Leaderless Movements? Rethinking Leaders, Spontaneity, and Organisation-Ness

ABSTRACT‘Leaderless movements’ are hallmarks of contemporary contentious politics. Yet, scholars have not reached a consensus on the definition of leaderless movements – with some highlighting ‘spontaneity’ while others explore ‘organisation-ness’. This study informs the theoretical debates by conceptualising leaderless movements as a shifting interplay of leaders, spontaneity and organisation-ness, using the case study of the 2019–20 Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Bill Movement. This study found that a plurality of social movement organisations had integrated both spontaneity and organisation-ness when mobilising, spanning from organisation formalisation to managing resources and advancing actions. The empirical findings of this study point to the need for rethinking the dynamics of leaders, spontaneity, and organisation-ness in contentious politics, suggesting a new definition that guides future studies of leaderless movements worldwide.KEYWORDS: Leaderless movementspontaneityorganization-nesssocial movement organizationcontentious politics Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).DisclaimerThis study seeks to offer scholarly, descriptive analyses of actors, events, forces, and trends relating to Hong Kong’s social movements. It does not express the author’s personal, prescriptive view on the constitutional development of Hong Kong. It also does not reflect the official position of National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan.Notes1. For an overview of the role of organisations in social movements, see Walker and Martin (Citation2019).2. It meant that no overarching organisation commanded the movement.3. It meant that different protesters should each make their own contribution to the movement along the way.4. LIHKG Forum is a Reddit-like online forum, where anonymous users are posting ideas for different kinds of topics. During the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, the LIHKG Forum had been evolved into an open platform for spontaneous netizens to discuss and vote for different protest strategies. For details, see Lee et al. (Citation2021).5. Journalistic reports showed that student unions and the HKFS were not at the forefront of the action as they had been during the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Nevertheless, they were active in performing different organisation-ness functions, such as coordinating legal support for arrested student protesters, initiating joint class boycotts, and conducting international lobbying (see McLaughlin Citation2019).6. Newspaper archives indicate that the 20-plus pro-democracy umbrella professional groups were active in issuing joint statements and organising professional support for protesters. For example, they issued a joint statement to condemn the police after the 721 Yuen Long Attack on 21 July 2019 (see Stand News Citation2019) and offered support for the student unions’ class boycott in September 2019 by offering legal advisory and counselling services (see Hu Citation2019).7. Local newspapers reported that in the latter half of 2019, spontaneous blue-collar and white-collar workers self-organised via Telegram groups into dozens of new trade unions spanning across a wide range of industries, such as civil service, finance, engineering, medicine, information technology, marketing, hostelry, and bartending. These new trade unions mobilised workers from different industries to join future strike actions and to stand in the elections of the Legislative Council’s labour functional constituency (see Lam Citation2020).8. Media reports revealed that during the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, a large number of restaurants and shops in different neighbourhoods branded themselves as ‘yellow shops’ to indicate their pro-democracy stance. These yellow shops often set up ‘Lennon Walls’ in their premises, published pro-democracy posts on their Facebook pages, offered free meals to students, and hired protesters as staff. Dozens of online platforms and organisations were established to promote the idea of the ‘yellow economic circle’, aiming to mobilise pro-democracy supporters to spend their money in these yellow shops and boycott pro-government ‘blue shops’ (see Lam Citation2019).9. Due to space constraints, the full list of 135 SMOs is not included herein.10. It is common for civil society organisations in Hong Kong to register themselves as ‘companies limited by guarantee’ under the Companies Ordinance. An online archive is maintained by the Company Registry: https://www.icris.cr.gov.hk/csci.11. Civil society organisations in Hong Kong may register themselves as societies under the Societies Ordinance. An online archive is maintained by the Police Force: https://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_tc/11_useful_info/licences/list_of_societies.html.12. Trade unions in Hong Kong are required to register with the Registry of Trade Unions of the Labour Department. An online archive is available at https://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/content2_4.htm.13. The Hong Kong University (HKU) Students’ Union was established in 1912 when HKU was founded. The Student Union of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) was set up in 1971, while the others were established in the 1980s and 1990s when their universities were inaugurated.14. Official Facebook post of the event: https://www.facebook.com/HKHIIAD/posts/119122499421857.15. Official Facebook post of the event: https://www.facebook.com/HKHIIAD/posts/141087527225354.16. Official Facebook post of the event: https://www.facebook.com/283strike/posts/132660884852221.17. Official Facebook post of the event: https://www.facebook.com/283strike/posts/159447335506909.Additional informationFundingThe author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.Notes on contributorsBrian C.H. FongBrian C. H. Fong is Professor in the College of Social Sciences at the National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. His research focuses on great power competition, democratisation, and identity politics, producing more than 80 journal articles, book chapters, authored books, and so forth. He is also the lead editor of several international book volumes, including Routledge Handbook of Great Power Competition and China’s Influence and the Center-periphery Tug of War in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific.