Tulee (pseudonym), a 24-year-old student at a private university in Dhaka, was severely injured during the July uprising. It was a turbulent period for her, as it was for her friends and hundreds of thousands of others who took to the streets of Dhaka, Chattogram, Cumilla, and other parts of Bangladesh. These young men and women marked a historic moment in Bangladesh’s history by toppling an authoritarian regime, a feat achieved through the sacrifice of many lives.
For the last couple of months, streets around the world, particularly in the Global South, have been defined by youth protests. From Malé to Antananarivo, Nairobi to Kathmandu, and Dhaka to Lima, regimes have witnessed an unprecedented youth force, driven by demands for justice and anti-corruption measures. Beyond their geographic locations and distinct national characteristics, several commonalities can be observed among these countries where the majority of such protests have occurred.
The Global South—a theoretical economic region consisting of previously colonized and currently developing countries—is encountering protests that have brought catastrophic results for long-standing authoritarian regimes, many of which remain on the verge of collapse. Mostly thanks to Gen Z, or people born between 1997 and 2012, who are leading the protests against corruption, fascism, and authoritarianism worldwide.
The straw hat perched atop a Jolly Roger, the signature emblem of One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy, has quietly transcended manga panels to become an unlikely banner of Gen Z dissent. Across protest sites from Dhaka to Nairobi, young demonstrators have raised this symbol not merely as pop culture nostalgia but as a declaration: that the fight against entrenched, corrupt power is borderless.
Bold statements met with creativity in the streets of Colombo, where Sinhala youth chanted, “GotaGoGama” (Go Home Gota). In the Philippines, a “Black Friday Walkout” was organized by Gen Z protesters who gathered a massive crowd to oppose corruption. There, university students chanted, “Kick Back Kontra Corrupt” (Kick Back Against Corruption), and “Marcos singilin, Duterte panagutin!” (Charge Marcos, hold Duterte accountable).
The “Bangla Blockade” and “Complete Shutdown” in Bangladesh also attracted the masses due to their uniqueness. Slogans such as “Desh ta kaaro baaper na!” reflect the anguish and desperate resolve of protesters standing firm against government suppression.
A common characteristic in these situations is the systemic underestimation of the emotional and moral drivers of Gen Z. Autocratic regimes frequently attempt to discredit and delegitimize democratic movements through derogatory mockery or “tagging,” which produced a boomerang effect in these Global South instances.
The response to “illiberal democracy” has been another important factor. In many Global South countries, authoritarian democracies favour demagogic politicians, a term coined by Michael Signer to describe a strategy of asserting control over the masses by exploiting emotions, fear, or prejudice. In such environments, the true essence of democracy is rarely realized, as elections are often engineered and freedom of the press is virtually non-existent.
Digital nativism is a third key characteristic. Internet shutdowns have been a consistent tactic used by governments to disrupt and sever communication between protesting entities. Brute force from law enforcement agencies has also been employed to curb unrest. Beyond physical confrontations on the roads, cyberspace has become a frontier that both protesters and regimes have turned into a battleground.
Furthermore, overlooked socioeconomic problems, such as high youth unemployment, are a common phenomenon in the aforementioned states. In Nepal, about 20% of the population is aged between 15 and 24, of which 20.8% are unemployed, according to 2024 statistics from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In Kenya, protests have targeted rising prices and youth unemployment. In the Philippines, grievances centre on the misallocation of flood relief funds. In Indonesia, protesters have demonstrated against high allowances for members of parliament and widespread food poisoning issues. These are some of the notable examples where the general public, rather than organized political parties, took the lead.
The lack of clear governmental vision and policy has fueled rising pessimism, anxiety, and alienation. While the state tried to disrupt the rhythm of these movements through various means, the underlying socioeconomic frustrations remained unaddressed.
Gen Z protests are no longer rare, unpredictable “black swan” events. Instead, it is more plausible to associate contemporary protests with “grey rhino” —a term coined by Michele Wucker to describe highly probable, high-impact threats that have been downplayed or ignored for a long time—events. While repression often unites the masses, victory, ironically, can breed division. A similar pattern can be identified in Bangladesh, a year after the government fell, and in Nepal, several months after the resignation of the former prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli..
The term “ground zero” gained prominence after the Second World War, referring specifically to the site of a nuclear bombing or the point of most intense change.
This term can also be associated with current political skirmishes around the world—not from a sense of physical boundaries, but for their potential to initiate profound systemic shifts. These movements cannot be disassociated from the 2010 Arab Spring, the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the 2022 women-led protests in Iran, or the #MeToo movement, all of which utilized digital means, such as social media, as primary tools. The experiences of those protests are blending into the Gen Z movements of the Global South. These youth possess a uniquely global outlook and hyper-connectivity, allowing solidarity to transcend geographical boundaries.
Even in Bangladesh, Gen Z continues to aspire towards their original goal, as many remain unsatisfied with the outcomes of their sacrifices. In these turbulent times, young citizens across Bangladesh express solidarity with global protests, viewing them as a necessary step towards building a better world.
As Ketakandriana Rafitoson, a professor of political science at the Université Catholique de Madagascar, stated, “This is not a passing revolt, but a profound generational change that is under way. We may be living through a turning point today across the globe.”
Students like Tulee perhaps best embody the shift, introducing a new dialect of dissent, one that is reshaping the very grammar of protest language itself.
