How Youth-led Revolts Shook Elites Around the World
Of all the millions of words expended in the global media on this year's rash of youth-led revolts across the globe, none are more relevant than those penned by Alex Andreou, a Greek-born blogger who now lives in Britain. "You have run out of ideas," he wrote in June, echoing the message of Greek protesters to their country's political and economic elites. "Wherever in the world you are, that statement applies."
Andreou was writing as the occupation of Syntagma Square – Athens's central plaza – was entering its fourth week, and he went on to summarise what had moved Greek demonstrators to take to the streets: a refusal to suffer any further in order to make the rich even richer, a withdrawal of consent and trust from the politicians governing in their name, and finally that simplest and most devastating of censures from one generation to the next. Those in power, he said, were devoid of fresh thinking, and this is why "the protests in Greece affect all of you directly".
When the dust has settled on 2011 perhaps the aspect of it that will prove most striking to historians is that in a period where so many old certainties dissolved, from the stability of dictatorships in the Middle East to the sturdiness of the neoliberal economic framework in Europe, America and beyond, those with their hands on the levers of formal power had so few ideas to offer. From Arab autocrats to eurozone finance ministers, paucity of original thought has prevailed at the top and the prescription has always been more of the same: reheated rhetoric and stencil-cut solutions, all worn lifeless with weary familiarity.
Little wonder then that from Santiago to Sana'a, something else has arisen to fill the void – and that those still rooted in the old models of thinking find themselves lacking the linguistic tools necessary to even describe the phenomenon, never mind understand it.
A "global temper tantrum" is the most historian and empire cheerleader-in-chief Niall Ferguson could muster in his effort to characterise this year's developments, which have seen hundreds of thousands in north Africa, led by the young, braving bullets to topple entrenched regimes. Meanwhile in southern Europe, South America, Wisconsin and London, city centres have been occupied and youths have mobilised, challenging existing power structures and fighting – with messy, uneven consequences – to articulate an alternative.
We are witnessing, says Priyamvada Gopal, an English professor at Cambridge, the "momentary transformation of anger from a dirty word into the very currency of political exchange".
Each of these struggles has been specific to local contexts but they share more than just the imagery of occupied squares, tents and teargas. They are bound together by a common sense of disenfranchisement and the belief that the participants have it in them to create a new reality – and that at the moment, largely inspired by the Arab spring and the global economic meltdown, a window of opportunity to do so is open.
"The repression is brutal … and the teargas stronger than ever," says Camila Vallejo, president of the Chilean University student union which has brought 100,000 students on to the streets and taken control of 300 schools in an attempt to rebuild the country's education system from scratch – holding mass kissathons and Michael Jackson dance routines in the process. "We have been protesting not about reform, but about wholesale restructuring … if we don't have real change now, it's not going to happen."
The scope of her ambition echoes that found in Syntagma Square, where opposition to an EU/IMF bailout and its accompanying austerity measures has morphed into a broader critique of social injustice. "We are ordinary people, we are like you," reads the mission statement of the Real Democracy website – the online hub of the Syntagma protests – before going on to explore the alienation many Greeks feel from the organs of the state. "Without us none of this would exist, because we move the world … I am outraged. I think I can change it."
It's easy to overstate the linkages; those joining the anti-government uprising in theSyrian town of Hama and los indignados of Barcelona and Madrid are striving to confront very different enemies and are facing wildly dissimilar levels of repression as a result. But connections are apparent, not least in the protesters' rejection of the old terms of debate and a commitment to build something else in response on the streets – a commitment most visible in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where protesters congregated not only to face down the regime but also to prove that an alternative was feasible; the chantahum ahum ahum, al masryeen ahum ('here, here, here, the Egyptians are here) was a snub to Hosni Mubarak, but also a reminder that the contours of society were being reimagined from the ground upwards.
Elites have yet to grasp that hunger for meaningful grassroots change and the desire to reclaim agency over a future that appears depressingly predetermined, be it under the crony capitalism and police brutality of Middle Eastern despots or the more sanitised platter of unemployment and austerity being handed down by governments in the west. Those on the other side of the divide have been unable to keep pace with the rapid shift in thinking; in his analysis, Ferguson adopts the kind of paternalistic tone that came easily to Mubarak as the octogenarian gently chided Egypt's youth for daring to question his authority, or to the unelected rating agency chiefs who condemn whole nations to poverty with a sad shake of the head and a well-intentioned finger-wag against spending profligacy.
"Historically in any country and in any context it's young people who are at the core of protests," says Gopal. "But at this moment in history we're seeing a shared sense of deprivation among the young, a shared sense of there being a democracy deficit across the world. In all these places neoliberal economic policies have intensified their hold and affected young people most directly, young people looking for employment, study, prospects. I think it has cut young people to the bone, and they're confronting it directly."
Two other common motifs run through this year's rebellions. First has been the collapse in authority of traditional institutions; from Mubarak's cult of personality to the seemingly incessant scandals engulfing Britain's arbiters of political, financial and cultural control – bankers, MPs, and the Murdoch media empire. The crumpling is contagious, fuelling rebellions in the most of places.
"People are on the edge, you can't fool us anymore," says Avi Cohen, a 25-year-old drama student who has joined a 2,000-strong tent protest on Tel Aviv's exclusive Rothschild Avenue. The protesters say they are campaigning for social justice, leaving the question of Palestinian injustice off the table for now in an effort to build the broadest possible consensus.
Like many of his counterparts elsewhere, Rotem Tsbueri has lost faith in the official mechanisms of political reform. "We're not interested in changing ministers or governments, we want to change the way things are done. It's not about who's in the government, it's about the way they work and think."
The 15-M movement in Spain, which organised demonstrations in 58 cities earlier this year under the slogan "they don't represent us", embodies a similar yearning for a new political framework to arise. "We don't want to form a political party because it would destroy the horizontal nature of the movement," says Carlos Pederes, an IT worker who has been involved in the protests from the beginning. "[Plus] the system is rigged so that only the two big parties can win, so it would be pointless."
The second commonality has been the tools used to mobilise dissent. Although the role of online social media in the Arab uprisings has often been overstated, there can be no doubt that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have enabled diverse groups to quickly garner broad support for acts of resistance – and that this means of communication has coloured the internal organisation of protest movements.
"One of the most unifying aspects between our own organisation and other movements around the world is that we're relatively non-hierarchical and decentralised," says Steve Taylor, a campaigner with UK Uncut.
"Today there may not be a single unifying ideology of change among global youth protests of the sort that united people in 1968, but there is a common ideology embedded within our shared model of organisation – no egos, no celebrities, no one telling anyone else what to do and no one willing to take orders – one that lends itself to online social media and has captured people's imaginations."
The bonds between 2011's islands of youth dissent remain limited. Although the root causes of anger may be similar, the levels of politicisation among those expressing that anger vary wildly; Gopal says she was struck by the diffuseness and lack of direction in the recent British riots, contrasting it with protests in the Arab world, where "a focus and self-awareness that comes from those countries' recent history of anti-colonial struggle has been transmitted from one generation to the next". But this year could still be remembered as one in which, after many decades of moribund political and economic realities, a new narrative began to form.
As Andreou points out, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the philosopher who coined the term"Black Swan event" – denoting a hugely consequential event that is utterly unpredictable and can only be explained afterwards – was recently asked by Jeremy Paxman whether the violence on the streets of Athens fell into that category. He demurred – and said that the real Black Swan event was that more people weren't rioting elsewhere.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Franklin in Santiago, Stephen Burgen in Barcelona and Harriet Sherwood in Tel Aviv
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British youth in revolt, the Esatablishment response
By Miller, Chris at Aug 16, 2011 10:39 AM
I have posted this as a blog but it may chime with this article on youth-led revolts.
The British Establishment is in crisis. The whole world knows that the on-going economic crisis was and is caused by the greed-driven system of capitalism – general shorthand for which (in the UK) is 'the bankers'. Yet even as a new wave of financial meltdown sweeps stock markets, British Prime Minister David Cameron and his multi-millionaire cabinet still seek to blame anyone and everyone else - especially the previous (highly banker-friendly) administration. Their mantras, “We are all in it together”, and “No other way”, are looking just a little hollow.
Now, in the wake of a fatal police shooting, followed by the now familiar torrent of police lies, there are widespread youth-led street disturbances during the last week. The massive demonstrations by students last winter (met with police violence) and huge public sector demos and strikes in the Spring must now be expunged from the collective memory (by the ever compliant mainstream press and media) to make way for newly demonised youth. Cameron's, 'hug a hoodie' speech of 2006 has returned to haunt him.
Cameron, currently lecturing us about 'broken Britain' is well known for trashing restaurants, in his youth, with his chums in the posh boys' Bullingdon Club. Of course, when the poor follow his lead, his party and supporters call for ever more draconian punishments, as if this will deter those who have nothing to lose. Yet there is nothing new or unforeseen in the current unrest and rioting is as British as cricket. Festering inner cities and long neglected public housing estates form the backdrop against which waves of public spending cuts, and accompanying massive job losses, are being made. Already pitiful youth services are being smashed up, a crisis of housing (40% cut in the dire public housing budget) is driving hundreds of thousands to despair. Waiting lists for social housing are likely to soon reach 5 million (in a population of 61m). House mortgages in London are beyond the dreams of most young people, certainly those in the most deprived boroughs.
Tellingly, during the recent disturbances one of the most frequently aired questions was, “What effect will this have on the (2012) London Olympics?”. This corporate bean-feast, with prices way out of reach of many Londoners and vast numbers of tickets swallowed by the nearby financial district corporations, is expected to be a cash cow, so must be protected at all costs. (In May it was announced that the Olympic Torch would tour 32 London boroughs next summer, in the light of numerous arson attacks officials may now be rethinking this.)
Meanwhile, Britain continues its' self-imposed role as sidekick planetary policeman, the most warlike country on the planet, with involvement in more than 60 wars since the end of WW2. “Batting above our weight” - a cricketing mixed-metaphor – is a term commonly used to describe the constant 'small' wars the country is wastefully involved in. To take just one example: the current assault on Libya, an oil-rich regime the UK and allies were trying to arm until recently, is costing upwards of £40million each month, with no end in sight. Yet we are constantly told that community facilities must be closed, school spending cut, youth services closed down. Troops remain in Afghanistan, with a steady drip of soldier bodies to remind the public of the futility of that invasion. These constant conflicts are supposed to be supported – some are, most aren't – with the doublespeak (“war is peace”) press charged with ensuring compliance. But there is no genuine support for the Afghan war, there was none for the invasion of Iraq, there is none for Libya. Constant attempts to encourage charitable giving to veterans (Help for Heroes) have floundered on public indifference or outright hostility.
Permanent costly war is just one facet of the current crisis of the Establishment, a crisis long time in the making. One damaging aspect has been how the attempt to hang on to the north of Ireland dragged the legal system into the mire, with the infamous Birmingham Six and Guildford Four frame-ups and eventual, grudging acquittals just the best known of serial and numerous miscarriages of justice. These events and others have seriously and permanently altered the public perception of the police and prosecution services. Juries remain sceptical of police evidence. The Metropolitan (London) Police are notorious for abuse of power, with 60 deaths in custody in the last decade but no convictions of officers. Incidents such as the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezez (2006), the killing in 2009 of a bystander at the G20 protests, Ian Tomlinson, (both innocent, both followed by police lies and cover-p) and the kettling of peaceful demonstrators, have undermined the normally polished media image of helpful bobbies. In fact they are a force of guards, generally deployed to protect the the rich and powerful, and with a permanent oppressive presence in the lives of thousands of young people, disproportionally black ones, in the form of stop and search.
In 2009 revelations of expenses cheating – corruption - amongst members of both Houses of Parliament angered the public and again caused a widespread re-think of the generally held belief that British public affairs were clean. Although the sums involved were often not that large, to a populace struggling with the financial crash fall-out they were another bitter pill, still being swallowed. And the last few years have seen repeated pension and mortgage selling scandals, the British Aerospace bribery cover-up, alongside massive and widespread corporate tax evasion and the ever widening gap between the super rich and the rest. One issue, that of banker's bonuses, continues to generate widespread anger.
The 2010 general election failed to return a majority party but few expected the Liberal Democrats to ditch all principle and form a coalition with the still widely despised Tories. The most notorious act in the first year was the imposition of student fees – widely set at £9000 a year – when the Lib Dems had promised there would be no such rise in fees, an act which has left students facing debts of £50,000. And as many as 200,000 would-be university students will be unable to find a place this year.
Almost the first act of the Con-Dem government was to kill the schools rebuilding programme, at the same time pushing to centralise control of schools and push forward their privatising agenda. Meanwhile youth unemployment stands at around 25%, with many who are at work on minimum wage in Mac-jobs. This government has ignored employment, pursuing only the debt reduction economic strategy demanded by the financiers. Local elections in May this year tore the Lib Dems to shreds and left them adrift, yet both Tory, Lib Dem and 'new' Labour leaders are essentially relaxed about this as it leaves the Tories in power to deal with the economic mess, but the current wave of rioting and threat of much more have shaken this cosy complacency.
Another factor haunting the Establishment is the resounding victory of the Scottish Nationalist Party in May elections. This event sent a shock wave through the power structure; there is now a real prospect of a Scottish breakaway, something which would leave a rump English state to struggle in the European Union. The previous Labour government had been charged with kicking Scottish independence into the long grass, by limited devolution, but this strategy now has to be abandoned.
Alongside other scandals the long running News of the World, prop. R. Murdoch, debacle has entertained and even occasionally enriched the chattering classes for several years but, against the odds has finally broken through the Establishment barriers (newspapers don't generally attack each other) and secrecy to expose corruption at the heart of the police and in the press. The most senior policeman in the country is forced to resign, others senior officers are widely reviled. Murdoch's most profitable rag is closed, even a usually sycophantic House of Commons finds a few (blunt) teeth with which to chew the Murdochs. Cameron has been badly exposed by this, his long standing friendship with News International boss, Rebekah Brooks, and frequent meetings with the Murdochs and other NI staffers has been widely derided. The many other politicians who also bowed to Murdoch don't have much to say and are ridiculed as puppets of the News International empire.
In the wake of this week's rioting, the police and the Tory government are publicly feuding. Neither have much credibility left and although the police will emerge the winners - they will now avoid massive planned budget cuts - in London at least, they remain a tarnished and weakened force.
During the recent riots hundreds, possibly thousands of police, were sent to the wealthy West End even though no rioting was threatened there, or took place. Meanwhile poor neighbourhoods were left to burn. The Met are left apologising for their incompetence and corruption, then promising ever more “robust” i.e. violent policing, with increased attacks on young people. Whilst this may play well with an outraged public in the short term, it ramps up the street confrontation and must lead to increased resentment and further riots.
For now the coalition government survives, but only because Labour leaders are uninterested in government; their current obsession is to break the supposed power of trade unions within the Labour party, even while membership dwindles to an all-time low. While the media commentators, in various reactionary shades, out-do each other to condemn the youth they routinely ignore, vilify and neglect, neither they nor mainstream politicians have any answers.
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