Anarchism in Korea dates back to the

Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which ...

Korea under Japanese rule Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offic ...

(1910-1945). Korean anarchists federated across their end of the continent, including forming groups on the Japanese mainland and in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endodemonym "Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manchu ...

, but their efforts were perforated by regional and world wars.

History

During the later Joseon period, a number of precursors to anarchism emerged from the works of Korean Neo-Confucianism.

Jeong Yak-yong Jeong Yak-yong (August 5, 1762 – April 7, 1836) or Chong Yagyong, often simply known as ‘Dasan’ (茶山, one of his ‘ho’ / pen-names meaning ‘the mountain of tea’), was a Korean agronomist, philosopher, and poet. He was one of the ...

advocated for a type of

anarcho-communism Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains resp ...

called a "village-land system", in which land was held under

common ownership Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property. Forms of common ownership exist in every economi ...

, everyone contributes "

from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" (german: Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen) is a slogan popularised by Karl Marx in his 1875 ''Critique of the Gotha Programme''. The principle refe ...

", and the

redistribution of income and wealth Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, confi ...

is carried out between villages.

Choe Je-u Choe Je-u, who used the pen name Su-un (18 December 1824 – 15 April 1864), was the founder of Donghak, a Korean religious movement which was empathetic to the hardships of the minjung (the marginalized people of Korea), opposed Catholicism and ...

pursued a

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

and egalitarian philosophy known as "

Donghak Donghak (formerly spelled Tonghak; ) was an academic movement in Korean Neo-Confucianism founded in 1860 by Choe Je-u. The Donghak movement arose as a reaction to seohak (), and called for a return to the "Way of Heaven". While Donghak origin ...

", which held that "Man is

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

". In 1894, these egalitarian ideas were put into practice during the

Donghak Peasant Revolution The Donghak Peasant Revolution (), also known as the Donghak Peasant Movement (), Donghak Rebellion, Peasant Revolt of 1894, Gabo Peasant Revolution, and a variety of other names, was an armed rebellion in Korea led by peasants and followers of ...

Gestation period

Japan's occupation of Korea in 1910 encouraged a national liberation movement whose more radical proponents gravitated towards anarchism. Following the 1919 independence struggle led by the

March 1st Movement The March 1st Movement, also known as the Sam-il (3-1) Movement (Hangul: 삼일 운동; Hanja: 三一運動), was a protest movement by Korean people and students calling for independence from Japan in 1919, and protesting forced assimilation ...

, following and during which 7,500 people were killed, a large number of Koreans emigrated to Manchuria, forming independent communities there. In 1923, Sin Chaeho released his "Declaration of the Korean Revolution", which cautioned Koreans against replacing one oppressor with another, or becoming a society that would exploit another. He pushed for the revolution to guarantee new freedoms and material improvements, not just the removal of foreign control. The Korean anarchists named their newspaper (''Reconquest'') and advocated for

. The Japanese ruling class took a reactionary view towards anarchists and Koreans, blaming them for an earthquake in Tokyo that same year.

Organizational period

Sin Chaeho joined other Korean anarchists in creating the Eastern Anarchist Federation (EAF) while he was in exile in 1927. The EAF had members across China, Japan, and Vietnam. Manchuria, in particular, became the breeding ground for the new anarchist movement of Korea, as the short-lived

Korean People's Association in Manchuria The Korean People's Association in Manchuria (KPAM, August 1929 – September 1931) was an autonomous anarchist zone in Manchuria near the Korean borderlands, populated by two million Korean migrants. The society was constructed upon princip ...

(KPAM), which was an

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

anarchist zone in

, close to the Korean border, declared its formation in 1929. The KPAM was organized on the principles of federalism, a gift economy and mutual aid, and is still regarded as one of the most important developments in Korean anarchism.

Post-war period

Following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Korea was the first region in Asia to see a sizable anarchist movement, given that state communism was present in China and repression of socialist beliefs were widespread in American

occupied Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United State ...

. While the Korean Anarchist Federation opposed a united national front before the war, during the war, some anarchists joined their exiled government in the fight for independence. Some anarchists encouraged an alliance with the government to protect Korea against foreign invaders, and others continued to advocate for a federation of autonomous units across the country. After the war, workers and peasants began a process of social reconstruction through independent unions, but this process was stunted by the imposition of government from foreign forces (the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

) in 1948, which led to the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

in the 1950s.

Modern analysis

Many different groups and individuals have discussed the characteristics of early Korean anarchism, and whether it diverged from what these groups regard as the anarchist ideal, specifically the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

and racially motivated tendencies present within groups as well as individuals within the movement. There has been critique from, among others, Dongyoun Hwang and Henry Em, that the traditional

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

conception of anarchist ideology is in the way of a full understanding of the group's aims, as well as the belief that many Western anarchists attempt to romanticize the group and its aims. This modern understanding of a multifaceted Korean anarchism, that is not strictly based on the works of traditional anarchist theorists, but also on

national independence The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

from the Japanese, is echoed in the contemporary quote from the Korean-Chinese anarchist Sim Yongcheol:

"Korean anarchists, since they were slaves who lost their country, had to rely with affection on nationalism and patriotism and thus had difficulties in practice in discerning which was their main idea and which was their secondary idea. The reason was due to that their enemy was the only one – Japanese imperialism. My life is one that has drifted along with this kind of contradiction inside."

References

Bibliography

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External links

Korean Anarchism History
from the Anarchy Archives. Transcript of a talk given by Alan MacSimoin to the

Workers Solidarity Movement Anarchism in Ireland has its roots in the stateless organisation of the ''túatha'' in Gaelic Ireland. It first began to emerge from the libertarian socialist tendencies within the Irish republican movement, with anarchist individuals and orga ...

in 1991.
"Non-Western Anarchisms : Rethinking the Global Context"
by Jason Adams. {{Portal bar, Anarchism, Korea

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

Anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...