Sichuan Province in China has been rocked by a string of self-immolations by Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns this year. Eleven members of the Kirti Monastery in the province have set themselves alight demanding religious freedom for Tibetans in China and the return of the Dalai Lama. Six of the demonstrators succumbed to their wounds, the latest being Palden Choesto, a nun from the monastery, who immolated herself on Thursday last week. Even exiled Tibetans have self-immolated to voice their criticism of the Chinese Communist regime. On the 5th of November, a Tibetan activist did so outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, and on the 10th of November, another activist self-immolated at Boudhanath, a Buddhist site on the outskirts of Kathmandu in Nepal. What remains to be seen, though, is whether actions like these will have any significant political effect.

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Through all the dynamic and dramatic progress of the Arab Spring, the pro-democracy campaign in the tiny island nation of Bahrain has tended to be sidelined. It has struggled to attract the world’s sympathy and attention due to a lack of foreign reporters on the ground and little good information circulating in news sources. Additionally, the Bahraini government has silenced local journalists, employed public-relations and lobbying firms to discredit the protesters, even while it regularly pays lip service to delivering reform.

Nada Alwadi, a Bahraini journalist (and Waging Nonviolence contributor), recently delivered a webinar talk from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict in Washington, D.C., discussing the current challenges faced by the movement. She was formerly a reporter for Alwasat, a popular newspaper in Bahrain, and was detained in April by security forces for covering the protests in the capital of Manama. Nada left Bahrain earlier this year over concerns for her personal safety. She is currently working in the United States to spread awareness about the situation in her country.

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On a gray Saturday morning on the 8th of October, Trafalgar Square came alive with colors, chants and songs as people from all walks of life and communities came together on the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War in protest against Britain’s involvement in the conflict. The rally was organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the British Muslim Initiative, as well as groups ranging from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to the Free Shaker Ahmed and Close Guantanamo campaigns. It showcased short films, comic exhibitions, live music performances and speeches from notable activists and journalists. More than 2,000 people attended, including students, artists, trade unionists, academics, armed forces veterans and military families.

The keynote speakers were Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North and the head of the Stop The War Coalition, award winning Australian journalist John Pilger, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and the British MP and vocal anti-war activist George Galloway. They made their points, but it didn’t go much further than that.

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The news cycle may have started shifting away from the News Corporation hacking scandal, but social media activists aren’t about to let Rupert Murdoch off the hook. In the past few weeks, new campaigns have been emerging on the web which are raising awareness about the scandal, advocating a boycott of News Corp holdings, and monitoring its corporate practices.

Before James Murdoch announced the closure of News of the World, a campaign against the paper was launched on Twitter by Melissa Harrison (@The_Z_Factor). It encouraged Twitter users to tweet News of The World advertisers to reconsider their contracts, providing a list of tweets directed at those companies. One example is, “Dear @VirginMedia, will you be reconsidering your advertising spend with #notw given that we now know they hacked Milly Dowler’s [2002 murder victim] phone?” In an article in the Guardian, Harrison recalls that the campaign developed over time, growing from rants against News Corporation to a strategy to target advertisers as more people started exchanging tweets. British corporations like Morrisons, The Co-Operative, and Virgin Holidays pulled their advertising from News of The World before the paper was shut down. It isn’t clear yet what role Harrison’s campaign played in this.

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Student protester arrested at a "strolling" action in Shanghai.

Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. built movements strong enough to confront hostile, often violent governments. While the world reveres their contributions to peace and justice, however, those working for democracy and human rights in China are envious. Both leaders, compared to their counterparts in China today, had far more political space to gather, strategize, and communicate with the masses. But even under their own difficult circumstances, Chinese activists have devised novel civil-resistance campaigns, both in cyberspace and in the streets, fomenting what has come to be called the “Jasmine Revolution.”

One of the leading figures in this struggle is 28-year-old Gaius Gracchus (as he is known online). After being imprisoned in China for speaking out and seeking asylum in the United States, Gaius studied classics at Columbia University. He’s now president of the Chinese Youth Foundation (CYF), whose members are located both in China and internationally—in Paris, Seoul, Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States. At his apartment in New York, Gaius and I talked about what he’s doing to stay one step ahead of a government determined to stop him.

“I want to promote social justice and community cohesion, and prepare the next generation of intellectuals who can champion human rights in China,” he explains.

The social conditions in China are rapidly deteriorating. “People in my generation cannot find jobs, mortgages, or housing,” says Gaius. “Inflation is very high. Prosecuted people appeal in vain. Very few have access to good quality education and healthcare, and the state security apparatus is violently repressive. A culture of ‘you get it if you can pay for it’ is dominant in China.” People across the country yearn for change and are constantly venting their anger. Gaius has learned that, in 2010 alone, there were over 320,000 incidents of civil unrest across the country. Security forces often subdue such unrest violently.

In the city of Guangzhou this past May, for instance, after three people were killed by local police, three days of mass protest ended when the army killed over 100. Around the same time, in the Inner Mongolia, peaceful protests against the exploitation of natural resources were also brutally suppressed by the army.

Gaius has no confidence that scattered protests like these can deliver real change. “The random incidents exhibit no holistic strategies in tackling with the Chinese government, only a concern for personal and communal welfare,” he believes. “It highlights the fragmented nature of Chinese society across cultural, regional, and class lines, which is a major challenge to any strategic disobedience initiative.”

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In Indian society, corruption has become a norm. According to Indian journalist Dipankar Gupta, “Fear stalks most homes for nobody is sure when the next bribe will have to be given and to whom and for what. You have to bribe to get a ration card; you have to bribe to ply your wares on a push cart; you have to bribe to get your child to school or your mother to hospital… They do this not to become rich or powerful, but just so they can be left in peace.”

A string of corruption scandals have been coming to light in the Indian media which have caused outrage across the nation. In February 2011, the telecommunications minister, Andimuthu Raja, was arrested for allegedly selling mobile phone frequency licenses for a fraction of their values, which cost around $40 billion in lost revenue. It was only a few months earlier that Ashok Chavan, the chief minister of Maharashtra, one of India’s most prosperous states, was forced to resign over his alleged role in a housing scam, where senior armed forces officials and politicians have been accused of allowing relatives to move into apartments meant for war widows. The 2010 Commonwealth Games in India were marred by financial irregularities and incompetence, and many officials were arrested on corruption charges.

On the 5th of April 2011, a prominent Gandhian activist named Anna Hazare went on a hunger strike in the Indian capital of New Delhi demanding stronger anti-corruption laws. Hazare’s fast was aimed towards the passage of the Jan Lokpal—or “Civilian Ombudsman”—Bill for the creation of an independent corruption watchdog, a piece of legislation which has been stalled in the Indian Parliament since 1969. He also demanded that a joint committee of civil activists and government representatives strengthen it further.

While thousands of Indians rallied with him in the capital, he was supported by the mainstream Indian media and millions across the nation through online social media campaigns. The national media told stories of people smarting under spiralling prices, being robbed of their hard-earned money by the political class, and of their resolve to teach them a lesson. The online India Against Corruption movement garnered 60,000 fans on Facebook and over 3,300 followers on Twitter in support for Hazare. After four days of sustained protest, the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance government accepted Hazare’s joint committee demand and agreed to introduce the new bill in the monsoon session of Parliament in August 2011.

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