KJCKorea
Journal Central

In this article, I conceptualize the solidarity protests of marginalized groups —such as those at Namtaeryung following the December 3 self-coup—as a form of “democracy of testimony,” guided by the philosophical insights of Judith Butler. The significance of the Namtaeryung Daechup (“great victory”) lies in the fact that marginalized individuals, who had previously fought in isolation within their respective domains, came together in mutual solidarity. I refer to this as a “solidarity of mutual testimony,” wherein each participant becomes a witness to the struggles of others. This form of solidarity exemplifies the anarchist characteristics theorized by Jacques Rancière and Catherine Malabou. It also signals that the current impeachment crisis must not remain at the level of the 2017 impeachment but should instead advance toward a deeper realization of democracy—one driven by such acts of collective resistance. However, I argue that a Derridean aporia exists between this mutual testimony and democracy itself. Paradoxically, solidarity that resists the state may end up legitimizing the state’s oligarchic power. Therefore, the critical task for a democracy of testimony is to engage in an impossible dialectic grounded in the aporetic tension between democracy outside the state and democratization within it.