protest

August 13, 2013

The mass demonstrations that convulsed Brazil in June and July 2013 are more than a raw display of people power; they confirm that we are living in a new era of digitally enhanced protest. The storyline is by now well rehearsed. What started out as a modest protest by the little-known Movimento Passe Livre (Free Fare Movement)–a group calling for free public transport over the past decade–went viral.

In Egypt, as in many of the great revolutions of modern history, the people not only overthrew the old order but also remained in the streets of the capital to oversee the creation of a new one. And as was to be expected, the forces of order, notably the army, then sought to send them home. What is unusual about the Egyptian case, however, is that the sit-ins, encampments, and targeted occupations were well organized and had been developed by the Muslim Brotherhood to last in the face of military intervention.

The controversy over the anti-gay law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin is gaining a lot of steam since its implementation nearly two months ago. The law bans the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations around minors.” In other words, prohibited are gay pride rallies, displaying a rainbow flag and gays displaying any public affection toward each other. Gay rights groups have denounced it as a violation of human rights.

With all eyes on Brazil during the Pope’s visit, protests are planned in Rio throughout the week to reiterate demonstrators’ grievances, including insufficient but expensive public transportation, government spending on mega-events like the World Cup, and political corruption. A protest took place in Rio the first day of the Pope’s visit, when around 2,000 people demonstrated outside of the governor’s palace where the Pope had attended an event.

These young people did not live through the repression of the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s. They did not live through the inflation of the 1980s, when the first thing we did when we received our paychecks was to run to the supermarket and buy everything possible before the prices rose again the next day. They remember very little about the 1990s, when stagnation and unemployment depressed our country. They want more.

As in the case of mass protests in Bulgaria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey, Brazil’s political establishment was caught utterly off-guard. Predictably, they first dismissed the demonstrators as “vandals”. They quickly changed their tune after police were filmed deploying excessive force against protestors and journalists. In a bid to lower the temperature, Brazilian President Rousseff tried instead to initiate a dialogue with the protestors, and hastily unveiled a five-part reform plan.

Taiwanese subcontractors working on the American Institute in Taiwan's new office compound in Taipei said Saturday they will stage a protest at the construction site next week to demand payment of money owed to them by the project's American contractor.

The Japanese media showed images of huge crowds throwing bottles and eggs at the Japanese embassy in Beijing as they chanted nationalistic slogans. Television stations also carried lengthy reports from inside a Japanese-owned mall -- elsewhere in China -- which was slowly being surrounded by increasingly violent demonstrators. Though life has continued as normal across Japan, many Japanese people are increasingly troubled by the dispute.

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