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Preface
I am writing this book on popular protest and civil society in Jamaica at an extraordinary historical moment—the revival of peoples’ movements and citizens’ participation in governance across the world. Beginning in the middle of the 20th century, various efforts have promoted civil society and civilian politics as a crucial force for change that is directed from below: The civil rights and black power movements dominated the 1960s and 1970s, the struggles for democracy across the Third World (Latin America and parts of Africa) preoccupied civil society in the 1980s, and global trade and environmental protests gripped the 1990s. In contrast, during the first decade of the 21st century and the dawn of the second decade of the new millennium, the world is witnessing what may be seen as either a new surge of “people power” or what John Keane called the violence of civil society. As the world settles into the 21st century, a new wave of protests has swept across nations. From Thailand, France, and Greece to Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and Iran, citizens everywhere have taken to the streets to seek redress for issues of social and economic injustice, to show their dissatisfaction with