1920~30년대 공주지역의 농민운동

Abstract

Korea had fallen down into a colony of the Japanese imperialism without being able to liquidate the relationship between the holdings and the tenant farming, which is a main production relationship of the feudal society. At the same time as the liquidation of the relationship between the holdings and the tenant farming, the tenant farmers, who had been a majority of the farmers, had taken the task of the demolition of the ruling and the exploitation of the colony and the accomplishment of the liberation of the ethnic group. However, the peasant public had gradually fallen down because of the colonial, agricultural policy of the Japanese Empire. The peasants had unfolded the peasant movement based on the ethnic group consciousness and the class consciousness, which had grown through the March First Movement in the year 1919. The peasant movement, which had begun to come to the fore by being centered on the farm tenancy dispute, had been enhanced while the rice production increase plan, which had been the rice exploitation policy of the Japanese Empire, had been carried out. With not only the tenant farming but, also, even the independent farming participating in the peasant movement, it had been diversely divided and developed, including the farm tenancy dispute and irrigation association opposition movement, the grain inspection system opposition movement, etc. Regarding the Gongju County, the plain had been developed in the surroundings of the Geum River and its branches, and there had been more existing landlords than the absentee landlords. Most of the agricultural lands had been managed as the tenant lands, there had been a small number of the independent farmers, and the tenant farming had captured the absolute superiority. Such an agricultural structure of the Gongju County had been the background of the organization of the Labor-Peasants Association, which had been centered on the tenant farmers, in the 1920’s. And, meanwhile, it had become the cause of the occurrence of the multiple simultaneous farm tenancy dispute in the 1930’s. The Labor-Peasants Association was organized in March 1927. Although, from the summer of 1925, centered on the Gongju Youth Association, there had been the movement of the organization of the Labor Council, it had failed because of the crackdown of the police of the Japanese Empire. In the year 1927, with the tenant farmers becoming the center, the Labor-Peasants Association was formed. Because the police of the Japanese Empire said that the words of ‘the laborers and the farmers’ are disquieting, they were changed into ‘the Labor Council’. The creeds of the Labor Council had been ‘the mutual tenant farming aid’, ‘the labor cooperation’, ‘the proletarians education’, and ‘the encouragement of the learning with the affection and the respect’. All of the main management of the Labor Council had been the socialist innovation youths in the Gongju region. Not only had they led the innovation movement of the Gongju Youth Association, but, also, by organizing the Gongju Reporters Union, through the media activity, with the interest in the farmers’ problems, the laborers’ problems, the youth movements, and the class struggles in the region, the public opinions in the region had been aroused through the media activity. Although, when looking at their activities, it looks like the Labor Council, too, had the personality as an ideological organization without limiting to only the protection of the rights and the interests of the farmers and the laborers, no activity matter is confirmed other than the educational activity. The experience of the organization of the Labor Council in the middle phase of the 1920’s had become the strength that had made the multiple simultaneous tenant struggles in the Gongju region possible after coming into the early phase of the 1930’s. The peasant movements in the Gongju region in the 1930’s show the special feature of the tenant struggles getting unfolded explosively. In November 1931, they had taken place multiple simultaneously in Sohak-ri and Singi-ri in Juwe-myeon, in Naeheung-ri, Jungjang-ri, and Guwang-ri in Gyeryong-myeon, in Bangheung-ri and Boheung-ri in Wuseong-myeon, and in Suchon-ri in Euidang-myeon. Differently from the farm tenancy dispute in the 1920’s, they had taken place both organizationally and multiple simultaneously. And the area in which the tenant struggles had taken place had been the area in which a branch of the Labor Council was established in the middle phase of the 1920’s. And the main members of the management of the branch of the Labor Council had led the tenant struggles. With the experience of the organization of the Labor Council becoming the background, the aspect of the organizational unfolding through the tenant farmers alliance or the tenant farmers association, which had not been an individual thing previously, had been shown. Also, the youths of the region who had been armed with the socialist ideology had been deeply involved in the tenant struggles, they had attempted the organization of a peasant union for the class struggle, and they had, also, sought after the class liberation.