The Current - How Gen Z protests are toppling governments

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Around the world, young people are rising up  and in some places, they're actually bringing down their governments. From Nepal to Madagascar, Gen Z protesters are fed up with corruption, inequality, and leaders who seem completely out of touch. They're organizing online, inspired by movements half a world away  and somehow even united by a pirate flag from the anime One Piece. We talk to Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, about why this generation is taking to the streets, how these movements are learning from each other, and what their success could mean for democracy in the years ahead.

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. It's the sound of anti-government protesters clashing with police in Peru's capital yesterday. Thousands of young people are taking to the streets against high unemployment, crime, and corruption. The demonstrations are part of a bigger movement across the world. Led by Gen Zed. Similar protests have taken place in Nepal, Madagascar, and Morocco, with young people inspiring each other from country to country. From TikTok, mainly from the videos of people from Nepal sharing what we were doing. And, of course, a lot of Facebook page in Madagascar shared also what happened in Nepal.

And it was at this moment that people was, oh, it's really the right time and the high time for Madagascar to have something like this. That's Shelley, Andrew Miasay. an activist and protester in Madagascar speaking with France 24. Madagascar's president fled into exile earlier this week after the military there joined the uprising. The military has now taken over the country. Manakshi Ganguli has been following the Gen Zed protest movement. She is deputy to Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Minakshi, good morning.

Good morning. Why are so many young people around the world out on the streets protesting against their governments? Indeed they are. Often the triggers might be different. You know, on Sri Lanka, it was an economic crisis. Nepal, it initially began because there was a ban on social media. Bangladesh, it was job quotas, favoring the government supporters. Indonesia was the killing of a gig worker.

So the triggers are different. But at the root of it, really, what lies is something that government should pay very much attention to. Because it speaks to the disenchantment over a generation that is fearing for the effect. future. So growing inequality in communities across the world. You've said that these are your words, the youth in South Asia is not able to find anything to connect them to their political leaders. The dissonance was too high. Tell me more about that dissonance. They're often what they find is that their particular needs are not at all being addressed. And it is coming out in ways, for instance, like the protests over what they call NEPO kids or NEPO babies, they feel

that they are being excluded from the benefits. And this is, of course, a symptom of the sort of inequity in society right now. So one of the things that happened, for instance, in Indonesia, was that the government announced these huge perks for lawmakers. The perks were 10 times higher than the minimum wage in Jakarta. The dissonance of governments and how they reward themselves and where their citizens are, is now that gap is widening so much.

It almost feels for many younger people that the people that are making these decisions have no sense of reality of what life is about. What is the role of social media and messaging apps beyond just, you know, social media apps, but the way that people communicate now. What is that role in how these protests are evolving and spreading? Well, to a large part, you know, this is a generation that actually speaks only on social media.

We often have parents complaining about how they would have to send their child a text to talk to them. So this is that generation. So they speak to each other on various platforms. Some, you know, some, for the instance of Nepal, I mean, the entire thing was they exchanged, the political discussion, all of it happened on

Discord. So now these are spaces where the younger people can live and they are able to communicate also because even if they have differences in language or their particular circumstances, they also understand that their situations are similar and they're able to share those experiences. Do you think leaders understand that?

You mentioned Nepal. In Nepal, they shut down social media and much the fury of the people who were out protesting, but they thought that that would be kind of a fire blanket to put the inferno out, and it did the opposite. Do you think the leaders understand the power of those communication tools? Well, I think what is important for the leaders is to understand, why this is happening, instead of trying to react with force, because they cannot, you know, either they deploy troops, which has happened in several of these countries, and that sparks,

I mean, in Bangladesh, for instance, 1,400 people were killed during the protests. Nepal, one single day, 17 protesters were killed. Now, this is, this kind of heavy-handed response does not work because it just sparks for more anger. And on the same time, trying to shut down social media to curb this is also not working, because people find new ways to communicate with each other and organize. But your sense is that they're learning from each other, that the protesters in various places are picking up cues and picking up points of inspiration from each other.

I would say that they are finding solidarity on the common issues that they're facing, and that is what states need to address. And we find that most often the governments are not actually heeding the root cause of the problem. So they might reverse, as I said, the triggers are different. So they might reverse the trigger. So in Indonesia, they reverse the perks. In Bangladesh, they reverse the quotas. But that doesn't help. Or the social media brand was lifted in Nepal. But that doesn't entirely work because when it sets off, that is just the spark. But what has to happen is understanding and speaking to a generation that is feeling increasingly marginalized.

What do you make of the fact that none of these protests seem to have sort of a designated leader, that they are operating more organically? One of the things that happened, I remember there was a time when there was the Arab Spring, and there was always this interest in how that would play out in the Middle East. And that had some political resonance. This group, by and large, does not have a political ambition to replace one leader with another. What they want is for their leaders, whoever they might be, to address their concerns. and they feel that these leaders are not listening.

And yet, there are leaders that have been replaced. I mean, in Madagascar and Nepal, the leaders have been tossed out. Has that actually led to a better outcome, do you think? Or will it lead to a better outcome for those who are out on the streets? That the onus lies on the state. The owners lies on the state to bring the reforms that are needed. And these are urgent reforms. And they take work, and they cannot be just easy and simple.

So therefore, what needs to be understood is that the fact that these policies that are not that are that are harming the young or are excluding the young need to be changed in a in a in a in a consequential manner and not just you know sort of lip service to to pledges that that don't always work I just wonder I mean in Madagascar as I said in the introduction it's the military that's now in charge is that going to help the young people who are out on the streets absolutely you know in most in several places we have worried about about the military.

In some places, we've also understood that the military has actually decided not to, the security forces have not just have not supported the state in trying to contain these protests and use even more force. And then they've ended up as de facto in charge. I mean, that happened in Nepal as well. Even in Bangladesh, the military has quite a significant political role now. And that's not good. What, you know, when there exists these gaps that can always be often find that, you know, there are opportunist groups that come in between them.

That is why sometimes we find violence in these protests. So therefore, it is very important for the authorities to just recognize the need of the hour and to respond to these demands. You know, there's a narrative that often has spread that young people are disengaged. They're not paying attention. They're spending too much time on social media, chatting with each other, sharing funny videos rather than actually being plugged into the issues of the moment. What do these protests do to that now?

narrative, do you think? Well, to an extent, they're still looking, sending images to each other. They're still using emojis. It is, you know, they're communicating in a different way. But yes, the disenchantment is also communicated in that same way. And I suppose one of the, one of the evidence of the fact that we do not, that there is dissonance in generations is that the political leaders don't even understand what's happening. You know, they don't understand how they're communicating or what all of this means. And so then just finally, I mean, how can what we're seeing right now, if the people, the young people find that their lot in life is not being advanced

and that those in charge don't understand what they are looking for and don't understand why they feel burned, how can movements like this lead to real change? Well, there are different concerns here. One, we are also seeing at the same time around the world, this sort of rising authoritarianism, the populism, the sort of build-up of politicians who are often speaking, you know, against minorities or even basically racist.

So there are too many challenges around. A lot of young people care about climate. Now, these are issues that need to be addressed because otherwise they will come about a political gap and a breakdown in rule of law. And I don't think that that is something that the world can afford right now. Are you encouraged by what you're seeing?

I would be very encouraged if I would find the state responding to very legitimate. demands from the younger people in their countries. Manakshi, really good to talk to you. This is fascinating to watch. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Manakshi Ganguli is the Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30am at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. for more cbc podcasts go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts