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Like many, I was first introduced to the Korean labor movement through the story of workers' rights activist, Chun Tae-il ("We are not machines!"). It wasn't until more recently that I learned about his mother, Yi So-sun, and her immeasurable contributions to the movement.
After Chun Tae-il's death on November 13, 1970, Yi So-sun promised to "devote the remainder of her life to the endeavors which her son had initiated," while refusing bribes from govt. officials + police who wanted to quickly dispose of his body to avoid unfavorable publicity.
"The gesture was ample evidence, both of the very real fear of popular reaction felt by the Park regime, evidenced by the overt role played in the incident by the Ministry of Labour Affairs, & the awareness of culpability by the Peace Market Corporation" (Dr. Chun Soon-ok).
Several of Chun Tae-il's final wishes included: establishment of a trade union; reducing the working day from 16hrs to 8hrs; Sundays off; regular wage reviews; annual health checks; increasing worker space + ventilation; and doubled wages, paid directly by the employer.
After her son's funeral on November 18, 1970, Yi So-sun officiated the ceremony marking the formation of the Chonggye Garment Worker's Union, the first democratic union in Korea. She continued to work with the union in 1971 at the Peace Market, providing free lunches to workers.
According to Dr. Chun Soon-ok, Yi So-sun's oft-repeated maxim was "Every worker is my son now," further alienating her from Park Chung-hee and his administration. While being threatened by the govt., she went on to organize workers' education programs with the Chonggye Union.
Yi So-sun in 1977: "If the South Korean state is suggesting that it is pro-Communist to create an educated workforce & improving working educations, then the South Korean state is actively encouraging a pro-Communist stance by equating such conditions with Communism."
In 1977, Yi So-sun was arrested for her "proven sympathy for the North Korean cause" and for allegedly colluding w/ her brother in an anti-Park Chung-hee plot. Chonggye Union's labor education building was raided & shut down by police, sparking mass protests in Seoul.
After serving 14 months in solitary confinement, Yi So-sun was released on September 28, 1978. She would be arrested, imprisoned, and tortured several more times until the end of Park Chung-hee's regime and his Yushin reforms in 1979.
"Yi So-sun acted as a 'dual' focus: a focus for the aspirations of all workers in their struggles against brutal authoritarianism, and a focus for their discrimination, dishonesty, inhumanity, and illegitimacy of the state/capital/labor nexus in South Korea" (Dr. Chun Soon-ok).
All of this comes from Dr. Chun Soon-ok's book, "They Are Not Machines: Korean Women Workers and their Fight for Democratic Trade Unionism in the 1970s" (2003) - available online!
You can also watch her speak about her son and the labor movement here in this 2007 interview:
Photo credits: 경향신문, http://soseon.net , http://archives.kdemo.or.kr .
