1926년 목포 제유노조파업의 전개과정과 역사적 의의

Abstract

Mokpo has grown into a port city since its opening in 1897 and established itself as a center of commerce and industry. Various industrial facilities were created, and especially the upland cotton cultivation of Mokpo’s Goha Island, which began in 1904, was the opportunity to form a large number of related factories. As many factories were built, the population in search of work in Mokpo increased significantly. Jobseekers were mainly people from regions near the Southwest Sea, and naturally they formed a working class. By the 1920s, young activist groups with a socialist tendency were formed, and the vanguard alliance organized around them was established. As a result, the labor movement was actively developed. On the other hand, the Chosun Oil Manufacturing Company, which was completed in 1920, was the largest cotton oil manufacturing company in Korea and performed the main role of business in Mokpo. However, unlike the development and size of the company, Korean workers who worked at the oil company were being exploited by ethnic discrimination with low wages. Korean workers in harsh conditions raised labor unions and prepared for a strike for resolving the ethnic discrimination from the Chosun Oil Manufacturing Company and raising wages. The pressure of Japanese capital and the Japanese police was enormous for the helpless workers to overcome and the Japanese were powerful enough to destabilize union members and weaken their unity. However, in the early days of the strike, the unions continued to gather, showing excellent organizational power, and overcame Japanese pressure. This was an unprecedented struggle in the 1920s, and it was an event that raised the quality of the labor movement to the next level. Beginning with a rudimentary organization called the ‘All-or-nothing Association’, the union gradually grew to form the ‘Peddle Association’, forming solidarity with social groups and organizations in nearby areas. In addition, through continuous activities, they received sympathy and support from all across the country. In this way, the oil union used appropriate strategies to expand and continue the strike. In the end, however, due to the company’s conciliation, perturbation, and the arrest of the union’s main leadership after police mobilization, the strike consciousness weakened. Eventually, that caused union member attrition with low morale and was concluded to disintegration of the union. The oil union strike in 1926 is a representative case showing the high organizational power of union workers during the three-month strike period. In addition, it showed strong mental potential to sustain solidarity during the severe winter struggle while union workers’ experienced extreme cold and hunger. It was stronger than the any other existing strikes before, and it also provided an opportunity to evoke alertness to the colonial power and capital of the local people. The reason why the oil union strike could last for a long time was that there were strong mental capacities of the workers, the social group called the vanguard alliance that led them, and the interest and support of local citizens. Even though they could not achieve the goal of the strike, it is a significant event in the sense that it showed strong solidarity, willpower, the growth of the labor movement, and the spirit of the national liberation movement. It was also a meaningful struggle that would have a great impact on the domestic labor movement that followed.