"Masked Protest in the Age of Austerity: State Violence, Anonymous Bodies, and Resistance “In the Red”" by Jennifer B Spiegel

Critical Inquiry published a new article by Jennifer Beth Spiegel entitled "Masked Protest in the Age of Austerity: State Violence, Anonymous Bodies, and Resistance “In the Red”". The article can be found here. 

The following is a brief synopsis:

In May of 2012, at the height of the longest and largest student strike in Canadian history, the City of Montreal banned the wearing of masks at protests, enforceable upon the discretion of the police, with a fine of up to three thousand dollars. The bill foreshadowed a Canadian federal ban on masks that would be passed in the fall of 2012 criminalizing mask wearing at protests, with a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. Here I explain the logic and timing of the mask ban, pointing to the ways in which it sought to divide, order and control would-be allies in the fight against austerity measures. I then go on to illustrate how creative strategies for adopting the common persona of masks, from black scarves to clown make-up, resisted attempts to individualize and discipline particular protestors. I argue that a democratic notion of persons must not be contingent on any particular or individualizing quality and point to the political quality of the mask that has historically underscored the development of notions of the person as a social actor with a political role to play.  I end with a discussion of how the use of masks resists the moral subjectivity that comes with the individualization of debt, insisting instead on collectivity.