Statement: Let’s Overthrow the Yoon Suk-Yeol Regime with a General Strike and Popular Resistance

We publish below the statement of the South Korean group March to Socialism in the face of the attempted self-coup of President Yoon Suk-yeol.

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Let’s overthrow the Yoon Suk-yeol regime right now with a general strike by workers and the resistance of all the people!

Even after the rampage of the martial law troops, despite the cancellation of the martial law by the National Assembly, the Yoon Suk-yeol regime is still alive. The murderous intent to maintain power by “punishing” the workers and the people remains unchanged. We don’t know what kind of madness Yoon Suk-yeol, who committed the insane act of declaring an emergency martial law, will commit next, or how much more he will ruin the lives of the working people.

We must not wait for the National Assembly to impeach him. Even if the 200 members required to initiate an impeachment accusation are gathered, the president’s authority will be transferred to the prime minister after the impeachment accusation, and the final decision will be made by the Constitutional Court.

First, is it time to entrust the authority to the Prime Minister, who was appointed by Yoon Suk-yeol and who deliberated on martial law with Yoon? Is it right to hand the power to Han Deok-soo (Prime Minister), who should be detained with Yoon Suk-yeol?

Second, the current Constitutional Court has only six members and three seats are vacant. According to Article 23(1) of the Constitutional Court Act, at least seven justices must participate in the hearing of a case. Although there is a controversy over the interpretation of the Constitutional Court Act, Yoon Suk-yeol will prepare a counterattack amid procedural controversy.

There is only one way. Let the workers and the people bring down the regime with their strength. Let’s go, workers’ general strike to overthrow the Yoon Suk-yeol regime! People’s general uprising! The workers and the people have already begun their resistance. Right now, let’s expand all the rallies, meetings, and demonstrations that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is trying to “punish” everywhere. Organize strikes, slowdowns, and rallies in all workplaces. All possible units should take a position and decide and execute an action plan to overthrow the regime. The workers who move the world change the world!

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has declared an indefinite general strike. The most important task is to expand the general strike of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to all workplaces. All labor unions, rank-and-file organizations, study and discussion groups, clubs and associations should discuss what they will do to expand the general strike and announce their position. Let’s stop production and turn all workplaces and streets into strongholds for overthrowing the regime! Let’s fight for the cause on the streets and in the workplaces, alongside the unorganized workers! Let’s overthrow the Yoon Suk-yeol regime through a general strike by the working class and the resistance of all the people!

The way to overthrow Yoon Suk-yeol is not through impeachment, but through a general strike, and the alternative power is not the Democratic Party government, but a workers’ government.

Why should we overthrow the Yoon Suk-yeol regime? Yoon Suk-yeol’s frenzy for emergency martial law is no different from the countless repressions he has committed. While the working class and the people are becoming more impoverished, the profits of capital are sky-high. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration crushed the Cargo Solidarity union by mobilizing even the order to begin work. Not content with suppressing the strike of subcontracted workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding, the administration also demanded 47 billion won in damages. Even in the face of the Aricell disaster, in which 23 illegally dispatched workers, mostly migrant workers, died, the administration made the absurd claim that it would expand the use of dispatched labor. It gave huge tax cuts to capitalists and reduced real wages for workers. It has retreated the rights of women and social minorities. Along with the US-Japan-ROK military alliance, it played with fire, risking the lives of workers and the people, while chanting “no hesitation to war.” What has the Democratic Party done in all of these?

Who created the Yoon Suk-yeol administration? Was it Myeong Tae-kyun[a person centered in a political corruption related with Yoon for the recent several month]? Is it Kim Keon-hee[the wife of Yoon]? No. It was the Moon Jae-in administration and the Democratic Party. A government that ruined the minimum wage system itself by expanding the scope of inclusion, not to mention raising the minimum wage at the second-lowest rate in history; a government that indiscriminately allowed special extended working hours, which were only possible in times of disaster, to enable capital to pursue unlimited profits; a government that launched the 2021 ‘Task Force to Eradicate Illegal Activities at Construction Sites’ and began to crack down on construction unions; a government that did not take any action even though it could have made the freight worker safety fare system permanent with an overwhelming majority of seats; and a government that did not even legalize the Korean Teachers’ Union, which could have been done simply by canceling the “not a union” document, by saying “let the court decide.” The government was the Moon Jae-in administration based on the Democratic Party.

Now is the time for the struggling workers to confidently stand up before the people and future generations of this land, and before the unorganized workers who have been holding their breath! The way to overthrow the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which went on a rampage with the emergency martial law, is for the working class to go on a general strike. This is because it is the only way for the working class, which has lived all its life under the martial law of the capitalists for their entire lives, to open up a new world with its own strength. Let’s arrest and punish Yoon Suk-yeol and the conspirators of the emergency martial law! Let’s go! General strike! Overthrow! Yoon Suk-yeol regime!