The Times They Are a-Changin’: A History of Protest

From Vietnam to Ukraine, the history of resistance has never been more important.

The word “protest” stems from the Latin protestari, which means “to declare publicly, to bear witness.” Every generation in history bears witness to injustice. The act of protesting has taken on different forms, yet its spirit remains the same across time. It’s the fervent resistance to wrongdoing, the objection to the unjust. Gen Z is no exception.

“Your old road is rapidly agin’

Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand

For the times, they are a-changin,’” famously sang 1960s folk singer Bob Dylan, in the midst of the turbulent sixties political climate, flanked by the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.

The times, again, are a-changin. Protests are popping up all over the world. 2020 saw worldwide demonstrations against police brutality after the murder of George Floyd. 2022 had Woman, Life, Freedom rallies that spread internationally after the murder of Mahsa Amini in Iran. Presently, there are protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as ongoing pro-Palestinian marches and encampments on university campuses against the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. 

Protesting for human rights has a lengthy history, dating back to the slave rebellion in Haiti in 1791 and the revolutionaries who toppled the French monarchy in 1792.

Fast forward to the 20th century, an era witness to no shortage of protests—for many their significance still felt to this day.

One of the most profound images from the 20th century which is also considered one of the most important pictures of all time, is that of Tank Man. It showcases a lone, unidentified Chinese man (hence the title of the image) confrontationally standing in front of a slew of tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The tanks were deployed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to violently crush student protests that spread to over 400 cities across the country. Students took to the streets and demanded freedom and democracy. They went on a hunger strike and staged protests across various university campuses, calling for reform. The CCP declared martial law and massacred at least several thousand demonstrators. Today, the image is censored in China and the government denies the massacre even happened. The fate of Tank Man is still unknown.

Another striking image of protest is the self-immolation of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức. In 1963, at a busy road intersection, Đức took his own life by setting himself on fire to protest South Vietnam’s persecution of Buddhists by the Catholic president. “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one,” said 35th U.S President, John F. Kennedy. Activism in regards to the Vietnam War intensified, as 1960s hippies and counterculturalists opposed American involvement in the war. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in anti-war protests and measures as a result of Đức’s martyrdom.

The youth activism in the 1960s was unprecedented. Apart from the Civil Rights Movement to end racial segregation, there was the rise of revolutionary movements like the Black Panthers and the second wave of feminism. The gay liberation movement kicked off as well, culminating in the Stonewall riots of 1969, where drag queens, lesbians, gay men, and trans people fought back with force against a police raid at a gay bar in New York. It resulted in six days of fervent protests and became a symbol of resistance for gay rights movements in North America. “I’m not missing a minute of this—it’s the revolution,” famously said Sylvia Rivera, a Latina LGBTQ+ activist who resisted arrest during the uprising. The first pride march in history took place in 1970 to commemorate the anniversary of Stonewall. 

There were also similar youth-led protests in the Middle East calling for change. On International Women’s Day in 1979, tens of thousands of women in Iran took to the streets to celebrate female empowerment. Instead, it quickly turned into a mass riot against the increasing misogyny of the newly established Islamic Republic regime, specifically the controversial veiling law requiring Iranian women to wear hijabs against their will. “WE DIDN’T HAVE A REVOLUTION TO GO BACKWARDS,” they chanted. The women protesting were attacked by mobs of ultra-conservative men with knives, stones, bricks and broken glass. In one of the demonstrations, 15,000 women had a three-hour sit-in demanding the freedom to dress as they pleased. Feminists from across the world, from France to Germany, expressed solidarity by staging their own protests.

In 1960s South Africa, police officers opened fire on a group of protesters peacefully demonstrating against racist laws in a Black town called Sharpville, murdering 69 people. It was one of the first protests against Apartheid, a system of racial segregation implemented by the white minority that ruled over the majority non-white population. It became a global cause of protest, particularly when Nelson Mandela was arrested for nonviolently opposing the Apartheid laws. 

The list is endless: the People Power Revolution in the Philippines that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986; the South Korean June uprising against authoritarianism; the Chilean protests that dismantled Pinochet’s dictatorship; the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which toppled the repressive regime in Communist East Germany; the Revolutions of 1989 across the Eastern Bloc; Gandhi’s protest against British colonial rule in India; the women’s suffrage movement. Whether it’s in Asia or Europe, the Americas or Africa, people everywhere collectively fight for what’s right. They fight against oppressive governments, social ills, unnecessary wars—and the fight still continues.

Earlier this year, just like Thích Quảng Đức in Vietnam, 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell took his life and set himself on fire outside the Embassy of Israel in Washington to protest American support of Israel. “I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in this genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest but, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all,” he uttered before taking his life. 

Over 13,000 people have been arrested so far by Russia for protesting their invasion of Ukraine. Russian activist Oleg Orlov was sent to prison for denouncing it and calling Putin a fascist. In September, pro-Ukraine protests erupted on the streets at TIFF against the screening of a documentary called Russians At War filmed from the perspective of Russians, which they alleged was Kremlin propaganda.

Iranian women are still protesting the repressive hijab mandate, 43 years after the initial protests on International Women’s Day in 1979. At least 551 Iranians have lost their lives as a result of the government crackdown, but their fight hasn’t ended.

The rise of social media altered the world of protest, with digital activism reaching new heights. In the early 2010s, we witnessed one of the first major protests to be organized via the Internet: the Arab Spring, a domino-effect of protests in the Middle East against repressive governments. In 2017, along came the #MeToo movement, an unprecedented social campaign against sexual abuse and harassment that exposed high-profile figures like Harvey Weinstein. It empowered victims of sexual assault to speak up, giving a platform to women’s voices in male-dominated fields.

A remarkable amount of social progress has been achieved since the emergence of activist movements during the 1960s counterculture, but there’s still a long road ahead. Over 40,000 Gazans have been killed since 2023, Ukraine has recorded 36,357 civilian casualties since 2022, and places like Tibet are still under Chinese Communist occupation. Countries like Syria are suffering ongoing displacement crises, gangs now run 90% of Haiti’s capital and there’s a civil war ensuing in Sudan that’s resulted in 2.3 million casualties. The act of protesting, of bearing witness has never been more relevant and it’s easier than ever to make your voice heard, thanks to digital platforms—so make yours count.

Graphics: Tara Khoo