Resistance movements are political protests against foreign occupation or government policies. They can be violent or nonviolent, such as the French underground resistance during WWII or Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance against British rule in India. Insurgencies and religious conflicts can also lead to resistance movements. Protests against a government can also be classified as resistance movements, such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots triggered by racial inequality. These protests can resemble the youth movements of the mid-1960s.
A resistance movement is any form of political protest by an individual, a group of individuals, or a set of like-minded groups. In general, protests are in opposition to the occupation of a nation by a foreign presence or the government’s internal policies and governance. There are many causes and forms of the concept of the resistance movement.
Two of the most basic are organized violent riots against a foreign invasion or nonviolent resistance. One of the most famous organized violent uprisings was the multifaceted French underground resistance to the Nazi German occupation of France during World War II. One example of nonviolent resistance was when spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi led against British rule in India in the early and mid 1900s. Another example of a largely peaceful and nonviolent resistance movement is the one led by Martin Luther King, Jr., to the United States for civil rights reform, which culminated in a march on Washington, DC, and ultimately brought King the Nobel Peace Prize.
Civilian resistance against an established government is quite common in human history and is often referred to as an insurrection. Insurgencies such as those that have occurred in modern times in states such as Iraq, Peru and Sri Lanka often escalate to the point where they can be loosely categorized as a form of resistance movement known as civil war. As recent events in Côte d’Ivoire demonstrate, resistance movements can also be sparked by failed reform attempts when a presidential election leads to the defeat of an incumbent president, in this case Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to step down.
Religious differences also often lead to resistance movements. The Shia, Sunni and Kurdish Islamist conflict in Iraq is one example, and the Muslim-Hindu conflict in India is another. The latter led to the creation of Pakistan, and then Bangladesh in 1971, after India and Pakistan fought a brief conflict there.
Protests against a government, however, may be narrower in scope and definition, but can still be classified as a resistance movement. The 1992 Los Angeles, California, United States riots were triggered by racial inequality, when the widely televised Rodney King beating trial resulted in the acquittal of the four Los Angeles police officers involved. Thousands of mostly black and Latino young males protested the verdict in violation of the law, including acts of looting, arson and murder. This led the California governor to send 4,000 National Guard troops to restore government order.
The 1992 Los Angeles riots could be classified as a youth movement due to the makeup of those involved. This gives it some resemblance to the widespread resistance movements that occurred in Western nations in the mid-1960s. Protests arose against everything from corporate air and water pollution, to discrimination against women in the workplace, to the nuclear arms race and belligerent government policies of military intervention in foreign affairs.
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