The world is being rocked by another wave of mass uprisings happening across nearly every continent. From North to South, East to West, movements overwhelmingly led by students and young people are mobilizing to demand change. Despite what the mainstream media might portray as “radical”, the demands of these movements are pretty reasonable: more accountability, public resources, and opportunities; less corruption, austerity, and militarism.
From the US to Brazil and Argentina, France to Spain and Serbia, India to Nepal and Indonesia, Morocco to Kenya and Madagascar, the story is very similar. A generation that is over-educated and under-resourced, highly connected by the internet, and pissed off about the world they are about to inherit.
As Millenials ourselves, we can relate to this feeling. Neoliberal economic policies have globalized the economy, crushed unions, and empowered an oligarch class that dominate political and civic life. The social contract of “study well, find a job, work hard, and get a good life” has been ripped apart. For all intents and purposes, this should be ripe conditions for a revolution of global scale - but where is it? It feels we are often at the precipice of massive change that remains agonizingly just out of reach.
Dude, Where’s My Revolution?
In the 2010s we were in a similar position as today. The 10’s decade saw a massive explosion of mass uprisings around the globe, with movements like Occupy Wall Street in the US, the Arab Spring across West Asia, Umbrella Movement in Asia, and more.
But despite a record amount of protest, there was very little revolution. In fact, as Vincent Bevins tracks in his book If We Burn, often there was often little change or an extreme backlash. In the 2010s, we got Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and other strong-man leaders; citizens of Hong Kong, Iran, and Turkiye faced harsh crackdowns on civilian life; Brexit pulled the UK out of the European Union. That trend continued throughout the decade - for instance, the Black Lives Matter protests in the US (the largest in US history) actually led to an increase in police spending in the years following. So what gives?
