Yang freed. Back his call to free Lee!

Submitted by AWL on 7 December, 2021 - 10:46 Author: Mohan Sen
Yang Kyeung-soo under arrest

After 84 days in jail, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions president Yang Kyeung-soo has hailed the “spirit of international solidarity” which sustained him and helped win his release, and demanded “immediate release of brother Lee Cheuk-yan… and imprisoned workers around the world”.

Lee Cheuk-yan was general secretary of the now-dissolved Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions. He is serving 18 months in prison for his role in a Tiananmen Square memorial demonstration and other pro-democracy protests, and faces new charges under the National Security Law.

Yang was arrested on 2 September in a police raid on the KCTU offices and on the charge that a mass KCTU rally for workers’ rights in July violated Covid regulations. In the end, following a major campaign in South Korea and internationally, he was given a suspended sentence.

Evidently not deterred by the arrest of and prosecution of Yang, the KCTU held a general strike on 20 October, mobilising hundreds of thousands of workers for demands including major nationalisations.

On 25-27 November, truck drivers affiliated to the KCTU struck over their pay and conditions, and on the 27th thousands of them rallied outside the national assembly in Seoul.

The federation has just launched a campaign for migrant workers’ rights, with Yang describing “migrant worker comrades [as] the key driving force of the KCTU and our main hope for bringing about change in Korean society”.

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