tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/social-protest-23646/articlessocial protest – The Conversation2021-03-15T12:58:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1554522021-03-15T12:58:27Z2021-03-15T12:58:27ZResistance to military regime in Myanmar mounts as nurses, bankers join protests – despite bloody crackdown<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389082/original/file-20210311-24-pelj4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C133%2C5246%2C3290&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nurses in Myanmar have been striking since February to protest the military coup. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nurses-hold-up-signs-as-they-march-during-a-demonstration-news-photo/1231133016?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young people were the first in Myanmar to peacefully protest the country’s new military regime. Then came <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2021/03/myanmar-burma-general-strike-coup">labor unions</a>. In the weeks since a Feb. 1 military coup, Mynamar’s resistance movement has expanded dramatically to include some <a href="https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/back-to-the-stone-age-striking-bank-workers-bring-an-industry-and-an-economy-to-its-knees/">perhaps unlikely activists</a>: doctors, nurses, bankers, grocers, <a href="https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/another-300-protesters-yangon-arrested-juntas-security-forces.html">railway workers</a> and other working professionals risking their middle-class comforts. </p>
<p>Myanmar was under military rule from 1988 to 2011. During the elections in 2015, the National Democratic League won by a landslide, and party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977">well-known dissident</a>, became the country’s leader. The army <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/world/asia/myanmar-military-crackdown.html">overthrew her government on Feb. 1, 2021</a>, and imposed martial law. </p>
<p>Soon, thousands of <a href="https://www.myanmar-now.org/en/news/striking-doctors-foreign-ministry-staff-charged-as-junta-continues-crackdown-on-civil">Myanmar’s health care workers</a> were refusing to go to work – an attempt to thwart the coup regime by grinding government machinery to a halt. Health care is public in Myanmar, and health workers hold <a href="https://themimu.info/Economic_Activity">10% of all government jobs</a>. Most hospitals and medical schools have closed their doors. </p>
<p>As elsewhere in the world, doctors and nurses in Myanmar have become public <a href="https://www.mmtimes.com/news/home-heroes.html">heroes</a> during the pandemic. Their high social status makes them important allies to the pro-democracy cause. </p>
<p>Doctors and nurses are among many other civil servants in Myanmar to engage in civil disobedience. Up to 90% of the staff in <a href="https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/striking-government-workers-say-they-are-ready-to-face-the-worst/">some government ministries is on strike</a>, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Electricity and Energy; the junta says it’s 30%. Some of Myamar’s 7.4 million private-sector workers are also striking, including <a href="https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/they-are-destroying-their-own-economy-central-bank-official-lambasts-protesters-cdm/">bank employees</a>, whose absence has forced the government to <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/myanmar-central-bank-to-limit-cash-withdrawal-from-banks-atms">limit daily cash withdrawals</a>.</p>
<p>A revolt started by young people raised during Myanmar’s democratic transition is becoming a broadly based national resistance movement involving the middle classes – whom history shows are <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/704699?af=R&mobileUi=0">central to any successful protests movement</a>.
And despite increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-killings-beatings-and-disappearances-escalate-whats-the-end-game-in-myanmar-156752">deadly military crackdowns beginning in early March</a>, the protests are still gaining steam.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People with shields and hard hats duck and run for cover on a smoky street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389096/original/file-20210311-23-bd4tr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protesters in Yangon try to defend themselves against tear gas at a demonstration March 8 against the military coup.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-hold-homemade-shields-after-tear-gas-was-fired-news-photo/1231593285?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Money talks</h2>
<p>I study <a href="https://theconversation.com/myanmar-debates-womens-rights-amid-evidence-of-pervasive-sexual-and-domestic-violence-104536">social movements</a> and <a href="https://humanitiesacrossborders.org/people/tharaphi">dissent in Myanmar</a>. Active support from the comfortable middle class differentiates current protests from previous pro-democracy movements in Myanmar, from the Buddhist monks’ “<a href="https://www.irrawaddy.com/from-the-archive/saffron-revolution-rangoon-diary.html">saffron revolution</a>” against the military dictatorship in 2007 to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31812028">student protests for education reform</a> in 2015. </p>
<p>Those protests, which did not achieve their goals, were confined to one segment of the population. This time around, Generation Z is leading Myanmar’s pro-democracy uprising, and some of my university students from there were arrested in a March 3 crackdown and face up to three years in prison. </p>
<p>But the youth are joined by many other kinds of people. Some workers walked off their jobs to rally behind the young people at protests. Other middle-class professionals support the movement more quietly, with money, rations, shelter and professional services like legal advice. </p>
<p>People across Myanmar are also boycotting products produced by the army and its conglomerates, such as Myanmar beer and the Joox music app, and goods imported from <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/43e6ecfe-081a-4390-aa18-154ec87ff764">China</a> and <a href="https://mothership.sg/2021/02/myanmar-coup-boycott-singapore-brands/">Singapore</a> – two top investors in Myanmar, neither of which condemned the coup. </p>
<p>After bank workers began to strike late last month, international observers worried <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/asia/myanmar-s-military-coup-creates-banking-woes-44465">banks in Myanmar would collapse</a>. But banks serve very few people in Myanmar. As of 2017, only <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/mobile-money-in-myanmar-going-directly-from-cash-to-digital">6% of the Southeast Asian country’s 54 million people</a> were served by a financial institution.</p>
<p>During the pandemic, which has hit Myanmar hard, nonprofit organizations mobilized to create small aid networks that could <a href="https://commonpurpose.org/blog/archive/i-do-nation-a-yangon-covid-19-direct-cash-transfer-and-support-programme/">provide funds to poor people who needed cash</a> using online sites and phone apps. About <a href="https://consult-myanmar.com/2020/11/12/wavepay-app-reaches-more-than-1-million-active-users/">1 million</a> people in Myanmar used a phone-to-phone cash transfer service called Wave every month of last year.</p>
<p>Now, during the protests, those same aid networks are providing financial support to help striking civil servants and private-sector workers partially make up for their forgone salaries. Grocers provide rations to keep food on protesters’ tables. Medical professionals help those hurt in the protests and provide free health care to their families. Teachers provide free education.</p>
<p>Through new apps such as <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/myanmar-digital-insurgents-finally-found-150343681.html">Stay away</a>, people are scrutinizing how they spend their money to avoid unintentionally financing the army and its supporters, who have investments in nearly every sector of Myanmar’s economy, from supermarkets to entertainment.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men in hardhats sit on the ground facing monks in robes holding colorful umbrellas" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389088/original/file-20210311-19-99j553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An anti-coup protest March 11 joined by monks in Yangon, Myanmar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-during-an-anti-coup-protest-as-monks-also-news-photo/1231644788?adppopup=true">Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Moral shaming</h2>
<p>As protests grow, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000007653340/myanmar-protests-military-coup.html">military’s crackdowns</a> are getting more and more brutal. As of March 15, <a href="https://aappb.org/?p=13578">more than 100 people had been killed and nearly 2,000 detained</a>. Still, <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/asia/defiant-myanmar-protesters-march-day-after-bloodiest-post-coup-unrest-44614">thousands of students</a> and workers flood into the streets every day.</p>
<p>“Dhamma versus adhamma” is their slogan: “Justice versus injustice.”</p>
<p>To help the frontline activists, residents of neighborhoods surrounding the protest sites in Myanmar’s commercial capital, Yangon, build barricades and hide protesters from security forces. Businesses in the neighborhood of Sanchaung close between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for protests. Afterward, as trading and daily activities resume, neighbors clear the debris from <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210307-myanmar-protesters-rally-after-overnight-raids-on-opposition-figures">clashes between security forces and protesters</a>, then rebuild barricades for the next act of resistance. </p>
<p>When soldiers beat, shoot and kidnap protesters, people take videos and photos from nearby buildings and send them to media and to investigators at the <a href="https://iimm.un.org/?fbclid=IwAR2AEcGS6-2dHy5eNTHZxvyPf5MPiW2vSpd-JmPwOmz3Dq9FNtWbFp1XfkU">United Nations</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>All over the country, <a href="https://www.thaipbsworld.com/social-punishment-and-civil-disobedience-the-weapons-of-myanmar-people/">social shaming of regime leaders and their families is a tactic of resistance</a>. In the town of Monywa, in central Myanmar, residents have been following family members of the security forces in the streets and asking local shopkeepers not to serve them as customers. </p>
<p>From striking students to online activists to no-show nurses to helpful neighbors, Myanmar’s protesters resist in different ways with a shared goal: to restore their country’s nascent democracy. With sustained massive resistance to the military and moral support from much of the nation, Myanmar’s peaceful demonstrations may contain the seeds of a revolution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tharaphi Than does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Young people in Myanmar have rallied daily since a Feb. 1 coup, demanding democracy. Now, ever more middle-class professionals are backing their cause, offering food, legal advice and moral support.Tharaphi Than, Associate Professor, Department of World Cultures and Languages, Northern Illinois UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1070862018-12-04T03:07:07Z2018-12-04T03:07:07ZGetting to the heart of coal seam gas protests – it’s not just the technical risks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248610/original/file-20181204-23240-xaer7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Narrabri ‘Big Picture’ event in November 2015 brought together people from across the region in opposition to coal seam gas extraction..</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Selen Ercan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opposition to coal seam gas (CSG) in Australia is remarkable. CSG proposals – mostly affecting rural areas – have spawned hundreds of opposition groups across the country. Some are now household names, like <a href="https://www.lockthegate.org.au/about_us">Lock the Gate</a> and <a href="https://knitting-nannas.com/what.php">Knitting Nannas Against Gas</a> (KNAG). But there are also many others; small local groups without logos or official websites.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14742837.2018.1515624?af=R&journalCode=csms20">Our research</a> reveals all sorts of concerns motivate the opponents of CSG. But one factor, emotions – in particular how people “do” emotions – helps explain how people mobilise and unite in their opposition.</p>
<p>It’s fair to say the scale of this resistance has been a shock all round: to industry, to government, and even to organisers in the movement itself.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/fracking-policies-are-wildly-inconsistent-across-australia-from-gung-ho-development-to-total-bans-108039">Fracking policies are wildly inconsistent across Australia, from gung-ho development to total bans</a>
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<p>One of the defining characteristics of the Australian anti-CSG movement is that it involves alliances between diverse kinds of people, such as rural residents (many of them farmers) and urban-based environmental organisers. These groups can be at odds with one another on other issues, for example land-clearing policy. But with CSG, they have found common ground. </p>
<p>There may be differences in terms of emphasis and specific concerns, but overall the movement has been very effective at building and maintaining a momentum of opposition to the CSG industry.</p>
<h2>CSG opposition in and around Narrabri</h2>
<p>We were interested in what it is that brings these diverse groups together. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14742837.2018.1515624?af=R&journalCode=csms20">Our research</a> focused on the movement opposing the <a href="https://narrabrigasproject.com.au/">Narrabri Gas Project</a> proposed for south of the town of Narrabri, 500km northwest of Sydney. </p>
<p>The project has been described as the “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/08/03/pilliga-protest-the-moment-200-farmers-and-nannas-tell-santos-t_a_23062445/">most-protested-against gas developments</a>” in New South Wales. SBS Television’s Insight series recently devoted <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/tvepisode/power-divide">a program</a> to this particular controversy.</p>
<p>Our research into CSG in and around Narrabri finds potential impacts on water and land are core issues that unite a broad range of people. Shared concerns also encompass questions of energy supply, climate change, procedural shortcomings and perceptions of government and industry collusion.</p>
<p>Yet there are also factors beyond these substantive issues that help to explain the strength of opposition to CSG in rural Australia. Our research suggests that emotions play a crucial role in building alliances and mobilising opponents of CSG.</p>
<p>Conversations with people involved in opposing the CSG proposal in and around Narrabri reveal the following key insights about the role of emotions.</p>
<h2>Joy – as well as anger – sustains a movement</h2>
<p>Anger is one of the most commonly expressed emotion by participants in the anti-CSG movement. People are angry about the possibility of having to face the negative impacts of the CSG industry. They are also angry at the government for not listening to community concerns. </p>
<p>Yet, while anger is a central sentiment in mobilising CSG opposition, it is the combination of anger with joy, especially the joy of social connection, that helps to sustain involvement. </p>
<p>Opposition to CSG is often integrated into people’s daily lives – like bringing the kids along to a highway protest. For many involved, anger and frustration at the industry and government are combined with the joy of coming together, “doing community” and employing a wide range of <a href="http://www.broadagenda.com.au/home/sisters-in-yarn/">creative acts of protest, such as those performed by the Knitting Nannas Against Gas</a>. </p>
<p>These activities bring together people with ideological differences and blur the distinctions between political and social identities. They also offer a space for participants to connect with one another in the face of “burnout” and other frustrations.</p>
<h2>Social obligations and ‘holding back’ help</h2>
<p>As Gabrielle Chan notes in her recent book, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/03/rusted-off-the-divide-between-canberra-and-the-neglected-class">Rusted Off</a>, human contact is very important in Australian rural communities. Similarly, we find that a key element of social life in Narrabri is about getting along with others. This feature of rural communities creates a significantly different context compared to environmental controversies elsewhere. </p>
<p>Being respectful in small rural communities often means being non-confrontational. In a small community, people rely on one another, often over multiple generations. You never know when you might need help from a neighbour. </p>
<p>Compared to big cities, it can be difficult to manage disagreements in small rural communities. This leads residents to “hold back” from confrontational communication styles, which contributes to sustaining relationships across different viewpoints. This has been critical in building alliances between people in the community.</p>
<h2>Don’t neglect people’s emotions</h2>
<p>The CSG debate can’t be fought on “the facts” alone. There is too much at stake for the community of Narrabri. Decisions that result in dramatic landscape changes – whether for wind farms, CSG wells or other energy infrastructure – are inherently emotional. Such changes can disrupt people’s sense of place or potentially threaten livelihoods.</p>
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<span class="caption">A banner at the Narrabri ‘Big Picture’ event in November 2015 is a reminder of the emotions involved in this controversy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Selen Ercan</span></span>
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<p>It’s not just emotional for those who oppose big energy infrastructure projects. Supporters of new projects are also worried about the future of their regions – as we’ve seen in Narrabri. Concerns include an over-reliance on existing industries and whether there will be enough jobs to keep young people in the area. </p>
<p>While people in the community are generally respectful of those who sit on the other side of the debate, there are still isolated incidents in which people’s concerns have been painted as “emotive” in a derogatory sense. Dismissing emotions in this way is not helpful in advancing the debate or bringing the community together. </p>
<p>It’s still uncertain whether the Narrabri Gas Project will proceed or not, and the strong opposition continues. Whichever side “wins”, there could be long-term effects on the social fabric of the region. </p>
<p>Some may feel a stronger connection to their community as a result of being actively engaged in the debate. Others may feel burnt out and concerned that their community has been so divided. </p>
<p>Such possible consequences are never given the attention they deserve in environmental impact statements or in other technical reports on CSG. Providing safe spaces for people to express the emotions that arise in response to large industrial projects is crucial for finding our way forward in an era of rapid energy change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hedda Ransan-Cooper received funding for this research from the Australian Research Council Grant DP150103615: ‘Realising Democracy Amid Communicative Plenty: A Deliberative Systems Approach’.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Selen A. Ercan received funding for this research from the Australian Research Council Grant no DP150103615, ‘Realising Democracy Amid Communicative Plenty: A Deliberative Systems Approach’. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sonya Duus received funding for this research from the Australian Research Council Grant no DP150103615, ‘Realising Democracy Amid Communicative Plenty: A Deliberative Systems Approach’. </span></em></p>While anger mobilises opposition to coal seam gas projects, it is also joy, especially the joy of social connection, that helps to sustain involvement.Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Research Fellow, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Australian National UniversitySelen A. Ercan, Associate Professor of Politics, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis (IGPA), University of CanberraSonya Duus, Research Fellow, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/861872017-11-02T02:53:47Z2017-11-02T02:53:47ZVenezuela’s opposition is on the verge of collapse<p>It’s been a bittersweet couple of weeks for the Venezuelan opposition, which for six months this year staged <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/06/months-of-anti-government-protests-continue-in-venezuela/530031/">daily protests</a> against the authoritarian-leaning regime of president Nicolás Maduro. </p>
<p>On Oct. 26, the alliance – which began working together in 2008 to counterbalance Hugo Chávez’s “Chavista” regime – was given the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/world/europe/venezuela-opposition-sakharov-prize.html">Sakharov Prize</a>, one of the world’s most prestigious human rights awards.</p>
<p>“Today we are supporting a nation’s freedom to struggle,” said Antonio Tajani, president of European Parliament, in bestowing the honor upon the more than two dozen parties that comprise Venezuela’s <a href="http://www.as-coa.org/articles/explainer-whos-who-venezuelan-opposition">Democratic Unity Roundtable</a>.</p>
<p>However, the award came just after the opposition had been handed a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/new-result-boosts-ruling-party-advantage-in-venezuela-vote/2017/10/18/3ba24d4a-b415-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?utm_term=.1f46e4faa9a9">stunning defeat</a> in Venezuela’s Oct. 15 regional elections. Despite a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/10/16/its-a-miracle-venezuelas-socialist-party-dominates-weekend-election/#7da93ac04056">75 percent approval rating</a>, its candidates won just <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/venezuela-mixed-reaction-online-election-results-171016072651287.html">five of 23 state governorships</a>.</p>
<p>Today, President Maduro has consolidated his power, Venezuela – my home country – remains <a href="https://theconversation.com/thousands-flee-violence-and-hunger-in-venezuela-seeking-asylum-in-the-united-states-74495">hungry and mired in crisis</a> and the resistance movement is flagging. Is this the beginning of the end of the Venezuelan opposition?</p>
<h2>Dropping the ball</h2>
<p>Internationally, things are going well for the opposition. Support has been growing since it initiated <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/06/months-of-anti-government-protests-continue-in-venezuela/530031/">daily protests</a> against the Maduro government in January 2017. Demonstrations – some of them <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/19/524708302/venezuela-erupts-in-mother-of-all-protests-as-anti-maduro-sentiment-seethes">the largest in Venezuela’s history</a> – took place every day in all major cities for over six months. </p>
<p>Maduro countered with an iron fist. More than <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/candidate-killed-violence-venezuela-vote-170730155600672.html">120 people were killed and hundreds were arrested</a>. The repression drew condemnation both at home and abroad, and for the first time in 18 years of Chavista rule in Venezuela, the international community took action. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuela-why-trumps-sanctions-wont-work-82970">U.S.</a> and <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/canada-sanctions-40-venezuelans-with-links-to-political-economic-crisis/article36367074/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">Canada</a> passed sanctions against key Venezuelan officials, and Maduro was rebuked by both the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/venezuela-organization-american-states-170426225132076.html">Organization of American States</a> and <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-17-2224_en.htm">the EU</a>.</p>
<p>Under pressure, the president became ever more authoritarian, creating an all-powerful “Constituent Assembly” that effectively <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20170818-venezuela-maduro-new-constituent-assembly-seizes-power-opposition-legislature">nullifies Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly</a>. The European Parliament <a href="http://worldnews.easybranches.com/regions/north-america/venezuelan-opposition-receives-e-u-s-sakharov-freedom-prize-386616">denounced</a> this unconstitutional move in its presentation of the Sakharov human rights prize, expressing its “full support for the National Assembly of Venezuela, the only democratically elected parliament.”</p>
<h2>Unraveling at the seams</h2>
<p>Back home, though, things are looking far grimmer. </p>
<p>The opposition coalition – comprised of <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/who-makes-up-venezuelas-political-opposition/a-40513910">left, center-left and center-right parties</a> – has always been a fractious and delicate alliance. Its anchor is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-Action">Democratic Action Party</a>, which together with the Social Christian Party dominated Venezuelan politics <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Venezuela/The-Hugo-Chavez-presidency">from 1959 until 1999, when Chávez was first elected</a>. </p>
<p>Many analysts were <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/international/355487-venezuelans-face-sophies-choice-in-sundays-elections">surprised</a> when most of the parties in this opposition coalition <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-Opposition-Leader-Announces-His-Partys-Election-Bid-20170802-0029.html">agreed</a> to participate in the Oct. 15 gubernatorial elections. The vote, long delayed by the Maduro regime, had been postponed since December. </p>
<p>But both the opposition and the U.S. State Department believed that bias in the regime-dominated electoral body would make <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41646488">free and fair elections impossible</a>. Most supporters of the resistance movement thus expected the opposition to send a message by <a href="https://panampost.com/felipe-fernandez/2017/08/04/venezuelas-opposition-party-denounced-for-participating-in-regional-election-organized-by-the-regime/">boycotting</a> this fraudulent exercise.</p>
<p>Plus, fully <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics/venezuela-opposition-says-7-million-vote-in-anti-maduro-poll-idUSKBN1A104O">7 million</a> Venezuelans had just voted, in an unofficial July referendum held by the opposition, to reject Maduro’s Constituent Assembly. By participating in the regime’s gubernatorial elections anyway, opposition leaders essentially ignored the voice of their base.</p>
<p>The decision to go to the polls under these circumstances turned out to be a costly misstep. As soon as the opposition announced its intention to run candidates in the race, the massive protests that had cornered the government <a href="http://www.lanacion.com.ar/2051302-perseguida-dividida-y-con-menos-fuerza-en-la-calle-la-oposicion-venezolana-tambalea">came to a halt</a>. Then, on Oct. 15, the opposition was badly defeated in an <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6bdb4434-b227-11e7-a398-73d59db9e399">election with clear irregularities</a>. </p>
<h2>A big win for Maduro</h2>
<p>Thus, even with an approval rating of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics/venezuelas-maduro-approval-rises-to-23-percent-after-trump-sanctions-poll-idUSKCN1C8037">23 percent</a> – down from <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11096">54 percent</a> when he took office in 2013 – Maduro’s government managed to take over a majority of state governments.</p>
<p>Several days later, the foreign ministers of 10 Latin American countries – among them Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Mexico – <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/to-help-venezuela-the-international-community-needs-to-change-its-strategy/article36759662/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">refused to recognize the election results</a>, acknowledging “various obstacles, acts of intimidation, manipulation and irregularities.” </p>
<p>That didn’t stop the Maduro regime. It used the elections to legitimize its unconstitutional Constituent Assembly, ordering that <a href="http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-b67b-Venezuela-Four-opposition-governors-sworn-in-despite-boycott/#.WfjXvRApfmc">all elected governors be sworn in before it</a>. </p>
<p>After initial protest, four out of the five newly elected opposition governors <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics/venezuela-governors-sworn-in-showing-opposition-disunity-idUSKBN1CS2R3">ultimately agreed to be inaugurated before the assembly</a>. Only Juan Pablo Guanipa, the governor-elect of Zulia – the richest state in the nation – refused. Maduro’s government has announced it will hold a <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13471">new state election there in December</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41730603">photos of the inauguration ceremony</a> circulated in the media last week, Venezuela’s most prominent caricaturist, Rayma Suprani, captured the national sentiment. She tweeted an image of a Venezuelan <a href="https://twitter.com/raymacaricatura/status/922824805874851845">throwing up</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"922824805874851845"}"></div></p>
<h2>A disenchanted nation</h2>
<p>Beyond <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13465">contesting October’s election results</a> at the United Nations, it’s unclear what Venezuela’s opposition can do at this point. The group is now fighting over whether to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41812179">boycott December’s municipal elections</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"922970718022897664"}"></div></p>
<p>Henry Ramos Allup, leader of the Democratic Action party, has been <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/venezuela-opposition-mud-fractures-after-constituent-assembly-loyalty-oaths/a-41099061">accused of betraying</a> the rest of the opposition. All of the four governors sworn in before Maduro’s Constituent Assembly were from his party, and none has convincingly explained why they cooperated with the regime, arguing simply that they had to honor the mandate handed to them by voters. </p>
<p>Several prominent political figures – including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/world/americas/venezuela-henrique-capriles-nicolas-maduro.html?_r=0">Henrique Capriles Radonski</a>, the outspoken opposition leader who ran against both Chávez and Maduro in Venezuela’s last two presidential elections – have now said they’ll <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13466">abandon the electoral coalition</a>. </p>
<p>And if that’s not a sign of the imminent collapse of Venezuela’s opposition, I don’t know what is.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marco Aponte-Moreno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After the Maduro regime won Venezuela’s recent gubernatorial elections, results are contested, people are desperate and the opposition has fractured. Can the resistance survive this setback?Marco Aponte-Moreno, Assistant Professor of Global Business, St Mary's College of California Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/815442017-07-27T06:33:10Z2017-07-27T06:33:10ZFor Venezuela, there may be no happily ever after<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179835/original/file-20170726-30134-v6vbn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the face of rising protest, Venezuela's government has called on the military to squelch dissent. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2017_Venezuelan_protests_flag.jpg#/media/File:2017_Venezuelan_protests_flag.jpg">Efecto Eco /Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/en-venezuela-puede-que-no-haya-un-final-feliz-98139"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p>
<p>Last week, over seven million Venezuelans both at home and abroad <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/woman-killed-4-injured-as-violence-erupts-at-venezuela-vote/2017/07/16/a7c1fb92-6a8c-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html?utm_term=.65fcfc555aa5">voted against president Nicolas Maduro’s proposed Constituent Assembly</a>, which would have empowered his administration to rewrite the country’s constitution.</p>
<p>But the logic of Venezuela’s republican institutions broke down long ago. This informal, unsanctioned referendum had no constitutional basis, and the government paid it little mind, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-maduro-idUSKBN1A80S4">promising to push ahead</a> with the controversial plan despite overwhelming popular discontent. </p>
<p>Now opposition leaders have called for a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40726779">48-hour strike</a> to keep the pressure on.</p>
<p>Both the July 16 vote and the general strike are an attempt to make rules for the grassroots exercise of democracy – a sign that Venezuelans have not yet forgotten this system of governance, despite mounting incivility that has left more than a hundred dead in just over <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/world/americas/venezuela-maduro-protests-supreme-court.html">three months of daily protests</a>.</p>
<p>The perverseness of life here is no longer limited to the everyday turmoil of <a href="https://theconversation.com/thousands-flee-violence-and-hunger-in-venezuela-seeking-asylum-in-the-united-states-74495">scarce resources, medicine shortages or spiralling crime</a>. In Venezuela, the social contract has officially been shredded. </p>
<p>Venezuelans have drifted from a nightmare into an unreal world, as though living in the magical realism of Jorge Luis Borges, where anything is possible and everything can be invented.</p>
<h2>Chronology of the absurd</h2>
<p>In these profoundly liquid times, even political clashes in Venezuela have gone postmodern, creating something close to anarchy on the streets. </p>
<p>Each day, acting spontaneously and with no clear leadership, fighting factions in cities across Venezuela may (or may not) block streets of their own volition, penetrate university campuses and crush their opponents, trampling the basic standards of social coexistence. </p>
<p>Masked young demonstrators clash anonymously with state forces and destroy urban infrastructure, from <a href="http://globovision.com/article/reverol-denuncian-que-manifestantes-opositores-quemaron-metrobus-en-altamira">street lights and sewers to the public transit</a>. </p>
<p>The state, in turn, overreacts, relying on disproportionate use of police force and judicial overreach to try to stem dissidence. Human Rights Watch estimates there are now some <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/es/2017/07/09/leopoldo-lopez-casa-tirania-venezuela-hrw/?action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection">400 political prisoners</a> in Venezuela.</p>
<p>Little is certain in Venezuela but this: the country is now living a low-grade war. </p>
<p>What else can you call a country in which barricades are raised every day in major cities, military troops are posted on the streets and where citizens routinely swallow <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-venezuela-protest-gear-20170503-htmlstory.html">tear gas</a>?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BW2nxAEgCAX/?taken-by=nytimes","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>All parties bear responsibility for this conflict. The protests are not peaceful <a href="https://alertasur.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/las-manifestaciones-de-la-oposicion-venezolana-no-tienen-nada-de-pacificas/">as the opposition claims</a> nor as violent <a href="http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/oposicion/los-simbolos-resistencia-pacifica-venezuela_181292">as the government says</a>. Tensions have so escalated in recent weeks that no one really knows what triggered certain events nor what direction they’ll take next. </p>
<p>On June 27, which is National Journalists’ Day in Venezuela, unruly groups surrounded the National Assembly building, trapping members of Congress and the press <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL0rUsV1RJ8">for hours</a> and bombarding them with insults and threats.</p>
<p>This was certainly not a minor event, but it turned out to be a mere dress rehearsal. Just over a week later, on July 5, the National Assembly was stormed during a ceremony commemorating the <a href="http://runrun.es/nacional/316262/video-colectivos-irrumpen-y-atacan-a-diputados-en-la-asamblea-nacional.html">signing of Venezuela’s declaration of independence in 1812</a>.</p>
<p>On this eminent civic date, a shouting horde burst into the chamber, threatening, landing blows, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/05/four-politicians-wounded-venezuela-attack-on-congress">bloodying up some members of the opposition party</a>. Journalists, congressional staffers and several diplomats were held hostage for hours.</p>
<p>This fearsome event represented, in graphic detail, the kidnapping of Venezuela’s republican spirit.</p>
<h2>Civilisation versus barbarism</h2>
<p>Those familiar with Latin American literature will recall the region’s obsession, back in postcolonial days, with the topic of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rHPbCQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">civilisation versus barbarism</a>. </p>
<p>Today, these same forces have resurfaced in Venezuela. Subject to the anarchical forces of barbarism, citizens swing between resentment, hate and incomprehension, with little concern for the consequences of their actions. </p>
<p>Venezuela has lost the trappings of modernity.</p>
<p>Nobody is free from blame. Citizens erroneously placed their bets on populism, and now the country has fallen prey to apathy, awaiting its next great leader.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Maduro government is embroiled in corruption and inefficiency, more interested in its own survival than in leading a spineless and weak-willed nation to salvation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179881/original/file-20170726-2133-zzq6ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179881/original/file-20170726-2133-zzq6ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179881/original/file-20170726-2133-zzq6ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179881/original/file-20170726-2133-zzq6ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179881/original/file-20170726-2133-zzq6ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179881/original/file-20170726-2133-zzq6ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179881/original/file-20170726-2133-zzq6ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests have taken place every day since April in cities across Venezuela.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sinlentes/30285111750/in/photolist-N9c7B9-N9c7rE-N9c6oN-N9c5Zb-N9c4m1-N9c3YN-N9c3Ld-MCPsPq-MCPqGj-MCPqfh-MCPpPN-NsRYSX-NsRYqK-NsRXZV-NsRXBR-NsRX8V-NsRWBp-NsRWan-NsRVKp-MCPn7d-NqjEzj-qGNVe5-rnmsDV-rqBjpx-r7PzeX-qQvPoP-r5FhRE-r7PyAn-qQvNFX-qazPH7-ny4D2z-nbzgLC-n2JQS5-mEz5ik-mi7AA2-mgdNJv-mc7pxY-mc5A16-mc7k73-mc7j9S-m7KiXK-m7L5Y7-m7K4U4-m7HZf8-m7Kxhw-m7HKw6-m7HCrz-m7Jaez-m7J48B-m7HrPR">Hugo Londoño / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And the opposition, too, has failed: it has not developed any feasible alternatives for the future. </p>
<p>All told, the entire country has developed what seems to be a structural inability to engage in dialogue or negotiate solutions to the deep-rooted differences now ripping Venezuela to shreds.</p>
<p>What will become of this country?</p>
<h2>Fairytale ending</h2>
<p>Shunning the hard work of dialogue and debate, many Venezuelans are hoping for a Disney-style quick fix. But the real world does not work like a fairytale; the good guys don’t always win in the end. </p>
<p>Instead, the opposition has worked up poorly thought-out possibilities, creating weak, one-off instances of parallel governance that have nothing to do with Venezuela’s institutional reality and no chance at institutionalisation.</p>
<p>The July 6 grassroots poll was one such event. In addition to asking Venezuelans about the government’s plan to make substantial (but largely undefined) changes to the country’s social and political organisation, there was another question in the non-binding referendum. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"886795543476928513"}"></div></p>
<p><em>Results of the July 16 plebiscite. Over 7 million Venezuelans oppose the government’s plan.</em></p>
<p>This openly seditious second query suggested that the armed forces might repudiate and perhaps even remove President Maduro from office. It’s important to note that the Venezuelan people declared themselves openly in favour of this risky possibility.</p>
<p>Neither loud dissent nor nationwide conflicts can stop the Maduro government, which is intent on holding its power-grabbing Constituent Assembly. If the measure goes forward, the 545 members of the National Assembly <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40624313">could be elected as soon as this Sunday, and granted the power</a> to redefine the provisions underpinning Venezuela’s republican structure. </p>
<p>Between these two approaches – the opposition’s weak mutinies and the government’s growing authoritarianism – there is a single country. But Venezuelans have demonstrated a sweeping inability to acknowledge each other’s existence in order to reach even the most basic agreement that could drive progress. </p>
<p>If the people can’t build a common and inclusionary strategy for the future, in Venezuela, there may be no “happily ever after”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miguel Angel Latouche does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Venezuela’s opposition has called a 48-hour strike to stop the Maduro government from rewriting the nation’s constitution. But grassroots democracy may not be able to save the Bolivarian Republic.Miguel Angel Latouche, Associate Professor, Universidad Central de VenezuelaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779092017-07-05T06:16:57Z2017-07-05T06:16:57ZFight or flight? For young people in Venezuela, that is the question<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176670/original/file-20170703-32624-1bap9hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Those who've stayed in Venezuela are there to fight.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/NACRpx">Hugo Londoño/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/marchar-o-migrar-para-los-jovenes-en-venezuela-esa-es-la-pregunta-97834"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p>
<p>Daily marches against the government of Nicolás Maduro are <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/31/530778696/as-venezuela-enters-3rd-month-of-protests-anti-maduro-ire-finds-new-target">in their third month</a>, with people marching daily on the streets of Caracas, Maracaibo, San Cristóbal, Valencia and many other cities.</p>
<p>Dressed in tee shirts and red-blue-and-yellow hats or shrouded in the tricolor Venezuelan flag, young people, women and retirees demonstrate by the thousands, carrying signs saying “Don’t shoot!” and shouting <em>Sí se puede, sí se puede</em>, “Our weapon is the constitution!” and “Who are we? Venezuela! What do we want? Freedom!”</p>
<p>At least 79 people – including passers-by and security forces – have died in the daily exercises of democratic participation that began in April. Among the dead are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/20/venezuela-protester-killed-demonstrations">a 17-year-old protester</a> shot in mid-June and a 25-year-old man <a href="https://www.nst.com.my/world/2017/07/254776/venezuela-prosecutor-snubs-court-defying-government-crisis">killed July 4 in Tariba</a>.</p>
<p>Once called <em>la generación dormida</em> – “the asleep generation” – Venezuelans born in the prosperous, democratic 1980s are now very much awake. As living conditions shift from precarious to intolerable, they face a critical decision: do they stay or do they go?</p>
<h2>Chavismo’s bitter end</h2>
<p>Since at least 2013 when Maduro was elected, the country has been a laboratory for bad public policy. </p>
<p>Following the implosion of “<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1834">21st-century Socialism</a>”, the 15-year-old economic, social and political system established by Hugo Chávez, the current administration has proven itself inept at economic management but adept at polarising society, <a href="https://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/documents/RoLI_Final-Digital_0.pdf">exacerbating violence</a> and truncating the dreams of its population.</p>
<p>Many thousands <a href="https://theconversation.com/thousands-flee-violence-and-hunger-in-venezuela-seeking-asylum-in-the-united-states-74495">have fled Venezuela, seeking a better life</a>. Venezuela does not publicly circulate emigration information, but estimates suggest that between 700,000 and two million Venezuelans have emigrated since 1999. That leaves the majority of Venezuela’s 31 million people in country, either by choice or by necessity. </p>
<p><a href="https://es.panampost.com/diego-sanchez/2016/12/23/venezuela-peor-seguridad-juridica/">Now they are fighting for the future of their country</a>, marching every day, despite knowing that this government is trying to silence dissidence through excessive use of force. </p>
<p>Young professionals go to work every day (if they still have jobs) to put food on the table and plan for what will follow the “<a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/orlando-ochoa/venezuela-el-d-despu-s">pacted transition</a>” that many see as the most likely way out of the current chaos.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"881240747265097728"}"></div></p>
<h2>The aspirations of Venezuelan youth</h2>
<p>Emigration was on my mind in 2016 when I conducted research on my own students, interviewing 360 students from nine different university departments, ranging from engineering to medicine, who would graduate from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in the 2017-2018 academic year. </p>
<p>The anonymous survey, which was circulated on social media and via professors, asked these young Venezuelans about their individual well-being, post-college plans and whether they intended to emigrate. </p>
<p>Of the respondents, 62% were women, 72% were aged 24 or under, 92% were single and 83% still lived with their families.</p>
<p>The final report, The Individual Aspirations and International Migration Options of Students in Venezuela’s Central University, **was published in **Spanish in the February 2018 issue of the journal <em><a href="http://ess.iesalc.unesco.org.ve/ess3/index.php/ess/issue/view/44">La Revista Educación Superior y Sociedad</a></em>. </p>
<p>My results indicate that 65% of the students are not living the life they’d like to lead, do not believe that their life circumstances are good and they are not satisfied with their current situation. </p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly for people of this age, 100% said they know what they want in the future and have a life plan in mind. If they cannot achieve it, 90% said they would leave Venezuela, the vast majority of them doing so to escape the country’s terrible psychosocial climate and its political polarisation. </p>
<p>One 23-year-old male law student, scheduled to graduate in 2018, said “one can’t live without hope…going hungry, with a miserable salary, as the money that should go to us is given to other countries while we are left without protection.”</p>
<p>A 22-year-old female science student, also from the class of 2018, said, “The <a href="http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/venezuela-es/article5119212.html">crime</a> and economic limitations affect me considerably…living like this does not fulfil my expectations.” </p>
<h2>Rescuing the future</h2>
<h2>Rescuing the future</h2>
<p>These findings differ enormously from a survey done just a few years ago. When the Ministry of Youth did its annual survey of young people in 2013, only <a href="http://www.inj.gob.ve/images/pdfs/ResultadosEnjuve2013.pdf">23% of young people wanted to leave Venezuela</a>. </p>
<p>Tellingly, no new results have been published since 2013. One can only assume that either this government survey has not been done since, or that (unfavourable) results have not been publicised.</p>
<p>In 2014, the Institute for Economic and Social Research at the Andres Bello Catholic University was looking into <a href="http://prodavinci.com/2014/07/10/actualidad/27-datos-sobre-la-juventud-en-venezuela-segun-el-estudio-del-iies-de-la-ucab-por-albinson-linares/">the democratic participation of Venezuela’s youth</a>. Researchers then found that 27% of those interviewed had considered emigrating at some point, primarily to improve their economic situation or further their studies.</p>
<p>Today, my survey and the (admittedly impossible-to-confirm) figures on Venezuelan immigration and asylum-seekers indicate that the majority of young people now want to leave the country. </p>
<p>So why are so many of them still here?</p>
<p>Many who’ve stayed are fighting for the future of their nation. Those who face rubber bullets and tear gas every day are marching for the ones who have left, for the disillusioned true believers of this political project, for the defrauded and the hungry and those tormented by poverty. </p>
<p>As the prominent Venezuelan thinker Moises Naim <a href="http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/05/13/opinion/1494697154_543336.html">wrote</a> in El Pais on May 13, “the list of the Chávez regime’s failures is long, and Venezuelans know it; 90% of the population repudiates Maduro.” </p>
<p>There are practical limits to pulling up stakes, too. Not everyone who wants to emigrate has the means to do so or somewhere to go. </p>
<p>My study showed that the youth of Venezuela consider leaving because they see that the opportunities to live, work and achieve their dreams at home have become scarce. Their chances of living a good and fulfilling life, they think, are better abroad.</p>
<p>But the average Venezuelan currently living in the United States aged 25 or older has had <a href="https://www.revistavenezolana.com/2016/10/nivel-educativo-emigrantes-venezolanos-destaca-eeuu/">11 years of schooling</a>, which is two more than the average Venezuelan living in the countryside. Perhaps young people here know that their education level will not necessarily set them up for success in other nations. </p>
<p>As the columnist Carlos Jesús Rivas Pérez wrote in a <a href="http://enelvigia.com.ve/2016/07/09/respuesta-se-quiera-ir-venezuela-se-vaya-sin-titulo/">controversial</a> <a href="https://www.aporrea.org/educacion/a230471.html">June 2016 article</a>, “For those who want to leave Venezuela – just leave! But you’re going without a degree”.</p>
<p>The Venezuelans who’ve remained – young and old, men and women – march for the country they once knew and the things they no longer have, protesting Venezuela’s social and economic unravelling and digging deep into their <a href="http://www.gentiuno.com/14/05/2017/luis-jose-uzcategui-explosion-de-salud-mental-en-venezolanos/#more">right to protest, assemble and express themselves</a>. </p>
<p>You just can’t do that from abroad.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emilio Osorio Alvarez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As democracy unravels and hunger spreads, Venezuelan youth must decide whether to join the resistance or build their lives abroad.Emilio Osorio Alvarez, Professor of Migration and Population Studies, Universidad Central de VenezuelaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/770802017-05-04T06:20:23Z2017-05-04T06:20:23ZIs Venezuela’s military finally getting restless?<p><em><strong>This article, originally published on May 4 2017 with the headline “In restless Venezuela, the military will determine how long Maduro’s regime can last”, has been updated to reflect the latest developments in Venezuela’s civil-military relations.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>A police helicopter, allegedly manned by a former police intelligence officer and staffed by a cohort of military and police personnel, opened fire on Venezuela’s Interior Ministry on Tuesday evening and dropped several grenades at the Supreme Court, in what the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has called an act of terrorism.</p>
<p>The bombs failed to detonate, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/28/venezuela-supreme-court-grenade-police-helicopter">reports the Guardian</a>, and no injuries were reported. </p>
<p>Venezuela’s political opposition suggested that the attack was orchestrated by the besieged and unpopular Maduro to distract from his regime’s authoritarian power grabs, reports <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelan-presidents-claims-of-helicopter-attack-contested-1498626430">the Wall Street Journal</a>.</p>
<p>But if incident indicates growing opposition to the Maduro government within the security forces, it might confirm what some analysts have been asserting for months: the military could be decisive in ending Venezuela’s current conflict.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Who was really manning this helicopter?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The protest movement grows</h2>
<p>Daily protests, including <a href="http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2017/04/19/minuto-a-minuto-venezuela-se-prepara-para-la-madre-de-todas-las-marchas/">an enormous mid-April march</a> in which over a million citizens took to the streets to “defend the homeland” against President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly authoritarian regime, are now <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/06/months-of-anti-government-protests-continue-in-venezuela/530031/">entering their third month</a>. </p>
<p>Protests alone <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/422435">rarely spur regime change</a>. But without them – in Venezuela, as in many countries – political transition is impossible. </p>
<p>The pro-democracy parties and movements that oppose the Maduro government have managed to shift the battleground for their political fight. They have taken it out of state institutions where their only support is in the legislature, which has long been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/venezuelas-supreme-court-takes-power-from-legislature.html?_r=0">neutered by administration-controlled institutions, such as the Supreme Court</a>, and onto the streets.</p>
<p>The immense public show of anger has made for a more symmetrical conflict between the government and its opposition. But whether the current demonstrations are to end differently than the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/02/venezuela-gripped-by-weeks-of-anti-government-protest/100689/">2014 protest movement</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/21/498842534/venezuelan-authorities-halt-drive-to-recall-president-nicolas-maduro">last year’s failed attempt to remove the president via referendum</a> will largely depend on what position the Venezuelan military takes. </p>
<h2>Loosening grip</h2>
<p>For many years, Venezuela’s authoritarian regime had two advantages: Hugo Chávez’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/9911642/Hugo-Chavez-Venezuelans-mourn-death-of-charismatic-leader.html">charismatic leadership</a> and abundant <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/oil-made-venezuela-rich-and-now-its-making-it-poor/">oil income</a>, which allowed the government to finance clientelistic relations and foster support with vested interests. </p>
<p>Together, they enabled Chávez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela to <a href="http://www.psuv.org.ve/portada/hoy-se-cumplen-14-anos-primer-triunfo-electoral-comandante-chavez/#.WQj_IlKZNYc">triumph in almost every election</a> from 1998 to 2012. But Maduro, his chosen successor, has neither going for him. And he is now facing the collapse of the Chávez model and the impossibility of reestablishing his government’s legitimacy electorally. </p>
<p>Ever since his party <a href="http://www.dw.com/es/venezuela-el-gobierno-promueve-la-abstenci%C3%B3n/a-18866938">was defeated in legislative elections in December 2015</a>, the president has relied on a complicit Supreme Court and National Election Council to avoid <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-electoral-officials-suspend-presidential-recall-referendum-process-1477010629">being removed via an opposition-supported recall referendum</a>. </p>
<p>Those government bodies have also enabled him to indefinitely postpone gubernatorial elections that, constitutionally speaking, should <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/04/08/523058318/opposition-parties-in-venezuela-prepare-for-elections-hoping-they-will-come">have taken place last year</a> (polls indicated that ruling party candidates would roundly lose). </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"859109187393122304"}"></div></p>
<p>Venezuela’s situation is not unprecedented. Eventually, every authoritarian regime that has used elections to maintain power (<a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/23/obama-pena-nieto-mexico-corruption/">Mexico’s <em>Partido Revolucionario Institucional</em></a> is another Latin American example), reaches the point where, having lost political support, it has two choices: try to negotiate the consequences of an electoral defeat or seek to stay in power through the use of brute force. </p>
<p>If it chooses the latter, the government must depend principally on cooperation from the military. And this is the increasingly uncomfortable position in which Maduro now finds himself.</p>
<h2>The generals in their labyrinth</h2>
<p>Venezuela’s armed forces face a dilemma: either maintain a neutral institutional role or continue to support the regime in repressing its own people.</p>
<p>Authoritarian regimes that stay in power using violence are well aware of their dependency on the military, so they try to find ways to gain its commitment, including by incorporating the military into the government itself.</p>
<p>The practice of appointing generals into positions of power existed under Chávez, but it has increased markedly <a href="http://democracyweb.org/elections-Venezuela">since Maduro’s dubious election in 2013</a>, which called into question the legitimacy of his government. And it’s now difficult to distinguish between government and the military as <a href="http://ecuador.embajada.gob.ve/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=520%3Apresidente-maduro-anuncio-cambios-en-el-tren-ejecutivo&catid=3%3Anoticias-de-venezuela-en-el-mundo&Itemid=19&lang=es">a significant number of Maduro’s cabinet</a> members are active in the armed forces.</p>
<p>The military’s commitment to its government can also be facilitated by incentivising or planning confrontations in which soldiers become personally responsible for violating the human rights of citizens. This tactic turns the army into a hostage of the status quo.</p>
<p>This quandary is the greatest asset of those who seek regime change in Venezuela today. The ongoing mass protests have actually shifted the balance of power toward the opposition, at least temporarily, because continuing to repress demonstrators will have an increasingly high cost for both the government and the military. </p>
<p>Protests aren’t cost-free for the opposition, of course. Since this wave of demonstrations began in late March, up to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelan-presidents-opponents-lay-siege-to-air-base/2017/06/24/0c62d568-5925-11e7-840b-512026319da7_story.html">70 people have been killed</a>, along with a large (but undefined) number who have been wounded and arrested.</p>
<p>The main worry is not that this wave of protests will flicker out without producing yearned-for political change. It’s that if it does fail, it will leave the battlefield negatively balanced, setting the opposition back and again reinforcing Maduro’s power.</p>
<p>The challenge for Venezuela’s generals at this point is to find a way out of this labyrinth that allows them to protect both their personal and professional interests, which do not always overlap.</p>
<p>Soldiers are accustomed to obeying orders but there’s no guarantee that they will help implement illegitimate decisions, such as cracking down ever harder on protesters. And if commanders and troops refuse to pay the price for human rights violations by personally and absolutely implicating themselves in the status quo, then the military’s bottom-heavy pyramid structure may well collapse along with the government.</p>
<p>At this point, following orders could prove costlier than disobedience for those in the army. Is the helicopter attack on government buildings a sign of what’s to come?</p>
<h2>Playing with time</h2>
<p>If so, continued demonstrations could actually spur political change in Venezuela.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"857326071720669184"}"></div></p>
<p>Generally speaking, time works against protest movements. But repression works against governments because it creates a vicious cycle. When the government uses force against protesters it loses credibility. </p>
<p>And the more credibility it loses, the more it relies on the use of force, which, in turn, spurs protesters to keep on marching.</p>
<p>The fact is that the Maduro regime’s survival depends almost exclusively on whether the armed forces are willing to violently repress the Venezuelan people. And that decision depends on the cost-benefit analysis up and down the military chain of command as generals and soldiers alike weigh the pros and cons of their current dilemma. </p>
<p>They have to decide whether to maintain the status quo by using force or step back and allow change to happen in a less traumatic way. That is, after all, how democracy works.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benigno Alarcón does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>(UPDATED) If the military abandons Venezuela’s power-grabbing president, it’s game over for the Maduro regime.Benigno Alarcón, Director of the Centre for Political Studies, Universidad Católica Andrés BelloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/694672016-12-12T03:40:59Z2016-12-12T03:40:59ZCelebrity voices are powerful, but does the First Amendment let them say anything they want?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149477/original/image-20161209-31391-6kl964.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taking a knee during the national anthem isn't risk-free in the NFL.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Protesting-Dolphins-Football/4a2a88bed8f449cfab9062479a24dab6/1/0">AP Photo/Stephen Brashear, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When NFL player <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oppressive-seeds-of-the-colin-kaepernick-backlash-66358">Colin Kaepernick</a> refuses to stand for the national anthem, or the cast of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” confronts the vice president-elect, or the Dixie Chicks <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/3/11/1193171/-Ten-Years-Ago-This-Week-the-Dixie-Chicks-Found-Free-Speech-Comes-at-a-High-Price">speak out against war</a>, talk quickly turns to freedom of speech. Most Americans assume they have a constitutional guarantee to express themselves as they wish, on whatever topics they wish. But how protected by the First Amendment are public figures when they engage in political protest?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/orXogk3euMA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Recently, celebrities have become increasingly vocal regarding the collective Movement for Black Lives, for instance.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coming out publicly, whether for or against some disputed position, can have real consequences for the movement and the celebrity. However helpful a high-profile endorsement may be at shifting the public conversation, taking these public positions – particularly unpopular ones – may not be as protected as we assume. As a professor who studies the intersection of law and culture, I believe Americans may need to revisit their understanding of U.S. history and the First Amendment. </p>
<h2>Harnessing the power of celebrity</h2>
<p>Far from being just product endorsers, celebrities <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0090-4">can and do use their voices</a> to influence policy and politics. For example, <a href="http://www.stat.columbia.edu/%7Egelman/stuff_for_blog/celebrityendorsements_garthwaitemoore.pdf">some researchers believe</a> Oprah Winfrey’s early endorsement of Barack Obama helped him obtain the votes he needed to become the 2008 Democratic nominee for president.</p>
<p>This phenomenon, however, is not new. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149474/original/image-20161209-31352-1uldoe0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette, early celeb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gilbert_du_Motier_Marquis_de_Lafayette.PNG">Joseph-Désiré Court</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the birth of the nation, celebrities have used their voices – and had their voices used – to advance important causes. In 1780, George Washington enlisted the help of Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat dubbed by some “<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/123170/marquis-de-lafayette-americas-first-celebrity">America’s first celebrity</a>,” to ask French officials for more support for the Continental Army. Lafayette was so popular that when he traveled to America some years later, the press <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4233634">reported on each day and detail</a> of his yearlong visit.</p>
<p>Social movements also have harnessed the power of celebrity influence throughout American history. In the early 1900s, after the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded to pursue the right of women to vote, <a href="http://www.historynet.com/womens-suffrage-movement">the group used celebrities</a> to raise awareness of the cause. Popular actresses like Mary Shaw, Lillian Russell and Fola La Follette, for example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QO79UClRsDMC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=national+woman+suffrage+movement+actress&source=bl&ots=EKlau1ccmV&sig=bERJBYmVA4vtMwKoZZhoQ5RorZU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-3rvW6OXQAhULjlQKHZOjAZoQ6AEINTAE#v=onepage&q=national%20woman%20suffrage%20movement%20actress&f=false">brought attention</a> to the movement, combining their work with political activism to push the women’s suffrage message.</p>
<h2>Celeb actions can move the needle</h2>
<p>The civil rights movement of the 1960s benefited from celebrities’ actions. For instance, after Sammy Davis Jr., a black comedian, refused to perform in segregated venues, many clubs in Las Vegas and Miami became integrated. Others – including Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Dick Gregory, Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali – were <a href="https://news.vcu.edu/article/Hollywood_celebrities_unsung_role_in_the_civil_rights_movement">instrumental in the success</a> of the movement and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These actors planned and attended rallies, performed in and organized fundraising efforts and worked to open opportunities for other black people in the entertainment industry.</p>
<p>By the 1980s, you could watch Charlton Heston and Paul Newman <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q3QE-n8q4UC&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=Charlton+Heston+and+Paul+Newman+nuclear&source=bl&ots=-eRL7vFhFg&sig=rb4q3wEvuYDCpF9ztOnT3mSkfgs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTx9SN9OXQAhVKw1QKHaa9BDkQ6AEIRjAL#v=onepage&q=Charlton%20Heston%20and%20Paul%20Newman%20nuclear&f=false">debate</a> national defense policy and a potential nuclear weapons freeze on television. Meryl Streep <a href="http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/docs/alarscarenegin.html">spoke before Congress</a> against the use of pesticides in foods. Ed Asner and Charlton Heston <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-OHQCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA299&lpg=PA299&dq=Nicaraguan+contras+ed+asner+heston&source=bl&ots=dwjrso1QRO&sig=yj8m0oS3JrWqTKiL7_4PyqZ4-hY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAmYfD9eXQAhUhrFQKHfbcD94Q6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=Nicaraguan%20contras%20ed%20asner%20heston&f=false">publicly feuded about</a> their differing opinions of the Reagan administration’s support of right-wing Nicaraguan militant groups.</p>
<p>Whatever you think of how well thought out their opinions are (or aren’t), celebrities have the ability to draw attention to social issues in a way others do not. Their large platforms through film, music, sports and other media provide significant amplification for the initiatives they support.</p>
<p>There is, in particular, a measurable connection between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021849904040206">celebrity opinions and young people</a>. Most marketing research shows that celebrity endorsements <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209029">can improve the likelihood</a> that young consumers will choose the endorsed product.</p>
<h2>Antagonism toward celebrity activism</h2>
<p>Celebrities have been important partners, strategists, fundraisers and spokespeople for social movements and politicians since the earliest days of modern America. Recently, however, celebrities speaking out about policy and politics have received some harsh responses. </p>
<p>Kaepernick, in particular, has received <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a48246/tomi-lahren-kaepernick-facebook/">scathing criticism</a>. Fans of his team <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3762239/You-never-play-NFL-Canada-49ers-fans-burn-Kaepernick-jerseys-national-anthem-114million-sport-star-refused-stand-protest-black-oppression.html">have burned his jersey in effigy</a>. Mike Evans, another NFL player, drew so much criticism for sitting in protest of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency that he was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/11/15/nfl-player-who-knelt-in-protest-of-donald-trumps-election-pledges-to-stand-for-anthem-again/?utm_term=.7c6cdf41259a">forced to apologize</a> and say he would never do it again. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/mike-pence-hamilton.html?_r=0">#BoycottHamilton trended on Twitter</a> after the cast of the Broadway show Hamilton addressed Mike Pence. </p>
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<p>President-elect Donald Trump jumped into the fray, tweeting that he does not support the public expression of sentiments like those of the “Hamilton” cast. </p>
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<h2>Unprotected speech</h2>
<p>All of this raises significant questions about speech, protests and the law. Often celebrities, commentators and pundits talk about being able to say whatever they want thanks to their right to freedom of speech. But this idea is based on common misconceptions about what the U.S. Constitution actually says.</p>
<p>What is allowed under the law starts with the text of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment">First Amendment</a>, which provides that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The language essentially allows for freedom of expression without government interference. The right to free speech includes protests and distasteful speech that one might find offensive or racist.</p>
<p>But, the First Amendment as written applies only to actions by Congress, and by extension the federal government. Over time, it’s <a href="http://faculty.smu.edu/jkobylka/supremecourt/Nationalization_BoRs.pdf">also come to apply to</a> state and local governments. It’s basically a <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/95-815.pdf">restriction</a> on how the government can limit citizens’ speech. </p>
<p>The First Amendment does not, however, apply to nongovernment entities. So private companies – professional sports organizations or theater companies, for instance – <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1135&context=hlr">can actually restrict speech</a> without violating the First Amendment, because in most cases, it doesn’t apply to them (unless the restriction is illegal for other reasons). This is why the NFL <a href="http://www.michiganreview.com/the-nfl-vs-freedom-of-expression/">could ban</a> DeAngelo Williams from wearing pink during a game in honor of his mother, who had died from breast cancer, and fine him thousands of dollars when he later defied the rules and did it anyway.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149476/original/image-20161209-31370-1jq2fx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DeAngelo Williams is outspoken in supporting breast cancer research. The NFL can limit when he can display his position.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Seahawks-Panthers-Football/2777653831ae429aa42a301b9d7b3b01/16/0">AP Photo/Nell Redmond</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How does all of this affect celebrities? In a nutshell, if a celebrity is an employee of, or has some kind of contract with, a nongovernment entity, his speech actually can be restricted in many ways. Remember, it’s not against the law for a nongovernment employer to limit what employees can say in many cases. While there are other more limited protections <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/publications/insights_on_law_andsociety/15/winter-2015/chill-around-the-water-cooler.html">based on state and federal law</a> that protect employee speech, they are incomplete and probably wouldn’t apply to most celebrity speech. Any questions about what a public figure can or cannot express, therefore, will start with the language of any contracts she has signed – not the First Amendment. </p>
<p>For better or worse, celebrities can make significant impacts on policy, politics and culture, and have been doing so for centuries. But speaking out can put them at risk. Celebrities can be fined by their employers, like DeAngelo Williams, have their careers derailed, like the <a href="http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/destroying-the-dixie-chicks-ten-years-after/">Dixie Chicks</a>, or <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/21/sport/colin-kaepernick-death-threats/">receive death threats</a>, like Colin Kaepernick. Even so, their involvement can provide an influential platform in promoting and creating societal change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69467/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shontavia Johnson provides consulting services for Johnson International Group LLC, an organization that provides business assistance to entrepreneurs and entertainers. </span></em></p>Americans enjoy a right to free speech, and some public figures really exercise that right. The Constitution might not protect them the way they think it does, though.Shontavia Johnson, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673512016-10-26T06:54:01Z2016-10-26T06:54:01ZLatin American women’s problem: we keep getting murdered<p>It’s not been a particularly uplifting month to be a woman in Latin America, especially if you read the news. </p>
<p>On October 8 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, 16-year-old Lucía Pérez was abducted outside her school, drugged, and brutally gang raped. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/women-strike-protest-argentina-lucia-perez-rape-abduction-murder-16-a7368856.html">Young Lucía died when her heart stopped</a> during the sadistic violence, which included penetration by objects. </p>
<p>In Mexico, <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2016/10/14/mexico/1476459689_001103.html">three transgender women</a>, Paola (last name unknown), Alessa Flores and Itzel Durán, were killed in different parts of the country. All were sex workers, and Flores and Durán were also trans rights activists. Just weeks before, Karen Rebeca Esquivel, 19, and Adriana Hernández Sánchez, 52, were <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2016/09/pese-alerta-genero-naucalpan-hallan-cadaveres-dos-mujeres-una-maleta/">found dead</a> in suitcases in Naucalpan, State of Mexico, the deadliest place for women in the country. Both had been raped. </p>
<p>On October 18, a young pregnant woman was <a href="http://ojo.pe/policial/violan-y-matan-a-embarazada-230086/">found dead on a Peruvian beach</a> with signs of rape and the word <em>puta</em> (whore) written on her leg.</p>
<p>Horrifying but not isolated, these incidents reflect a regional reality. Several <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/">studies</a> have shown that Latin America is the worst place in the world to be a woman. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/178427/respect-dignity-women-lacking-latin-america.aspx">Gallup survey</a> has shown that Latin American women feel they are not treated with respect and dignity. Dissatisfaction was highest in Colombia, Paraguay, El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru. The study attributes these feelings to widespread sexual violence and harassment against women and children, in combination with <em>machista</em> culture. </p>
<h2>Hashtag movements for women, by women</h2>
<p>Lucía’s murder in Argentina hit a nerve with women across the entire Latin American region. On October 19, thousands of people in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, France, Spain, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Costa Rica joined Argentina in street protests, demanding an end to the killing of women, misogyny and sexual violence. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqcwMviMA5I">massive and simultaneous demonstrations</a> were convened by the budding social movement <a href="http://niunamenos.com.ar/"><em>#NiUnaMenos</em></a> (#NotOneWomanLess). It was launched in August 2015 in Argentina as a response to an increasing number of feminicides. Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico soon joined. </p>
<p>The international demonstrations have not only made the <em>#MiercolesNegro</em> (#BlackWednesday) and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/paronacionaldemujeres"><em>#ParoNacionalDeMujeres</em></a> (#NationalWomensStrike) regional trending topics, they are also bringing light to the issue of violence across the region. </p>
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<p>Here are some statistics: in <a href="http://www.dw.com/es/argentina-paro-contra-feminicidios-y-maltrato-a-las-mujeres/a-36094088">Argentina</a>, 226 women were killed in 2016; and in <a href="http://perureports.com/2016/08/15/lima-thousands-march-domestic-violence-femicide/">Peru</a>, there were 54. </p>
<p>And in Mexico, <a href="https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/84740/La_Vilencia_Feminicida_en_M_xico__aproximaciones_y_tendencias_1985_-2014.pdf">40,000 women were killed</a> between 1985 and 2014. Here, the systemic killing of women since the mid-1980s has been so severe that it led to the coining of the word <em>feminicide</em> as a sociolegal term for the deliberate killing of women, and its codification as a serious crime. </p>
<p>Despite recent institutional and legal changes in the country, such as the establishment of a national institute for women’s issues, a <a href="https://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/state-mexico-acknowledges-feminicides-and-launches-gender-alert">protocol for feminicide investigation</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673241/">legalised abortion</a> in Mexico City, and a bill for the protection of women from gender-based violence, the problem is getting worse. More than <a href="http://www.inegi.org.mx/saladeprensa/aproposito/2015/violencia0.pdf">half of the 40,000 murders</a> (23,000) occurred between 2000 and 2014. </p>
<p>Indeed, as I wrote in <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-and-domestic-violence-the-hidden-reasons-why-mexican-women-flee-their-homes-65352">a previous article</a>, it seems that Mexico’s bloody war on cartels, in addition to increasing general homicide rates, has specifically made gender-based violence more common as well. </p>
<h2>Feminicide vs femicide?</h2>
<p>The term “femicide” was <a href="http://www.dianarussell.com/f/femicde(small).pdf">coined by American feminists</a> Jill Radford, Diana E. Russell and Jane Caputi to mean the misogynistic murder of women by men. Femicide is the politics of killing women, the extreme-most action of a terror continuum against women. </p>
<p>For American feminist thinkers, then, femicide includes a wide range of physical, discursive and sexual abuse against women and girls: rape, slavery, torture, incest, harassment, mutilation, forced heterosexuality, criminalisation of abortion and contraception. </p>
<p>Mexican feminists have modified this framework using our specific experience. Looking at the systemic <a href="http://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/other-side-ciudad-ju%C3%A1rez-femicide-story">killing of women in Ciudad Juarez</a> in the 1990s, Julia Monárrez and Marcela Lagarde suggested the more accurate concept “feminicide”, based on the notion that femicide is just a gender-specific word for homicide while feminicide refers to <a href="http://www.uv.es/uvweb/universidad/es/listado-noticias/antropologa-feminista-mexicana-marcela-lagarde-artifice-del-termino-feminicidio-visita-universitat-1285846070123/Noticia.html?id=1285906647520">the killing of women <em>based on</em> their social or biological gender</a>, and the characteristics attributed to that gender.</p>
<p>Feminicide is, then, the murder of women because of their sexuality, reproductive features, and social status or success. Building on the Juarez case, Monárrez also coined the phrase “systemic sexual feminicide” to refer to the cultural, political, legal, economic, religious and social context that allows <a href="http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=10212532010">sexual violence to be widespread and feminicide to be its culmination</a>. </p>
<p>Systemic sexual feminicide in Latin America has shaped legal notions, which have now been <a href="http://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/amicus-briefs/campo-algodonero-v-the-united-mexican-states/">used by</a> international bodies such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Recent murders in Argentina, Peru and Mexico demonstrate the importance of this concept to the region. </p>
<p>Likewise, American feminists would place this phenomenon on the continuum of sexual terrorism, but in Latin America the systematic and sexual nature of feminicide – painfully reflected in Lucía’s case – are closer to an experience of what Italian philosopher Adriana Cavarero has called “horrorism”. </p>
<p>In her book <a href="https://www.academia.edu/3319415/Review_of_Adriana_Cavarero_Horrorism_Naming_Contemporary_Violence._New_York_Columbia_University_Press_2009">Horrorism</a>, Cavarero claims that while the term “terrorism” focuses on the perpetrator’s actions (the motivations of suicide bombers, for intance), it fails to describe the victim’s horror and experience of being defenceless, which is the terrorist’s aim. </p>
<p>The term “horrorism”, she argues, better describes the experiences of massacre and genocide victims, because it focuses on the suffering and powerlessness of the victims. </p>
<p>Following Cavarero’s ideas, we may assert that women’s permanent fear of sexual violence, along with the feeling of powerlessness vis-a-vis their rapist, is closer to horror than terror. Rape followed by feminicide is sexual horrorism.</p>
<h2>The horror continuum of sexual harassment</h2>
<p>During the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagvEvXpjXc">#PrimaveraVioleta</a> demonstration against sexual violence in Mexico in April 2016, the trending topic #MiPrimerAcoso (#MyFirstHarrassment) showed that feminicide sits on a sexual violence continuum. </p>
<p>It begins as systematic and widespread sexual harassment at the hands of friends, relatives, neighbours, teachers, schoolmates and strangers, to girls as young as five years old. It happens on the bus, at school, while shopping, in the work place, at the park and in women’s homes. It advances to sexual touching, violent abuse, and, as we’ve seen, murder.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143147/original/image-20161025-4702-i82mgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143147/original/image-20161025-4702-i82mgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143147/original/image-20161025-4702-i82mgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143147/original/image-20161025-4702-i82mgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143147/original/image-20161025-4702-i82mgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143147/original/image-20161025-4702-i82mgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143147/original/image-20161025-4702-i82mgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Analysis of women’s accounts of sexual abuse on Twitter shows that it starts as early as age five, and that most experience abuse before age 18.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CivivhtUgAA-rzU.jpg">@AdrianSantuario/Twitter API</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/miprimeracoso?lang=es">#MiPrimerAcoso</a> started as the response of the Brazilian feminist organisation <a href="http://thinkolga.com/">Think Olga </a> to people accusing girls of making up harassment stories. It was part of the group’s 2013 campaign against the normalisation of abuse against women. With #MiPrimerAcoso, Think Olga called on women to share on Twitter and Facebook their stories of the first time they were sexually harassed. </p>
<p>The movement has spread across the Americas, from Argentina to Mexico and the United States (with #MyFirstAbuse), with thousands of posts showing that women and girls experience harassment from boys and men starting at six years old, and that this type of abuse is so systematic and widespread that women have learnt to live with it. They, we, see it as normal. </p>
<p>Well, not anymore. Latin American women are saying enough is enough, and #MiPrimerAcoso is just the beginning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ariadna Estévez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent violent rape and murder of a 16-year-old Argentinian girl has sparked a region-wide protest movement against sexual violence in Latin America.Ariadna Estévez, Professor, Center for Research on North America, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/672892016-10-19T06:47:16Z2016-10-19T06:47:16ZIs Mexico ready for gay marriage?<p>In September, some 100 cities in all 32 Mexican states hosted a so-called “<a href="https://hipertextual.com/2016/09/contra-matrimonios-gay-mexico">March for the Family</a>” – protests against a proposal to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-37331685">legalise gay marriage</a>. Estimates vary, but according to the <a href="http://frentenacional.mx/quienessomos/">National Front for Family</a>, the coalition of civil society organisations and religious groups that organised the march, more than a million people participated; other <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/11/mexicans-march-against-presidents-proposal-to-allow-same-sex-marriage">sources</a> place the number in the hundreds of thousands. </p>
<p>LGBT activists quickly responded to the march with <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/2016/08/mexico-lgbt-gathering/">counter protests</a> and <a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/lgbt-rights/about-lgbt-human-rights">human rights-based arguments</a>. </p>
<p>The large anti-gay marriage protests came as something of a surprise. Gay marriage is already legal in Mexico City and several states. And, in 2015, Mexico hosted 70 Pride events, making this Catholic, Latin American country only <a href="https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.interpride.org/resource/resmgr/Media/Co%CC%81mo_marcha_el_Orgullo_Gay_.pdf">third in the world</a> for the number of such events (after the US and Brazil). </p>
<p>Still, when President Enrique Peña Nieto announced a proposed <a href="https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/92616/Sharp_reforma_cjef.gob.mx_20160517_164352.compressed.pdf">constitutional reform</a> to recognise same-sex marriage on World Day Against Homophobia (May 17), negative reaction swiftly followed.</p>
<h2>Catholics, judge not</h2>
<p>Though it was <a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2016/09/09/catolicos-de-todo-el-pais-marcharan-manana-contra-el-matrimonio-igualitario">largely Catholic churches</a> that called for believers to march against the proposed legislation, church authority has actually been evolving on this issue. This is in keeping with the leadership of Pope Francis I, who in 2013 famously <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23489702">declared</a>, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” </p>
<p>Even prior to that, when the pope was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he demonstrated <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/20/world/americas/argentina-pope-civil-unions/">support for gay rights</a>, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am in favour of homosexual rights and, in any case, I also support civil unions for homosexuals, but I think that Argentina is not ready for a gay marriage law.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Catholicism is <a href="http://www.animalpolitico.com/2016/02/el-numero-de-catolicos-en-mexico-va-a-la-baja-aumentan-los-ateos-y-de-otras-religiones/">declining</a> in Mexico. But unlike in other Latin American countries, such as <a href="http://www.religionenlibertad.com/catolicos-a-la-baja-protestantes-a-la-alza-el-brasil-que-30422.htm">Brazil</a> and <a href="http://www.ieee.es/Galerias/fichero/docs_analisis/2016/DIEEEA55-2016_Posmodernismo-Evangelismo-Centroamerica_MLPG.pdf">Guatemala</a>, where evangelical Protestantism has increased markedly in recent decades, the shift in Mexico is modest. </p>
<p>Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics has <a href="http://www.inegi.org.mx%20/inegi/default.aspx?c=2385&s=est">found</a> that from 1950 to 2010, the percentage of the population that identified as Catholic dropped from 98.2% to 89.3%. Only 4.9% of Mexicans report no religious faith.</p>
<p>As such, in the fight for sexual diversity, and for the rights of single-parent families and same-sex parents, leadership must come from the church. Many catholics believe in church dogma, obey their priests and seek to avoid “living in sin”. They want to do as the church mandates. </p>
<p>But in opposing gay marriage, Mexican Catholics are following Mexican church dogma while ignoring Rome’s softening on the issue. This is a contradiction that Mexico’s Catholic church must eventually face.</p>
<p>Nor can Mexico let conservative evangelical sectors lead this debate. Recently, President Peña Nieto met with 27 evangelical pastors who <a href="http://www.noticiacristiana.com/sociedad/iglesiaestado/2016/07/pastores-contra-gay-mexico.html">oppose the proposed gay marriage legislation</a>. The Mormon church has also <a href="http://www.noticiacristiana.com/sociedad/iglesiaestado/2016/10/evangelicos-pena-nieto-matrimonio-gay.html">publicly rejected</a> the initiative. </p>
<h2>Children are people, too</h2>
<p>An under-analysed element in Mexico’s gay marriage debate, which includes adoption rights, is respect for the rights of children. Children are not just “little people”, as they <a href="http://www.humanium.org/es/historia/">were conceptualised</a> until the 19th century. They are individuals with specific rights, recognised in the 1924 <a href="http://www.humanium.org/es/ginebra-1924/">Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child</a>. These were later confirmed with the UN <a href="http://www.unicef.org/mexico/spanish/mx_resources_textocdn.pdf">Convention on the Rights of Children</a>. </p>
<p>The debate on gay marriage in Mexico includes gay adoption. <a href="http://www.unicef.org/mexico/spanish/mx_resources_textocdn.pdf">Article 21</a> of the convention stipulates that, in questions of adoption, “the superior interest of the child must be the primordial consideration”.</p>
<p>Thus, any debate on family structure must centre on a child’s particular individual rights – to life, a name, education, health, safety; to play; to have parents who take responsibility for him or her. </p>
<p>When Mexicans march for “the family”, under international law, we are obligated to ask in response, what kind of family situation is best for the child? </p>
<p>Getting a woman pregnant does not make you a father, and giving birth does not make you a mother. These are titles that a child gives to a person who raises them, is there for them - ideally in an accepting, warm, and respectful environment.</p>
<p>Gay couples are just like other couples. Like heterosexual relationships, they may <a href="http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/67946/1/TFM_lourdes%20villalon.pdf">suffer violence and be irresponsible</a>. They can get separated, be unfaithful, act jealously, hurt each other. They can be bad parents. So, too, do they love, honour, cherish, and respect both each other and their children, just like straight couples. </p>
<p>It is thus erroneous for the “March for the Family” to assume that all heterosexual couples are, by virtue of being differently gendered, poised to be good parents. Let us not fall into the facile trap of thinking that any kind of marriage - gay or straight - necessarily means “happily ever after”. </p>
<p>Raising healthy, happy children requires sacrifice and represents a challenge for couples - gay, straight or otherwise. Indeed, a <a href="http://whatweknow.law.columbia.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-the-wellbeing-of-children-with-gay-or-lesbian-parents/">review of scholarly literature</a> has showed that children of gay couples have similar health and well-being outcomes as children of heterosexual couples. </p>
<p>Considering the right of the child as an individual versus valuing only the family unit – for indeed, families are comprised of individuals (and the individual, not the family, is the core of society) – is thus an important input in the marriage equality debate.</p>
<h2>Changing perception of marriage equality</h2>
<p>The notion of a <a href="http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/19608/por-qu-la-iglesia-se-opone-al-matrimonio-gay.html">traditional family unit</a> with a mother, father, and children is still prominent in Mexico. Exact figures on public perception of gay marriage vary but <a href="http://www.opinamexico.org/opinion/MATRIMONIOS_GAY.pdf">one study from 2010</a> showed that only 22% of people fully supported marriage equality, while a <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/chapter-5-social-attitudes/">2015 Pew Research Poll</a> indicated that nearly half the country was in favour. </p>
<p>But a generational shift is underway. In a <a href="http://www.medigraphic.com/pdfs/epsicologia/epi-2011/epi113a.pdf">2011 study in Mexico</a>, researchers administered surveys to two groups – young people and young adults (between 18 and 25 years old) – and found that attitudes differed between the two. They showed that both these age groups displayed more positive feelings toward gay adoption. </p>
<p>Mexican perception of gay marriage is clearly changing, just as it has in <a href="http://www.scielo.org.bo/pdf/rbd/n12/n12a10.pdf">other parts of the world</a> in recent decades.</p>
<h2>Society must follow</h2>
<p>Still, the sheer number of people who marched against marriage equality demonstrated that Mexico is profoundly divided on LGBT rights. Even if the proposed marriage equality bill passes, the possibility of a social backlash, including in the form of discrimination against children adopted by gay parents, is very real. </p>
<p>Violence and discrimination against LGBT people in Latin America <a href="http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/informes/pdfs/violenciaPersonaslgBti.pdf">is widespread</a>, despite gay marriage legalisation in several countries, including <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22102740">Uruguay</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/americas/16argentina.html?_r=0">Argentina</a>, and <a href="http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/brazil-takes-first-steps-legalizing-gay-marriage250512/">Brazil</a>. Brazil has actually seen an increase in anti-gay hate crime since a 2013 court ruling opened the door to same-sex marriage, and there, says the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/es/2016/07/05/brasil-enfrenta-una-epidemia-de-violencia-contra-las-personas-homosexuales/">New York Times</a>, “a gay or transgender person is killed almost daily”. </p>
<p>In Central America, threats from criminal organisations are forcing hundreds of LGBT citizens to <a href="http://diariolavozdelsureste.com/se-dispara-flujo-de-migrantes-homosexuales-por-violencia-en-centroamerica/">flee their countries</a>. Because of the social stigma against LGBT people “in the name of culture, religion, and tradition”, <a href="http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/informes/pdfs/violenciaPersonaslgBti.pdf">according to</a> the <a href="http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/">Inter-American Commission on Human Rights</a>, Mexico must confront, not ignore, these widely held beliefs.</p>
<p>For advocates of marriage equality, then, there is work to be done. It was civil society that came out to march against it, and it must be civil society that enriches this debate with alternative perspectives. As a nation, Mexico must engage in dialogue and its people must educate one another so that we can advance together towards a more equal future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67289/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adán Echeverría-García does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A proposal last month to legalise gay marriage in Mexico caused widespread protests, defending “Catholic values” and the “traditional family.” Deeper analysis reveals flaws in those arguments.Adán Echeverría-García, Professor and Postdoctoral Researcher, Universidad Autónoma de Baja CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/575732016-08-01T20:09:13Z2016-08-01T20:09:13ZReimagining NSW: how good governance strengthens democracy<p><em>This is part of our Reimagining New South Wales (NSW) series. For this series, vice-chancellors across NSW asked a select group of early and mid-career researchers to envisage new ways to tackle old problems and identify emerging opportunities across the state.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Many people are watching the Donald Trump campaign in the US and wondering: how has it come to this? Anti-politics, populist, and some say even authoritarian candidates such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/11/its-not-just-trump-authoritarian-populism-is-rising-across-the-west-heres-why/">Trump</a> have risen in recent years across established democracies, along with rising polarisation and increasing political instability.</p>
<p>In Australia, federal instability symbolised by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd and Abbott-Turnbull machinations has left many Australian citizens concerned that leadership spills may now have become a regular feature of Australian politics. And despite NSW Premier Mike Baird’s historically high personal approval rating, NSW has also recently experienced its fair share of political drama. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-governments-crackdown-on-csg-opponents-bring-out-protesters-20160315-gnjbr3.html">Large-scale</a> <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/keep-sydney-open-thousands-turn-out-in-the-city-to-protest-nsw-governments-lockout-laws/news-story/ee5c6f0cf427af934686e406edc2d719">protests</a> – often centred around lack of consultation – are not <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/its-mabo-its-justice-its-westconnex-protesters-rally-against-mike-bairds-vibe-20160529-gp6ljk.html">uncommon</a> in NSW and are starting to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-state-election-2015/nsw-state-election-2015-greens-take-ballina-after-27year-nationals-reign-20150328-1ma6kh.html">shift election outcomes</a>. The NSW government has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/nsw-antiprotest-laws-are-part-of-a-corrosive-national-trend-20160321-gno10h.html">tightened the rules</a> on protest (which has sparked further demonstrations).</p>
<p>The common thread here is governance: the relationship between the state and civil society. Many NSW citizens appear to be indicating they feel disenfranchised, marginalised and silenced when it comes to policymaking. Could doing governance differently make NSW more prosperous?</p>
<h2>Good governance can lead to a stronger NSW</h2>
<p>Governance means different things to different people, but there are some common features. </p>
<p>Governance refers to the processes of public decision-making and the processes by which decisions are implemented. Government, citizens, business, unions, and other civil society organisations are all involved. </p>
<p>The process starts with identifying issues of concern to citizens and ends with evaluating the effects of policy decisions. It involves much more than simply holding periodic elections – it means making and implementing decisions that are participatory, accountable, responsive, transparent, equitable, effective, efficient, and that follow the rule of law.</p>
<p>Most of these principles reflect the core underpinnings for democracy. These principles apply to governance everywhere, from the local school level to national politics. It’s only when these principles are upheld and put into practice that a democracy functions well. </p>
<p>Good governance is the right thing to do, and boosts the legitimacy of decision-making. But if moral chivalry does not appeal to you, here are two more reasons. </p>
<p>Good governance leads to better solutions. Citizens’ capacity to solve problems is greatly undervalued. Better involving citizens in deliberation about how to solve problems may actually result in much better outcomes – socially and economically. We should make better use of the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/democracy-needs-our-help-to-thrive-20160630-gpvvvp">wisdom of the crowd</a>. </p>
<p>Good governance is also cost-efficient. Ensuring support of citizens and other stakeholders may reduce the costs of policy implementation. Involving citizens creates a more legitimate process of decision-making and creates a positive perception of government. Engagement ensures that outcomes of policymaking processes are more widely supported. </p>
<h2>Good governance is happening – but we need more of it</h2>
<p>Good governance as described above can work, and in some cases is already happening in NSW. For example, governments have:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Legislated for engagement: the <a href="http://www.acyp.nsw.gov.au/">Advocate for Children and Young People</a>, in consultation with the relevant minister, is mandated to advise the NSW parliament and monitor progress on policy affecting children and young people. In 2015, it consulted with more than 4,000 children and young people to devise the <a href="http://www.acyp.nsw.gov.au/the-plan">NSW Children and Young People’s Plan</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Engaged in genuine consultation: in 2014, citizens in the <a href="http://www.metrowater.nsw.gov.au/planning-lower-hunter/2014-lower-hunter-water-plan">Lower Hunter</a> provided fresh solutions to the problem of water supply by coming up with ways to reduce water usage. As a result, the need for expensive desalination plants and complex water treatment schemes was significantly reduced. </p></li>
<li><p>Drawn widely on the experience of the community: a <a href="http://www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/announcements/panel_of_experts_-_political_donations">panel of experts on political donations</a> established by the Baird government in 2014 used the expertise of Australian researchers working on corruption, money and politics to craft a series of independent recommendations for political finance reform in NSW. </p></li>
<li><p>Invested in platforms for citizen-engaged innovation: in Belgium, the <a href="http://www.g1000.org/en/">G1,000</a> initiative brought citizens together to identify political and social problems and craft policy solutions. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The challenge is to draw lessons from these positive examples and apply them more broadly. Encouraging engagement between constituents (citizens young and old, organisations, networks and governments) requires enhancing opportunities for citizens to have a voice, as well as fostering a culture of listening among lawmakers. Ongoing commitments beyond one-off events and experiments can cultivate the cultures and skills required for good governance. </p>
<p>One practical step could be the creation of a NSW Citizen’s Forum, tasking a representative sample of NSW citizens with the challenge of imagining an ideal NSW in 2025. Finding out the priorities for the public will give a starting point on what policy changes are needed for implementation. </p>
<p>Creating a specialised agency that facilitates regular citizen engagement in policymaking will also help. The agency may be tasked with engaging citizens in the problem and design stage of policymaking, rather than putting fully developed policy proposals to citizens and asking their response. </p>
<p>A long-term commitment to such an approach would position NSW as a leading state in good governance and produce better long-term policy for a vibrant NSW now and in the future.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Further reading:</em></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/reimagining-nsw-how-the-care-economy-could-help-unclog-our-cities-62970"><em>Reimagining NSW: how the care economy could help unclog our cities</em></a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/reimagining-nsw-four-ways-to-boost-community-well-being-and-why-it-matters-63049"><em>Reimagining NSW: four ways to boost community well-being and why it matters</em></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolien van Ham receives funding from the Australian Research Council's DECRA funding scheme (project number RG142911, project name DE150101692). The views expressed in this article are the views of the author, based on the author's research, and in no way represent the views of the ARC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anika Gauja receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippa Collin receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noah Bassil does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Good governance is the right thing to do, and boosts the legitimacy of decision-making. If moral chivalry doesn’t appeal, here are two more reasons: it’s cost-efficient and delivers better solutions.Carolien van Ham, Lecturer in Comparative Politics, UNSW SydneyAnika Gauja, Senior Lecturer, Department of Government and International Relations, University of SydneyNoah Bassil, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Director of the Centre for Middle East and North African Studies, Macquarie UniversityPhilippa Collin, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510912015-12-23T16:07:33Z2015-12-23T16:07:33ZThe impersonal politics of the Guy Fawkes mask<p>Just days after the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, the iconic mask of Guy Fawkes appeared – again – in two videos released in French by the hacktivist techno-social collective Anonymous. This time, they declared a total war on the Islamic State, or ISIS, continuing <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11335676/Hacktivists-Anonymous-says-it-will-avenge-Charlie-Hebdo-attacks-by-shutting-down-jihadist-websites.html">a campaign</a> sparked by the Charlie Hebdo attacks. </p>
<p>Anonymous was quick to distance this work from surveillance measures targeting Arab and Muslim populations. One month later, an operation against presidential candidate Donald Trump was launched featuring a masked figure in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL5b2RMJw58">video</a> voicing outrage against Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. </p>
<p>Then on December 13, at the Twitter handle @YourAnonNews, Anonymous issued a message <a href="http://pastebin.com/CnSdAtD1">distancing themselves</a> from a splinter group of secret hackers aligned with US security interests, the counterterrorism group GhostSec. </p>
<p>This sequence of events is less indicative of an “identity crisis,” as tweeted by an Anonymous member and reported in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/12/anonymouss-wars-on-trump-and-isis-are-part-of-an-identity-crisis/,">Washington Post</a> than of the jettisoning of any one “identity” for Anonymous. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"675360275730681856"}"></div></p>
<p>Anonymous’ collective actions are not identity-driven but faceless. The mask of Anonymous refuses identity. </p>
<p>The question that interests me, as a literary scholar and critical theorist, is: how did Guy Fawkes become transformed from a 17th-century Catholic conspirator to a tool of social protest? </p>
<h2>The mask of grassroots social protest</h2>
<p>In recent years, Anons have donned the Fawkes mask in media performances and street protests in a dizzying array of political contexts. </p>
<p>In early November, scores of masks grinned inscrutably at the police and public from the <a href="http://anonhq.com/highlights-the-million-mask-march-2015/">Million Mask March</a> in London on the actual Guy Fawkes Day (of which more later). </p>
<p>A week later, a Palestinian protester wearing the mask was photographed in a skirmish with Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. </p>
<p>Since the Arab and African Spring in early 2011, Anonymous has worn the mask of Guy Fawkes in protests and solidarity struggles across the globe. </p>
<p>Masks were seen at Operation Tunisia, in Tahrir Square, in Zuccotti Park renamed “Liberty Square,” and during #OpSaveGaza. The mask appeared at operations on behalf of WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, and at Day of Rage Black Lives Matter protests for Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Sandra Bland. </p>
<p>Anonymous has proven its heterogeneity in springing into action to redress a vast repertoire of perceived injustice.</p>
<p>Anons’ media and street performances convert the mask from the context of the theater to the street. The revolution, the Arab and African Spring reminded us, will not be televised nor tweeted but made real by the mobilization of bodies occupying space.</p>
<p>So what does it mean for Anonymous to adopt the person of Guy Fawkes as the voice of global dissent? </p>
<p>Perhaps it is more significant than just taking a symbol popularized by the Hollywood movie V for Vendetta and making it “revolutionary,” as the anthropologist of Anonymous <a href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/2027-hacker-hoaxer-whistleblower-spy">Gabriella Coleman </a> puts it. </p>
<h2>The real Guy Fawkes</h2>
<p>Guy Fawkes was an English arch-Catholic conspirator accused in 1605 of a plot to blow up the king and Parliament with 13 co-conspirators and 36 barrels of gunpowder stored in a cellar beneath the House of Lords. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guy Fawkes by Cruikshank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guy_Fawkes_by_Cruikshank.jpg">William Harrison Ainsworth, Guy Fawkes, or The Gunpowder Treason. 1840.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On Bonfire Day, every year on November 5, Britons “steal” Fawkes’ bonfire by burning his effigy, ritualistically torching him in an expression of triumphant Whig sovereignty, against a 400-year-old popish threat. </p>
<p>For the French historian Pierre Nora, memory is crystallized and embodied in sites he calls <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sIfTTndMbk0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false"><em>lieux de mémoire</em></a>, or realms of memory, which are “fundamentally vestiges…of a commemorative consciousness that survives in a history which, having renounced memory, cries out for it.”</p>
<p>The mask of Guy Fawkes is one such memory space within the flow of history, which in Nora’s words is “no longer quite alive but not yet entirely dead.” </p>
<p>As the British recite on Guy Fawkes Night the rhyme, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Remember, remember, the 5th of November,</p>
<p>The Gunpowder Treason and plot</p>
<p>I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason,</p>
<p>Should ever be forgot, </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Anonymous answers by remembering and resurrecting not the law that sentenced him to hang, but the person declared dead by the law, Fawkes himself. Fawkes is transformed from an enemy combatant to the voice of the people. </p>
<p>“Remember, remember,” Anons delivered in an <a href="http://www.zone-h.org/mirror/id/12845890?zh=1">electronic manifesto</a> during OpTunisia, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the tighter you squeeze the more your citizens shall rebel against your rule. We will use this brief span of attention we’ve captured to deliver a clear and present message which we hope shall never be forgot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Along with its mantra “expect us,” Anons make a counterappeal to collective memory not on behalf of the nation-state but of its dispossessed multitudes.</p>
<p>As Guy Fawkes Day <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-guy-fawkes">memorializes and celebrates</a> Fawkes’ failure to blow up the king and Parliament, Anonymous transforms this <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/epic-fail-guy">“epic fail”</a> from the finiteness of failure to the promise of justice. </p>
<h2>A long afterlife in British caricature</h2>
<p>Poking fun at Fawkes as arch-Catholic conspirator has a long afterlife in British caricature. </p>
<p>The English caricaturist James Gillray captures this sentiment perfectly in his 1791 illustration “Guy-Vaux, discovered in his attempt to destroy the King and House of Lords.” </p>
<p>In Gillray’s satire, philosopher and politician Edmund Burke discovers “Fawkes” remade as “Fox” along with the playwright Richard Sheridan, both supporters of the French Revolution, about to light casks of gunpowder with a lit copy of Thomas Paine’s <em>Rights of Man</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guy-Vaux discovered in his attempt to destroy the king and the House of Lords.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.handle.net/10079/digcoll/553691">Yale Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One century later, in 1867, Irish terrorism inspired cartoonist John Tenniel to draw the <a href="http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Cartoon_The_Fenian_Guy_Fawkes">“The Fenian Guy Fawkes,”</a> for Punch magazine. The cartoon was republished in the British paper, the Sunday Telegraph, in November 1974 after <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/17/newsid_2514000/2514827.stm">IRA bombings</a> in Westminster, Guildford and Birmingham. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Fenian Guy Fawkes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Cartoon_The_Fenian_Guy_Fawkes">Multitext Project in Irish History</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1982, the English comic-book writer <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/movies/12itzk.html?_r=2&">Alan Moore</a> and the artist David Lloyd jointly collaborated on the creation of a character that bears a smirking likeness to Guy Fawkes.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">V for Vendetta graphic novel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:V_for_vendettax.jpg">http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/11/18/v-for-vendetta-gets-new-director</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Moore’s graphic novel series, V for Vendetta, made into a Hollywood film in 2006, the masked character V wages violent resistance against an authoritarian regime in a dystopian United Kingdom.</p>
<p>V’s crusade against the state is successful in large part because he is able to hack the massive computer network upon which the state relies. In the closing chapter of the 38-part series, the title uses V for “Vox populi,” or the voice of the people. </p>
<p>In Moore’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/27/alan-moore-v-vendetta-mask-protest">account</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>if the mask stands for anything, in the current context, that [vox populi] is what it stands for. This is the people. That mysterious entity that is evoked so often – this is the people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Moore points to the mask’s operatic quality. Its dramatic performance creates a sense of romance and drama. </p>
<p>The mask does not represent something as solemn as a political oath; rather, it is disruptive humor. Anonymous laughs with satirical deprecation behind the mask.</p>
<h2>An impersonal politics</h2>
<p>In antiquity, “person,” the Greek <em>prosopon</em> and the Latin <em>persona</em>, referred to the mask worn over the face by an actor on stage. </p>
<p>Anonymous adopts the person of Guy Fawkes by using an operatic mask reimagined to symbolize antistate dissent in the rejection of neoliberal corporatization, racialized and colonial violence, and global empire.</p>
<p>A mask is more than an object to speak through. It must be worn by an actor – a person – but, at the same time, it is impersonal. It is mass reproduced in an assembly line, and worn by many. The Fawkes mask sheds the subjective identity of the 17th-century Catholic conspirator and becomes the face of a collective. </p>
<p>Calling themselves “Anonymous” while invoking the person of Fawkes, Anonymous locates within the legal person the power of the impersonal. The juridical “person” is turned inside out like a glove. </p>
<p>As philosopher Roberto Esposito argues in his book <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745643984#description,">Third Person</a> the legal “person” exists in contrast to the negative category of the “nonperson,” the slave who is always in danger of becoming a thing. On Guy Fawkes Day, Guy is thing-ified: made into an effigy and burned.</p>
<p>On spectacular display, then, on Bonfire Night with the burning of Fawkes’ effigy, is the state’s long preoccupation with sheltering the body politic and its exposure to risk. What better way to inoculate against risk than to immunize using the very same tactics of violence and terror? Every November 5, in other words, the “gunpowder” to be remembered will always be the state’s rather than Fawkes’, remade through the centuries into an arch-Catholic “terrorist.” </p>
<p>Anonymous – themselves accused of being cyberterrorists – turns this narrative on its head with their ubiquitous use of the Guy Fawkes mask. </p>
<p>The state cannot “read” or “infer” anything from the mask. The mask hides the identity of all its many wearers from the law. But it does more than that. The mask creates a place where the law is suspended so that a community can voice their demands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alysia Garrison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why did a hacktivist collective like Anonymous repurpose the image of Guy Fawkes for its ubiquitous masks? A scholar looks at how a 17th-century English villain became the face of resistance.Alysia Garrison, Assistant Professor of English, Dartmouth CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.