Different means of protest, same causes: popular struggles in Burkina Faso

Abstract

<jats:p>The article examines the relationship of riots to more organised and sustained protests by trade unions and other established oppositional organisations. It focuses on protests related to the 2007–2008 food and fuel price crisis. In a case study on Burkina Faso, actors, means and achievements of the popular struggles are analysed. It is argued that protests by the trade unions on the one side and riots on the other relate to one another. Both present struggles by different segments of the popular classes that sometimes use different means but emerge from the same structural causes and address the same problem.</jats:p>