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Even since moving its group offices to “Samsung Town” in Seoul’s Seocho-dong neighborhood, Samsung has been thoroughly cutting off all opportunities for protests against it by getting permits for protests that do not actually happen, or “ghost protests” as they are called in Korean. The move prevents other protests from taking place legally since protests are not usually issued permits for more than one protest at the same location at the same time.

Samsung used the same method when its head offices were on the city’s Taepyeongno boulevard. The police still look on with indifference, saying they cannot stop the practice because there is nothing in the legal code to punish someone for obtaining a permit, even when everyone knows the protest is not going to happen.

According to official documents obtained from the Seocho-gu Police Station on January 11 through an information disclosure request (jeongbo gonggae cheonggu) filed by The Hankyoreh, Samsung Corporation, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Samsung Electronics, which moved to the new “Samsung Town” between November 1 and December 31, each took turns filing protest plans, monopolizing all of the possible protest opportunities for a full month, excluding holidays. Samsung Corporation filed for 19 protests, Samsung Electronics filed for 14, and Samsung Heavy Industries filed for nine, essentially swiping up all the opportunities for anyone to protest against the conglomerate by using weaknesses in the law that allow you to obtain a protest permit 730 hours (30 days) prior to the actual event.

The documents state the Samsung ghost protests are to be held “every day from sunrise to sunset” and for things like “protests calling for an improvement of working conditions,” and that participants will march all over the place in front of Samsung offices. In declining to cite a specific location, Samsung makes sure no one can protest anywhere near its buildings because the ghost protests are supposed to take place near buildings, in open spaces near them and on pedestrian walks nearby.

The conglomerate has been using this method of monopolizing protest permits since last spring, when it began moving to Seocho-dong. Not one of its officially planned protests, however, has actually taken place.

“I’ve been working here for a year and a half and I’ve never seen Samsung employees protesting anything,” said an individual with the surname Jo, 29, who works at a restaurant behind Samsung Town’s Section A.

Samsung Corporation’s public information office, when faced with questions, said it “cannot conform or deny anything relating to protests near company offices.”

The trick has forced roughly 7,000 locals from areas affected by the West Sea oil spill who came to protest against the conglomerate on December 30 to hold the event at the street intersection known as the Gangnam Subway Station Intersection. Employees of Daeseong Industries, a company that subcontracts for Samsung, have been protesting for more than a month to demand their overdue wages, but have had to stand on the pedestrian walk across the street.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]