Lee Yu-kyung
& Iggy Kim
A move by conservative opposition parties in the Kukhoe, South Korea's single-chamber parliament, to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun are galvanising a pro-democracy backlash, leading to mass protests against the attempted parliamentary coup.
On March 12, the country's opposition-controlled parliament passed its first-ever presidential impeachment motion by a vote of 193 to two. The motion suspends President Roh from office, to be replaced by Prime Minister Goh Kun. The Constitutional Court is set to judge the validity of the motion. A judgement is likely before the April 15 parliamentary elections.
The impeachment motion was initiated by the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) and the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP). The two parties cited allegations against Roh of corruption, economic mismanagement and violation of electoral laws.
The GNP has historical ties to the military dictatorships that ruled South Korea until 1987. The MDP had been the ruling party until a recent split in which Roh aligned himself with the breakaway Our Open Party (OOP).
On the day the impeachment motion was passed, the People's Emergency Action to Nullify Impeachment was formed by 551 organisations, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
On March 13, at least 70,000 people rallied at Seoul's historic Gwanghwamun Gate, calling for the impeachment to be annulled. Asia Times Online noted that the South Korean capital "has not witnessed a popular outpouring of such magnitude since the acquittal of two American soldiers on negligent-homicide charges during the run-up to the presidential elections" in 2002.
Since then, tens of thousands have demonstrated daily. The biggest rally is scheduled for March 20, to coincide with the global anti-war protests.
Polls consistently show that at least 70% of South Koreans are opposed to the parliamentary coup against Roh and that voter support for the OOP has been boosted by an estimated 5-6%, making it likely that the OOP will secure a parliamentary majority in the April 15 elections.
This latest skirmish within South Korean capitalist politics is a struggle between the conservative old guard, associated with the long years of military rule and rabid hostility to North Korea, and the new, liberal, elite represented by former president Kim Dae-jung and his successor, Roh. Both men are former dissidents and linked to the pro-democracy movement that toppled military rule in 1987.
The new elite represents a historic realignment within South Korea's ruling class. They want peace and eventual reunification with the north; socially liberal policies with regard to women, the education system and culture; and liberalisation of political life. They represent a new, more confident section of South Korea's ruling class that has been seeking to mould a more globally competitive society by breaking up the old, quasi-feudal strictures on the country's economic and political life.
At the same time, neoliberal economic policy is a key plank in this general program of liberalisation. The old system of state-directed capitalism is portrayed by the neoliberals as "authoritarian" and "patriarchal".
Kim and Roh have used policies fostering collaboration between employers and workers to implement mass layoffs, deregulation of the labour market, privatisation and trade liberalisation.
Not duped by this, masses of workers, farmers and the poor have mobilised repeatedly against the Kim and Roh governments.
Sections of the liberal civic movement, however, have often been silent on the Kim and Roh governments' economic attacks on working people. But all 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ of the popular movement have hit the streets in unison to oppose the impeachment of Roh, which is correctly seen by the mass of South Koreans as a manoeuvre by the old guard to reverse the post-1987 gains of the pro-democracy and labour movements.
Many of those protesting against Roh's impeachment are the same people who have protested against Roh's dispatch of troops to Iraq and his neoliberal assaults on working people at home. They are also the same people angered by long-running corruption scandals involving Roh and his family.
However, their greatest wrath is reserved for the old guard's attempt to take away popular sovereignty. They are defiantly saying to the old guard: "Yes, Roh must go, but it is we the people who will remove him; not you."
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 24, 2004.
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