Face Facts: Protests don't work. It's all about YOU
There's a protest on this weekend and I was going to go, then I remembered that it's just a self-serving waste of time.
Yep, sorry—but not really.
On March 15, 2003, there were marches against the war in Iraq. Upwards of 1 million people turned up in London; I was one of them. People protested in aprox 600 cities and somewhere between 6 and 10 million people took part.
Nothing of this scale had been seen before. It was incredible.
We still went to war.
My friend was blown to pieces, and at least 100,000 civilians lost their lives during and in the bloody mess which followed.
Billions spent.
Our protests achieved nothing. But at least I did my bit. Stuck my flag in the moral high ground.
Could it ever work?
Well, protest will only work when it's so disruptive to the systems of control that they fear for their power. You basically have to push peaceful protest to a point where the castle shakes.
Not under the shockwaves of bombs but under the noise of feet on the ground.
The political elite need to be so concerned they show their true colours and turn populist—as they often like to when votes are needed.
You have to push the words from protest to insurrection to revolution. And that won't be peaceful and could never be allowed to happen.
Democracy would die on its feet in that crowd. From then on anyone with enough strength or violence in them might fancy a go.
At that point, it's over.
Has protest ever worked?
I'm up for convincing, so please let me know. Leave a comment, maybe, or a reply.
How many years of anti-war protests did it take to end the war in Vietnam? Of course the protests didn't end the war; they were just the background, the soundtrack.
National Guard soldiers were slotting students on Kent State campus in 1970. They killed four and wounded nine others. No one was charged. The war in Vietnam didn't end till 1975. Again, no correlation.
I protested in Hong Kong against the authoritarian regime in China.
Nothing changed.
They just covered up the details of their internal strife. Hid it under tank tracks.
Are eco-protests the exception?
I’d like to think so.
Still, how many climate marches will it take for governments to actually do something serious about the environment?
There have been so many; it's clear that change will only happen if it's for profit. Again, the worn-out soles of a million shoes would have proved more use lined up in the rack at home.
So, what if I go stand outside the Russian embassy this weekend before marching under banners and placards to the heart of a democratic nation?
Fact: Putin does not give five fucks about what you or I do.
Fact: Neither does Trump.
Unless their power is at risk.
But I'll probably go anyway, because I need to know that I tried. Or, more accurately: I don’t want to see the end result without being able to say that I tried.
Catch you on the flip side.
Perhaps the takeaway positive is that we reinforce our rights by exercising them? Have a think about the countries where protest is stamped upon... yes, they are the worst for human rights. No, you wouldn't get away with these protests in Russia. Yes, those countries monitor conversations across digital, social and whatever channels they can.
It’s worth watching any authoritarian creep nearer to home: the UK government recently made large strides to restrict when or how you could protest with its new Criminal Justice Bill* announced on April 5, 2024.
Freedom to protest. Use it or lose it; just don’t expect it to change a thing.
*
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-laws-to-clamp-down-on-disruptive-protesters-come-into-force