Beyond the Streets: A Reading of the Structural Causes of Protests in Morocco
Morocco is witnessing a new wave of protests led by a younger generation known as Generation Z. This movement reflects a profound shift in the relationship between society and the state, and a growing awareness that social justice is not a privilege granted from above but a political right to be claimed. These protests are the cumulative result of four decades of neoliberal policies imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since the 1980s, policies that transformed Morocco’s economy from a social model into a debt-driven one built on privatization and austerity, at the expense of healthcare, education, and decent work.
The collapse of public health, soaring unemployment, and deepening class inequalities are direct consequences of these reforms, while debt itself has become a tool for reshaping the state according to market logic. Even the so-called green transition and social protection program, presented by the state as developmental achievements, are in fact rooted in external borrowing and the digital management of poverty rather than its eradication.
These dynamics reveal that the current crisis is not merely social, but political and structural at its core: a crisis of a development model that places capital before people. Out of this crisis emerges a new collective consciousness demanding dignity, justice, and a fair redistribution of wealth and power, reopening the fundamental question: for whom is the state governed, and in whose interest is the economy being reshaped?