover, a worker is still in danger of life. The
tragic deaths of these comrades are cruel products of the neo-liberal
policy of expelling workers and 'murder' by the Roh Moo-Hyun
administration that has been organizing repression on labor
movement. The Roh Moo-Hyun administration has decided to dispatch
troops to Iraq under the pressure of the US, neglecting the public opinion
of Korean people whose majority is opposed to it. In a word, the Roh
Moo-Hyun administration is not satisfied with overall killing of workers
at home through failure of its domestic policy and dares to commit to a
shameless act of demanding Korean people to massacre Iraqi people in
accord with the unrighteous US war of aggression on Iraq. To cope with
this serious situation, the KCTU has decided to wage an all-out general
strike with the following demands: to stop seizure of property/wage for
damages and repression on labor movement; to abolish discrimination
against irregular workers; to arrest employers who committed unfair labor
practice; to stop dispatch of troops to Iraq. On November 6, we waged the
first general strike with participation of 120 thousand workers and today
we are holding 100 thousand Workers Rally. We are determined to continue
our struggle through the second general strike on November 12 against
neo-liberalist repression of the government in collusion with
transnational capitals on labor movement. Comrades! There are
militant class-oriented activists of Japanese labor movement together
here. We sincerely congratulate you all again. We regard the fact itself
as very significant that we can be here with you, with all our comrades.
"Workers of the whole world, unite!" this internationalism of workers has
not been realized for certain period and in one country framework of labor
movement. This ideal has been sleeping in the book and has sounded clumsy.
But now in the era of globalization of neoliberalism, it must not remain
the mere comfortable slogan but must be materialized through our struggle.
Without realizing this ideal, we can't even maintain the historical
achievements that our predecessors of labor movement have acquired by
their fights with many sacrifices. Now under the global system of
capitalism, Workers internationalism must be the indispensable integral
part of workers struggle. It being realized, we can make our struggle one
step forward and can protect our right of existence and our fundamental
labor rights too. In this meaning, it is important for us, the Korean,
Japanese and American labor movement to fight against the war crisis
jointly, which has been brought about meanwhile by the "Nuclear Problem"
of North Korea. Military forces of US have now strongholds crossing over
the regional boundaries and move from there. So, if we want to cope with
this move, we must build up the coordinated movement that covers Japan,
Korea and the rest of the East Asia. We must above all prevent the
impending brutal warfare, prepared by both Japanese Militarism, symbolized
by the latest Emergency Legislation, and by US-Imperialism. At the same
time, it is also necessary that the movement against US-imperialism must
be fought inside the US itself, i.e. by the class-oriented labor movement
and anti-war movement. So, it is an urgent task for all of us to make
an international solidarity between Korean, American, and Japanese labor
movement. We must make further efforts to prevent globalization of
neoliberalism. For that purpose, we, the Korean labor movement, make its
best for our part. We wish with all our heart that today and this place
should be a milestone of the international class solidarity of Korean,
American and Japanese labor movement. Finally, we want to pay our warm
respects to all the participating comrades. Thank you very
much. |