Advertisement

Analysis | Can Hong Kong’s extradition protesters succeed without a leader?

  • Youth-led, leaderless movements project a united front and are less prone to violence
  • But without strategic planning and coordination, they risk losing momentum

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
A demonstrator refuses to budge during Wednesday’s extradition law protest. Photo: Dickson Lee
The massive demonstrations against the amendment to Hong Kong’s extradition law draw on a long tradition of dissent in the city. Yet they also represent several unique changes in protest movements worldwide.
Advertisement
The march on June 9 by as many as a million participants may have been the largest in Hong Kong’s history, and the subsequent clashes on June 12 were an unprecedented escalation of police violence.

The demonstrations also displayed a significant degree of self-organisation, with coordinating groups such as the Civil Human Rights Front playing a marginal role.

While protests of such intensity and characteristics may be new to Hong Kong, they are part of a growing global phenomenon of predominately youthful, largely non-violent public resistance. So what can similar movements around the world teach us about the likely next steps for the anti-extradition forces?

Protesters fill the Admiralty area of Hong Kong. Photo: EPA
Protesters fill the Admiralty area of Hong Kong. Photo: EPA
Advertisement

LESSONS FROM ABROAD

loading
Advertisement