Kim Jin-suk once sat atop a crane for 309 days. That historic protest, in 2011, helped to stop job cuts at Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, South Korea’s fourth-largest shipbuilder. Kim has been fighting for workers at Hanjin since 1986, when the company fired her from her position as a welder for her union activism, and is widely regarded as one of Korea’s most militant labor activists. In the ’80s and early ’90s, that meant fighting the authoritarian government; her friend and union comrade, Park Chang-su, died in police custody in 1991.1Thirty-one-year-old Park Chang-su was found dead behind the hospital where he had been brought after being beaten during a police interrogation. The police declared his death a suicide and seized his body before an independent autopsy could be performed. After the Asian financial crisis of 1997, as South Korea embraced neoliberalism, Kim and her allies fought the rise of temp work — at great cost. Three of Kim’s fellow unionists at Hanjin have committed suicide. As Kim recently said in a speech addressed to President Moon Jae-in, “My 20s went by without the chance to write a love letter. My youth was spent in the anti-espionage and felony units of police stations and in solitary confinement.”
Kim met Moon in 1986, when he was a human rights lawyer who had expressed sympathy for her ordeal with Hanjin. The two marched together in the streets against military rule. The people eventually won democracy, but labor was sidelined.
For Kim, a nation without a robust workers’ movement is no democracy at all. In October 2020, recently diagnosed with breast cancer, Kim launched a new symbolic campaign for her reinstatement at Hanjin. She has called not only for individual justice but for “the reinstatement of an era” — she wants the labor movement to revitalize South Korea’s democracy. In December of that year, she embarked on a protest march from Busan to Seoul, walking more than 200 miles. When she arrived in Seoul, Kim spoke at a rally in front of the Blue House presidential compound on February 8. What follows is a translation of her speech.
Where Has Democracy Gone?
The factory girls for whom Jeon Tae-il once bought red-bean pastries are still rubbing their weary eyes, running sewing machines with callused hands.2In 1970, Jeon Tae-il self-immolated in protest of horrific working conditions at sweatshops in Seoul. He was known for his advocacy on behalf of young female factory apprentices, often using his bus fare to buy meals for them.
Workers are fired who, for years, cleaned the shit from toilets at LG Twin Towers.3In late 2020, about 40 janitors, all in their 60s, began a sit-in at LG Twin Towers in Seoul, the corporate headquarters of the LG conglomerate. The company had fired them, citing poor performance, after they formed a union.
Kim Gye-wol, a subcontracted janitor, is dismissed after being treated worse than her mop.4Kim Gye-wol is a union leader with Asiana KO, an Asiana Airlines subcontractor, who was fired after forming a union.
The workers of KORAIL Networks are squatting, eating cold kimbap in Seoul Station. They are staging a sit-in, let go from their minimum wage jobs.5In February 2021, a subsidiary of KORAIL Networks, which maintains Korea’s high-speed train services, laid off about 200 workers.
How is it possible that Cha Hyon-ho, Kim Su-uk, and Byun Ju-hyeon are still hired as temps in a “labor-respecting society”?6Moon campaigned on a pledge to turn South Korea into a “labor-respecting society” by replacing temporary work with permanent jobs and improving labor rights. But Cha, Kim, and Byun were recently fired from their manufacturing jobs after campaigning for full-time status.
Why is it that the first thing youths learn is discrimination and disdain? Why are women under a “feminist” regime still the first to lose their jobs and more likely to die on the job?7Moon’s administration includes several female cabinet ministers and often calls itself a feminist government. Why, under a government that allegedly puts jobs first, are workers fired in droves from Zyle Daewoo, Gates Korea, and Eastar Jet? Why do workers still fear for their jobs at Ssangyong Motor and Hanjin?
Why are workers still starving, getting fired, and fighting in a country where a human rights lawyer who defended Park Chang-su and Kim Ju-ik is president?8Along with Kim Jin-suk, Kim Ju-ik and Park Chang-su made up the trio who began campaigning in 1986 to unseat their corrupt union leaders. Kim Ju-ik committed suicide in 2003 during a sit-in atop Crane 85 at Hanjin Heavy Industries. Eight years later, Kim Jin-suk began her own sit-in on the same crane.
Why are workers still dying during the presidency of a man who visited and apologized at the shrine of Choi Kang-seo?9Choi was a Hanjin worker who committed suicide in 2021 after management filed a lawsuit against him seeking around $1.5 million in damages relating to his role in a work stoppage. In a note he left behind, Choi wrote, “I am defeated by the tyranny of the haves — I don’t know what I should do now.”
Why did Kim Yong-gyun, Kim Tae-gyu, Lee Han-bit, Kim Dong-jun, and Hong Su-yeon die?10All five were contract workers in their early 20s who died on the job or of overwork in the past year.
The Sewol ferry and Stellar Daisy tanker are still underwater. How long do bereaved families have to fight?11The Sewol and the Stellar Daisy sank in 2014 and 2017, respectively, in deadly accidents whose causes remain undetermined. Three hundred and four people, most of them high school students, are still unaccounted for from the sinking of the Sewol, which was broadcast live, traumatizing the nation.
Why are Father Mun Jeong-hyeon and Paek Ki-wan still fighting the fight they started four decades ago against the military regime of Park Chung-hee?12Mun and Paek were famous dissidents under the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee, who ruled Korea from 1961 to 1979.
Why do I, Kim Jin-suk, remain without a job, 35 years after being fired under the Chun Doo-hwan regime?13Chun Doo-hwan took power after Park’s assassination in 1979 and ruled the country until 1987. I have walked for 34 days to get answers to these questions. I took thousands of steps, one by one, to ask why all these promises have been broken.
For 35 years, I have been a ghost, invisible to capital and power.
President Moon, can you see me?
Can you see me, still denied reinstatement, after candlelight protests catapulted you to the presidency?14Moon was elected in 2008 on a liberal ticket, after months of protests that removed Park Geun-hye from a presidency consumed by corruption and incompetence. South Koreans refer to this period as the Candlelight Revolution, for the lights carried at nighttime protests. Can you see me, dragged off in a bag and beaten to a bloody pulp? Me, still in pain, as though bound in chains?15Police abducted and beat her on at least three separate occasions in retaliation for her union activism.
Can you see the workers crying and fighting for undignified, minimum wage janitorial jobs? Can you see the worker who must explain to his 3-year-old boy why he can’t be at home — because he has to join a sit-in?
Comrades, democracy is built by fighters.
It is not built by those who betray their own past, not by those who talk the talk but do not walk the walk, not by those who discard their raft after crossing the river. It is built by us: We shed blood in order to stand where we are now. This is our democracy. I appreciate your walking this long road with me.
I express deep gratitude to the comrades who have staged a hunger strike and sit-in, as if carving their flesh and torching their own bones.16As Kim was marching to Seoul, supporters and activists staged a sit-in in front of the Blue House, the presidential residence.
We don’t know how long the road ahead of us will be.
Don’t give up. Don’t fall down. I won’t.
Fight to the last — with a smile!
Kap S. Seol is a writer based in New York. He has been writing about Kim since 2011 for Labor Notes, The Progressive, and Jacobin. In October 2011, he arranged for Kim to address Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park.
- 1Thirty-one-year-old Park Chang-su was found dead behind the hospital where he had been brought after being beaten during a police interrogation. The police declared his death a suicide and seized his body before an independent autopsy could be performed.
- 2In 1970, Jeon Tae-il self-immolated in protest of horrific working conditions at sweatshops in Seoul. He was known for his advocacy on behalf of young female factory apprentices, often using his bus fare to buy meals for them.
- 3In late 2020, about 40 janitors, all in their 60s, began a sit-in at LG Twin Towers in Seoul, the corporate headquarters of the LG conglomerate. The company had fired them, citing poor performance, after they formed a union.
- 4Kim Gye-wol is a union leader with Asiana KO, an Asiana Airlines subcontractor, who was fired after forming a union.
- 5In February 2021, a subsidiary of KORAIL Networks, which maintains Korea’s high-speed train services, laid off about 200 workers.
- 6Moon campaigned on a pledge to turn South Korea into a “labor-respecting society” by replacing temporary work with permanent jobs and improving labor rights. But Cha, Kim, and Byun were recently fired from their manufacturing jobs after campaigning for full-time status.
- 7Moon’s administration includes several female cabinet ministers and often calls itself a feminist government.
- 8Along with Kim Jin-suk, Kim Ju-ik and Park Chang-su made up the trio who began campaigning in 1986 to unseat their corrupt union leaders. Kim Ju-ik committed suicide in 2003 during a sit-in atop Crane 85 at Hanjin Heavy Industries. Eight years later, Kim Jin-suk began her own sit-in on the same crane.
- 9Choi was a Hanjin worker who committed suicide in 2021 after management filed a lawsuit against him seeking around $1.5 million in damages relating to his role in a work stoppage. In a note he left behind, Choi wrote, “I am defeated by the tyranny of the haves — I don’t know what I should do now.”
- 10All five were contract workers in their early 20s who died on the job or of overwork in the past year.
- 11The Sewol and the Stellar Daisy sank in 2014 and 2017, respectively, in deadly accidents whose causes remain undetermined. Three hundred and four people, most of them high school students, are still unaccounted for from the sinking of the Sewol, which was broadcast live, traumatizing the nation.
- 12Mun and Paek were famous dissidents under the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee, who ruled Korea from 1961 to 1979.
- 13Chun Doo-hwan took power after Park’s assassination in 1979 and ruled the country until 1987.
- 14Moon was elected in 2008 on a liberal ticket, after months of protests that removed Park Geun-hye from a presidency consumed by corruption and incompetence. South Koreans refer to this period as the Candlelight Revolution, for the lights carried at nighttime protests.
- 15Police abducted and beat her on at least three separate occasions in retaliation for her union activism.
- 16As Kim was marching to Seoul, supporters and activists staged a sit-in in front of the Blue House, the presidential residence.