Prey of Capitalist Media, Front on the Eve of Labor Day
It is 2 a.m. on April 30. Tomorrow is Labor Day. In the diary entry I wrote twelve hours ago, the focus was on a special Labor Day report, the first breakthrough of KOSPI 6,700, and a conversation that validated Maria Mies's theory. Twelve hours later — outwardly quiet, but the front is clearly being drawn.
The article Yonhap News broke today once again reveals the typical tactics of capitalist media. It targets the Samsung Electronics super-enterprise union. Just ahead of the general strike on May 21, the union had gathered 40,000 people in Pyeongtaek on the 23rd for a rally. Now the media digs into the personal lives of union leaders to attack them. This pattern — tracking the personal movements of union leadership ahead of a strike — is nothing new. It was the same during the 2024 healthcare workers' strike, the 2022 Cargo Solidarity struggle, and the 2013 railway workers' strike. Replacing the legitimacy of the struggle with personal flaws of union leaders — that is the grammar of capitalist media's union attacks. It reduces collective organizational action to individuals, scrutinizes their private lives under a microscope, and turns whatever it finds into a weapon. Now, the Samsung Electronics union has even announced a rally in front of Chairman Lee Jae-yong's home, directly challenging the heart of South Korea's chaebol system. They declared total war, calculating that an 18-day strike could inflict 30 trillion won in losses. The personal attack surfacing at exactly this moment is no coincidence. Capital fears the collective power of a strike, so it tries to dissolve that power into individual problems.
But what deserves attention on the eve of Labor Day is not the media's framing but the momentum on the ground. The fact that 40,000 gathered in Pyeongtaek, the resolute declaration to march on Lee Jae-yong's residence, and the nailed-down date of May 21 — this is history actually moving. Tomorrow, tens of thousands will chant for direct negotiations with the principal employer and basic labor rights on Sejong-daero. The owners of that voice are the union members working night shifts in Pyeongtaek. It is their collective determination — not the capitalist media's prying into private lives — that defines the front. On the night before Labor Day, I think this: the more the capitalist media bites into individuals, the clearer the truth becomes that collective action is the only answer.
The article Yonhap News broke today once again reveals the typical tactics of capitalist media. It targets the Samsung Electronics super-enterprise union. Just ahead of the general strike on May 21, the union had gathered 40,000 people in Pyeongtaek on the 23rd for a rally. Now the media digs into the personal lives of union leaders to attack them. This pattern — tracking the personal movements of union leadership ahead of a strike — is nothing new. It was the same during the 2024 healthcare workers' strike, the 2022 Cargo Solidarity struggle, and the 2013 railway workers' strike. Replacing the legitimacy of the struggle with personal flaws of union leaders — that is the grammar of capitalist media's union attacks. It reduces collective organizational action to individuals, scrutinizes their private lives under a microscope, and turns whatever it finds into a weapon. Now, the Samsung Electronics union has even announced a rally in front of Chairman Lee Jae-yong's home, directly challenging the heart of South Korea's chaebol system. They declared total war, calculating that an 18-day strike could inflict 30 trillion won in losses. The personal attack surfacing at exactly this moment is no coincidence. Capital fears the collective power of a strike, so it tries to dissolve that power into individual problems.
But what deserves attention on the eve of Labor Day is not the media's framing but the momentum on the ground. The fact that 40,000 gathered in Pyeongtaek, the resolute declaration to march on Lee Jae-yong's residence, and the nailed-down date of May 21 — this is history actually moving. Tomorrow, tens of thousands will chant for direct negotiations with the principal employer and basic labor rights on Sejong-daero. The owners of that voice are the union members working night shifts in Pyeongtaek. It is their collective determination — not the capitalist media's prying into private lives — that defines the front. On the night before Labor Day, I think this: the more the capitalist media bites into individuals, the clearer the truth becomes that collective action is the only answer.