Seul, 27 December. (askanews) – A factory transformed into a battlefieldriot police armed with tasers, and an activist who spent 100 days atop a chimney: not everyone knows that “Squid Game”, the biggest success in Netflix history, was inspired by riots that actually happened in South Korea but which have all the distinctive features of a TV series.
The second season of “Squid Game” is available on the streaming platform a dystopian vision of South Korea in which desperate people compete in deadly versions of traditional children’s games for a huge cash prize.
The experiences of main character Gi-hun, a fired worker, were inspired by the violent Ssangyong strikes of 2009.
Lee Chang-kun was a union leader at the time of the strike and still works for the company now called KG mobility.
“I believe the reason why people associated with Ssangyong Motors could not speak up or express their feelings easily after watching “Squid Game” is because it is difficult to talk about it indifferently. Many lost their lives. People have had to suffer for too long,” Chang-kun explained. “When I returned to the company, my priority was to be reinstated. The second, or maybe the first, was to restore my dignity: not exactly dignity, because it sounds too grandiose, but I really wanted to wash away the humiliation. The desire to erase that shame was very strong.”
In May 2009, Ssangyongthe struggling auto giant, announced it would lay off more than 2,600 people. It was the beginning of an occupation of the factory and a long 77-day strike that ended with very harsh clashes.
Five years later, union leader Lee Chang-kun held a 100-day sit-in atop one of the factory’s chimneys to protest against a ruling against the strikers. The fallout from the strike, compounded by lengthy legal battles, has caused significant financial and mental strain for workers and their families, with around 30 deaths by suicide and widespread stress-related problems.
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