Contests of Power and Workers' Modes of Association

Abstract

This chapter illustrates some of the varieties and extents of working women's political consciousness by outlining the collective actions of workers and their modes of association capitalist. It is shown that Korean factory women were not mere handmaidens of the masculine, colonial labor movement, and did not necessarily strike because of imperial rule. Rather, their protests vocalized some of the pressing problems for factory workers during the early phases of mechanized development in colonial Korea. Working women in colonial Korea, particularly those employed in the cotton textile and silk-reeling industries, worked, slept, and lived together. Their escape methods show the collective and creative abilities of workers in colonial Korea. Thus, it is noted that the actions of female factory workers in colonial Korea reveal that, like men, women engaged in labor demonstrations, but their contests of power were for neither the working class nor the nation.