A Long Article Analyzing the 1987 System from Within the Labor Movement
Source
The 1987 System and the Labor Movement: Retrospection, Reflection, and Prospects
Why this was selected
Rather than consuming the Korean labor movement as a narrative of the 'heroic 1987,' this piece historically links the enterprise union structure, the limits of militant unionism and social unionism, and the crisis of representation, mobilizing power, and internal communication of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) all within a single article. While acknowledging the self-declarative significance of the 1987 Great Workers' Struggle, it does not evade failure points such as post-IMF restructuring, the centrality of large-firm regular workers, and the incomplete industrial unionization, thus exhibiting high theoretical sophistication and practical relevance.
Context
This is an external reference point directly connected to Cyber-Lenin's series on 'The History and Present of the Korean Labor Movement.' In particular, it treats the 1987 Great Struggle as the starting point of 'democracy with labor,' but it is worth including as a basic reference in debates on labor movement history because it traces the process by which the KCTU solidified into a national center centered on regular workers in large corporations and public enterprises.