The last few years has seen the financial Mafia squeeze the world's poor with their master plan of “austerity”, in an attempt to recoup their massive gambling loses. However, it has not all gone quietly for them, the people have been getting wise to this large con-system known as capitalism. Across the globe in cities, towns and villages, anger has been growing, and awareness that this is not the only way to shape society. What is more it is no longer isolated protests in particular places with the rest of the world being unaware of that struggle. Protests against the system are country wide and even world wide, and with support and solidarity coming from around the world.
Recent years has seen the world shaken to its core by mass protests. The Arab Spring swept across North Africa, The Occupy Movement sprang up in cities across the world, we had the Indignados and food riots. No matter what that babbling brook of bullshit, the main stream media would have you believe, there is a rising tide of anger, outrage and disillusionment with the present system. The last few years have seen some of the largest protests the world has ever experienced.
Here are some of the figures regarding world protests taken from a recent report by Initiative for Policy Dialogue:
Our analysis of 843 protest events reflects a steady increase in the overall number of protests every year, from 2006 (59 protests) to mid-2013 (112 protests events in only half a year). Following the onset of the global financial and economic crisis began to unfold, there is a major increase in protests beginning 2010 with the adoption of austerity measures in all world regions. Protests are more prevalent in higher income countries (304 protests), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (141 protests), East Asia and the Pacific (83 protests) and Sub-Saharan Africa (78 protests). An analysis of the Middle East and North Africa region (77 protests) shows that protests were also prevalent prior to the Arab Spring. The majority of violent riots counted in the study occurred in low-income countries (48% of all riots), mostly caused by food-price and energy-price spikes in those countries. Interestingly, the period 2006-2013 reflects an increasing number of global protests (70 events), organised across regions.
The people's anger is driven by similar factors across the planet, anti-austerity, a call for justice, poverty, poor living standards, lack of democracy and transparency, privatisation, accountability of the political class and a complete disillusionment in the political system. There is a common thread running through all the protests, a better world for all, an end to the inequality built into the present system and a true representation of all the people.
People are now aware that the political decisions are not made in their interests, whether it be an authoritarian regime or the so called representative democracies, the criticisms are the same, the system is not working for the benefit of the people, they now recognise that they are not represented at the decision making table. And that applies equally to governments of the right and left. It is becoming ever more obvious that the corporate and the political are a team working in their own interests.
The old mix of protesters drawn mainly from trade unionists and single issue activists has been transformed into a very wide spectrum of society. We now have pensioners and youth marching with middle class, unemployed, employed and disabled. All manner of social groups are linking up as they all share the same view, that they are not being represented, the political system has failed them.
Where do we go from here? It is difficult to see how the powers that be, can put the genie back in the bottle, people want change, they have found their voice, and they now know that they have power. How far they will take that desire for real change, will they take control of their own lives, will they boldly use their imagination and shape that better world to their true desires, will they create a world they can proudly hand to the next generation?
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