From university campuses to city squares, 2025 is already pulsing with the sound of dissent. Across the globe, citizens are taking to the streets, their signs as varied as their causes—climate action, labor rights, political reform, digital privacy. What ties these movements together isn’t a single ideology, but a shared exhaustion with stagnation.
As economic pressure mounts, elections loom and social inequalities deepen, protests have re-emerged as the defining language of frustration and hope. In 2025, protesting isn’t a sideshow—it’s the story. Once again, the world is no longer watching from a distance; it’s marching, shouting and refusing to stand still.
Other years have carried the mark of upheaval.
1968 became synonymous with global protest, as anti-Vietnam War marches in the United States coincided with the Paris student uprising and the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. Young people, workers and intellectuals alike demanded to reshape political and cultural norms. Protest became a language of liberation—against war, bureaucracy and complacency.
“I was raised by a drafted Vietnam vet who came home and protested the war. My parents protested the Vietnam War because they didn’t want more U.S. soldiers dying. It was a love for Americans that made them protest. I think something similar is happening today with the Hands Off and No Kings rallies,” shared English teacher Jenni Levora.
In 2020, that spirit reignited under a different banner. Amid a global pandemic, mass unemployment and deep social fractures, the streets filled once again. From the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong and Belarus, digital platforms amplified the calls for justice, turning local struggles into global conversations.
For many young people, those platforms have become a vital space of expression and advocacy. Senior Vella Batdorf said, “Online activism can be just as important as showing up in person to people who are unable to show support in person—it can allow those with limited resources to show their support to certain causes. It’s a big struggle to decide what movements I want to get involved in, especially with all the misinformation in the media recently, but I try to do research on my own and use my understanding of topics to choose what movements to stand up for.”
And now, in 2025, that momentum has evolved rather than faded. The causes have multiplied, the demands have sharpened and the fatigue has deepened. Yet the impulse remains the same: a collective refusal to accept the world as it is—and a determination to imagine what it could be.
On June 14, 2025, an estimated 5 million people across 2,100 locations in the U.S. participated in the “No Kings” protest, which organizers described as a response to the authoritarian drift in the Donald Trump administration. A second major wave occurred on Oct. 18, 2025, coinciding with the 18th day of the federal government’s shutdown. Over 2,600 rallies were held across all 50 states.
In Davenport, Iowa, up to 5,000 protesters met at Vander Veer Park for one of the “No Kings 2” demonstrations. “There are so many threats to our democracy on so many fronts that we almost can’t keep up with it,” said Bradley Levinson with Indivisible QC in an interview with WQAD News 8.
For many observers, the wave of demonstrations reflects not just frustration, but care. “It’s a love for Americans–those whose rights are endangered, those who aren’t getting due process, those who will lose their Medicaid, those whose family farms are in jeopardy because of tariffs. And it’s a love for America and American values,” said Levora.
Across the Atlantic, Europe has witnessed its own surge of mass mobilization. The Netherlands drew one of the largest “Red Line” demonstrations on Oct. 5, 2025, where 250,000 participants filled Amsterdam’s city center. The red lines, painted on banners and streets, symbolized boundaries protesters believe governments must enforce against Israeli actions violating international law. Demonstrators demanded that the Dutch government take a firmer stance on the war in Gaza—a rallying cry echoed across the continent.
Meanwhile, in Morocco, the Gen Z 212 movement—named for the country’s international calling code—has reignited the spirit of the Arab Spring. Beginning Sept. 27, 2025, youth-led demonstrations swept multiple cities, calling for better healthcare, education reform, job creation and greater transparency in public spending. Though total numbers are unclear, it is widely regarded as the largest youth uprising in Morocco since 2011-2012.
From Des Moines to Amsterdam to Casablanca, the message is clear: people are no longer content to wait for change from above. In an age defined by crisis and connectivity, dissent has become both borderless and instantaneous.
And yet, beneath the chants and placards lies a deep uncertainty. Many of these movements share no single agenda, no unifying vision—only a shared recognition that the systems meant to serve them are faltering. Governments are struggling to contain discontent without fueling it further. Social media, once hailed a tool of empowerment, now blurs the line between mobilization and misinformation. The streets are louder than ever, but the paths forward are tangled.
For some, this global unrest signals the growing pains of democracy’s renewal; for others, it marks the unraveling of the postwar order itself. The tension between those who demand reform and those who fear instability defines this moment. Every march, every sit-in, every digital campaign tests the resilience of institutions that once seemed untouchable.
If the revolts of 1968 were about liberation, and those of 2020 about reckoning, the protests of 2025 may be about redefinition—a fight to decide who gets to shape the next chapter of the global story.
Whether 2025 will be remembered as a turning point or another unheeded warning remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: the world is not silent anymore. The streets, both physical and digital, have become the new parliaments of the people—and their echoes are rewriting the sound of power itself.
