Global Revolution 2009–20XX? Political Realignment? Or Business as Usual?
I’m going to keep a running tally of states where ordinary citizens, in countries the world over, have risen up to challenge entrenched status quo powers from 2009 to present. As we know from Syria, and the Arab Spring more generally, the outcome is never certain when brave people coalesce around the cause of taking on entrenched power. Sometimes though, as we’ve seen over and over this past decade: sometimes protest and revolt result in deep substantive changes for the many, and harness the abusive power of a nefarious few of each respective country/government. Regardless of how you analyze the last decade one thing is certain: we’re in a period of prolonged social, political, and economic struggle and the outcome of this period we are in, and will be in for many years ahead, is outcome undetermined. Some countries will have multiple entries, either due to prolonged political turmoil, prolonged war, or separate and district protest/revolutionary events.
2009:
IRAN —Cast as a protest to recent presidential elections or as a general disconent, labeled the Green Revolution or Green Movement, Iranians hit the streets of Iran to protest what they viewed as a corrupted regime and a corrupt election. Resulted in no change in government.
ICELAND — Pots and Pans Revolution in response to the government’s handling of the financial collapse of 2008 that originated on Wall Street. Said to be some of the largest protests in Iceland’s history up to that point in time. Resulted in change in government.
2010:
UNITED STATES — Tea Party.
2011:
UNITED STATES — Occupy Wall Steet.
EGYPT —
TUNISIA —
YEMEN —A complicated set of factors triggers the Yemen Revolution in the backdrop of the Arab Spring.
2014:
UNITED STATES — Ferguson. Black Lives Matter.
2015:
YEMEN — 2015 marks the beginning of what has been coined the Yemen Civil War. It’s a mess with propagandists and special interests galore muddying up almost all information coming out of the country. The US and UK are complicit in whatever crimes against humanity unfold in Yemen. As of 2019, the US and UK were supplying bombs, guns, fuel, and training to the Saudis as they carried out what appears to be a brutal genocidal campaign against one of the poorest countries on the planet. The entire affair post-2015 is gut wrenchingly disgusting.
What started as part of a general revolt as part of the Arab Spring in 2011 morphed into a civil war by 2015, with heavily funded outside powers. Helen Lackner’s “Yemen in Crisis” details many of the complicated dynamics at play in Yemen. What started as protests in 2011 could very possibly result in one of the worst genocides since WWII in the 1940s.
2016:
ICELAND — Citizens protested Prime Minister “Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir, set up Wintris Inc via the law firm Mossack Fonseca.” Mossack Fonseca was a focal law firm in the Panama Papers leak, revealing the shady dealings of world leaders and a notorious Panama tax haven. Resulted in a change in government.
2017:
CATALONIA —
2018:
FRANCE — GILET JAUNES or YELLOW VESTS,
ZIMBABWE —
YEMEN — “150,000 people are thought to have starved to death in Yemen last year, with one child dying of starvation or preventable diseases every ten minutes, and another falling into extreme malnutrition every two minutes. The country is undergoing the world’s biggest cholera epidemic since records began with over one million now having contracted the disease, and new a diptheria epidemic “is going to spread like wildfire” according to Lowcock. “Unless the situation changes,” he concluded, “we’re going to have the world’s worst humanitarian disaster for 50 years”.
The cause is well known: the Saudi-led coalition’s bombardment and blockade of the country, with the full support of the US and UK, has destroyed over 50% of the country’s healthcare infrastructure, targeted water desalination plants, decimated transport routes and choked off essential imports, whilst the government all this is supposed to reinstall has blocked salaries of public sector workersacross the majority of the country, leaving rubbish to go uncollected and sewage facilities to fall apart, and creating a public health crisis. A further eight million were cut off from clean water when the Saudi-led coalition blocked all fuel imports last November, forcing pumping stations to close.”
2019:
SUDAN—
RUSSIA—
HONG KONG—
As I continue to fill all this in and as events continue to unfold around the globe, I’ll update and edit this page. Last updated: 08/24/19.
Also, I am going to create a page titled Global Collapse of the Center at some point.
