It shattered many long-held illusions about the newly industrialized countries of Southeast Asia. It reminded the owners of industry how fragile their system is rendered once the working class decides to move against it in an organized and determined fashion. It reminded workers everywhere of the power they have to change the course of history once they take action and fight in the way the courageous Korean workers did this winter.

South Korea's rulers, amongst the most repressive in the world, were brought to their knees by the strike which cost up to $4 billion in lost production. The combative Korean working class has been fashioned through mighty struggles over the three and a half decades of South Korean capitalism's meteoric growth. The general strike has shown it to have emerged as the decisive force in Korean politics.

It has become fashionable, in Korea and elsewhere, since the collapse of the Stalinist planned economies, to argue that the ideas of Marxism and socialism are no longer valid. Instead of contending classes we are supposed to have c 'civil society' in which problems can be ironed out without challenging the system of market capitalism. Undoubtedly, an enormous contribution can be made by the 'middle layers' in any society - lawyers, academics, priests, doctors. But the position of the Committee for a Workers' International is that, far from diminishing in importance, an independent struggle of the working class, that draws behind it the middle layers in the way that the Korean general strike has demonstrated, is the only way to eliminate the evils of exploitation and poverty that are endemic in capitalism.

The tragic recent history of the Korean peninsula provides almost laboratory examples of societies in which the usual features are carried to extremes. In the South there is an extreme version of capitalism with all its polarization, brutality and exploitation. In the North, is a complete distortion of what is called a socialist society but is in fact a bureaucratic deformation of a state-owned planned economy where the working class is deliberately excluded from control and management.

In South Korea, it is clear to all that wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few individuals - the owners of the Chaebol conglomerates whose names are known worldwide. Clear to all also is the super-exploitation that lies behind their enormous success. Mark L. Clifford in a book called Troubled Tiger identifies the ingredients behind South Korea's transformation from a third world country: "brutally long hours, high rates of savings and investment and hierarchical authoritarian systems that rewarded those who succeeded and punished those who did not cooperate".

An additional and crucial factor was the involvement of US and Japanese imperialism. The extremely unpopular measures necessary for South Korean capitalism to receive its favorable treatment from these quarters - the normalizing of relations with Japan and the sending of troops to Vietnam - were actually forced through parliament in 1965 in a very similar fashion to the maneuver that sparked off this winter's general strike i.e. in the absence of all opposition Assembly representatives!

The heavy involvement of the state in developing the Chaebol economy has reached its limits. The concentration of capital and the elements of planning both within the conglomerates themselves mean the system is rotten ripe for socialist reorganization.

At the time of going to press, in July of 1997, the South Korean labor movement is engaged in an intense discussion on the way forward. The riot police have been used to attack both student demonstrations and the KCTU's May Day rally. In the context of a deepening crisis in the North, the Kim Young-sam regime continues to try and intimidate the movement with the threat of the 'Northern Wind' - a military invasion from the North. But a new era has been opened by the general strike.

The Russian revolutionary, Lenin wrote about the marked change in the balance of forces in Britain after the 1912 miners' strike. He described is as "A change that cannot be expressed in figures, but is felt by all". That must sum up the situation in South Korean society today.

The new labor laws have not been defeated. Changes have been made to allow multi-unionism at a national or industrial level but not at plant or company level until the year 2002. Before then, payment for union full-timers by the employers will be stopped and the right of strikers to claim wages and not to be replaced by other workers is being banned. But Kim Young-sam's attempt to turn the clock back in Korean society will rebound on the capitalist system he represents. Powerful organizations are being forged in the struggle that will be ranged against it. The next few years will be decisive for the future of the long-suffering people of the Korean peninsula.

This pamphlet examines the achievements of the historic general strike and some of the difficulties it has revealed about building a movement to take the struggle forward. The Committee for a Workers' International would welcome comments and criticism from participants and observers. Through debate and discussion of the important issues that have come to the surface, enormous progress can be made. We sincerely hope to be making a contribution to that process.

The CWI firmly believes in the superiority of internationalism over a narrow nationalist approach to all the key issues confronting the workers' movement. We call on all who regard themselves as socialists to become involved with us. We in turn pledge ourselves to step up the campaigns for genuine international working class solidarity.

Enormous efforts and patience has gone into the preparation and production of this pamphlet on the part of a very large number of people - in the transcribing, typing, advising, amending, laying out and printing. Every one of them has contributed to producing something that will hopefully have made it all worthwhile. A special mention must, however, be made of the comrades of the CWI in Japan who gave so unstintingly the finances that made the visits to South Korea, the taping and the photographing all possible. Special thanks are also due to all the energetic and kind-hearted activists who gave up their precious time to discuss what was happening in their country. Finally, the fondest acknowledgement is for the boundless generosity of those who have provided a place to stay in their own home and to whom nothing was too much trouble.

The Internationale - the anthem of the workers of the world - was sung for the first time in many long years at the May Day rally in Seoul this year. The future is looking good!

Ann Cook, July 1997