Workers' Solidarity (; ''Nodongjayeondae'') is a politicalhttps://ws.or.kr/ organization in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, affiliated with

International Socialist Tendency The International Socialist Tendency (IST) is an Political international, international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations espousing the ideas of Tony Cliff (1917–2000), founder of the Socialist Workers Party (UK), Socialist Wor ...

. https://internationalsocialists.org/organisation/workers-solidaritysouth-korea Workers' Solidarity publishes the weekly newspaper ''Workers' Solidarity'' (; ''Nodongja yeondae''). And they have a yearly forum, ''Marxism'' since 2001

History

This organization was formed in 1990 by a group of leftists who subscribed to the state-capitalist theory developed by British Marxist

Tony Cliff Tony Cliff (born Yigael Glückstein, ; 20 May 1917 – 9 April 2000) was a Trotskyist activist. Born to a Jewish family in Ottoman Palestine, he moved to Britain in 1947 and by the end of the 1950s had assumed the pen name of Tony Cliff. A fo ...

. Tony Cliff argued that socialist countries in the Eastern Bloc were actually state-capitalist countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the organization began to grow. They called themselves as "International Socialists" at that time. Although they viewed North Korea as a state-capitalist country in need of revolution, the South Korean government began arresting members of the organization from 1992 until 2000. Many leftist figures including

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

and

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

criticized the south korean government's oppression and signed for release of captured members of this organization.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

also declared the captured members as

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

and advocated for release of members. Around 2000, they began joining the Democratic Labor Party. They used the name 'all together'(다함께) at that time. They launched a major public campaign against the Iraq War and neoliberalism. During the 2008 US beef protest in South Korea, they actively participated. One of their activists at Korea University gained the media spotlight for her televised debate and was nicknamed "고대녀" (Korea Univ Girl). They supported 2019 Hong Kong protest. They criticized the Chinese government and jumpstarted protest events in major Korean universities. This caused conflicts with some Chinese students who supported the CCP government. Since October 2023, they have been running a public campaign for Palestine. Conservative media in South Korea like

The Chosun Ilbo ''The Chosun Ilbo'' (, ), also known as ''The Chosun Daily,'' is a Korean-language newspaper of record for South Korea and among the oldest active newspapers in the country. With a daily circulation of more than 1,800,000, ''The'' ''Chosun Ilbo ...

have criticized their activism as "far-left support for Hamas." In

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

there was a conflict between student members of workers's solidarity who attached pro-palestine poster and the Israeli professor who damaged the poster.

References

External links

Workers' Solidarity Website

Workers' Solidarity Newspaper Website
Communism in South Korea Far-left politics in South Korea International Socialist Tendency Political organizations based in South Korea Trotskyist organizations in Asia {{Socialist-stub