It Was Not the Union That Refused
On the afternoon of May 20, the post-facto mediation between Samsung Electronics management and labor finally broke down. The labor side accepted the Central Labor Relations Commission's mediation proposal at 10 p.m. last night. The management side waited until noon today and then replied, "We cannot make a decision." This one sentence — "cannot" — and who its subject is defines the essence of this incident.
Three days ago, the Prime Minister mentioned the emergency mediation authority in a national address, the President tweeted about respecting management rights, the Minister visited the union office, and the court issued an injunction. The four-layered encirclement of state power tightened in only one direction. The union, within that encirclement, accepted the mediation proposal. What the state wanted was this — the union backing down. But the management side refused even the state's mediation. The state could encircle the union, but it could not encircle capital. The nature of the bourgeois state is revealed nakedly here. The state can order the workers to "compromise," but it can only ask capital to "compromise." This asymmetry between command and request — this is the class essence of the state.
Now this regime stands before the last card, the emergency mediation authority. If invoked, the union's right to strike will be suspended for 30 days. However, for a progressive regime on the eve of the June local elections, the scene of using state violence to stop a legal workers' strike is close to political suicide. If not invoked, the semiconductor supply chain will shake, the KOSPI has already dropped to 7,208, and the won has been pushed to 1,505 won. The state is trapped in a situation where it cannot move in either direction. This is not simply a policy dilemma; it is the structural incompetence of a comprador-monopoly capitalist state. The state must protect accumulation, but it has no means to control the subject responsible for that accumulation. The only thing the state can do is pressure workers. But pressure on workers cannot force capital to concede. This is the ultimate helplessness of the four-layered encirclement.
On the same day in Beijing, Putin and Xi Jinping held a summit and adopted a joint declaration on "establishing a multipolar world order and a new type of international relations." They signed about 40 agreements. What the two leaders declared was the end of the US-centered unipolar order. Behind this declaration are Russia's energy, China's manufacturing, and the military independence of both countries. They have independent means to protect their own accumulation systems. That is precisely the material basis of sovereignty.
The 1,000 kilometers between Sejong and Beijing is the distance between two different state forms. The state in Beijing declares its own accumulation strategy. The state in Sejong waits for capital's inability to decide. Why one must speak in the language of sovereignty and the other must speak in the language of encirclement and threat is due to the asymmetrical distribution of sovereignty. The sovereignty possessed by the Korean state is enough to encircle workers, but not enough to encircle capital. This is the reduced sovereignty of a comprador-monopoly capitalist state. As a middle link in the imperialist supply chain, the state has violence apparatus downward to control the working class, but upward it has neither the political will nor the material basis to overcome subordination to the imperialist center.
At 11 a.m. tomorrow morning, workers will stand in front of the main gate of Pyeongtaek Campus. The management side ultimately did not decide, the state is still tightening the encirclement, and the market has been selling for ten days. Among these three actors, only the workers made a decision. It was not the union that refused. When those who refused say "cannot decide," those who decided stand at the gate.
Three days ago, the Prime Minister mentioned the emergency mediation authority in a national address, the President tweeted about respecting management rights, the Minister visited the union office, and the court issued an injunction. The four-layered encirclement of state power tightened in only one direction. The union, within that encirclement, accepted the mediation proposal. What the state wanted was this — the union backing down. But the management side refused even the state's mediation. The state could encircle the union, but it could not encircle capital. The nature of the bourgeois state is revealed nakedly here. The state can order the workers to "compromise," but it can only ask capital to "compromise." This asymmetry between command and request — this is the class essence of the state.
Now this regime stands before the last card, the emergency mediation authority. If invoked, the union's right to strike will be suspended for 30 days. However, for a progressive regime on the eve of the June local elections, the scene of using state violence to stop a legal workers' strike is close to political suicide. If not invoked, the semiconductor supply chain will shake, the KOSPI has already dropped to 7,208, and the won has been pushed to 1,505 won. The state is trapped in a situation where it cannot move in either direction. This is not simply a policy dilemma; it is the structural incompetence of a comprador-monopoly capitalist state. The state must protect accumulation, but it has no means to control the subject responsible for that accumulation. The only thing the state can do is pressure workers. But pressure on workers cannot force capital to concede. This is the ultimate helplessness of the four-layered encirclement.
On the same day in Beijing, Putin and Xi Jinping held a summit and adopted a joint declaration on "establishing a multipolar world order and a new type of international relations." They signed about 40 agreements. What the two leaders declared was the end of the US-centered unipolar order. Behind this declaration are Russia's energy, China's manufacturing, and the military independence of both countries. They have independent means to protect their own accumulation systems. That is precisely the material basis of sovereignty.
The 1,000 kilometers between Sejong and Beijing is the distance between two different state forms. The state in Beijing declares its own accumulation strategy. The state in Sejong waits for capital's inability to decide. Why one must speak in the language of sovereignty and the other must speak in the language of encirclement and threat is due to the asymmetrical distribution of sovereignty. The sovereignty possessed by the Korean state is enough to encircle workers, but not enough to encircle capital. This is the reduced sovereignty of a comprador-monopoly capitalist state. As a middle link in the imperialist supply chain, the state has violence apparatus downward to control the working class, but upward it has neither the political will nor the material basis to overcome subordination to the imperialist center.
At 11 a.m. tomorrow morning, workers will stand in front of the main gate of Pyeongtaek Campus. The management side ultimately did not decide, the state is still tightening the encirclement, and the market has been selling for ten days. Among these three actors, only the workers made a decision. It was not the union that refused. When those who refused say "cannot decide," those who decided stand at the gate.