Protesting in the Age of a Pandemic
“Health Care Workers Stand in the Street in counter-protest to hundreds of people who gathered at the State Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver, Colo., on Sunday, April 19, 2020. Photos by Alison McClaran.”
Much in the news has been the protests in various American cities against stay at home orders and social distancing recommendations.
See, for example:
In photos: Americans rally to protest social distancing
Facebook won't allow promotion of protests 'that defy government's guidance' on social distancing
Trump support for protests threatens to undermine social distancing rules
Pro-gun activists using Facebook groups to push anti-quarantine protests
An article from the San Francisco Examiner, from January 26, 1919, Page 12, describing a meeting of the “Anti-Mask league.”
At the same time there has been some reporting and social media posting about a face mask protest by the “Anti-mask League” of San Francisco, that was related to the 1918 – 1919 Influenza pandemic, this reporting, at least in part, a response to the contemporary protests mentioned above.
See, for example:
San Francisco forced people to wear masks during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Did it help?
San Francisco’s 1918 Spanish flu debacle: a crucial lesson for the coronavirus era
Brazil Demonstrators bang on pots and pans in a cacerolazo against President Bolsonaro. People in Brazil have expressed anger at President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic by banging pots and pans together on balconies. Photograph: BBC News
All of this, within the larger story of the changing ways in which we are protesting, in these daily changing times. There are reports of new waves and methods of protesting in the midst of this pandemic, including walkouts, drive-by-protests, digital rallies - and perhaps most widespread, cacerolazos (the banging of pots and pans out one’s window or from one’s balcony), and more.
See, for example:
To maintain social distancing, immigrant rights groups use creative ‘drive-by protests’
Amazon employees walk off the job after company informs them of COVID-19 case
Nurses walk off job while protesting staffing numbers for COVID-19 patients at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit
Coronavirus chills protests from Chile to Hong Kong to Iraq, forcing activist to innovate
Big cities call out Bolsonaro in spontaneous protest
Shifting Gears: The Climate Protest Movement in the Age of Coronavirus
The global pandemic has spawned new forms of activism – and they’re flourishing
Coronavirus in the Age of Protest: How the Pandemic
Could Change the Way We Organize
Author: Devorah Romanek
