Olympic Park Protests at 3 Months: What It Needs to Succeed

The Olympic Park protests, which started on June 3rd due to a shortage of ballots during the local elections, marked their third month on September 3rd.

Critic Kim Yong-sam reported the current situation, saying, “It’s been three months. On June 3rd, there was a big fuss about the shortage of ballots during the local elections. The Olympic Park protests, which began then, have now passed three months as of September 3rd.”

Critic Kim Yong-sam pointed out that various citizen rallies, including the Olympic Park protests, those against Park Geun-hye's impeachment, for Cho Kuk's resignation, and against Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment, have not been properly reported by traditional media outlets.

He analyzed, “Conventional media never properly reports on our citizens’ rallies,” and that new media is filling this reporting gap and expanding its influence.

Critic Kim Yong-sam introduced an interesting anecdote from Kim Jong-pil's memoir, where a fortune teller predicted the success of the May 16th Revolution just before it happened. The fortune teller reportedly saw Kim Jong-pil a few days before May 16th and exclaimed, “It will happen.”

The memoir also contains content hinting at President Park Chung-hee's tragic death, which Kim suggested makes it worthwhile to re-examine the meaning of fortune-telling through it.

He added vividness to the anecdote by saying, “While reading Kim Jong-pil's memoir, I found something very fascinating. It was a few days before May 16th. A fortune teller kept staring at Kim Jong-pil and then suddenly shouted, 'It will happen,' didn’t he?”

It was recently reported that a chairman of a small-to-medium-sized company close to famous politicians received the same fortune from four different fortune tellers. These fortune tellers reportedly predicted that the current government's operational style is unusual, leading to a serious event and a change of regime next year.

Critic Kim Yong-sam stated, “Four fortune tellers visited him. They said, seeing how this government is running, there will be a very serious incident next year, and it will be replaced. The same fortune came out.” He interpreted these predictions as ominous signs for the current government.

These anecdotes seem to reflect not just mere superstition, but also general societal unease and expectations for change.

Critic Kim Yong-sam emphasized that emotional and impulsive protests invariably fail, and meticulous strategy is necessary for success. He particularly stressed the importance of nonviolent resistance movements.

He pointed out that using violence can provide an authoritarian regime with an excuse for forceful suppression, stating, “Emotional and impulsive protests invariably fail. To succeed, meticulous strategy is necessary. Especially among these, nonviolent resistance movements must be pursued. Because the moment you use violence, they’ll say, 'You used violence against public authority.' Then, it gives them an excuse to issue a statement or to suppress forcefully.”

The importance of symbolic actions to eliminate public fear in protests was emphasized. Critic Kim Yong-sam cited examples such as Ukraine's Orange Revolution (ribbons, balloons), Georgia's Rose Revolution (scarves, sashes), and Serbia's Otpor (black fist) as commonalities in successful nonviolent resistance movements.

He explained, “Remove public fear with symbolic actions. For example, in Georgia, they used roses and rose colors, tying scarves or waving sashes,” adding that through specific colored ties, scarves, or flags, the public can symbolically express anti-government sentiment without speaking.

These symbolic actions foster a sense of solidarity among the public and lower the psychological barrier to participating in protests.

Nonviolent resistance movements aim to paralyze the operations of an authoritarian regime through a three-stage strategy. Stage 1 is symbolic action to eliminate public fear and strengthen solidarity.

In Stage 2, the regime's state administration must be practically paralyzed through strikes, go-slows, students boycotting school attendance and meal services, non-participation in government-organized events, boycotts of regime-affiliated companies, and tax refusal campaigns. Critic Kim presented concrete measures, saying, “In the second stage, the regime’s national administration must be paralyzed. This means showing strength through things like striking, go-slows, resistance movements where students refuse to attend school or eat school lunches, refuse to participate in government-organized events, engage in sympathetic strikes, and boycott companies that are aligned with the regime, as well as tax refusal movements.”

The final Stage 3 is to seize physical spaces and systems.

According to Professor Gene Sharp's 'Unarmed Insurrection' theory, instead of directly attacking the dictator, it is crucial to attack the dictator's financial lifeline and separate the military and police, who support the dictator, from him.

Critic Kim Yong-sam emphasized a strategy of undermining the dictator's foundation without direct confrontation, stating, “Never directly attack the dictator. Attack the dictator's financial lifeline, and attack the ties that connect the military and police, who support the dictator, to the dictator.”

He explained that an authoritarian regime collapses the moment the military and police withdraw their support for the government, and to achieve this, citizens must form a sense of camaraderie with the police and gain their support.

Protests that rely on a single leader risk the collapse of the entire movement if the instigator is arrested. Critic Kim Yong-sam emphasized the need to diversify and decentralize organizations like an amoeba to avoid this.

He explained, “You shouldn't have a single leader organizing the protest. You have to diversify the organization like an amoeba, spontaneously dividing roles on the internet so there's no leader to arrest, keeping the entire movement going,” mentioning that by spontaneously sharing roles through the internet, the absence of an arrestable leader ensures the protest's sustainability.

Instead of fighting solemnly and seriously, it is more effective to use humor and culture to eliminate public fear of the dictator and to ridicule them into collapse, suggested Critic Kim Yong-sam. Campaigns that satirize the dictator's image, like in the Serbian case, contribute to fostering public solidarity and eroding the dictator's authority.

He emphasized, “Don't fight solemnly and seriously. Make citizens lose their fear of the dictator with humor and cool culture that the public loves, and ridicule the dictator to bring them down.”

This approach plays a crucial role in encouraging citizen participation and shifting the protest atmosphere to a positive one.

Critic Kim Yong-sam pointed out that setting grand political goals from the start, such as presidential resignation or regime change, raises the barrier for ordinary citizens to participate and makes it difficult for them to be brave. Instead, he explained, it is important to start with small, immediately solvable problems like installing school traffic lights or tax issues, allowing citizens to experience small successes.

He said, “If you start by putting up grand goals like presidential resignation or regime change, ordinary citizens will get scared, thinking, 'Are we going to get arrested?' and won't have the courage to participate.” He added, “Start with small, immediately solvable problems and let citizens experience small successes, so they continuously gain confidence that 'we can change this with our own strength.'”

This approach can empower citizens with the confidence that they can bring about change and gradually encourage them to participate in solving larger problems.

Research by Harvard political scientist Erica Chenoweth has shown that if 3.5% of a country's population consistently and actively participates in nonviolent protests, any authoritarian regime will inevitably collapse.

Critic Kim Yong-sam emphasized the importance of this research, stating, “If 3.5% of a country's population consistently and actively participates in nonviolent protests, no matter how firmly established the authoritarian regime, it will inevitably collapse. There has not been a single exception.”

This conclusion was drawn from an analysis of political upheavals worldwide from 1900 to 2006 and is presented as an essential condition for the success of nonviolent citizen movements.

Therefore, for citizen resistance movements like the Olympic Park protests to succeed, the key task is to encourage consistent and large-scale participation from citizens.

To strengthen the solidarity of the Olympic Park protesters and create a festive atmosphere, unifying protest attire has been suggested. Critic Kim Yong-sam encouraged participants to go beyond merely holding the national flag by wearing unified attire, such as inexpensive vests or t-shirts made in specific colors.

He proposed a concrete plan, saying, “When you protest at Olympic Park, don't just hold the national flag; quickly make inexpensive vests or t-shirts in similar colors, and when you come to Olympic Park, everyone should wear a vest or t-shirt over their regular clothes to unify the color.”

Serbian President Milošević, a former banker and communist official, came to power through extreme nationalist incitement. In the snap presidential election of September 2000, opposition candidate Vojislav Koštunica won, but Milošević denied the victory and manipulated the results, leading to public outrage.

In response, university students formed an organization called 'Otpor!' (Resistance!) and began a nonviolent resistance movement. This organization led a 70,000-strong citizen resistance movement in an amoeba-like, leaderless structure, using a black fist logo to symbolize their resistance to election fraud.

Serbia's Otpor movement produced tens of millions of 'black fist' logo stickers and affixed them throughout Serbia, spreading a sense of public solidarity. These stickers were placed on walls, government office doors, bus stops, and even on the shields of police officers deployed to suppress protests, asserting their presence.

Critic Kim Yong-sam explained, “They produced tens of millions of these stickers and put them everywhere in Serbia: on walls, government office doors, bus stops, and even on the police shields when they came out to suppress protests. They put them everywhere,” emphasizing that these symbols were effective in ridiculing the dictator and dispelling public fear.

The general strike by the Kolubara mine workers played a decisive role in Serbia's democratization movement. The coal produced at the Kolubara mine supplied thermal power plants for electricity generation, but the miners' strike led to a complete halt in power supply.

Critic Kim Yong-sam explained, “The Kolubara mine workers went on strike. The coal produced at the Kolubara mine is supposed to go to thermal power plants to generate electricity, but when the miners went on strike, the electricity was cut off,” mentioning that this led to an unprecedented paralysis of industry across Serbia.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens formed a human chain at the strike site to prevent police suppression, which collapsed the energy industry—a core foundation of the authoritarian regime—and maximized citizens' solidarity.

Ultimately, under this widespread pressure, the Milošević authoritarian regime collapsed.