For centuries people have used their voice to oppose the actions of the powers that be of this world, by protesting. To name but a few significant ones – the Boston Tea party in 1773, The Berlin Wall protests in 1989, and the world-famous Martin Luther King March in 1963 where the “I have a dream” speech took place. The world clearly is no stranger to these sorts of actions but last year and pouring over into this one, the world has had arguably one of the most politically charged years to date.
It is without a shadow of a doubt that 2020 in itself was the year of protests. Firey, furious, and fundamentally grounded protests took place across the globe — from Hong Kong to Mexico to Kenya to Sweden- with large masses airing their utter discontent with the way decisions are made in their respective countries.
The focal points in almost all the protests have been one way or another tied to government policies, police brutality, and covid restrictions.
There are honestly too many countries to highlight in this article, but a few key ones will be mentioned and questions derived as to why the world has taken a turn against the government.
Hong Kong
One of the most prominent protests of 2020 has been in the Hong Kong region of China whom many consider as the gold standard for how to successfully and safely protest. The protests are against the CCP (Chinese communist party) whom the people of Hong Kong want their freedom from, but the CCP refuses to grant this, all while violently attacking, imprisoning, and vanishing protesters who voice any opposing opinion to the governments.
Measures taken by protesters to remain leaderless have hindered authorities from simply targeting key members, but with the technology, the Chinese government possesses they were able to track and trace through social media certain prominent players.
The USA and Black Lives Matters
Black lives matter… a bold statement and political movement which started in 2012 in retaliation to the acquitted case of a young black boy Treyvon Martin who was killed by George Zimmerman. It wasn’t until May 2020 where the world watched a gruesome eight-minute video of a Black father George Floyd who died as a result of having his neck being knelt on by the Minneapolis police in broad daylight.
The next day, huge protests erupted in Minneapolis, then like clockwork protests across the various other US states followed suit. Little did anyone know that this was the catalyst for a global uprising against similar stories of police brutality being faced in Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Kenya, Nigeria (check my article on this), and many more countries.
“No justice. No peace”
The slogan chanted by millions in the US and across the world.
India Farmers Protests
The largest-ever protest in human history took place in 2020 and if there was a reward of $50,000 to whoever could guess the country… let’s just say we probably wouldn’t see that many Teslas on the road.
Not so surprising as covid related news has consumed almost any airtime available. On August 9th 2020, upward of 250 million people shut down India by doing what is known as Bharat bandh a Hindi term that means a general strike. The protest is around protection for Indian farmers -who are already facing hardships- against large agribusinesses from dictating the price and supply of farmed goods.
The government passed a bill that essentially removed barriers that protected farmers from being exploited by mammoth agricultural corporations. The sad thing about this is not only would people probably be unaware of the scale of this protest but also the duration of it, which just marked 100 days on March 6th, 2021, and is still on-going.
Madagascar — Anti Lockdown Protest
Despite Covid restrictions in places across pretty much the whole world (except a few countries), almost every country has experienced push back from citizens against these movement restrictions. Some countries you might already know who have protested against these measures are UK, Canada, Spain, Italy, etc but a country which people might not even know is an actual country and not a movie is Madagascar in East Africa. The large island had its own series of anti-lockdown protests in June 2020.
The Questions
Almost all protests which took place in 2020 were during the peak stages of the Covid pandemia. Some even questioned if protests should have even taken place, which then prompts the question:
Do current government policies around Covid restrictions conveniently hinder protests?
Most certainly yes! Not only do they restrict freedom of movement — which some are glad is even there in the first place and demand tougher ones- but they also violate article 11 of the human rights and equality act which protects everyone’s right of freedom to protest.
Another question, which is more of a PR tactic perhaps, revolves around the labels given to almost everyone against the government regardless of the cause. Be it covid or government-related, the media and those in power brand them as “rebels”, “anti-vaxxers”, “covidiots”, or thugs as described by former US President Donald Trump.
Do these blanket labels deflect the matter at hand?
For example, labeling everyone as an anti-vaxxer can be convenient if you are trying to describe a group of people who don’t want to take a vaccine, but it doesn’t even remotely address each person’s individual concern.
An anti-vaxxer can be someone who wears a tinfoil hat, has enough tin food to open their own supermarket, and genuinely believes the world is going to end soon. It also encompasses those with legit concerns around previous pharmaceutical companies’ malpractices like Pfizer who had to pay out 75 million USD to families in Nigeria for causing children deaths in drug trials and over 2.3 billion USD for deceitful marketing in 2009. Or Medical professionals like Sucharit Bhakdi (most cited microbiologist in German history) who have strongly warned against the effects of new mRNA mass vaccinations. All three of these people will be labeled as anti-vaxxers but are they all the same?
This year countries like Spain, Netherlands, and Mynammer have had serious protests which have turned violent in the case of the Netherlands and Mynammer just a few weeks ago, and have failed to get any significant media coverage at all. 2020 marked the start of a new kind of movement… a global anti-government movement… and it’s only just getting started.
