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"Our first priority has to be to fight against the possibility of war on the peninsula and elsewhere." Christian Karl reports on the struggle of migrant workers in South Korea and their mutually supportive relationship with the anti-war movement.

South Korea: migrant workers and the anti-war movement

Christian Karl

"Migrant workers from different nationalities in Korea stand united against the US war against Iraq. We join in solidarity with other peace--and freedom--loving people in Korea and the rest of the world, and withmillions of our fellow migrants and compatriots in our homelands andoverseas, in saying NO! to this unjust war.". So read the text on a leaflet ETU-MB (Equal Trade Union Migrant's Branch, a part of the Korean Confeder-ation of Trade Unions/KCTU) members distributed during the anti-wardemonstration here in Seoul, the South Korean capital, on 15 February 2003.
Parallel to the mass movement against the US military presence on the Koreanpeninsula last autumn, the anti-war movement was also increasing. As duringthe anti-USFK (United States Forces Korea) rallies, the migrant workers move-ment participated in the anti-war protests actively from the beginning. On the firstanti-war demonstration last October only a few migrant workers took part at theevent, but very quickly the number of migrants participating in the South Kore-an peace movement increased.

Get organised!

But they didn't just take part in the demonstrations, they also mobilised intheir own communities as part of the wider anti-war movement. Along withKorean students they organised propaganda events in parts of Seoul wheresmall factories are located, factories in which migrant workers, predominantly,are employed, and also near the main mosque. Here they came into close con-tact with people mainly from Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The consequence of their mobilisationwas that, on the large demonstration that took place on 15 February, more than 50migrant workers participated and had their own bloc at the event. This, eventhough it was a Saturday in South Korea, which is generally an ordinary workingday, with 12-hour days being normal (especially for migrants, who are the mostexploited workers in Korea).

Playing an active role

On all the subsequent demonstrations, migrant workers, especially members ofthe ETU-MB, played a very active role. They wrote and distributed their ownleaflets and had posters expressing their outrage at the aggression against Iraq.
    "After the US imperialist invaded Iraq,Bush arrogantly said that the war is over! This is a big lie! The war is not over. It isonly starting. The US Imperialist is continuing its re-mapping or re-colonisation,not only in the Middle-East countries, but also in the South East Asian countries", aFilipino migrant said in a speech during the anti-war demonstration held on 12April and organised by Daham-kke (All Together), the youth organisation of theleftwing Democratic Labour Party. His words also expressed his worries about theUS military presence in his home country.
    As more and more migrant workersparticipated in the anti-war movement, they also began to organise themselves within Korean political groups - a really new development and something which has never happened before.
    So during this process, migrant workers not only took part in the peace move-ment, they also changed their own position--away from the periphery and closerto the centre of Korean society. And because of it they also became moreaccepted by, and received more attention from, the Korean public.

Unity and solidarity

So it was no great surprise that on 27 April the KCTU organised a "MigrantWorker Action Day" and that on the same day, in the afternoon, Korean stu-dent groups prepared a "Struggle Cultural Festival" to offer support on themigrant worker issue in Korea.
During the cultural festival, more then300 migrant workers and Koreans participated, the students demanded full demo-cratic and labour rights for migrant workers and ETU-MB members demand-ed the immediate withdrawal of South Korean troops from Iraq - and of coursean end to the US occupation. The festival strongly expressed the unity and solidari-ty between Koreans and migrant workers, not only in the struggle for full rights formigrant workers and the struggle against the war in Iraq but also against a possibleUS attack against North Korea.
Mahabuti, a migrant worker from Bangladesh commented: "Without peace in Korea we won't even need a work visa anymore. So our first priority has to be to fight against the possibility of war on the peninsula and elsewhere!"

Christian Karl is a German journalist, living and working in Seoul. In spring 2002 he joined the ETU-MB and began working with migrant worker activists. He is also involved in the antiwar movement. See http://run.to/nowar .

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