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 Gwangju Uprising, known in Korean as May 18, were student-led demonstrations that took place in Gwangju, South Korea, in May 1980. The uprising was in response to the coup d'état of May Seventeenth that installed Chun Doo-hwan as military dictator and the implementation of martial law. Following his ascent to power, Chun arrested opposition leaders, closed all universities, banned political activities, and suppressed the press. The uprising was violently suppressed by the South Korean military with the approval and logistical support of the United States under the Carter administration, which feared the uprising might spread to other cities and tempt North Korea to interfere. The uprising is also known as the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, the Gwangju Democratization Struggle, the May 18 Democratic Uprising or the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea.
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 April Revolution, also called the April 19 Revolution or April 19 Movement, were mass protests in South Korea against President Syngman Rhee and the First Republic from April 11 to 26, 1960, which led to Rhee's resignation.
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.
Jeon Tae-il was a South Korean sewing worker and workers' rights activist who committed suicide by self-immolation at the age of 22 in protest of the poor working conditions of South Korean factories during the Third Republic era. His death brought attention to the country's substandard labor conditions and advanced the formation of a labor union movement in South Korea.
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 South Korea.
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 May 18 Memorial Foundation is a prominent organization based in the city of Gwangju, South Korea, with a view to commemorate and develop the spirit of struggle and solidarity of the Gwangju Uprising, also known as the May 18 Democratic Uprising and May 18 Gwangju Uprising. The organization was founded in 1994 by the May 18 victims, Gwangju citizens, overseas Koreans and Korean nationals, who believe in promoting the May 18 spirit to respect the sacrifice of the victims, strengthen democracy of modern Korea and to stand in solidarity with the democratic struggles in Asia and beyond.
South Korean protest music or Minjung-Gayo is a form of modern protest singing culture in South Korea. It has been used as a musical means of supporting the Korean pro-democracy movement. It is mainly enjoyed by people who were critical of mainstream song culture during the democratization movement. The term "minjung-gayo" was coined in the mid-1980s when protest movements were rapidly growing in Korea, and to differentiate the minjung-gayo from popular songs. The minjung-gayo specifically includes the anti-Japanese songs from the Japanese colonial era, which continued until the early 1970s, and generally refers to the culture that began to mature in the late 1970s and which lasted until 1990.
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 1995 Myeong-Dong Migrant Labor Protest occurred in front of the Myeong-Dong Catholic Church in Seoul, South Korea. The nine day sit-in protest by 14 Nepalese migrant workers, which started on New Year's Day and lasted until January 9, was a demonstration against the Industrial Trainee System and the inhumane working conditions that stem from this guest worker program. Several events that led up to the 1995 sit-in includes Jeon Tae-Il's death, as well as rising anti-foreign worker sentiment and activism from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and the Korean Trade Unions Council (KTUC). The 1995 demonstration is notable for sparking the migrant labor rights movement, including the creation of the Migrant Worker Support Movement (MWSM) and the Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea (JCMK).
Women's role in the Democratization of South Korea is a topic that has been rarely discussed and rarely acknowledged. Women's participation in civil society has contributed to the process of the development of democracy in South Korea. Additionally, the democratization movement can be described as the increasing participation of marginalized groups such as women. Having said that, democratization was an outlet for women to transform their grievances into actual collective action. With the help of democratization, these activisms were made possible because it opened up tons of opportunities for civil society. Unfortunately, although women have played a role in the Democratization of South Korea, there were still internal and external problems that hindered their growth and development.
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 March For the Beloved is a Korean protest song that was composed in 1981 for the soul wedding of Democracy activist Yoon Sang-won and labor activist Park Ki-soon who were sacrificed during the Gwangju Uprising. The original author of the lyrics is Baek Ki-wan, and the composer is Kim Jong-ryul.
