KCTU Must Break with Lee Jae-myung Government!

Again and again, the Lee Jae-myung regime has made clear its subservience to U.S. imperialism. From agreeing to Trump’s extortion demands for $350 billion in “investment” in the U.S., to continuing the war games against China and North Korea and now aiding the U.S. war against Iran, the Democratic Party government has showed clearly that it stands on the side of Washington and the Pentagon, the biggest enemies of the oppressed worldwide. Domestically too, it has shown that on every major issue it will defend the chaebol bosses against the workers. The examples are many: from arresting striking Sejong hotel workers to stepping up deportations and upholding the employment permit system that makes migrant workers, both documented and undocumented, slaves to the bosses.

Yet the KCTU leadership continues to collaborate with this government! Last September, union leaders decided to participate in the government’s “social dialogue” scam, claiming it was necessary to “restore trust between the government and the labor community.” A union statement openly expressed hope for “the success of the Lee Jae-myung government.” And last month the KCTU signed onto an ongoing “labor-government consultative body” with the ministry of employment and labor. Again, union leaders claimed this would “restore trust between labor and government.”

South Korean workers face the threat of major attacks on jobs and working conditions, and youth unemployment has already soared. This will only get worse as the tariff “deal” with the U.S. takes hold. Social programs will be under attack and the oppressed, from migrant workers to women, will be scapegoated. And when the U.S. moves to directly confront China, the chief obstacle to reviving its global hegemony, South Korea will literally be on the front lines.

Every week, KCTU leaders issue statements criticizing the government over this or that issue—tariffs, the war games, foreign workers and more. Yet they continue to collaborate with this government, while talking about the need to block the reactionary PPP. This is the trap that has imprisoned South Korean workers for decades: the union leaders oppose openly reactionary leaders like Yoon Suk-yeol yet support the Democratic Party or other liberal capitalist forces. But the anti-worker attacks and fealty to U.S. imperialism continue, whichever party is in power.

A new perspective is needed, one based on struggle against the government, not collaboration with it. The KCTU leaders’ push for open collaboration with the Democratic Party has met opposition in the past, as in the presidential election when their call to endorse Lee Jae-myung was blocked by others in the union. Today, militants in the KCTU must demand an end to all collaboration with the current government and fight to break the alliance with U.S. imperialism. That is the only way forward.