Britain’s Guardian newspaper talked about Korea’s two faces: there isn’t just K-pop, there’re also dictators in Korea. Korea is not unique in that regard. In the US the far right stormed Congress just a few years ago, and many expect similar things to happen under Trump’s second term.

In Paris, supposedly the world’s most beautiful city, Macron is trying to fill the vacuum left by the fall of Barnier’s cabinet using authoritarian means. This would embolden the fascist National Rally.

Buenos Aires is another two-faced city, where there’s not just Tango but also Javier Millei who’s trying to learn from Yoon Seokyeol’s mistakes. So I was told by a revolutionary socialist in Argentina who wished our organisation the best of luck.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary chose ‘polarisation’ as the word of the year. They are specifically talking about political polarisation, since social polarisation is already old news. Of course political polarisation is itself a product of social polarisation.

Indeed, political polarisation has deepened everywhere. The far right is especially on the rampage. They are filling the void left by the center-left and center-right which the radical left could not fill. Trump’s return has to be seen in this context.

The same global context applies to Yoon’s attempted coup. When Yoon moved the president’s office to the defense ministry building right after his election, the Workers Solidarity paper predicted he was preparing to respond to mass revolts like the one that overthrew Park Geun-hye with a military coup.

But we never thought he would do such a thing faced with just a 100 to 200 thousand-strong demos we’ve seen since a few weeks ago. It was such a clumsy, stupid attempt. He even sent an assasination unit to the elections commission to secure evidence of election fraud. He’s clearly influenced by far-right YouTubers.

But we shouldn’t forget: however clumsy it was, Yoon’s coup would have succeeded if not for the ordinary people who rushed to the National Assembly building to stop it.

No one is ruling out the possibility of a second attempt at martial law. But there’s also hopeful expectations that Yoon and his clique will be investigated and punished.

Such contradictory consciousness reflects contradictions in reality. The right in and out of government are doing their utmost to manage a transition to a post-Yoon regime. Let me stress a few points in relation to this.

First, we shouldn’t exaggerate the discontinuity of a post-Yoon transition. The military commanders and bureaucrats on the right who form Yoon’s entourage are still firmly entrenched. They could yet stage another coup to protect their interests. Therefore, it is crucial to complete the task of removing Yoon from office.

2. This can be accomplished either through impeachment or through Yoon’s resignation. The latter is better for our movement. The path to impeachement involves the Constitutional Court, and is fraught with uncertainties, including the risk of a localized war between two Koreas or another coup, so we favor Yoon’s resignation, and an immediate one at that.

3. But it may not work out the way the left wants it. Recall that Park Geun-hye was also impeached, so criticizing impeachment too strongly runs the risk of sectarianism. It would be foolish for the left to make themselves irrelevant to the movement by emphasizing their difference to the mass movement, i.e. by being sectarian.

4. Whether it is through impeachment or resignation, what really matters is the driving force behind the struggle. The current struggle is called a democratic struggle in the traditional terminology of socialist politics, but in the early 20th century, the Russian Marxist Trotsky and the Polish-German Marxist Rosa Luxemburg emphasized that the class struggle of workers is crucial to the success of the democratic struggle.

5. It is important for workers to take to the streets and fight the employers in the workplace. The KCTU was right to call for an “indefinite general strike” when it first faced Yoon’s coup. Since Martial law was quickly lifted, only the railroad workers are now on strike; but the Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung’s offer to mediate rather than encourage the strike is no way to strengthen the driving force of the struggle.

6. The KCTU and the Progressive Party are not criticizing what the Democratic Party(DP) is doing because of their alliance with the DP. Of course unions can’t just strike indefinitely - at some point they’ll have to negotiate - but getting other workers to strike is what’s needed at the moment. It’s not just about railroad workers; it’s about the entire working class. If we don’t completely defeat Yoon Seok-yul, there is a probability that he or his cronies will stage another coup, so we shouldn’t just think about one section of railroad workers, but the entire class. We shouldn’t forget that they staged the coup in the first place to crush not only the left-wing Democratic Party, but the labor movement and the left behind it.

7. Whether through a second coup by Yoon himself, a pro-Yoon coup by someone else, or the rise of a police state, our enemy will be looking for any opportunity to strike back. To prevent such a backlash, workers’ struggle must be elevated, not moderated. Apparently there are quite a few ultra-cautious people saying workers should not go too far, that it will backfire and so on. But they should understand that our enemies’ next attempt will not be as sloppy as this time.

8. The role of a radical minority is crucial in the task of universalizing and sustaining workers’ struggles. Radical or leftist students in particular can help to connect different workers’ struggles.

This is best done through organization and paper like Workers’ Solidarity. Students in our organization are doing the work of bringing other students and workers together at rallies and protests.

9. Of course, the “post-Yoon” transition process will be fraught with confusion, infighting, and contradictions among our enemies, but there will also be a clash between the democratic party’s line and the class struggle line on our side. The Progressive Party and KCTU may zigzag between the two lines. Views on North Korea and geopolitics in this region may also become hotly contested issues.

What is clear is that there is no going back to pre-Yoon politics. The prosecutors’ office will fight to maintain control, but so will the military, the police, and the security apparatus. The period ahead will be both precarious and hopeful.