Industrial unionism is a trade union organising method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations. De Leon believed that militarized Industrial unions would be the vehicle of class struggle.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), literally translated as National Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions, also known as Minju-nochong, is a national trade union centre in South Korea officially established in 1995. Its predecessor was the National Council of Trade Unions (NCTU), established in 1990 as an independent, democratically operated alternative to the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.
The Democratic Labor Party was a progressive and nationalist political party in South Korea. It was founded in January 2000, in the effort to create a political wing for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions which was considered more left-wing and more independent of the two union federations in South Korea. Its party president was Kwon Young-gil, Kang Gi-gap, and Lee Jung-hee. In December 2011, the party merged into the Unified Progressive Party.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) was a pro-democracy labour and political group in the Hong Kong. It was established on 29 July 1990. It had 160,000 members in 61 affiliates and representation in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) to challenge government policies and push for legal protection of worker and trade union rights. It was one of the two most influential labour groups in Hong Kong, with the other one being the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions.
Minjung (Korean: 민중) is a Korean word that combines the two hanja characters min (民) and jung (衆). Min is from inmin, which may be translated as "the people", and jung is from daejung, which may be translated as "the public". Thus, minjung can be translated to mean "the masses" or "the people."
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) is a national trade union center in South Korea formed in 1960. It represents the company union tendency of the South Korean labour movement, as opposed to the more militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
In December 1996 and January 1997, South Korea experienced the largest organized strike in its history, when workers in the automotive and shipbuilding industries refused to work in protest against a law which was to make firing employees easier for employers and curtail labor organizing rights.
The Argentine anarchist movement was the strongest such movement in South America. It was strongest between 1890 and the start of a series of military governments in 1930. During this period, it was dominated by anarchist communists and anarcho-syndicalists. The movement's theories were a hybrid of European anarchist thought and local elements, just as it consisted demographically of both European immigrant workers and native Argentines.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on December 30, 2021, that as of 2020, 14.2% of workers were in trade unions in South Korea, a 1.7% increase from 12.5% in 2019. Korea's unionization rate peaked in 1989 at 19.8% and fell to 10% 2004.
The June Democratic Struggle, also known as the June Democracy Movement and the June Uprising, was a nationwide pro-democracy movement in South Korea that generated mass protests from June 10 to 29, 1987. The demonstrations forced the ruling government to hold direct presidential elections and institute other democratic reforms, which led to the establishment of the Sixth Republic, the present-day government of the Republic of Korea.
Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS), an activist group for independent unions in Egypt. Involved in activism for over 20 years, Abbas has been active in mobilizing worker support during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and its aftermath. His approach emphasizes peaceful strikes and rallies accompanied by demands for better wages and working conditions, as well as more regular elections for union officials, and an independent union system.
Progressivism in South Korea is a left-leaning political ideology, broadly associated with social democracy, cultural progressivism, and left-wing nationalism. It advocates for the promotion of social equality and welfare, economic justice, the protection of human rights and minority groups, peace and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula, as well as environmental sustainability.
The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considered an instance of class conflict.
The Korean Women Workers Association is an organization in South Korea dedicated to advancing the human rights for working women and promoting gender equality. KWWA offers leadership training and monitors the effects of government policies on women workers.
The first Korean student movement begun in 1919, when students took part in the March First Movement to call for the end of Japanese colonization. The student movement has since then played a major part in several big political changes in Korea. Before liberation of Korea from Japanese rule in 1945, the main focus of the student movement was opposing this rule and demanding Korea's independence. After 1945, the student movements were mainly concerned with righting alleged wrongs in the Korean government. Students rose for instance against the South Korea's government of Syngman Rhee after the allegedly rigged elections in March 1960. 1980 marked a turning point in the South Korean student movement. After the Gwangju massacre in May 1980, the student movement got a clear vision, based on Marxism. Student activism is still common on the 21st century South Korean political scene.
The E-Land strike was a strike of South Korean workers waged by the E-Land labor union against the mass-downsizing initiated by New Core Co. and Homever Outlet, affiliated retail organizations of the E-Land Group. The strike, which lasted for 510 days from June 10, 2007, to November 13, 2008, called for the end of the discriminatory system of irregular employment and the reinstatement of dismissed unionized workers.
Women in Asia have been organizing to address workplace issues, such as unequal pay and workplace violence as early as the 1880s. The formation of women's labor unions in South Korea began in the late 1970s with the Minjung movement, as it is based on the mobilization of young female factory workers and martial law suspended labor rights. Women in South Korea are typically irregular workers, who are not protected by labor laws, make up to 35% less in wages than men, and are less likely to be a union member.
Undongkwon or Undonggwon, which refers to "the movement sphere" in Korean, is a term associated with the Minjung movement in South Korea during the 1970s and the 1980s. The Minjung movement was a social movement that recognized the people who were culturally and systematically neglected by the South Korean government for economic advancement. The term, Undongkwon, is also understood as a "counter public sphere," which is an environment where Minjung movement activists can plan their beliefs and ideals against the commonly accepted belief systems. Alternatively, Undongkwon is conceptualized to include the individuals and any activists who were involved. They believed in laws and social movements which would prioritize helping the common person or citizen above all other governmental focuses. In addition to a strong alliance with laborers, they had an equal devotion to community which began the opposition to western culture and the South Korean government. At this revolutionary time, there were many mobilized groups against the South Korean public agenda such as student movements, visual arts movements Madanggŭk and labor movements.
The September 1946 Korean general strike was a nationwide strike led by the Communist Party of Korea in which more than 250,000 workers participated. It was fuelled by a growing independence movement after the imposition of the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK). Although the strike's events were studied by the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2005 to 2010, they remain disputed.
The 2021 Korean Confederation of Trade Unions strike was a general strike organised by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in October 2021.
