Making a Workers Political Force in Korea

1. The Meaning of Workers Political Empowerment

The organic combination of economic struggle and political struggle is the basic task of the trade union movement. Trade unions have promoted various forms of political activity to achieve this task. This political activity has taken the form of not only acquirement of state power through electoral or insurrectionary politics, but also through use of political influence, and direct participation in the process of creating and implementing state policies.

Workers' political empowerment means that the working class develops into a social force with influence and potential by strengthening its capacity in the political sphere. In this sense, it can be conceptualized as follows: to build an autonomous party for the political activities of trade unions, to participate in the policy-making institutions of the government through involvement at the various electoral levels and/or to acquire state power partly or wholly.

The organizational form and organizing method for workers' political empowerment depends on the historical conditions on which a society stands. Presently, the current task for making labor movement into a political force is the construction of a workers party and the fostering of social forces that can support a workers party.

A workers party is the highest level of working class organization, because the political party is built upon a class base, not an occupational base. A workers party ultimately sets up capital, bourgeois parties and state power as the struggle target. Additionally, a fundamental transformation of capitalist society is the strategic goal of a workers party. Without making workers a social force, it is impossible to build this kind of political party. Making workers a social force means to identify their class identity and social position, to strengthen alliances with civil society movements, and to develop the labor movement.

2. The Basic Framework for Workers' Political Empowerment

Subjecthood

It is very important to set up the subjects of workers' political empowerment as: the working-class, trade unions and organizations in the labor movement. However, that doesn't mean that workers' political empowerment can be driven by the working-class alone. It can only be realized when the working-class marches in cooperation with the people's movement, which must be supported by a wide-ranging participation of ordinary people. Above all, the role of the trade union movement is critical in the course of forming a workers' party. As such, trade union movement must play the most active part in making the strategies and the tactics for workers' political empowerment. But we should not neglect the fact that a workers party and the trade union movement must be autonomous from and independent of each other.

Strategic Goal and Ideology

The strategic goal of workers' political empowerment cannot help but follow the ideological line of the labor movement and the people's movement which reflects the contradictory structure of Korean society. This line is the radical transformation of Korean society, i.e. substantial democratization or democratic revolution by way of political, economic, and social reform. But that doesn't mean that the ideology of workers' political empowerment is socialism in the traditional sense.

The political situations surrounding the movement make it difficult for the labor movement to come to power via electoral politics. If so, for the time being, it would be realistic to pursue greater unity of labor, social and political movements in order to take power. And the starting point is the consolidation of cooperation and alliances between labor organizations and political organizations. These are the principles for making workers a political force, principles we have learned from the history of labor movements in other countries.

A Workers Party

The party as the basis of workers' political empowerment would be one that is rooted in workers, is progressive, and that supports the mass/popular movement. And it would be a legal party, which participates in the electoral system and works to gain people's support. Therefore, above all, it is very important that a workers' party keep strong solidarity with all kind of people's movements, social movements, national-democratic movements, and civil society movements. The growth of a workers' party could be guaranteed only through the strengthening of workers' capacity in the social sphere, so a workers party must make its social position as a party for the common people clear.

3. The Current Tasks for Workers' Political Empowerment

It would be very difficult for a workers' party to overcome various obstacles confronted in the course of making a political force. If so, what is to be done at the present stage?

- The trade union movement must set up a long-term goal, decide the tactics of the political movement and construct a practical plan for every stage. It is necessary that discussion meetings be held at all levels to resolve various competing views and to concentrate them into a united political course.

- Workers' party as a political force must necessarily lead workers' struggles and contribute to the development of social movements. It is necessary that the trade union movement heighten workers' autonomy and political awakening, prepare concrete plans to continually improve trade union officers' capacity for theoretical analysis, and foster their political abilities. At the same time, widening the sphere and influence of the workers' political movement must not be neglected.

- To strengthen the capacity of this political force, all efforts must be undertaken to make alliances and have solidarity with people's movement, progressive political movements, and civil society movements. But, that must not lead to an "egotism" of the working class. The labor movement must do its best to protect people's rights to live and to meet people's need through many different activities.

- The trade union movement must be prepared to confront the continued assaults of the ruling conservative forces. This means strengthening popular organizations in their struggles and strengthening political organizations that are backed by the people.

- Through political training and awareness-building aimed at not only the trade union officers but also the rank-and-file union members, a common understanding should be spread and the active participation of the common people must be fostered. According to a this study, trade union members' consciousness of the importance of political empowerment is somewhat crude, and there is a deep and wide gap between the leadership and the rank-and-file, as well as among the different industries, occupations, and native regions. The reason for this is that until now political training and education was focused mainly on union officers and conducted imperfectly.

- For a party to be viable, the activities and functions of the trade union movement at the regional/local level must be reinforced, particularly since electoral politics depend on strong regional foundations.

The participation of the trade union movement in the forthcoming general election in the year 2000 will be a good opportunity to test if it is capable of carrying out the tasks above.