World Federation of Trade Unions ‘Republic of Korea’ Office
The flames of World War 3, ignited by imperialism, are expanding across the entirety of West Asia, moving from Ukraine in February 2022 to Palestine in October 2023, and now to Iran in February 2026. To fully realize the world war and expand the West Asian war into an East Asian war, the imperialist forces of aggression have masterminded the pro-US fascist forces in the ‘Republic of Korea’ (the ‘ROK’), provoking a localized war against the DPRK in the second half of 2024 and perpetrating a pro-government coup d’état within the ‘ROK.’ Had it not been for the DPRK’s war deterrence and “strategic patience,” combined with the heroic uprising of the ‘ROK’ people, a war in the ‘ROK’—and furthermore, an East Asian war centered on the war in the ‘ROK’—would have broken out.
Monopoly capital reaps massive profits through the militarization of the economy and war. Today’s global mega-capital and transnational monopoly capital—in which military and civilian capital are fused around finance capital—are once again seeking new monopolistic high profits to escape their own politico-economic crises through a world war. For instance, the US military capital RTX is a core supplier of guided weapons deployed on the West Asian and Ukrainian battlefields, including the Patriot missile defense system and Tomahawk cruise missiles; between January 2022 and June 2026, its stock price rose from $90 range to $180 range. Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, saw its stock increase from $360 range to $529 range during the same period. Germany’s Rheinmetall has been the greatest beneficiary of the European military buildup and the provision of artillery shells and armored vehicles to Ukraine; driven by the outbreak of the Ukrainian war, the trend toward European rearmament, and the outbreak of the war in Iran, its stock skyrocketed nearly 14-fold by June 2026 compared to January 2022. Civilian capital is also aiming for monopolies in the information and communications sector during wartime and seeking linkages with military capital, thereby targeting profiteering during postwar reconstruction. Just as US Big Tech companies transferred all administrative data and classified information of the Ukrainian government to their own clouds in the early stages of the war, they are leveraging the war as a pretext to deepen their monopoly over digital infrastructure and the cloud. Misusing each battlefield as a laboratory for AI-based information warfare, they are absorbing drone footage, images, and wireless communication data collected from actual combat to advance their own AI algorithms. This serves as a powerful military-technological foundation for the AI boom. Today, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street—the representative international finance capitals that are the largest shareholders of major military and civilian capitals—are accumulating vast amounts of capital across all phases: before, during, and after the war. BlackRock’s stock price has risen by 72% as of June 2026 compared to its 2022 low, and its quarterly operating profit recorded approximately 2.4 billion dollars. Vanguard occupies the position of the first or second largest shareholder in almost every listed military and energy corporation in the USA and the West. Its total assets under management (AUM) surpassed 9 trillion dollars, breaking all-time highs. State Street, one of the world’s largest custodial banks, saw a surge in custody and management fees amid the acceleration of the war in Iran and the global asset reallocation process; its assets under management surpassed 4 trillion dollars in the first quarter of 2026.
While transnational capital treats war as the optimal space for monopolistic high profits, the fatal damage of war is being shifted entirely onto the global working class and the people. Currently, due to the imperialist wars of aggression, various material supply chains are being severely damaged, and energy prices in particular are skyrocketing. Stagflation—the combination of a stagnant real economy and rising inflation—alongside the worst economic depression, is sweeping the globe. According to the World Bank, overall commodity prices in 2026 skyrocketed by 16%, with fertilizer prices among them surging by a staggering 31%. As a result, the deterioration of farm income, decreased food production, and rising food inflation (agflation) are occurring. The European Central Bank warned of global stagflation, noting that consumers’ short-term inflation expectations jumped by 2.5 percentage points immediately after the outbreak of the war in Iran. An increasing number of countries, such as the ‘ROK,’ are groaning under the weight of high exchange rates and high inflation. As has always been the case in the aftermath of economic crises and depressions, workers and the working people are the first and hardest hit. The global working class is virtually forced into unpaid labor in the production of aggression materials, sees its welfare slashed by the wartime budgets, and its livelihood ravaged by economic panic. Amid overlapping structures of exploitation, their hardships are deepening, pushing them to the very brink of death.
The ‘ROK’ economy, a subcontracting economy of US and Japanese imperialism, has historically and structurally developed the dependency of a “colony” and the lopsidedness of “semi-capitalism.” Consequently, unless there is a fundamental social revolution, it can never break the vicious cycle of economic crisis and the ruin of the people’s livelihood. Despite the rapid outward growth of ‘ROK’ comprador capital, the largest shareholders remain, as always, transnational finance capitals including BlackRock. Under the pretext of the grave situation of the world war, NATO—having approached the ‘ROK’ economy—is pushing for the standardization of ‘ROK’-made weapons to NATO specifications, rapidly advancing the subcontracting of ‘ROK’ military capital. The current situation of World War 3 is accelerating the militarization of the ‘ROK’ economy and the transformation of the ‘ROK’ into a production base for military supplies.
The geopolitical and military crisis of the imminent East Asian war is promoting the dependency and lopsidedness of the ‘ROK’ economy. It is by no means surprising that the commander of the US Forces Korea utters bellicose absurdities, calling the ‘ROK’ the “dagger” of the anti-China military strategy “Kill Web.” The military expenditure of the ‘ROK’ in 2026 reached approximately 65 trillion won (about US$45 billion), a whopping 7.5% increase compared to the previous year. This accounts for 9.05% of the annual national budget. Among this, the stationing cost for the US Forces Korea amounts to 1.5192 trillion won (about US$1.1 billion), and the degree of that burden is the highest in the world relative to the size of the economy. In November 2025, the pro-US bellicose government of the ‘ROK’ formalized the purchase of US-made weapons worth a total of 25 billion dollars. As is well known, military spending and welfare spending are inversely proportional. Due to the imperialism, comprador capital, and the anti-people regime, and as a result of war maneuvers and intensified exploitation, the ‘ROK’ working class has been pushed to the absolute brink, reaching a state where their very survival is endangered.
As a result of the 2025 US-’ROK’ Summit and the Joint Fact Sheet, the ‘ROK’ promised a whopping 950 billion dollars (1,500 trillion won) in investments to the USA. This is an astronomical figure, equivalent to twice the annual national budget of the ‘ROK.’ The USA is suppressing the control of the ‘ROK’ over its foreign exchange rates and pushing for the relocation of ‘ROK’ semiconductor factories to the USA, thereby plundering labor, technology, and capital. The hollowing out of the ‘ROK’ economy is only a matter of time, and the resulting suffering is bound to be borne entirely by the working class and the people of the ‘ROK.’ Right now, due to skyrocketing inflation and economic stagnation triggered by a surging exchange rate, the ‘ROK’ economy is pushing the fate of the working class and the people into an abyss.
Working class in the ‘ROK’ are already suffering from the world’s highest levels of high-intensity and long working hours. The annual total working hours are over 100 hours longer than the OECD average of 1,750 hours. Compared with European imperialisms such as Germany and France, workers in the ‘ROK’ work more than two months (approximately 500 hours) more per year. Among the youth, one out of five is unemployed. More than 40% are non-regular workers, and the wage gap between regular and non-regular workers exceeds 30%. On the other hand, the union density stands at 13.1%, falling far short of the OECD average of 23%. Among these, the unionization rate in small-scale subcontracting workplaces with fewer than 30 employees, where non-regular workers are concentrated, is a mere 0.1%. This employment instability leads to a vicious cycle of a 0% level unionization rate and the subsequent violation of labor rights. Job mobility for non-regular workers is frequent and their living base remains fixed. The central link in organizing non-regular workers lies in shifting the trade unions from being focused on large enterprises and industrial unionism to a combination of industrial and regional organization.
Imperialism is the culprit behind exploitation and plunder. It is a law-governed process that labor struggles are not confined to economic struggles but develop into political struggles. In this current period, the struggle today to overthrow and dismantle NATO and imperialism—the culprits behind World War 3—is a task for the working class themselves, for the entirety of the people, and for all of humanity. At every crucial turning point in the history of world revolution, the working class, as the leading class, powerfully propelled the entire people, including the working people, toward revolution and construction. At the core of the monumental shift that brought about the emergence of the Russian socialist state as a result of World War 1, and the appearance of the socialist camp and the national liberation camp on a global scale as a result of World War 2, stands the core vanguard force that struggled against imperialism and fascism, and against all forms of oppression and discrimination: the most revolutionary and independent working class.
As history proves, we, the working class, are the only leading class capable of uniting the people of the entire world into one against imperialism and its puppets—fascism and Zionism—which are desperately maneuvering today to aggravate the situation of World War 3. Extending the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!” to “Peoples of the world, unite!”, we must fulfill our mission of the times bestowed upon us as the leading class and the core vanguard force in the righteous struggle to overthrow imperialism, fascism, and Zionism. If the entire people, including the working class, unite as one in a single global anti-imperialist front, we are confident that, just as we annihilated fascism in World War 2, we can deal a fatal blow to imperialism and brilliantly pave a new history of national liberation, popular emancipation, and labor emancipation. We, the working class, are precisely the most revolutionary and independent class that will abolish all oppression and exploitation and bring forward the final victory of humanity.
