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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
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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.
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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?
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