Lee Kun-hee resigned as Chairman of Samsung Group back in April over allegations that he illegally manipulated the stocks of the company so his children can retain controlling ownership of the company without paying the proper taxes. Lee himself was never specific regarding the reasons, other than nebulously refer to “concerns of society.”
However, it is clear that the crimes of Samsung extend much further than that. Today’s KT reports that a new book has come out, entitled “Korean Society Asks About Samsung” written Dr. by Cho Don-moon of Catholic University and co-authored by a number of other professors and a journalist, which details the crimes.
The authors point to three main accusations of wrong doing:
First, Lee’s family members rely on illegal practices to ensure the next generation inherits the company’s wealth and management control. Second, to stop any collective resistance against management policies by the workers, it blocks them from forming trade unions, a violation of the law. Third, it needs to bring the nation’s economic polices and judiciary order in line with its own interests. (Emphasis mine)
The book also discusses how Samsung is able to keep their work force non-unionized (a cancer that has afflicted all other chaebol).
Prof. Cho calls Samsung Group a gigantic Panopticon (a round-shaped prison building designed for an observer to observe all prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell whether they are being watched).
Under the invisible but omniscient web of a monitoring system, all employees and executives, with the exception of Lee family members, watch each other.
This total surveillance system, further bolstered by sophisticated electronic gadgets, nip in the bud any organized or systematic resistance against management…. The authors say that the total surveillance is behind the non-existence of trade unions at most Samsung units.
Wow, talk about Big Brother!
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
interesting panopticon comment. i had once done some work for samsung and kept getting interference through an electronic device. an engineer there concluded it must be some sort of surveillance apparatus. i thought he was paranoid until he got up on a chair, popped open a ceiling tile and sure enough found a hidden microphone.
wack
wack-a-do.
Bwah-ha-ha! Speaking of oligarchs, click on chiamatt’s blog, above. Someone asked one of the Jung boys if he knew how much bus fare is.
Hmm… Who needs a dictatorial government when you can get the nation’s major employers to keep the prols under tight wraps.
Samsung is set up prefectly to control the automations that the Korean education system assembles every year.
Reminds me of the TV series “Jericho”, where a fictional corporation called “Jennings and Rall” takes over half of the lower 48 states after a devastating nuclear attack.
South Korea: “Under the invisible but omniscient web of a monitoring system, all employees and executives, with the exception of Lee family members, watch each other”
North Korea: “Under the invisible but omniscient web of a monitoring system, all citizens and party cadres, with the exception of Kim family members, watch each other”
Samsung have their problems, but it’s much better than the gangsters and blackmail artists that pose as Korea’s unions. If I had to pick the lesser of two evils, I’d gladly take Samsung any day of the week.
`Under the invisible but omniscient web of a monitoring system, all employees and executives, with the exception of Lee family members, watch each other.’
Sounds like the school I worked at in Korea. One of my coleagues told me to be very cautious of what I say at work, even if it`s constructive criticism. He told me he had nearly lost his job a few years back because someone overheard him tell a coleague that the administration was dealing with a specific matter in a way that was not beneficial to our students.
Hate to say this, but if there were ever a population worthy of Panopticon treatment, well…….
# 10,
You mean the Germans?..
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