Solidarity with Daewoo striking workers

Four thousand armed riot police stormed the Daewoo Motors' plant at 
Bupyong in South Korea recently. It was being peacefully occupied by 
several hundred striking workers and their families protesting against 
massive company sackings.

Many were viciously beaten and 76 were taken in for questioning. The riot 
police detained seven union leaders and warrants have been drawn up to 
arrest the top leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

Immediately after the police action the banks which had extended credit to 
the bankrupt company, gave the company a pat on the head for the crackdown 
by extending the credit period and providing it with even more funds.

The action of the banks showed in whose interests the government is acting. 
South Korea's President is Kim Dae-jung who was recently given the Nobel 
Prize for Peace because of negotiations between the Government of South 
Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Bupyong workers had begun their strike when the company announced the 
sacking of 1,750 workers. Many of the sacked workers are key union 
activists and militant workers indicating that the company is out to 
destroy the union at its Bupyong plant.

These sackings come on top of some 3,500 that have been laid off since last 
November, and thousands more since the collapse of the Daewoo empire in 
late 1998.

The sackings are taking place under the label of "restructuring" and are 
related to the sell-off of Daewoo to overseas interests. The government's 
economic rationalist "reforms" are a desperate attempt to salvage the 
crisis-ridden company and the crisis-ridden economy of South Korea at the 
expense of the working people's living conditions and democratic rights.

As in Australia, the Government is pouring billions of dollars into the 
pockets of the corporate robbers, while working people suffer more and more 
unbearable hardships.

When workers resort to mass struggle to defend even the little they still 
have the regime thunders down with batons, tear gas, water-canon and boots. 
It is nothing short of a war on the South Korean working people.

The workers have courageously held their ground and continue the struggle. 
They hold daily rallies in Bupyong and are winning the support of other 
workers and organisations.

In response, the regime has deployed even more police and is attempting to 
suppress all attempts at protest. The police action recalls similar 
suppression of workers during the years of South Korea's military fascist 
rule when workers had to converge at pre-arranged locations to hold 
surprise demonstrations.

The Daewoo workers and their unions are calling for urgent international 
solidarity support.

"We urgently call on the international workers' movement to take immediate 
solidarity action to place pressure on the vicious Kim Dae-jung regime. We 
request protests and industrial action to target the South Korean 
Government's embassies and consulates and the outlets and service centres 
of Daewoo Motors", says their appeal.

Send protest messages to Ambassador, Embassy Republic of Korea, 113 Empire 
Circuit, Yarralumla, ACT 2600. Fax: (02) 6273 4839.
Email adm2@embrok-canberra.org.au

Please send solidarity messages and copies of protests to: Park Seong-In, 
General Secretary, Power of the Working Class (PWC) <98@jinbo.net>