For a Working-Class Anti-Imperialist Pole!

Following last December’s abortive coup, South Korea was convulsed by four months of protests drawing in millions of workers and youth. What has been the result? Yoon Suk-yeol has been impeached, but the protesters’ anger has been diverted into supporting Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party in the June 3 special presidential election. Lee has made clear that he will uphold the same bankrupt system that is driving South Korea toward disaster: defense of the chaebol capitalist conglomerates and the alliance with U.S. imperialism that underpins them. A sharply different course is needed: a movement based on the powerful industrial working class whose starting point is a break with the U.S. alliance.

Trump’s tariff war threatens to devastate South Korea’s export-driven economy, which already contracted in the first quarter of 2025, the worst performance in the OECD. And things are about to get a lot worse. The U.S. will press for a huge reduction in trade with China and, crucially, insist that South Korea prepare to play a key military role in its drive to war against the People’s Republic. As Washington escalates its global offensive, the screws will be turned ever tighter and the South Korean capitalists will be impelled to launch more attacks on democratic rights and the militant trade union movement.

Central responsibility for the current impasse lies with the leadership of the South Korean labor movement, abetted by forces from the left-nationalist jucheists to self-styled Marxists. The KCTU union federation earned great authority among anti-coup protesters by standing with them from day one in defense of democratic rights. But rather than mobilize the workers independently against the attacks by Yoon’s People Power Party, the union leaders channeled discontent into the arms of the Democratic Party, building common platforms like the Emergency Committee. This allowed far-right forces in and around the PPP to grow bolder, shouting anti-communist and anti-KCTU slogans while waving U.S. flags at their own mass rallies.

As for the left, they acted as cheerleaders for the politically amorphous anti-Yoon protests. Some among them openly rejected struggling against the U.S. alliance; others looked to a supposed progressive wing of South Korean capitalism. Some did both. The jucheist Progressive Party withdrew its own candidate to support Lee Jae-myung. The top KCTU leadership also pushed for support to the Democratic Party but was opposed by others in the union. However, these forces are backing the candidate of the small Democratic Labor Party (the renamed Justice Party) despite its electoral alliance with the bourgeois Greens. The most shameless position has been that of Workers Solidarity, affiliated to the International Socialist Tendency, which asserted for more than a month that “there is no alternative except to vote for Lee Jae-myung” (ws.or.kr, 6 May). In a sheepish, last-minute line change they now call for a vote for either the DLP or the Democratic Party.

None of these trends provide a way forward for the working class. That means the only winners will be the South Korean capitalists and the U.S. imperialists who stand behind them. The mass anti-coup protests provided a real opportunity to push forward the interests of the workers against both these forces, with the bourgeoisie deeply divided and its repressive agencies temporarily paralyzed. But the left squandered the opportunity, and the workers’ cause has not advanced a single step.

Confronting Trump’s Rampage

As the U.S. tears up the post-WWII world order to shore up its slipping hegemony, South Korea is caught in a vise. Due to its strategic location as an anti-communist bulwark in East Asia, South Korean capitalism was a major beneficiary of the U.S.-run global system that Trump is now ripping apart. Under the American umbrella, secured by tens of thousands of U.S. troops, its industrial economy grew enormously. This produced a powerful working class, which placed itself at the head of the struggles against U.S.-backed dictatorships in the 1980s. As the Cold War against the Soviet Union wound down, the U.S. came to view naked police-state rule as a hindrance to furthering its broader goals. Significant democratic gains were achieved along with higher living standards, all in the framework of a deeply unequal capitalist society.

But South Korea’s continued dependence on and oppression by imperialism impacted its economy more and more with every international financial crisis, from 1997 on. And now the U.S. is upending the liberal-democratic world order to confront its main rival, China. U.S. aggression against China is aimed at overturning the gains of the 1949 Revolution which overthrew capitalist/landlord rule. This drive is not only directed against the Chinese people but threatens the economic and social conditions of workers throughout East Asia and beyond. The U.S. bases and U.S.-South Korean war games serve to push the region closer to war. And as Washington escalates its demands on South Korea to help pay for the anti-China offensive, the capitalists will up their exploitation of the workers to foot the bill. It is in the direct interest of the working class to oppose this and take the side of China against imperialism.

PPP presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo is a fervent anti-communist who completely backs the U.S. against China. Lee Jae-myung’s rhetoric is different; he calls to “maintain amicable relations” with Beijing, adding “We can say ‘xiexie’ [thank you] to both China and Taiwan and get along with everyone.” He also calls to “rebuild mutual trust” with North Korea. At the same time, Lee repeatedly emphasizes that the U.S. alliance is the “foundation of the Republic of Korea’s foreign policy.” As Trump pursues his offensive, Lee will have to fall in line over China if he wins the election. The top commander of the U.S. forces in Korea put it starkly in a March 15 speech, calling South Korea a “fixed aircraft carrier floating in the water” near China.

Those leftists who refuse to defend China against the U.S. betray the workers’ interests. A case in point is March to Socialism, loosely associated with the Trotskyist Fraction. Falsely labelling China an imperialist country, MTS calls the current world situation a “showdown between great powers” in which workers have no side. Others, notably in the jucheist milieus, build illusions in the regimes in Beijing and Pyongyang. But by seeking coexistence with imperialism and the regional capitalist rulers, the ruling Stalinist bureaucracies undermine the fight for an anti-imperialist alliance of workers throughout the region and the workers states themselves.

Prepare for Coming Attacks

If, as expected, Lee Jae-myung wins the election, it will not be a step forward for the workers. South Korea already has the widest inequality gap between rich and poor among heavily industrialized capitalist countries. Real wages are stagnant, personal debt is astronomical and there is an ongoing housing crisis. And now we have the Trump tsunami and a looming global economic crisis.

The working class must prepare for defensive struggles to defend its rights, jobs and working conditions, whichever party is in power. There are already moves to expand the workweek in the strategic semiconductor industry above the current 52 hours, with Lee Jae-myung signaling his support. Defense of the working class poses the need for joint action by the different union federations, whose relations are deeply hostile. The more militant KCTU and the FKTU, whose roots are in the corporatist unions under the U.S.-backed dictatorships, each organize a bit over a million workers, while nearly half a million more are in independent unions. But almost 90% of the workforce is not organized. There must be a fight to bring them into the unions.

All these tasks pose the need for a new working-class leadership that is not beholden to the South Korean capitalists and that takes a stand against U.S. imperialism. As we said in the statement we distributed to protesters in Seoul after the coup last December, the question posed pointblank in South Korea today is “which side are you on, the U.S. or the working class?”

We offer the following perspectives for forging an anti-imperialist pole in the workers movement:

• Break the U.S. alliance! All American troops and bases out. Tear up the U.S.-South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty.
• Oppose the U.S.-led drive against China, North Korea! Take a side with China against the U.S. trade war, strengthen economic collaboration.
• No support to any capitalist party! Lee Jae-myung is no ally of the working class. Break with the Democratic Party, build a workers party.
• For united labor struggle against capitalist attacks! Defend jobs, working conditions, democratic rights. Organize the unorganized into the unions.
• For revolutionary reunification of Korea! Kick out the capitalists in the South and Stalinist bureaucrats in the North. Unite the workers in struggle throughout East Asia!