How to protest

Coronavirus and quarantine measures have posed significant challenges for social movements at a time when governments are taking important decisions on people’s lives as well as living conditions.

Citizens experience high degrees of anxiety and uncertainty, brought on by risks to health and economic well-being. As governments scramble to respond to the pandemic, its unequal impact on citizens becomes ever more visible, as do the discrepancies between different nations’ government strategies, their effectiveness, and the degree of legitimacy they elicit from their publics.

Whereas New Zealand’s Covid-19 response met with great public support and was extremely effective, the UK witnessed a seriously delayed and chaotic response, and extremely high infection and death rates, with 66 percent of the public feeling the government took too long to react. The coronavirus crisis has made visible existing social problems and inequalities and ushered forth new causes for citizen concern.

It has become clear that the impact of the coronavirus has left some communities, such as communities of colour, much more vulnerable than others, and that the poor are the hardest hit, least able to practice social distancing and to stay at home.

Austerity policies following the global financial crash have underfunded health care systems and schools, a problem that has burst into public awareness as hospitals are overcapacity, medical staff have insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE), and schools are struggling to deliver children’s education during lockdown with limited resources. As we face a global depression, this situation is likely to deteriorate further, and millions have already lost their employment.

The urgent need to respond to the crisis has also provided a justification for increasing state powers that threaten individual rights and freedoms, and concerns over forms of citizen monitoring such as contact tracing apps and risks to human rights activists have grown. Even state economic stimulus measures are under scrutiny, as trillion dollar corporate bailouts such as those in the US or the UK raise serious questions about democratic oversight and who will primarily benefit from them – corporations or citizens.

Citizens and social movements clearly have a lot to discuss, critique, and protest, but how to mobilize when you can’t take to the streets?

The spatial forms of protest and organization have shifted in response to the pandemic’s quarantine restrictions. Some creative protesters, such as those in Israel protesting Netanyahu and the erosion of Israel’s democracy, have observed an entirely new form of “social distancing protests.” But these are the exception, not the norm.

Excerpted from: ‘How Do You Protest When You Can’t Take to the Streets?’

Comondreams.org