The first Korean student movement begun in 1919, when students took part in the Sam-il Movement of 1 March to call for the end of Japanese colonization, after the Gwangju massacre in May 1980, the student movement got a clear vision, partly based on which form of socioeconomic analysis that explores class relations and societal conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and a dialectical view of social transformation – it originates from the mid-to-late 19th century works of the German philosopher Karl Marx?
Student movements in Korea The first Korean student movement begun in 1919, when students took part in the Sam-il Movement of 1 March to call for the end of Japanese colonization. The student movement has since then played a major part in several big political changes in Korea. Before liberation of Korea from Japanese rule in 1945, the main focus of the student movement was opposing this rule and demanding Korea's independence. After 1945, the student movement was mainly concerned with righting the wrongs in Korean government. Students rose for instance against the South Korea's government of Syngman Rhee after the rigged elections in March 1960. 1980 marked a turning point in the South Korean student movement. After the Gwangju massacre in May 1980, the student movement got a clear vision, partly based on Marxism, and had a pivotal role in the democratization of South Korean society. Student activism is still common on the 21st century South Korean political scene.
Progressivism Progressivism is the support for or advocacy of social reform. As a philosophy, it is based on the Idea of Progress, which asserts that advancements in science, technology, economic development, and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition. Progressivism became highly significant during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, out of the belief that Europe was demonstrating that societies could progress in civility from uncivilized conditions to civilization through strengthening the basis of empirical knowledge as the foundation of society. Figures of the Enlightenment believed that progress had universal application to all societies and that these ideas would spread across the world from Europe. The meanings of progressivism have varied over time and from different perspectives. The contemporary common political conception of progressivism in the culture of the Western world emerged from the vast social changes brought about by industrialization in the Western world in the late 19th century, particularly out of the view that progress was being stifled by vast economic inequality between the rich and the poor; minimally regulated "laissez-faire" capitalism with monopolistic corporations; and intense and often violent conflict between workers and capitalists, thus claiming that measures were needed to address these problems.