From Madagascar to Portugal – to live, not just survive

In the second half of 2025, a series of revolts swept across countries as diverse as Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Morocco, Peru, East Timor, and Madagascar, adding to uprisings that had occurred in previous years in countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Kenya, and Serbia.

In several of these places, the revolt quickly took on a national scale and an insurrectionary character. In Indonesia and Nepal, student mobilizations, triggered by the ostentatious displays of wealth by the elites and profound inequalities, disrupted political normality in a matter of days; in the Philippines, one of the countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis, tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the diversion of funds intended for flood protection; in Madagascar, protests against cuts to basic electricity and water services led to the president’s flight and a break between security forces and the government; in Morocco, anger over cuts to public services while money is squandered on the 2030 World Cup fueled protests for several weeks, despite hundreds of arrests; in Peru, nationwide demonstrations and strikes, driven by students, caused losses to the owners of large mining capital; in East Timor, thousands took to the streets against a plan to give free cars to members of Parliament. Previously, in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, similar uprisings succeeded in overthrowing the government and initiating periods of transition.

Despite the differences in context, this set of revolts—which have been somewhat reductionistically labeled as Gen Z revolts—shares several common traits: rapid explosions of conflict, carried out mainly by young people and triggered by episodes such as salary increases for politicians, ostentatious displays by the elites, cuts to basic services, and misappropriation of public funds. These factors act as catalysts for a pre-existing social anger that explodes, ultimately challenging the entire system.

Tactics and symbols seem to spread almost instantaneously, circulating between countries and igniting revolts in different contexts: Chilean protesters learn how to neutralize tear gas in videos from Hong Kong; tactics become memes, replicable and adaptable. Pop culture symbols like the One Piece flag become international images of resistance. And, with enormous unifying force, these mobilizations manage to break down traditional forms and institutions of politics, involving broad sectors of the population without prior political experience.

More than a decade after the Springs that shook the world, these social upheavals reveal the accentuation of the contradictions and limits of capitalism and a widespread experience of impossibility: of living with dignity, of projecting a future, of recognizing any minimally credible promise in institutions. The abyss between rich and poor deepens, imperialism and the arms race intensify, public services degrade as a result of and for the benefit of privatization and global capital, and the planet is exploited beyond its physical limits. In this context, the extreme right enters the scene and gains ground in government, as a last resort for the maintenance of power by the ruling class. Capitalism is at war with the people and with the planet, and these revolts are a counter-attack.

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Despite the strength of these insurrectionary upheavals, these uprisings have resulted in a return to the status quo accompanied by some concessions from those in power. Chile is an example of this: the revolt managed to open a constituent process, but the progressive proposal was largely rejected at the polls and the far right returned to power. This raises a central question: these revolts cannot simply be reduced to classical politics, under penalty of losing their meaning and strength.

But the success of the revolts cannot be measured only by the most immediate political transformations. A future worthy of the name can only emerge from the processes of experimentation and collective empowerment that occur within these moments of rupture, as well as through the collective learning of the reasons why such moments did not lead to structural change.

Portugal experienced, albeit on a smaller scale, something similar in the cycle of anti-austerity struggles. This movement went far beyond the institutions and left-wing groups of the time, involving tens of thousands of people in demonstrations that constituted true small revolts. The cycle caught the movement unprepared to interact with the social explosion in a way that expanded and intensified the struggles.

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We look at these uprisings around the world with genuine enthusiasm, curiosity, and a strong sense of international solidarity. We understand that, although the local contexts that led to the start of each of these protests are distinct, they are part of the same wave of revolts that is shaking the system and has enormous transformative potential on a global scale. Therefore, we can’t help but wonder: what if these revolts in the Global South spread to Portugal and other European countries?

Here, the increasingly barren terrain—with the intensification of attacks that have made the population more precarious, persecuted migrants and racialized people, dismantled public services, enriched landlords, and fueled extractivism and climate collapse—seems to need only a spark to ignite. Moments like the recent anti-racist mobilizations, solidarity with Palestine, or the general strike, have allowed us to gauge the existing popular anger which, in the context of escalating imperialism, the exhaustion of classical political responses, and discredit of dominant institutions, may signify the opening of a new cycle of struggle.

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For this reason, we commit ourselves to monitoring and paying attention to the uprisings in the South, but we also invite other social movements in Portugal to think together about the strategic potential of these uprisings in our territory and what international unity and solidarity can concretely mean in this context.