South Korea held its presidential election on June 3, only three years after the previous election, despite the five-year presidential term. The election was prompted by the Constitutional Court's decision on April 4 to remove former president Yoon Suk-yeol from office, following his attempted imposition of martial law on December 3. The moment the Constitutional Court handed down its ruling on April 4, the outcome of the June 3 presidential election was effectively decided. The four months between December 3 and April 4 were far more significant than the two months leading up to the election.

Right after Yoon's declaration of martial law on December 3, massive protests by workers and people erupted. People who gathered at the National Assembly blocked the military from taking control of the building, and within two and a half hours, the National Assembly passed a resolution demanding the lifting of martial law. Within six hours, the martial law was lifted. As the protests by workers and people grew explosively, the impeachment motion against Yoon was passed by the National Assembly just 11 days after the martial law was declared. Many people recalled the impeachment of Park Geun-hye eight years ago and believed that Yoon was now over.

However, the situation was very different from eight years ago. Above all, far-right forces had grown significantly. Yoon, who declared he would “fight to the end” against the National Assembly's impeachment motion, emerged as a hero of the far-right. Centered on Christian fundamentalists, the far-right launched a massive counterattack in January and February. On January 15, Yoon was arrested, and on the 19th, a warrant for his detention was issued. In response, the far-right forces instigated violent riots at the Western District Court in Seoul, which had issued the warrant. The mass rallies organized by the far-right forces grew increasingly larger, and by early March, they surpassed the scale of the pro-impeachment rallies. Public opposition to Yoon's impeachment also grew from 20-25% to around 35%.

On March 8, a judge succumbed to pressure from far-right forces and released Yoon on absurd grounds. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court's ruling, which was expected to be issued by mid-March at the latest, was indefinitely postponed. For impeachment to be upheld, at least six out of eight Constitutional Court justices (i.e., a two-thirds majority) must vote in favor. However, it appeared that three conservative justices were avoiding to decide their positions due to pressure from far-right forces. The scenario in which the impeachment is rejected, Yoon returns to power, and he imposes stricter emergency measures with the support of far-right forces was no longer unthinkable.

From the outset of the impeachment motion against Yoon, the March to Socialism (MtS) has argued for overthrowing the Yoon administration through the power of mass struggle. The core method was to combine a powerful general strike led by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) with explosive street protests. However, the MtS's call for a powerful general strike was ignored within the KCTU until early March. Yet, by mid-March, the situation suddenly changed. This was because the Constitutional Court's ruling was repeatedly postponed, leading optimism to turn into pessimism. As the atmosphere quickly spread that the outcome of the Constitutional Court's ruling could not be guaranteed, the KCTU leadership was forced to declare a general strike, albeit belatedly.

However, the general strike carried out by the KCTU on March 27 was very weak due to inadequate preparation. Nevertheless, there was no other option. The KCTU decided to organize a stronger general strike on April 10 and developed preparations. In this atmosphere, the scale of workers' and people's rallies in late March once again surpassed those of far-right forces.

In these circumstances, the Constitutional Court announced on April 1 that it would issue its ruling on April 4. The KCTU held a Representative Conference on April 3 and unanimously resolved to launch a full-scale general strike if the Constitutional Court rejected the impeachment. If the Constitutional Court had rejected the impeachment, there would have been a real possibility of a militant general strike involving hundreds of thousands of participants. On April 4, the Constitutional Court unanimously decided to remove Yoon from office. It looked obvious that the mass struggle of workers and people forced the Constitutional Court to make this unanimous decision.

The presidential election held on June 3 ended as expected with the victory of Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, who secured 49.4% of the vote. This brought the severe political crisis that began on December 3 with Yoon's declaration of martial law to a close. However, this is merely the starting point for an even greater political crisis.

The emergence of Yoon's People Power Party regime three years ago was due to the disappointment and disillusionment of workers and people with the previous Moon Jae-in Democratic Party regime. The Moon regime claimed to be the successor to the candlelight protests that impeached the Park regime. However, under the Moon administration, which had promised a significant increase in the minimum wage, the minimum wage ended up in disarray due to the second-lowest increase rate in history and institutional reforms that worsened the system. Despite pledges to regularize irregular workers in the public sector, the majority were converted into regular employees of subsidiaries with little change in wages or working conditions. Despite boasting about curbing skyrocketing real estate prices, the administration's double-standard approach of avoiding effective regulations led to explosive increases in housing prices. While proclaiming fairness and justice, it shielded high-ranking public official involved in his children’s college admissions scandals. Despite claiming to be a feminist government, it shielded major figures involved in sexual violence and avoided amending the law to legalize abortion following the ruling that the abortion ban was unconstitutional.

In this presidential election, Lee Jae-myung defined the Democratic Party as a center-right party and recruited a large number of right-wing politicians, further clarifying his class character. Lee Jae-myung, who advocates pro-business policies, has promised drastic deregulation and corporate tax cuts. He has pledged to push for the Semiconductor Special Act, which will inject massive state funds to support semiconductor conglomerates. He has proposed doubling the stock market as a solution to the housing price surge. Although he emphasized his background as a child laborer, he barely mentioned worker-related issues such as the minimum wage and irregular employment during the presidential campaign. He rejected the enactment of an anti-discrimination law prohibiting discrimination based on gender, race, nationality, and disability, saying it was “something to be done later.”

Despite the Democratic Party clearly revealing its nature as a capitalist party, the Progressive Party, one of the reformist progressive parties, supported Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party in this presidential election. The Progressive Party also formed an electoral alliance with the Democratic Party in the April 2024 general election. The Progressive Party, which has a pro-North Korea stance, is repeating the popular front strategy adopted by Stalinism in the 1930s in the face of the rise of fascism, in today's South Korea, which is facing the rise of far-right forces.

Several labor unions led by the Progressive Party within the KCTU declared their support for Lee Jae-myung. The current KCTU leadership, which leans toward the Progressive Party, attempted to endorse Lee Jae-myung at the KCTU level but abandoned it after fierce debate. Ultimately, the KCTU did not endorse any candidate in this presidential election.

Other reformist progressive parties, such as the Justice Party, the Labor Party, and the Green Party, formed an electoral alliance called the “Social Transformation Alliance” with some labor and social groups and nominated their own presidential candidate under the name Democratic Labor Party. Their candidate, Kwon Young-gook, was a lawyer who had long fought alongside workers.

At the center of this movement was the Justice Party. Pursuing social democracy, the Justice Party had emerged as the leading progressive party, securing 6.2% of the vote in the 2017 presidential election. The Justice Party's strategy was to maintain good relations with the Democratic Party while attracting progressive voters who supported the Democratic Party, thereby growing its base. However, this strategy collapsed after two major incidents. First, during the 2019 scandal involving the college admissions scandal of the children of the Justice Minister under the Moon administration, the Justice Party sided with the Democratic Party. This incident caused the Justice Party to lose significant support from its core base of young voters. Second, in the 2022 presidential election, the Justice Party secured 2.4% of the vote, a margin larger than the 0.7% difference between Yoon and Lee Jae-myung. This led Democratic Party supporters to declare that they would never vote for the Justice Party again, claiming it had enabled Yoon's victory. Facing a crisis, the Justice Party was engulfed in severe chaos and division ahead of the 2024 general election and ultimately lost all six of its seats.

Following last year's general election, the Justice Party shifted its political direction to the left in an effort to address the crisis. In this presidential election, the Justice Party formed an electoral alliance with other groups that more clearly advocate for the independent political empowerment of the working class. The Democratic Labor Party candidate Kwon Young-gook, a member of the Justice Party, made clear statements on issues such as expanding workers' and people's rights and enacting an anti-discrimination law. Additionally, he demonstrated his commitment to solidarity with the working class by visiting workers engaged in high-altitude sit-in protests and the families of victims of workplace accidents.

Therefore, the MtS called for votes for Kwon Young-gook, under the conditions it could not field a revolutionary socialist candidate. This was because it believed that the independent political empowerment of the working class against all capitalist parties including the Democratic Party is the most important task at this juncture. The 1.0% of the vote Kwon Young-gook received will serve as a very valuable starting point for building an independent political force of the working class.

However, the MtS did not give unconditional support to Kwon Young-gook but rather offered critical support. First, the platform of Kwon Young-gook remained confined to reforms within capitalism, and even those were timid. Kwon Young-gook avoided direct struggle against capitalism itself and only demanded expanded distribution through tax increases and institutional reforms. It completely excluded struggles for the nationalization of key industries and conglomerates, the deprivation of capitalists' management rights, and workers' and people's control over industries. Although the party put forward a “universal job guarantee system,” its proposal merely called for expanding public works on the periphery while leaving the capitalist mode of production and big capital intact. The defense and foreign policy pledge to “develop Arctic shipping route” revealed an anti-ecological mindset that seeks to exploit the climate crisis for profit accumulation, as well as a lack of geopolitical awareness that the Arctic shipping route is emerging as a core arena of confrontation among the US, China, and Russia. The second reason for the MtS's critical support for Kwon Young-gook was that the Democratic Labor Party included a significant number of individuals who had previously sought alliance with the Democratic Party.

Although the People Power Party lost power in this presidential election, its candidate Kim Moon-soo's 41.2% of the vote demonstrated that it remains a powerful force. In addition, Lee Jun-seok, a candidate for the Reform Party, won 8.3% of the vote. This means that two candidates with far-right tendencies received support from nearly half of the voters.

Of course, it would be inaccurate to label all voters who supported these two candidates as far-right. Many voters likely cast their ballots for far-right candidates due to their rejection of the Democratic Party and Lee Jae-myung, as well as the weakness of working-class political forces. However, it appears that approximately half of the voters who supported these two candidates—or one-quarter of the total population—can be considered a solid far-right bloc.

Kim Moon-soo, in his mid-70s, represents Korea's traditional far right, rooted in anti-communism and anti-North Korea sentiment. This group, which has succeeded through pro-Japanese forces during the Japanese occupation, pro-US forces during the US military government, and ardent supporters of the military regime that led industrialization, now has its core support base among the elderly over 60 and Christian fundamentalists. Lee Jun-seok, 40, symbolizes the emerging far-right, rooted in hatred toward women and social minorities. This can be seen as the Korean version of a global phenomenon, where a backlash against the feminist movement that swept the world in the 2010s has spread among young men. His core support base is also men in their 20s and 30s, who just eight years ago overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party candidate.

There are tensions and differences between the two far-right forces. Unlike the faction represented by Kim Moon-soo, which opposed the impeachment of Yoon, the faction represented by Lee Jun-seok supported it. However, the two factions share an extreme right-wing worldview in many more ways. Opposition to anti-discrimination law and hatred of China are the core issues that bind the two factions together.

Yoon's December 3 martial law was an attempt by the far-right, which had grown powerful enough to seize control of the highest authority in South Korea, a country with a history of military dictatorship, to hastily evolve into military fascism. Their attempt failed, and the path to military fascism has been blocked for now. However, the capitalist crisis that initially fueled the rise of the far-right remains unchanged.

The far-right, whose essence lies in defending the capitalist system, paradoxically emerges where hope for a better life through sustained capitalist growth has vanished. Characterized by hatred, discrimination, and exclusion of workers and oppressed people, the far-right grows by attacking the hypocrisy and incompetence of bourgeois democracy, which once promised freedom and equality. When workers and people drift between bourgeois parties without a genuine alternative in the form of revolutionary workers' politics and mass struggle, far-right forces gain the opportunity to establish themselves as an alternative to bourgeois democracy.

Today's global capitalist crisis is bringing even South Korean capitalism, which has been known for its dynamic development over the past few decades, to a standstill. The Lee Jae-myung administration's grandiose promises to resolve the suffering of workers and people through growth will soon lead to disastrous results. Regardless of the growth rate figures, big capital will reap huge benefits while workers and people will suffer bitterly. Disappointment and disillusionment with the Democratic Party administration will once again sweep through workers and people.

At that moment, who will lead the workers and people to confront the Democratic Party regime will determine the future. If the initiative once again falls into the hands of the far-right forces, the past will repeat itself in an even worse form. However, if the working class seizes the initiative, a hopeful future different from the past will finally begin. The independent political empowerment of the working class, the strengthening of resolute mass struggles of workers and the oppressed, and the spread of revolutionary politics that directly challenge capitalism are the key factors for opening such a future, and therefore, are written in the banner that the MtS is raising.