5월 민중항쟁과 여성운동: 송백회 활동을 중심으로 = The May 18 Democracy Movement and The Women`s Movement: Centering on Songbaekhoi`s Activities

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Songbaekhoi(松栢會)is the first women`s democratic organization. It was established by women in Gwangju and Jeonnam in the late fourth republic of South Korea when the needs of the public were vented in Novermber 1976. It was originally composed of 80 members including teachers, nurses, laborers, housewives, young activists, and the families of activists. The needs of the movement was focused in each social area, such as for laborers, young people, farmers, and cultural activists as the sense of the public against despotism and for democracy grew more mature due to the Hamsungji, Minchonghakryon, a young people`s democratization union, and the Democratic Education Index. As well progressive women needed a democratic organization for their activities. Songbaekhoi was engaged in learning social sciences including modern and contemporary history of Korea, the history of women`s rights movements, labor, agricultural, environmental and pollution problems, as well as problems associated with supplying prisoners with clothing and food from outside the prison. The members who participated in various gatherings and demonstrations such as for compensation for Hampyeong sweet potatoe damage developed into better activists. They had a mature capability for social change with solidarity and worked together with the anti-despotism democratization movement organizations such as the Hyundai Cultural Research Institute, Amnesty, and the National Christian Council for the Promotion of Democracy. When the Gwangju Democratization Movement started on May 18, 1980, Songbaekhoi gathered social activists who were scattered because of preventive detention and established the YWCA Guidance Community as a movement along with Delbul Evening Class, Hyundai Cultural Research Institute, Nokdu Bookstore, a theater company named Gwangdae, Yangseo Co-operatives, and JOC to lead in indignation meetings in an organized manner. Songbaekhoi supplied articles and funds for citizen soldiers from early in the May 18th uprising and helped the movement through making Molotov cocktails, treating casualties, making black ribbons, identifying the injured, and organizing kitchen teams. The members refused to turn over weapons or surrender to the army of the despotic government, and struggled until the dawn of May 27th. This study aims to analyze the nature of the Gwangju Democratization Movement and Songbaekhoi`s identity and its historical value by reconsidering women`s activities centering on the roles of the organization rather than on individual women`s activities and damage in the Gwangju Democratization Movement. Further studies on whether the YWCA Guidance Community should be defined as a women-centered community movement differentiated from the male-centered community or as a struggling community for the supply, support, and instigator for the movement are needed.