A Brief Intermission in the Age of Unrest
A new report from a national security think tank documents the historically unprecedented spread of mass protest across the globe over the past decade. As the world economy sinks into its worst downturn since the 1930s, we are likely entering an era of explosive change.
The empty Champs-Élysées avenue on March 28, 2020 in Paris, France. The country has introduced fines for people caught violating its nationwide lockdown measures intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
“The year 1848 is working out well,” wrote a satisfied Friedrich Engels. Mass street protests had erupted in France, and a current of rebellion was coursing through Europe. “Our age, the age of democracy, is breaking. The flames of the Tuileries and the Palais Royal are the dawn of the proletariat. Everywhere the rule of the bourgeoisie will now come crashing down, or be dashed to pieces.”
It wasn’t to be. The revolts were crushed everywhere and followed by a period of severe repression. But despite their failure, the year 1848 did go down in history as a fateful year of protest. As the liberal columnist Gideon Rachman observed in the Financial Times, it’s the first in a string of years whose mere mention conjures vivid images of mass unrest: 1848, 1917, 1968, 1989.
Mysteriously skipping over 2011, the year of the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, Rachman cautiously adds another year to this list: 2019. He enumerates the places where particularly significant protests broke out across the world: Hong Kong, India, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Spain, France, the Czech Republic, Russia, Malta, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Sudan. All told, according to a separate analysis, mass demonstrations took place in 114 countries.
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