Generation Z, tired of empty promises and political speeches, has challenged governments around the world on different continents with its protests and demanded the fulfillment of their rights in a context of multiple crises, such as pandemics, wars, and recessions.
Many young people born between approximately 1997 and 2010 have taken to the streets of cities like Kathmandu, Jakarta, Lima, Casablanca, and Antananarivo in recent months to demand structural reforms in the face of a political and economic system that fails to respond to the current challenges of their generation, marked by inflation, Artificial Intelligence, and the climate crisis.
According to a recent report by the consulting firm Deloitte, the main concerns for Generation Z—portrayed as apolitical and distanced from collective struggles—are the high cost of living, mental health, unemployment, and environmental degradation.
“There is a shared frustration among this generation that the traditional political class neither responds to their demands nor benefits them,” Inés Arco Escriche, a researcher specializing in Asia at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), told Europa Press.
Among the triggers for the discontent and frustration of these young digital natives are factors as diverse as corruption, nepotism, economic inequality, job and educational uncertainty, and mismanagement of state resources.
“The future they had been promised is not what they wanted. They have found a society that is, in many cases, corrupt and unequal, and when they have mobilized (to protest), the response has been violent and repressive from a government that is supposed to represent them,” he explained.
Recent protests—organized through social media platforms like TikTok and Discord—are characterized by a lack of visible leaders or hierarchies. This lack of leadership, while allowing the movement to be horizontal and have greater participation from other sectors of society, sometimes does not help prevent vandalism and the infiltration of radical actors.
Struck by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and feeling that democratic institutions no longer represent them, young people under 30 have adopted symbols of “identity and belonging” such as the pirate flag from the Japanese anime series One Piece, which represents the end of injustice.
“We see that flag traveling from Indonesia to Nepal, from Nepal to the Philippines, then to Morocco and Madagascar, due to globalization. It’s no longer just that we’re digitally connected, but that this generation, in many cases, has shared cultural references,” he said.
This social phenomenon is reminiscent of the 2011 Arab Spring, the 2014 Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong, and, more recently, the Black Lives Matter movement—which gained momentum with the death of George Floyd in 2020—although Generation Z’s demands are more transversal and don’t so much seek to overthrow regimes or governments, but rather a paradigm shift.
THE AWAKENING OF GENERATION Z
In Indonesia, protest scenes erupted following a plan to grant per diems to parliamentarians, amounts equivalent to almost ten times the minimum wage in Jakarta. Street unrest worsened days later when a food delivery man was run over by a police vehicle.
Similarly, in East Timor, youth outrage was sparked by the authorities’ decision to buy cars for parliamentarians, while in Kenya, protests began after the death of a blogger in police custody and continue today due to President William Ruto’s plan to raise taxes in a country experiencing a severe economic crisis.
The same scenes of unrest have also been seen in Morocco, where the deaths of eight women in a public hospital in Agadir sparked discontent. Among the demands of young people, summoned to the streets by the GenZ 212 movement, are improved healthcare and education at a time when authorities have prioritized investing in infrastructure ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations and the 2030 World Cup.
Although the protesters’ demands are diverse, in countries like Nepal—where the trigger for the protests was the ban on access to major social media platforms—authorities have made overtures to Generation Z. Prime Minister Sushila Karki was nominated for the position after Sharma Oli resigned on the Discord platform with the approval of protest representatives.
In Bangladesh, students and opposition party supporters managed to force the resignation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled to India, opening the door to a transition process now led by Muhammad Yunus, whose government has opted to reform the same quota system that triggered the violent wave of protests.
However, the case of Madagascar, where the military-political establishment has taken advantage of the protests to seize power after the fall of current President Andry Rajoelina, shows that these social movements run the risk of being distorted if there are no alliances with other institutional actors.
Similarly, in other countries, such as Peru, although there has been a change of government following the dismissal of President Dina Boluarte for “permanent moral incapacity” in the face of growing insecurity in the country, protests have continued against the new administration of José JerÃ, who inherited popular discontent following the shooting death of a rapper by a police officer.
