ALL around the world, more protests are taking place than ever before, with people taking to the streets in cities from Hong Kong to London. These demonstrations are on the rise in frequency and duration to such an extent, 2019 will go down in history as the ‘year of the protest’.
Protesting is nothing new?
Civil disobedience is as old as time, but the modern concept has been credited to Mahatma Gandhi, whose non-violent resistance led the campaign to end British rule in India and has inspired modern civil rights movements across the globe.
His “salt march” was a defining moment?
In 1930, he led a 24-day march in India to campaign against the empirical legislation that taxed the production of Indian salt, so that the country had to import British salt. It was a ‘satyagraha’ - a non-violent resistance.
It was not successful?
It did not initially stop the tax, but sent a message to the world that India was a force to be reckoned with and ultimately proved inspirational. It led to further civil disobedience and influenced the thinking of the likes of Martin Luther King, who followed Gandhi’s non-violent approach in his own activism in the 1960s at the height of the civil rights movement in the US.
It’s not so peaceful now?
Recent high profile protests include the situation in Hong Kong, where demonstrations began in June against proposals to allow extradition to mainland China. Clashes between protestors and police became regular and violent, with parliament stormed and defaced in one instance and clashes at the airport leading to hundreds of flights being cancelled. The protests continue.
In Catalonia?
Riots have been raging in Barcelona after nine separatist leaders were given jail terms for an illegal Catalan independence referendum in 2017. At the weekend, 80,000 people rallied calling for Spanish unity, in the wake of protests by 350,000 Catalan separatists that spiralled into violent clashes.
Extinction Rebellion?
Climate change protestors brought London to a standstill earlier this month in a divisive occupation that even saw one of their activists dragged off the roof of a tube train. The group say they are non-violent and want to highlight the risks posed by climate change. Around 2,000 people were arrested.
Why are there so many protests?
Amnesty International, acknowledging the “massive surge in protests globally”, puts forward a raft of possible explanations, including anger over the cost of living and outrage over government corruption - leading to protests across Chile, Egypt and Lebanon.
Anger over climate inaction is a driving force?
One of the standout moments of the year came in September, when more than 7.6 million people took part in a week of climate strikes in 185 countries, organised by Fridays for Future, a youth-led movement started by Swedish teenager Miss Thunberg.Amnesty say “Young activists are challenging us to confront realities of the climate crisis”, with the “burning injustices of climate change” sparking a huge rise in activism globally.
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