May 18, 2013 marked the 33rd anniversary of the heroic Gwangju People’s Uprising which took place in the city of Gwangju, south Korea from May 18-28, 1980. In those 10 days the students, workers, women and youth — people from all walks of life — took over the city and held it by force of arms against the military dictatorship of General Chun Doo-hwan, who had come to power through a U.S.-engineered military coup that overthrew the three-month-old government of President Choi Kyu-hah. The significance of the Gwangju People’s Uprising was that it delivered a decisive blow against U.S. imperialism and its subjugation and oppression of the Korean people since forcefully dividing the country following the Second World War. The Gwangju People’s Uprising also symbolized the determination of the south Korean people to resist U.S. domination of south Korea which goes on to this day and gave impetus to their collective struggle for self-determination, democracy, independence and the reunification of their dismembered country. Last but not least, the Gwangju People’s Uprising also serves to inspire all humanity that is joined in struggle to rid the world of Anglo-American imperialism, the scourge of humanity, and to build a modern world free of wars of aggression and oppression.
The spirit of the Gwangju People’s Uprising, also known as the Gwangju Democratization Movement, finds expression today in the collective actions of the south Korean citizens who are waging a determined struggle to end south Korea’s subservience to U.S. interests. This includes opposition to U.S. war games and the demand that the U.S. sign a peace treaty to end the Korean War, as well the fight to stop the construction of the naval base on Jeju Island and the demand that the U.S. remove its 28,000 troops and arsenal including nuclear weapons from south Korea.
A well-known song in south Korea, “Imeul wihan Haengjingog,” known in English as “March for the Beloved,” was composed and dedicated to a couple who were killed by the U.S.-deployed government troops during the Gwangju Uprising — in total, some 2,000 people were killed. This song is also a fixture at workers’ rallies and at other protests, often with fists raised in militant salute. The recently elected government of President Park Geun-hye, declined to have “March for the Beloved” sung in unison (i.e., by all participants present) at this year’s state commemoration of the Gwangju People’s Uprising and instead it was sung by only a choir. This refusal of government officials to publicly sing this well-known patriotic song conveys the new government’s antipathy to not only the workers, but also to the Korean people’s social, political and economic aspirations, including national reunification and an end to U.S. imperialist domination of south Korea and interference in Korean affairs.
On May 18, 2013, some 3,000 workers from across the country rallied in Gwangju to mark the anniversary. (Tongil News)
The collective singing of “March for the Beloved” was established as the norm from 2003-2008 when the annual commemoration of the Gwangju Uprising was upgraded to a state-organized event in 2003 under the administration of President Roh Moo-hyun. This ceased to be the practice following the election of Lee Myung-bak in 2009, whose ignominious administration distinguished itself with various acts of national betrayal and abject servility to U.S. interests that did much damage to the honour and dignity of the Korean nation, and sabotaged the work for national reunification. A government official quoted by Yonhap News, in denial of the precedent set when the state ceremony was established, gave the feeble excuse, “We decided it is difficult to accept the demand for unison singing as some have raised objections that it is inappropriate for participants in a government-organized ceremony to sing the song while waving their fists.”
Victims’ groups strongly protested the decision and vowed to boycott the ceremony. Other civic groups in Gwangju held sit-ins and took other actions to protest the decision. The Gwangju city government also said the city-run choir, which had been scheduled to sing the song at the ceremony, would not attend the event and said the Patriots Affairs Ministry should look for another choir. The Democratic Party, other opposition parties and people from all walks of life denounced the government’s decision as a desecration of history.
Slideshow of Gwangju People’s Uprising Set to “March for the Beloved”
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