South Korea: Plant occupied by employees preparing for self-defense.

[cyu]

Occupation and preparations for self-defense, which is good, but apparently no plans to operate the plant by themselves, which is disappointing. One step at a time I guess.

Excerpts from http://libcom.org/news/pyeongtaek-strike-continues-south-korea-21062009

In February the company filed for bankruptcy, proposing a restructuring and offering the Pyeongtaek plant as collateral for further loans to re-emerge from bankruptcy. The court approved the bankruptcy plan, pending adequate layoffs to make the company profitable again.

Workers at the plant responded with strikes against pending layoffs in April which accelerated into a full strike and plant takeover and occupation by 1700 workers on May 27 when the list of workers to be laid off was announced.

As of mid-June, about 1000 workers were continuing the occupation, with wives and families providing food.

There has been to date little mass police presence in Pyeongtaek. This is due at least in part to to the current political crisis in South Korea following the recent suicide of ex-president No Mu Hyeon and subsequent large-scale demonstrations expressing growing outrage against the current right-wing government of Lee Myong Bak, demonstrations that are expected to gain momentum into July. The Lee government, elected in December 2007 on a program of high economic growth and now discredited by the world crisis, has been taken aback by the depth of outrage revealed in demonstrations mobilizing up to 1 million people. After the unleashing of riot police provoked further outrage and brought more people to the streets, the government is unwilling to risk further disenchantment by an assault on the Pyeongtaek factory.

During [a] scab rally, about 700-800 workers from nearby factories, such as the Kia Motor company, came to defend the Ssangyang plant, in part in response to a text message tree of the KMWU.

The occupying workers have made plans for armed defense against any police attempt to recapture the plant, stocking iron pipes and Molotov cocktails.

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

Respect to them, South Korea seems to me one of the most difficult nation do do this.

[Invariance]

Here are some interesting documentaries on some of the past working class struggles in South Korea:

Dismantling the Unions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM8GbxuJrHw

Hard Labour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyyB0C1it_Q&feature=channel

Workers Revolt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic--RX_yuD4&feature=channel

[JammyDodger]

unless suppliers play ball they will not be able to run it, however this is a brave and teach the rest of the world a thing or two protest, I hope they can gather support for this and I wish them well.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Brilliant news from our South Korean brothers and sisters. This sort of protest is inspiring and a benchmark for us all in our own countries to follow.

[cyu]

unless suppliers play ball they will not be able to run it

Depends how political their suppliers are. I'm assuming these employees already have some finished product or an inventory of unused materials on the premises, which they can use to build finished product. The revenue they get from selling the finished product can then go toward purchasing supplies.

When you have a down economy, suppliers are probably looking everywhere for new customers. Some suppliers (assuming they are still ruled with an iron hand by their exploiter, instead of having internal rumblings of unrest) may refuse to sell to them due purely to political reasons. However, businesses that refuse to sell to customers will just be outcompeted by businesses that don't refuse. The capitalist ideologues will see their businesses suffer, while the pragmatic businesses will replace them.

[JammyDodger]

Depends how political their suppliers are. I'm assuming these employees already have some finished product or an inventory of unused materials on the premises, which they can use to build finished product. The revenue they get from selling the finished product can then go toward purchasing supplies.

When you have a down economy, suppliers0 are probably looking everywhere for new customers. Some suppliers (assuming they are still ruled with an iron hand by their exploiter, instead of having internal rumblings of unrest) may refuse to sell to them due purely to political reasons. However, businesses that refuse to sell to customers will just be outcompeted by businesses that don't refuse. The capitalist ideologues will see their businesses suffer, while the pragmatic businesses will replace them.

Id love to see it happen for them, dont get me wrong.

However as a realist (which sucks at times) it will take a short list of miracles.
Its not just things like parts and raw materials which with things like lines of credit , the fact the company is in freefall to start with plus all your above downsides will prove very difficult,

worse still, legally speaking they do not own the property they have to persuade people like the electric company and water company or there BT to keep them connected.

If they do all of it, they will become my new Gods (my respect for there actions thus far is boundless as it is)

The only route in this I feel will be great swathes of support and wild cat copy incidents, but as it stands if they go no further, they have given a huge object lesson to the rest of us, this action of these brave comrades needs to be imprinted in all of our minds and copied frequently.
I mean its not just parts etc, they

[cyu]

the fact the company is in freefall to start with

Less overhead from executive compensation would be a good start =]


legally speaking they do not own the property

Property is just defined by who has either the strength in numbers, weapons, or ideas. If the community decides to defend them, then the police can't take the plant - and even if they do, the community will just expel the police chief and mayor and the plant will be given back to the employees.


they have to persuade people like the electric company and water company or there BT to keep them connected

Again, those businesses need customers too. If they were "true businessmen" - then money is money, no matter where it comes from.


The only route in this I feel will be great swathes of support

Sure, I definitely think community outreach is important. The more people and other unions they can get on their side, the better. See this for example: http://everything2.com/node/1869037

[JammyDodger]

cyu, Well I for one hope your version of events proves correct and I wind up being 100 percent wrong.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on how it may be possible to help them?, my mind is blank on it, i mean im half the world away.

Got to be a bright spark idea ping-ponging around one of our skulls.

[cyu]

Can anyone offer any suggestions on how it may be possible to help them?
Depends on what resources you have available to you. If you were a billionaire, you could certainly buy a lot of airtime on Korean TV or hire think tank writers to promote the employees' side of the story.

If not, maybe you could help in the communications between these employees and other Korean employees and members of their communities. For example, find all the links to all the organizations, news, and discussions that you can, and send them around to other Korea discussion forums or labor organizations, put together your own web site, put it on social networking sites, etc etc.

It kind of depends on how much time you want to devote just to the Korean struggle and how much time you want to allocate to people standing up for themselves in other countries.