The World's Freedom Convoys: How Truckers Changed the Course of History in 2022

As the world entered its second year of pandemic lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, and a new era of high fuel prices and inflation, the world’s most essential cargo transport professionals – truckers – took the lead in organizing anti-government protests in nearly every region of the planet.

Truckers were the protagonists of arguably the most successful anti-lockdown protests in the world in January, leading the “Freedom Convoy” movement to demand an end to vaccine mandates, business lockdowns, school closures, and other civil liberties violations. The “Freedom Convoy” movement inspired similar uprising in Europe, Asia, and Latin America that expanded beyond the anti-lockdown goals into varied demands such as better salaries, cleaner elections, and even the toppling of longstanding authoritarian regimes.

It all began in Canada. The governments of Canada and America agreed on a coronavirus vaccine mandate imposition on truckers crossing their mutual border, meaning anyone who did not wish to ingest a vaccine product and worked as a trucker would be out of a job. Outraged truckers began organizing convoys on the border demanding they be allowed to cross and deliver their shipments without being forced to consume a medical product against their will, many citing that truckers are largely working alone and less exposed to others potentially carrying Chinese coronavirus than others in larger industries.

The initial convoys, organized in January, attracted so many supporters that the movement became inclusive of all anti-coronavirus restriction viewpoints, opposing vaccine mandates at work or school, business shutdowns, school shutdowns, and mask restrictions.

The Freedom Convoy ultimately parked itself in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, where they largely paralyzed the capital with an encampment featuring free food, dancing, and other peaceful forms of protest.

“Like many of us, our ancestors have come from all over the place, but all of my ancestors came from Prussia, Ukraine, and my grandpa came over here in 1925 to escape persecution. They were being — you could say — slaughtered, persecuted,” a trucker named Ryan told Breitbart News in February, explaining his presence in the convoy. “They come to the country for freedom. They come to Canada for freedom, for farming. We have freedom in our little community, and we have the Charter of Rights, and suddenly, all of that’s kind of thrown out the window, and we’re not free anymore. So that’s why we’re here, essentially.”

The far-left government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with violence, including a particularly gruesome incident of police brutality in which police trampled an indigenous elder with a horse, and mass arrests of peaceful protest organizers. The protests abated, but not before multiple Canadian provinces lifted vaccine passport mandates and other similar restrictions, making the protests appear to have yielded significant results.

The Canadian Freedom Convoy inspired similar protests worldwide, most prominently protests in the Netherlands organized by Dutch truckers facing similar coronavirus restrictions. The Dutch protesters described themselves as “of course inspired by Canada” and blocked major city areas, most prominently the Hague.

Dutch trucker protests have largely been eclipsed by, and lent their support to, Dutch farmer protests against “green” government policies the farmers say are destroying their industry. Elsewhere in the world, however, other truckers used similar roadblock tactics to air a variety of grievances, many indirectly related to the chaos caused by lockdowns and other government anti-pandemic mandates.

In South Korea, truckers have staged two different strikes, the most recent one – beginning in November – still unresolved. Truckers organized a strike in June protesting extremely high diesel and other fuel prices in the country eating away at their salaries, demanding the government help them afford to continue in their jobs given how important trucks are to maintaining supply chains. The June protest resulted in about 6,500 unionized truckers participating and crippling, in particular, South Korea’s petrochemical industry. The protests eased until roaring back in November, causing losses of $224 million per day, according to the government.

This time, Seoul, rather than attempting to negotiate, threatened the truckers. Conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol invoked a little-used law to get truckers in key industries back on the streets of face jail time.

“There’s no way to justify the act of taking the lives of people and the national economy as hostage to accomplish their own interest,” Yoon said in November. “Please return to your positions before it’s too late.”

The massively unpopular Yoon has yet to resolve the trucker strikes, leaving the South Korean economy at the mercy of any further strikes.

Fuel prices prompted very similar strikes in Chile – a nation, unlike South Korea, led by a radical leftist. Chilean truckers demanded the government intervene to lower fuel prices and stabilize prices sent soaring by inflation. Chilean truckers also protested that the government was not doing enough to stop robbers from seizing and looting their cargoes. The government of leftist President Gabriel Boric proposed freezing diesel prices for three months in November, but truckers refused the deal and continued their strike.

In another week, at the end of the month, multiple trucker unions and the Chilean government agreed to a deal in which the government agreed to keep diesel prices low specifically for truckers and reinforce security on highways.

In neighboring Brazil, the trucker protests this year were far more overtly political. Truckers, as a voting base, tend to be conservatives in Brazil and are believed to overwhelmingly have supported current President Jair Bolsonaro’s reelection bid. Bolsonaro lost to rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the end of October – a far-left former president who has been convicted on multiple appeals of corruption while in office. Truckers responded to the victory, which they considered marred by Supreme Court interference, by organizing roadblocks on many of the nation’s major highways.

The truckers were joined by other conservatives dressed in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag, blocking drivers and halting commerce.

The Brazilian truckers did not succeed in preventing the government from certifying Lula’s election. Bolsonaro himself published a video urging them not to block highways or cut off supply chains, which resulted in the end of most of the roadblocks. Yet truckers remain a formidable political force in the country. Lula’s transition team met with the leaders of multiple trucker unions this week in an attempt to prevent them from returning to their strikes. Brazil’s Gazeta do Povo described truckers as a whole as a “ticking time bomb” for the Lula administration.

Ongoing trucker protests continue in the Middle East at press time. In Iran, where the population generally has revolted against the Islamist regime in response to the killing of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini – beaten to death for “incorrectly” wearing her hijab – truckers have been a prominent protest force. The Iranian Truck Drivers’ Union called for a national strike in November, joining a variety of industries – “Esfahan Steel Company, Alvand SarmaAfarin Incorporation, Morattab Car Manufacturing, Safe Khodro Car Manufacturing Company, Qazvin’s Pars Appliances Company, and some others,” according to Iran International.

As of early December, multiple Iranian provinces are experiencing supply chain disruptions as a result of trucker protests, according to Iranian dissident groups.

In Jordan – as in Chile and South Korea – truckers organized a strike this month demanding help to afford diesel and continue handling shipments. A 17-day strike began this month, leaving Jordan’s Aqaba port in disarray and causing shops in major cities to shut down due to lack of inventory. Clashes between police and truckers resulted in the death of at least one police officer, identified as Col. Abdul Razzaq Al-Dalabeeh.

This week, protesting truckers in the city of Maan signed a deal with Jordanian lawmakers that would reportedly give them a respite from fuel taxes and increased diesel and kerosene prices, but some say they will continue to protest and strike for more government support.

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