46th Anniversary of Gwangju People’s Uprising
May 18-28, 1980

Legacy of Gwangju Uprising Demands that U.S. Be Driven Out of Korea

“End Martial Law!” — Rally for National Democratization at Fountain Plaza at the Old Chonnam Province Hall (May 18 Memorial Foundation).

The Gwangju People’s Uprising took place in the city of that name in the southwest of the Republic of Korea (ROK), May 18-28, 1980. It was a glorious revolutionary initiative undertaken by the students, workers, women and youth to affirm their right to govern their own country. They were rising up against the U.S. domination of Korea and the Chun Doo-hwan military dictatorship that represented it. In the U.S. at that time, President Jimmy Carter was in office and it was his administration that oversaw and authorized the crimes against the people in Gwangju. From the time they forcefully divided Korea at the 38th parallel following the surrender of Japan in 1945, the U.S. imperialists strove to maintain this division by force, including launching the Korean War on June 25, 1950 in which close to 4 million Korean men, women and children perished.

Thus, the Korean people, whose contribution to the victory of the Allies in the Second World War was second to none, were criminally deprived of their right to self-determination. Instead, a U.S.-style anti-communist government serving U.S. monopolies and Korean landlords and capitalists was imposed in the south in 1948, in the name of democracy, freedom and human rights. This is the same self-serving drivel peddled now to maintain a military grip on Korea and to justify further militarizing and integrating the ROK into the U.S. war machine.

The Gwangju People’s Uprising was a collective response to martial law imposed by the Chun dictatorship in May 1980. Chun had come to power in a coup engineered by the U.S. Carter administration after the assassination of President Park Chung-hee, the pro-U.S. anti-communist military dictator who ruled the ROK with an iron fist from 1963 until his death in 1979. Chun imposed martial law in an attempt to subdue popular actions by the south Korean people demanding democracy and a civilian government.

According to various news and eyewitness reports, the Gwangju People’s Uprising was triggered by student demonstrations on the morning of May 18 when some 600 students gathered at Chonnam National University to defy the new military edict shutting down the universities and stifling any political dissent. The police were unable to hold the organized resistance of people so a Special Forces unit trained for assault missions was dispatched to quell the uprising. The Special Forces used tear gas, batons and rubber bullets which served to widen the resistance as workers, shopkeepers and parents took to the streets to defend the youth. The soldiers then opened fire, killing some 200 people and wounding hundreds more.

Republic of Korea soldiers confront students at Chonnam National University, May 18, 1980.

On May 20, some 10,000 people demonstrated against this terror and violence. Due to the widespread militarization of the society, most major workplaces in south Korea held caches of weapons. Protesters seized these and commandeered buses, taxis and even armoured personnel carriers, forming armed militias to fight the army. A student-produced daily newspaper called Militants’ Bulletin kept everyone informed against the disinformation of the mass media aimed at criminalizing the rebellion and splitting their ranks. In the face of determined armed opposition of the people, the Special Forces were forced to withdraw.

The next five days were unprecedented in ROK history. The people organized a Citizens’ Settlement Committee and a Students’ Settlement Committee which worked to organize the people and ensure the well-being of everyone. Food, medical and transportation systems were organized and lively political discussions took place where the people gathered to discuss and plan their opposition and continued resistance.

On May 24, 15,000 people attended a memorial service in honour of those who died at the beginning of the uprising at the hands of the Special Forces. On May 25, about 50,000 people gathered for a rally in Gwangju and adopted a resolution calling for the abolition of martial law and the release of political prisoner Kim Dae-jung, who would eventually be elected the eighth President of the ROK.[1]

As the people in Gwangju continued to assert their political demands, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who had campaigned on a platform for a “human rights foreign policy,” intervened directly to put down what was perceived as a threat to U.S. strategic interests in the region. The U.S. National Security Council met at the White House on May 24 to plan a response. Subsequently, U.S. General John A. Wickham Jr., Commander of the U.S.-ROK Combined Forces Command, ordered General Chun Doo-hwan to redeploy the ROK army’s 20th Division from the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) separating the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the ROK, to Gwangju to crush the uprising. This plan was delayed three days while a U.S. navy flotilla led by the aircraft carrier USS Midway was deployed to Korean waters just in case reinforcements were necessary.[2]

On May 27 at 3:30 am, the ROK army attacked Gwangju in Operation Sangmu-Chungjeong. The people of Gwangju resisted courageously against the U.S.-directed military assault against them. In the ensuing battle, thousands of civilians were killed and close to 15,000 people were injured. More than 1,500 people were taken into custody and countless others were tortured and summarily executed. Dozens of other activists were arrested, tried and executed and others were thrown in prison. Within a year, General Chun proclaimed himself President of the ROK, and began a campaign of terror against the communists, socialists, leftists and any other progressive forces that would challenge his U.S.-sanctioned military rule. However the workers and people of the ROK continued their organized opposition to U.S. imperialism and their local puppets, and eventually ended the military dictatorships in the ROK by the end of 1990.

On the anniversary of the Gwangju People’s Uprising, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls on everyone to intensify their support for the heroic Korean people in their just struggle to end the U.S. military occupation of south Korea, and the annual and ongoing U.S.-led military war exercises in which Canada participates directed against the DPRK that are a provocation against the peace-loving Korean people.

The spirit of Gwangju lives on in the Korean people’s resistance movement today to oust the U.S. from the ROK and establish a democracy in the ROK made in their own image which serves the cause of peace on the Korean Peninsula and the region.

Hail the Historic Legacy of the Gwangju Uprising!

U.S. Troops Out of Korea!

Top: Memorial Hall at May 18th National Cemetery in Gwangju. Bottom: sculpture at the cemetery depicts the armed struggle and the people’s unified resistance during the uprising.

Notes

1. As President of the ROK from 1998 to 2003, Kim Dae-jung was instrumental in co-operating with the leader of the DPRK Kim Jong Il, to strengthen inter-Korean relations which led to the signing of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration in Pyongyang in 2000 which opened up a bold new chapter in the struggle of the Korean people for peace and reunification. Kim was also responsible for ensuring that the victims of U.S.-sponsored state violence and terror in Gwangju were honoured. He inaugurated annual memorial events for the victims beginning in 1997 and established the graveyard in Gwangju where hundreds of the victims are buried as the National Cemetery for the May 18th Democratic Uprising.

2. Online database of the 4,000 declassified U.S. government documents on the U.S. role in the Gwangju Uprising of 1980.

(TML Archives)