Do Protest Marches Work? Part 1

On the third Saturday in January, on all seven continents, there was a massive protest march. While the roots of this protest came from the US and some of its citizens' immense dissatisfaction with their newly installed president, women (and men) from around the world made it clear that there are a range of issues related to gender that are just not being dealt with. And they are right. Individual governments' responses to the concerns from the LGTBQ communities, the need for women to be in absolute control of what kind of medical care they receive, pay inequity, lack of opportunity, protection from violence etc is less than inadequate. In fact, the lack of progress in dealing with these issues can only be described as disheartening. If nothing else one would think that that many people protesting would get the attention of someone.

But did it? I think one could make the argument that the protesters that Saturday had exactly as much influence on public policy as have those at Standing Rock in North Dakota or had all of the people who camped in public parks during Occupy Now or the hundreds of students who camped out on the streets in Hong Kong or those who circle danced during the days of Idle No More, or the millions of people who in the last twenty or so years have protested against pipelines, damns and poor government policies. Absolutely none!! I can think of only two successful Canadian protests in the past twenty years: the Quebec university/College student protest of 2012 and the various protest against clear cutting in parts of B.C. most notably Haida Gwaii and Clayoquot Sound. It is worth noting that these protest were highly focused on very specific issues and managed to engage people from diverse backgrounds - all of whom agreed with the purpose of the protest.

I suspect, for Canadians, that the current idea of massing as many people as possible to march down a city street has its roots in watching the all too brief television clips of civil rights marches in Georgia or Alabama or our romantic remembering of standing outside some American Embassy protesting the Vietnam war. There is a popular impression that all or at least most of the people of my generation did that sort of thing and that it worked.  But there are two problems with that myth. One as Jennings points out in his article Residues of a movement, the number of American university students who protested the war were in a minority.  While similar data is not available for Canadians, I have no doubt that there was an equally small percentage of Canadians who were active in the protest movement during the late sixties and early seventies.  Secondly, I have never read anything to suggest that the protests in themselves alone had any real impact upon the American or any other government.

Which is not to say that the process of protesting last Saturday was a waste of time. People feel good about participating and about being part of something bigger than themselves;  they feel as if they have done something good. There is a possibility that the collective effervescence (sociology term for the glowing feeling one gets after participating in rituals such as attending church) that was generated because people were engaged in this somewhat ritualized activity might encourage them to participate in a similar activity. But as religious congregations who understand know - it is not enough to make people feel good - you have to get to know them so that they feel welcome to participate next time - which is why the minister/priest etc shakes your hand as you leave or there is coffee available afterwards. Whether or not people, in spite of feeling good about the last experience, would be prepared to march again next weekend and the weekend after remains in doubt. It should be noted that the successful student protest in Quebec happened day after day. I suspect those participants felt as if they were welcome and that their presence had an impact.

So why do people protest, why do people participate in marches?  Why do people do something that has generally not been very useful? What is it about our nature, especially those of us in the west who live reasonably comfortable lives, that allows us to believe, in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary, that walking down a street, waving some placard will have any impact upon governments or large corporations?

Perhaps more importantly - we should be asking are there other ways of protesting that are more effective?  Are there other strategies that will facilitate change?