As we all are aware, there have been numerous ongoing protests around the world about climate change, inequality, dissatisfaction with the political leaders and democratic systems in various countries.
In Hong Kong, citizens have been protesting against the extradition bill since 31st of March 2019, India has recently seen a large amount of uprising not only because of the revocation of article 370 but also due to the introduction of the Citizen Amendment Act in India. In the last year, the world has also witnessed large number of people joining the Extinction Rebellion protests to criticise the world leaders on the lack of action regarding the growing issue of climate change. In Chile due to the hike in the metro fare and the widespread inequality among people has led to mass protests, the UK has seen major demonstration against Brexit, and the list goes on.
Despite the fact that different countries have different political systems and are culturally very different, there is still a common denominator among them – citizens in these countries are using their right to freedom and speech to voice their opinion and dissatisfaction with respective political leaders and parties in power. While the topics regarding the different protests may vary around the world, there is a mutual theme echoing in the voice of the millions protesting – a free, stable democracy where rights of individuals are respected, and political opinions of the public are taken into account.
Protests have always been an indication of dissatisfaction from the people to its government, however, in the past few years there has been a rise in the number of protests happening around the world, some which we are unaware about.
In a digitalised and globalised world like ours today, information is spread through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. People from different parts of the world are sharing news which we would usually not know about therefore increasing our knowledge about politics as such. With news spreading so easily around the globe, people are becoming more politically active by learning and getting inspired by other countries protesting against issues. Societies around the globe are learning and sympathising with other countries issues and thus making their opinion known to the world. Just recently, with the introduction of the Constitutional Amendment Act in India, we not only saw protests and demonstrations happening in India but also protests happening by the Indian community in countries like UK, USA, Australia.
But the main question is whether these protests are making much of a difference and whether the issues of the public are being heard and solved by the global political leaders and the political parties.
According to a Harvard Case Study, as reported by the Quartz in 2017, peaceful protests are an effective way through which issues of public can be heard and solved and eventually lead to a political change. According to the ‘clever analysis’ case study by Harvard University, protests are an effective way to get public opinions across because these protests get people politically active. Through organised and peaceful protests, individuals are able to express their dissatisfaction with certain policies by the government and inspire other countries to do the same. For instance, with the help of climate change strike, many countries pledged to reduce carbon emissions as well as address climate change problems seriously. While protests might not be successful all the time, they do help bring attention to the cause. With the help of social media and news, protesters protesting against certain issues are presented around the world and their issues are understood by a global audience encouraging and inspiring more people to come forward and express their views for a better and more equal world, thus creating a sense of solidarity and power.
Protests in general are very helpful as they not only bring attention to the issues, but also encourage more people to be politically active and increase political knowledge. While we are uncertain what 2020 holds for us and whether the protests being done currently and previously will result in any change in government policies, what we can see is that today people are much more politically aware and are not afraid to speak out when injustice occurs and that is the first step towards a more equal and fair society.