Remember: Peaceful protests are like barking - annoying, but by itself harmless. It’s the fear of the bite that makes the barking scary.
You don’t have to jump straight to violence, and I believe that it’s more effective to start with non-violent demands. Once you escalate, there’s nowhere left to go. But the threat of it is what makes the peaceful option less destructive.
As the saying goes: Nothing will meaningfully change until the rich fear for their lives.
Unions are the peaceful alternative for negotiations that workers and their bosses agreed upon instead of dragging them out of the factory into the street and beating them to death.
More people need to remember this history.
Even MLK credited the success of his work during the Civil Rights Movement to the Black Panthers being willing to do what he could not, and the Million Man March on Washington - seen today as an example of successful peaceful protest - was a threat to every white American in a seat of power. If he could mobilize a million people to shut down the capital of the federal government peacefully, imagine what else they could do.
This is the key point that many do not get. There must be the threat of violence AND the non-violent union/organised resistance option to defeat authoritarian governments. One or the other on its own will not work.
Unfortunately for the US, the rich have spent the decades since the Civil Rights Movement convincing the general populace that their rights were won by holding a snarky sign on a street corner and not by burning down entire city districts after the murder of MLK by the government (which his family proved in court, by the way. Unfortunately, no criminal court would hear the case so it was only in a civil court, but the judge was convinced well enough to find the government guilty).
Years of protesting and nothing solid was accomplished. Within a week of billions of dollars in damage to property and big business, the Civil Rights laws were drafted, voted on, and signed into law.
The only way to tell if your protests are working is if the state is restoring to violence to stop you from continuing to demonstrate.
The only way protests are ultimately effective is for the beleaguered group to be easier to negotiate with then it is to further supress them with violence.
The powerful give no ground willingly. It must be taken from them.
Remember: Peaceful protests are like barking - annoying, but by itself harmless. It’s the fear of the bite that makes the barking scary.
You don’t have to jump straight to violence, and I believe that it’s more effective to start with non-violent demands. Once you escalate, there’s nowhere left to go. But the threat of it is what makes the peaceful option less destructive.
As the saying goes: Nothing will meaningfully change until the rich fear for their lives.
Unions are the peaceful alternative for negotiations that workers and their bosses agreed upon instead of dragging them out of the factory into the street and beating them to death.
More people need to remember this history.
Even MLK credited the success of his work during the Civil Rights Movement to the Black Panthers being willing to do what he could not, and the Million Man March on Washington - seen today as an example of successful peaceful protest - was a threat to every white American in a seat of power. If he could mobilize a million people to shut down the capital of the federal government peacefully, imagine what else they could do.
This is the key point that many do not get. There must be the threat of violence AND the non-violent union/organised resistance option to defeat authoritarian governments. One or the other on its own will not work.
Unfortunately for the US, the rich have spent the decades since the Civil Rights Movement convincing the general populace that their rights were won by holding a snarky sign on a street corner and not by burning down entire city districts after the murder of MLK by the government (which his family proved in court, by the way. Unfortunately, no criminal court would hear the case so it was only in a civil court, but the judge was convinced well enough to find the government guilty).
Years of protesting and nothing solid was accomplished. Within a week of billions of dollars in damage to property and big business, the Civil Rights laws were drafted, voted on, and signed into law.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand.” -Fredrick Douglas
The only way to tell if your protests are working is if the state is restoring to violence to stop you from continuing to demonstrate.
The only way protests are ultimately effective is for the beleaguered group to be easier to negotiate with then it is to further supress them with violence.
The powerful give no ground willingly. It must be taken from them.