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"Citizens! Please gather in the Ugeumti* of 2024, Namtaeryeong!”
*Ugeumti, or Ugeumchi, is the historical site of one of the last battles (1894) of the Donghak Peasant Revolution, an anti-feudal, anti-colonial egalitarian revolutionary movement. "Pull over, pull over, it’s the police that is blocking the planned peaceful tractor march to Seoul."
"I'll stay here until morning. The farmers will take full responsibility." "Let's do this together!"
"I, too, am a victim of the deep-seated discrimination, hatred, and violence in this society."
“I felt as though the farmers were a part of me. A deep sense of solidarity arose in me as I felt that I had to stand together with various groups marginalized by society.”
"On the longest solstice night of the year, I have comrades that make my heart sing."
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Jeon Bong Joon is prominent leader in the Donghak Peasant Revolution
The Namtaeryeong Struggle December 21-22, 2024
December 19, 2024
It was right after the impeachment, so I honestly had internal concerns if the timing was right. But when I was traveling through Sejong City, the Grain Management Act (more specifically, an amendment of this act which would ensure rice self-sufficiency and a livable income for Korean farmers by protecting them from plunging rice prices) was vetoed yet again, this time by Acting President Han Duck-soo. The slogans at the time were “Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol” and “Dismantle the People Power Party.” We didn't have any clashes with the police or any safety incidents or anything like that, and it was very peaceful on the long journey there, and we got all the way to Gyeonggi-do. But starting from Namtaeryeong, the edge of Seoul, they issued a notice restricting gatherings without any basis and blocked all lanes. With buses. They blocked all of the lanes.
<Kwon Hyuk joo> General Secretary of the Korean Peasants League
It was fine that they had blocked the road, but no one had any idea what would happen next. But then the tractors decided that they couldn’t just be stuck like this, and the bold tractors all moved into the opposite lane together. Since it was all blocked anyway. And that's how the battle lines were drawn.
Namtaeryeong December 21, 2024
"What!" "What are you doing!" "Someone’s gonna get hurt!" "Why are you hitting me!" "What the hell are you doing!" "Someone’s gonna get hurt!!"
The photo was taken by one of our members, and then “Hyangyeon” publicized it. We didn't provide them information or ask them to do it.
<Kim Hoo joo ('X' activist nickname 'Hyangyeon')> Young Women Farmers
Even though the level of violence wasn't that high, I felt so much shock and horror and anger from that short video, and I was shocked and horrified, like, "How could the police treat the elderly farmers like that, and what on earth did the farmers do to deserve this?”
<Kwon Hyuk joo>
There was a point where we realized that there were thousands of people. It was after 9 o'clock at night, and people just kept coming in. At the subway station. I mean, every time you got off the train, you can see people just streaming in.
The 1 Night and 2 Day Victory The Struggle for Namtaeryeong begins
I'm Ha Won Ho, the general commander of the Jeon Bong Joon Struggle Group. With your passionate strength today, the farmers will become more powerful, and the farmers will be at the forefront of the struggle for social reform in this country.
"Get the car out! Get the car out!"
<Kim Hoo joo ('X' activist nickname 'Hyangyeon')>
They were trying to be welcoming, and they were like, "You know, these days if the cheerleader protesters ask to play songs so we should probably play some songs," so they were trying to go on YouTube and to find some songs to play, and the protesters were like, "we’re kind of bored of K-pop, tell us about the peasant songs," so we spent some time learning peasant songs, protest songs, and things like that. And you know what? Now it’s very common in the protest squares to say "I greet you with ‘Toojaeng!’ (struggle)" which is a movement-style greeting. To respond with “Toojaeng!” and also "comrade.” Actually, before that, who called anyone "comrade?" I don't think even the unionists called anyone "comrade," but now almost all the citizens of Wasp call each other "comrade." It's not awkward at all, and that's how Namtaeryeong came to be.
"I'm going to sing a verse of a song called Asphalt Farming (a popular farmworkers’ protest song) and then you can sing along, can you all do that? I sow the seeds all year round, go!"
"Farming of Unity and Struggle Is the Best"
<Kim Hoo joo ('X' activist nickname 'Hyangyeon')>
We decided to do a peaceful protest because we had to protect the peasants, and the peasants had to protect the people who were sitting there to protect them. How very hard it was. There was the icy cold wind, so wind chill must’ve been minus 20, minus 19 degrees? That's why we decided to do that all-night demonstration, because we had to protect each other. At the site of Namtaeryeong, they weren’t just a "part of us," it was just "us." There, all kinds of education sites, schools, quickly formed.
<Kwon Hyuk joo>
I'm trying to know, I'm trying to study. I didn’t know anything about the Grain Management Act, so I studied on site. And then the farmers, of course, the farmers also had some things to learn, but they were willing to listen to what the young people were saying. And we were willing to listen to each other speak, and in this way it's clear that Namtaeryeong became a center of learning until the next day.
"The lives of workers, the lives of farmers, the lives of women, the lives of LGBTQ people, the lives of migrants, and the lives of all the disadvantaged people I haven't mentioned are in decline. Isn’t that right?" "When you learn history, you learn it on the macro level. But when you take a class, you realize that the power to change this history can only come from the power of the people. Before the Jeon Bong Joon Struggle Group, there was the Donghak Peasant Revolutionary Movement, there was the Gwangju Democratic Uprising, there was the Bu-Ma (Busan-Masan) Uprising, there was the April 19 Democratic Revolution, there was the June Democratic Uprising, and that's why we can be here in this square right now, to speak out. Our power comes from solidarity, and this comes from the strength of us all, isn’t that right?" "That's right!"
<Kim Hoo joo ('X' activist nickname 'Hyangyeon')>
It was Namtaeryeong which broke me out of thinking, “I'm not disabled, and those people are fighting, so why should I interfere?” I realized, “I can just go, I can just go and I can just unconditionally stand in solidarity and help them, I can just cheer and shout slogans with them?” So, right after Namtaeryeong, crowds of people rallied to the protest site of the mobility rights of the disabled at Anguk Station, and the station was packed with people, all shouting “Namtaeryeong!” Namtaeryeong awakened people. Before I was a bit hesitant about showing solidarity, but once I realized that it's not enough to just like or comment on an article or share it on social media, that I have to go there myself, that these people are so happy to see me here, that they had been so lonely, I couldn’t not go.
<Kwon Hyuk joo>
The Namtaeryeong struggle is seen as a victorious struggle that is recognized by others, and especially from the perspective of the veterans who have been in the farmers' movement for a long time, many said that it was almost the first experience they had achieving something so perfectly while receiving such support. I choked up at that part, and I think that these struggles were created by uniting everything the Korean Peasants League had been fighting for so far. I think that the struggle we refer to as the “Great Battle of Namtaeryeong” is the result of the accumulation of these struggles, not just one single event at that time. In that context, I wonder if the “struggling peasants” and the “victorious peasants” are intertwined. As soon as the Namtaeryeong struggle ended, we wrote a statement online, and the title was “Thank you, and thank you again.” That's how we really felt.
The “Great Battle of Namtaeryeong” made possible by the power of “us” Thank you, and thank you again. Everyone! History will record the past two days as the "Great Battle of Namtaeryeong." Not just because we won, but because it was a victory created by all those who have been excluded from mainstream society by hatred and discrimination: for women, LGBTQ people, the youth, the elderly, the urban poor, and farmers. It was a victory that united people of different genders, generations, orientations, and occupations, became one, transcending solidarity and opening up the "Great Battle of Namtaeryeong.” Thank you, everyone! Thank you, and thank you again. We will not forget the winter of 2024. We will not forget the hearts we have gathered. We will not forget the power of solidarity and the power of the masses. We will arrest and detain Yoon Seok-yeol and dismantle the People Power Party. We will abolish open market agricultural policy and produce better food for you all. We will tear down the old world and open a new world of equality where "people are the heaven of earth." Toojaeng!
January 15, 2025 Rally in front of the Hannam-dong Presidential Residence
I'm going to ask you a favor in the future: despite your love for our farmers, our Korean Peasants League and the Korean Women Peasants Association, our farmers are old. They are of the generation of our parents, or that of our grandmothers and grandfathers. They may be relatively insensitive to change. They may not know what solidarity means, but they have a big enough heart to share a hot meal with their marginalized and struggling neighbors. Isn't that the source of solidarity? Even if it is lacking right now, we will change steadily and with great effort. We, the workers and farmers, and all of you, will end the Yun Suk-yul regime and create a new world together. Thank you. Toojaeng!
Photo/Video courtesy of Korean Peasants League Kim Hoo joo ('X' activist nickname 'Hyangyeon')
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