Do Protest Marches Work? Part 3

Perhaps because of the memories of the pictures of Martin Luther King marching down the streets of Montgomery, Alabama, the huge marches against the Vietnam War or the crowds of people in the central squares of Cairo or Tunis, we have been convinced of the need for large numbers of people protesting to effect any change. But what we seem to have forgotten is that these protests started with the actions of a small number of people or even just one. In our haste to convince the world that these change are critical, we have ignored  Margaret Mead's advice " Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has".   

Ghandi never planned on leading over a hundred thousand people to the sea to protest the British Salt Tax, Mohamed Bouazizi would never have dreamed that his self-immolation would lead to the protests of the Arab Spring, and Rosa Parks never imagined that her decision to sit at the front of the bus would lead to marches down the main streets of Montgomery. They made a personal decision to do what they thought was right. In some cases I am sure that they hoped someone else would be supportive - but that is not why they did it. They did not wait for some committee to organize a protest in long meetings using Robert's Rules of Order nor did they wait until there were enough people agreeing to meet at a certain point, at a certain time. They just did what felt right.

One of the most memorable people I have known was a young man who, if you had looked him, looked like a bum. In fact, in a way he was. He frequently travelled riding the rails. He sometimes looked as if the dirt from the road had been permanently etched into his skin. He had gotten use to having few possessions as it is hard to jump on a moving train if you are carrying too much stuff. We spent a few days travelling together - me driving my car back from my two year stay in BC, him going back to the Maritimes. At every road side stop along the Trans-Canada where we had pulled over so he could smoke, he would walk around and pick up the trash on the road and put it in the garbage cans; if there were no cans, he put the trash in his pockets until we stopped somewhere there was one. Not a big deal - certainly what he was doing would never change the world - but it changed my world and that perhaps is enough. I now, a few times year, walk along the dike beside the Cowinchan River just outside my house and collect the garbage that others have left behind.

There are a million things that we can do as individuals that can cause change. Simple things such as saying thank you as if you meant it to the bus drivers, bank tellers and clerks that serve us; not wasting our money buying presents for family members who don't need them, teaching our children that those of us who live in a privileged part of the world have a responsibility to support those who don't, reducing our wasteful use of resources, remembering the profound difference between wanting something and needing something and incorporating that difference into our daily lives or just being kind. The possibilities are limitless.

We also can talk to each other. It is far too easy to condemn those who disagree with us. Most, if not all of them, are not the enemy. We need become, if not their friends, at least good neighbours who care about them and their lives.  If we stop demonizing them - perhaps those on the other side of the fence will stop doing the same to us on the left.

The are some overwhelming issues that we need to deal with. There is a time and a place where people need to stand up and say enough is enough. But let us make sure that before we do that - that we have done all of the other stuff first. A long time ago, when I was first advocating (somewhat loudly) on behalf of some individuals who lived with a disability, I learned that if one is going to do that sort of thing - one needs to makes sure that you have done all of the other steps well.

We need to go back to the basics of creating change and re-learn how to do those things well.

Do Protest Marches Work? Part 2

If in fact protest marches, at least by themselves do not create change in government's or corporate policies - what will?

Francesca Polletta fifteen or so years ago published a book called Freedom is an Endless Meeting. In the text she, amongst other things, discusses how some social movements developed the capacity to make decisions. One of the points that she makes is that during the active student movement in the 1960s, an extraordinary amount of time was spent in people talking to each other, learning to listen to each other and making decisions in a way that everyone participated in (consensus). It was a slow, sometimes painful and almost always exhausting process. But it worked in that hundreds if not thousands of young people learned how to participate in a political process and perhaps more importantly they learned  to listen to what other people thought. They also learned that actions are more powerful when everyone agrees with that action.

It seems to me as if we have tried to take a short cut. We have gone from someone saying that there is a problem and then a small number of people deciding that "we" need to protest. If one looks at the writings of Micah White, the co-creator of Occupy Now (see his book The End of Protest), or read the L.A. Times discussion of how the Women's March was created - it is clear that there was virtually no discussion among the millions of people who participated, there was no process by which the people got to know each other, learned to listen to what each other were saying and certainly no one ever sat down and through long hours of endless meetings developed a consensus as to what the problem was and how to address it. While perhaps we are redefining who is on top - it is quite clear that the various movement were designed from the top down, not from the bottom up.

And that is why it is not working. We are in too much of a rush - we want to do something and we want to do it now. We want to see some results from our concerns before we have even determined what the problem is. While, as I have discussed elsewhere, social media may be a wonderful way of reaching out to people and telling them what is happening, it is never a discussion. The format does not engage individuals with each other. Endless re-postings of when and where is a poor substitute for small and large group discussions. It feels as if we are comfortable in having other people define the problem and create the solution. On any given day, somewhere in Canada, there is some sort of workshop or meeting where a well known presenter will drone on about the most recent attack by either the government or the corporate elite and telling us that we must protest - we must stop them. They may be right, but I think I would like to be part of that decision making process.

Protests do have some benefits. If the protest is focused on a specific problem, if there is a reasonable solution being proposed and if the people marching have the same goals - there can be results. Particularly if the local provincial or federal politician is from the Opposition, one can get provincial or national attention.  People, if the group is cohesive enough, get to meet each other and hopefully start to be engaged in a dialogue. If the protest is loud enough or has enough community support, the sheer fact that people are expressing their concern does inform the larger community of those concerns. It makes the people feel good and that hopefully will encourage them to continue. But if people go to the protest expecting to see changes - and no one has done the necessary work - then those protesters will once again be disappointed. How many times can one be disappointed before you stop going/caring?

To be continued

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?