The 10th Anniversary of One President’s Death and the
10 Month Anniversary of Another One’s Inauguration

On March 25, many rallies were held in various parts of Seoul starting in the afternoon. Workers, farmers, and the poor movement organized rallies respectively, and the "4th National Rally to Try the Humiliating Diplomacy" was held to condemn the Yoon regime's diplomacy with Japan. About 20,000 people participated and demanded further assessment of the Yoon government. The Yoon government's recent policies — flexible working hours (the so-called 69-hour work week), public fee hikes, and the shifting of the responsibility for compensating the victims of the Japanese Colonial Era forced mobilization from the Japanese companies that had exploited them (who have also failed to apologize) to Korean ones — have sparked public anger. The results from the Korea-Japan summit further heightened the anger.

The statement of the rally reads "the government is consistently distorting and making excuses in the name of future generations. Public anger is spreading not only due to forced mobilization, but also due to the Dokdo issue, Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge, and military cooperation between Korea and Japan."

What we could witness in Venezuela in March is different from what we could witness in Korea. Many of Korea’s former presidents have been charged with bribery, abuse of authority, collusion, and creating a slush fund before and after their terms. The approval rating of the current president after just 10 months in office is 34%. In other words, two-thirds of the people don't support the Yoon government. In contrast, in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is respected by more than half of Venezuelans even on the 10th anniversary of his death. The difference between the two may be whether they listen to people's voices and make real changes.

The 10-month Yoon administration appears to ignore people's voice. This means we need to gather bigger and shout louder until they listen. This is because, as history shows, the rights and freedoms acquired by the people were not given, but won by struggle.

Written by Son Jong-pil (Policy Research Team)

Translated by Steven Lee (Translation Team)

In the end it is a policy that represents the interest of the capitalists. From a global perspective, the Korean work hours are already very long, so it would not be feasible to formally extend them further. As a result, the government presented their flexibilization as a workaround. The government presented “mutual consent on working conditions”, but without a labor union’s power to defy the employer, this would obviously be a consent in name only. According to the information released by the Ministry of Labor last December, the union membership rate in Korea is only 14.2%, with 2.93 million members. It is only clear that working hours would increase under paper-thin consent in smaller, non-unionized workplaces. This increase in working hours serve only to increase the profit of capitalists. The availability of profit is limited under currently allowed working hours, and in the cutthroat competition between capitalists, securing additional working hours would be a godsend.

[Info Deck for International Women’s Day] 

#EmbraceEquity

On March 3, the ISC was invited to an exhibition to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Chavez's death at the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We celebrate the 10th anniversary of the passing of that herald of 21st Century Socialism by looking at the world through Chaves’ eyes!

The ISC organized its members to participate in the 38th International Women's March in Seoul, which celebrated March 8th's International Women's Day. The event's main slogan was "March Towards Gender equality" in daily life and the workplace, as well as  a message of peace.