ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to establish the seminal importance of the role of women in the formation and development of the Chonggye Union. It illustrates the significance of the Chonggye Union in the spread of democratic unionism across industrial boundaries in South Korea during the 1970s. The chapter demonstrates the linkage between the growth of democratic unionism and the rise of popular political protest that culminated in the assassination of President Park Chung-hee and the termination of his pernicious Yushin reforms. It includes the subsequent 'ripple' effect, of the expansion of democratic trade unionism and shows that far from being a random series of isolated occurrences it was, in fact, a chain of connected and mutually sustaining events. The state, in the guise of the Ministry of Labour and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), had publicly declared its support for the democratic aspirations of the workers in one of the most important sectors of the Korean economy.
