if we burn (vincent bevins)

‘The mass protest decade and the missing revolution’ is the subtitle of Bevins’ book. I came across the writer via Twitter, where he was one of the best English language posters on all things Brazil, and exercised a downbeat, laconic vibe, which his book perhaps might have had more of. If We Burn is a rigorous review of a decade of protest, which kicked off in Tunisia and then went around the globe, incorporating, according to Bevins, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Egypt,  Bahrain etc. Those giddy days of 2011, when the ‘Arab spring’ broke, feel a long time ago now. Bevins looks with a cold eye at the reasons for the eventual underwhelming results of so many of these protests, questioning why the energy unleashed on the streets never lead to more comprehensive political change. Of course, his attitude is that of an insider. If you live in one of the countries that was not touched by this spirit of protest, or no more so than normal, as was the case with most Western European countries, then the argument already feels distanced. If anything, it might be possible to reframe the Brexit vote as an act of mass protest, a protest which was far from progressive.

Bevins is perhaps at his best when writing about Brazil and the way that the right wing Bolsonaro supporters hijacked what was originally a straightforward protest about bus fares, lead by activists who were nearer to being anarchists than anything else. He writes about how these movements resisted hierarchical structures, which, he argues, was part of the reason they could be manipulated by the far right into a destructive critique of Dilma Rousseff and Lula’s left-wing governments. As such, If We Burn reads like a cautionary tale for any would-be activists. The more successful your campaign, the more likely it is to be railroaded by forces beyond your control. The book is both a vindication of idealism and a damning critique of the perils of naivety that are inherent to any form of idealism.