On the evening of December 4 last year, A (24), then a university history major, put aside preparations for the final exams just ahead and rushed to the front of the National Assembly in Yeouido. It was the day after former President Yoon Suk-yeol declared unlawful martial law. Faced with a situation in which the crisis of Korean democracy he had studied in the classroom was unfolding before his eyes, he could not simply stand by. Until April 4 of the following year, when the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment, he kept his place in the square almost every week.

Being in the square that winter also meant spending time meeting the ‘minorities’ who took the open mic. Each week, those who stepped up to the podium and began by identifying themselves as a lesbian, a woman, a disabled person, or a worker accounted for more than half of the speakers.

A year has passed since then. Former President Yoon was impeached and is on trial on charges including leading an insurrection. The administration has also changed. But how much of the square’s demands were realized? The ‘light-stick protests’ that condemned unlawful martial law and demanded Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment clearly differed from earlier large-scale political rallies. Women in their 20s and 30s formed the mainstream of the square, and citizens with minority identities voluntarily mounted the stage, revealed their identities, and spoke. The demand to ‘abolish all hate and discrimination’ was also unequivocal.

[Flat] Yeouido impeachment rally: ‘Women in their 20s’ were the most numerous

[Flat]“In my lifetime, martial law jumped out of the textbook”

Issues on the podium extended beyond impeachment. A range of agendas emerged, including abolishing structural sexism and winning fundamental labor rights, enacting an anti-discrimination law, guaranteeing the right to mobility for persons with disabilities, opposing the war in Palestine, and mourning victims of industrial accidents and social disasters.

The format of the rallies also changed. Instead of a small number of prearranged participants taking the microphone, citizens who signed up voluntarily did. New formats reflecting broader participation also appeared, such as reading aloud ‘Everyone’s pledge for equal and democratic rallies’ before the event, or changing the lyrics of the farmers’ song ‘Brothers’ to ‘We’ when singing.

A said, “I remember hearing at a rally that ‘Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment is only the beginning.’” “Speakers said they did not think our lives would change just by bringing down Yoon. What they wanted was for the hate and discrimination represented by Yoon Suk-yeol to disappear.” What is even more important is that no one among those gathered in the square rejected such remarks by saying, ‘Why say something unnecessary.’ For minorities to reveal themselves and have their words be ‘accepted’ on the spot was a special experience.

[Flat] The ‘light-stick’ solidarity that reached Jeonnong, SADD, and even Dongduk Women’s University···“Unflinchingly to the square”

However, citizens who had rushed to Yeouido and Gwanghwamun felt that the agendas that had gathered in the square at that time did not survive as policy. Many voiced anger and a sense of betrayal that the demands of womenhailed then as leading actors in the squarehave not been accepted. They said they were disappointed to see that policies such as a consent-based rape law and an anti-discrimination law were not adopted as state tasks of the new government, and that President Lee Jae-myung repeatedly mentioned that ‘reverse discrimination against men’ should be examined.

[Flat] The world we must meet again ‘after Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment’

Kim Su-yeon (19), a university student, said that although the media paid much attention to the rallies as ones with many ‘candlelight girls,’ she was very disappointed to see pledges related to violence against women shunted aside during the presidential race and the lack of proactive policies under the current government, adding, “If this is the case, I do not know why they so lavishly praised the fact that many women took part in the rallies.”

A woman participant in her 50s, B, said, “I hoped the voices of the women who stood in the cold square then would not be buried, but it is regrettable that even a consent-based rape law or an anti-discrimination law is still not being discussed in the National Assembly.” A woman in her 30s, C, said, “Last year, the political force that regularly invoked light sticks and a ‘revolution of light’ seems now to be overly self-conscious even about (gender) issues that could be approached in a neutral way, such as responding to sex crimes.”

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Some citizens said they were shocked to see the agendas highlighted in the square at the timesuch as high-altitude sit-ins by laid-off workers and the right to mobility for persons with disabilitiesshunned after the change of administration. A said that seeing activists from the National Solidarity for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities recently be violently blocked while carrying out a subway boarding protest brought to mind the ‘SADD comrades’ who spoke in the square then. A said, “Yoon Suk-yeol was impeached, but it appears the world still does not listen to their voices, and that was very shocking.”

There were also concerns that social conflict and hate have intensified since the impeachment. D, a woman in her 20s, said, “I am worried that anti-Chinese sentiment and conspiracy theories are spreading indiscriminately.”

[Flat] The ‘protagonists’ of the square with light sticks… “We can no longer be erased”

Participants criticized the political class for recognizing the demands of women and minority citizens that erupted in the square not as something to take seriously, but merely as an ‘auxiliary cheering force.’ E, a woman in her 30s, said, “The way the self-described ‘progressive camp’ perceives the political empowerment of women has not changed at all from the days when teenage participants in the mad cow disease candlelight protests were labeled ‘candlelight girls in their teens.’” She continued, “Everyone acknowledges that the biggest driving force behind the impeachment of the previous administration was women in their 20s and 30s, yet rather than expecting them to have political power commensurate with that role, there is a strong sense that they are seen only as a simple ‘cheering squad.’” Sawol (activist name, 20), who said she frequently took part in rallies in Gwangju, said, “At protests, there were many times when people in their teens and twenties felt consumed as ‘special and admirable beings’ rather than as equal citizens.”

Participants said that the failure of the square’s voices to connect to political agendas is closer to a ‘failure of politics’ than a ‘failure of citizens.’ A said, “I came home from a protest and felt disappointed watching news that only reported ‘how many people’ attended the Yoon Suk-yeol impeachment rallies,” adding, “The demands of minorities who came to the square were not taken seriously in the public sphere, and as a result, even after he removal from office they did not become matters of nationwide concern.”

Kwon Kim Hyun-young, director of the Institute for Women’s Realities, said, “The reason politics did not take up the collective cry from the square is that there is no voice in politics that represents the ‘worldview of the square,’” adding, “Yoon Suk-yeol revealed how vulnerable our democracy is, and the square last year showed that rebuilding that vulnerable democracy means creating spaces where the voices of diverse citizens can surface.”

▼ Nam Ji-won, Gender Desk somnia@khan.kr