The Protest Must Go On
As cities and whole countries adjust to life under lockdown, protesters used to public demonstrations are having to improvise, using everything from the internet to bed sheets to kitchen utensils to make their voices heard.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought protest movements across the world to a grinding halt. Since December 2019, there had been large-scale protests in India against a new citizenship law widely seen as anti-Muslim, but now police in riot gear are breaking up the demonstrations as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s institution of social distancing guidelines. Likewise, anti-government protests in Algeria and Chile have largely abated, and Fridays for Future, the grassroots movement led by Greta Thunberg, has had to cease its weekly climate strikes.
However, many have found a way in spite of stay-at-home orders to express dissent — even using household items in the process. In Brazil, people frustrated by the government’s lax response to COVID-19 are participating in “panelaço” protests, where they bang pots and pans from their balconies while screaming “Fora Bolsonaro!” (Get out, Bolsonaro!). Across Canada and the U.S., residents who have lost jobs because of the pandemic are going on rent strikes, signaling their participation by hanging white sheets from their windows. Other organizations are ramping up their use of online petitions and social media. Health care workers lacking personal protective equipment (PPE) are circulating petitions online, and Fridays for Future have taken their climate strike online using the hashtags #ClimateStrikeOnline and #DigitalClimateStrike.
Across the world, people are making it clear that while they may have to remain indoors, they will not remain silent.
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