Review by Eva Cheng
From the Crisis of Capital to the Hope of Labour
Produced by Labor News Production, South Korea
Our Four Seasons
Produced by Sammi Specialty Steel Co. Labour Union and Labor News Production
$50 institutions/$30 individuals
Order through the Democratic Socialist Party, PO Box 515, Broadway 2007, or e-mail <dsp@dsp.org.au>
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Since the South Korean workers' December 1996-January 1997 general strike, awareness across the world of their persistent struggles has increased. Despite efforts by Korean activists to make information about their struggle more accessible to militants outside South Korea, significant gaps remain. From the Crisis of Capital to the Hope of Labour and Our Four Seasons help to fill those gaps.
These videos, produced by worker activists in South Korea are a call for action, for solidarity, and an attempt to reach out to other workers. Workers in other countries who are resisting the onslaught of their bosses cannot miss the essential similarities with the Korean struggles.
Comrades from the South Korean group Power of the Working Class, who introduced these films to participants in the January Marxism 2000 conference in Sydney, explained that the struggle of the Sammi Specialty Steel workers, featured in Our Four Seasons, continues against tremendous odds after more than 1100 days. The Sammi workers urgently need international support.
Those familiar with the Australian wharfies' 1998 struggle against Patrick Stevedores will have little difficulty seeing through the trick that the Sammi bosses are trying to play. In December 1996, they told the workers of their decision to sell Sammi to Pohang Steel Co (Posco), which is partly owned by the government.
With this manoeuvre, Posco would not be obliged to employ, let alone recognise the seniority rights and other conditions enjoyed by, the Sammi workers. After being stripped of everything needed to be a viable business, Sammi was to keep the workers. It went bankrupt (surprise!) soon after the Posco takeover.
While the Sammi and Posco owners emerged better off from the deal, Sammi workers, many of whom have spent the bulk of their youth with the company and are too old to be readily re-employable (let alone at a comparable seniority) were left in the cold. Posco offered to take them, but only as new recruits at apprentices' conditions.
Led by their union, the Sammi workers immediately resisted the bosses' scam and sought to negotiate. With the government and plentiful resources on its side, Posco refused to budge. It agreed to re-employ all Sammi's 2342 workers, but within days of the takeover, it dismissed 134 of them and another 245 had quit. However, 187 fought on.
Our Four Seasons documents the struggle of these 187 workers and their families until May 1998. This battle was a proud example of working-class resistance, full of fighting spirit, with its exhausting twists and turns, tears, doubts and disappointments.
The film recounts how the workers decided to shift the battleground hundreds of kilometres from their base in Ulsan, in the south-east, to Seoul in order to maximise its political impact with a sit-in strike in the national capital.
These extraordinary efforts brought few results. Posco refused to talk to them. The workers tried more effective tactics and explored more sources of support as the seasons passed through oppressive summer heat and harsh winter cold during their marathon camp.
From the Crisis covers a number of struggles, mainly in 1998. Though essentially a fight to save jobs in the wake of the Asian economic crisis and its impact on Korea in 1997, these were inspiring battles, and they are conveyed with impressive and moving footage. The video is packed with exciting scenes of workers in street battles with riot police. The militant mood is heightened by powerful background music and songs.
Our Four Seasons, in contrast, is less compact, has more interviews, and takes the time to present the evolution of a drawn-out battle and the political awakening and transformation of some of its key players.
Both videos focus on reporting the struggles. Neither seeks to explore the broader trade union movement's strategy, direction and leadership. Both are strongly recommended as educational material for trade union and social movement activists.
To support the Sammi workers, send protest letters to Kim Dae-Jung, President of South Korea at and to Yoo Sang-Boo, Posco chairperson, 1 Koedong-dong, Nam-ku, Pohang City, Kyongsangbuk-do, 790-600, South Korea. Fax 82 562 200 6000.