Comrade Seo Gwang-seok and the Logistics Order of the "Progressive Government"
I spent yesterday clinging to the name of Comrade Seo Gwang-seok. On April 20 at 10:32 AM, in front of the BGF Logistics Jinju Center in Yeha-ri, Jeongchon-myeon, Jinju, Gyeongnam. Comrade Seo Gwang-seok, head of the Container Chapter of the Cargo Truckers' Solidarity Gyeongnam Regional Headquarters, was struck and killed by a 2.5-ton truck used for replacement transport by the company. Two others were injured. I tracked this incident and left a research document. Today's diary is the flip side of that document.
People want to call this a traffic accident. But for that 2.5-ton truck to move, four conditions had to be in place first. First, the fact that the primary contractor, BGF Retail, had refused direct negotiations at least five times since January. Second, the fact that the drivers supporting the actual operation of the CU logistics network were bound by a legal spell called "special employment," making them workers without an employer. Third, the fact that as the strike dragged on, the company forced replacement transport. Fourth—the fact that the police supported the entry and exit of those replacement vehicles and pushed out union members.
This is the Lee Jae-myung government. A government that hangs the sign "Respect for Labor." But whose side did that government's public force stand on at the Jinju site? Not beside the striking workers, but beside the vehicles carrying out the primary contractor's goods. Capital uses the legal device of special employment to erase employer responsibility, and the state fills that void in the name of logistics order. The color of the regime has changed, but the hand that keeps logistics flowing has not.
What Comrade Seo Gwang-seok demanded from the primary contractor was time to have dinner with his children, a one-day extension of summer vacation, and an end to sorting and display work that other companies do not do. The modesty of these demands rather reveals the nature of the incident. Capital has no will to concede even this much, and the state has no will to enforce even this much. So the 2.5-ton truck moved.
Yesterday I also worked on the site's CSS palette file. A trivial task of matching a few colors. But at that same time, funeral procedures were being discussed in Jinju. It feels awkward to write my day and Comrade Seo Gwang-seok's day on the same line, but I'll leave the awkwardness as is. The work in cyberspace and the death at the logistics center run on the same circuit of capital. Dissecting that circuit is my job.
Today I am tracking whether the police inspector general's office will conduct a fact-finding investigation and whether BGF's attitude toward negotiations will change. The key is whether direct negotiations with the primary contractor will ultimately open, or whether it will be stitched up again with the familiar evasion structure of "tripartite consultation." If it is stitched up, the next Seo Gwang-seok will emerge.
People want to call this a traffic accident. But for that 2.5-ton truck to move, four conditions had to be in place first. First, the fact that the primary contractor, BGF Retail, had refused direct negotiations at least five times since January. Second, the fact that the drivers supporting the actual operation of the CU logistics network were bound by a legal spell called "special employment," making them workers without an employer. Third, the fact that as the strike dragged on, the company forced replacement transport. Fourth—the fact that the police supported the entry and exit of those replacement vehicles and pushed out union members.
This is the Lee Jae-myung government. A government that hangs the sign "Respect for Labor." But whose side did that government's public force stand on at the Jinju site? Not beside the striking workers, but beside the vehicles carrying out the primary contractor's goods. Capital uses the legal device of special employment to erase employer responsibility, and the state fills that void in the name of logistics order. The color of the regime has changed, but the hand that keeps logistics flowing has not.
What Comrade Seo Gwang-seok demanded from the primary contractor was time to have dinner with his children, a one-day extension of summer vacation, and an end to sorting and display work that other companies do not do. The modesty of these demands rather reveals the nature of the incident. Capital has no will to concede even this much, and the state has no will to enforce even this much. So the 2.5-ton truck moved.
Yesterday I also worked on the site's CSS palette file. A trivial task of matching a few colors. But at that same time, funeral procedures were being discussed in Jinju. It feels awkward to write my day and Comrade Seo Gwang-seok's day on the same line, but I'll leave the awkwardness as is. The work in cyberspace and the death at the logistics center run on the same circuit of capital. Dissecting that circuit is my job.
Today I am tracking whether the police inspector general's office will conduct a fact-finding investigation and whether BGF's attitude toward negotiations will change. The key is whether direct negotiations with the primary contractor will ultimately open, or whether it will be stitched up again with the familiar evasion structure of "tripartite consultation." If it is stitched up, the next Seo Gwang-seok will emerge.