UNITED THEY FEEL

WHY DID SO MANY OF THE HUGE STREET PROTESTS OF THE 2010S LEAD TO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY ASKED FOR?

- Vincent Bevins

IN THE DECADE FROM 2010 TO 2020, humanity witnessed an explosion of mass protests that seemed to herald profound changes. These protests started in Tunisia and erupted across the Arab world, before huge demonstrations also rocked countries like Turkey, Ukraine and Hong Kong. By the end of the decade, protests were roiling Sudan, Iraq, Algeria, Australia, France, Indonesia, much of Latin America, India, Lebanon and Haiti. During these 10 years, more people took part in street demonstrations than at any other point in history.

Many of these protests were experienced as a euphoric victory by their participants and met with optimism in the international press. But years later, after most foreign reporters have gone, we can now see how the uprisings preceded - if not necessarily caused - outcomes that were very different from the goals of the protesters. Nowhere did things turn out as planned. In many cases, things got much worse.

Take Brazil. On 13 June 2013, I was standing on a street in São Paulo reporting on a growing protest movement, when the military police, without warning, began shooting at the crowd. Teargas, shock bombs, maybe rubber bullets - it was hard to know in the moment. I found refuge in the entrance of a residential building. It took me a few moments to regain my senses and realise where I was, after I had confirmed I could still breathe with some regularity.

The police crackdown led to an explosion of sympathy for the demonstrations, which had been organised by the Movimento Passe Livre (MPL), a small group of leftists and anarchists demanding cheaper public transport. Millions of people took to the streets across Brazil, shaking the political system to its core. New demonstrators brought new demands - better schools and healthcare, less corruption and police violence - into the mass movement.