Protest

Not to be confused with Demonstration (protest). For other uses, see Protest (disambiguation).
Demonstration against the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the Rio+20 conference in Brazil, June 2012
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
A working class political protest in Greece calling for the boycott of a bookshop after an employee was fired, allegedly for her political activism
Anti-nuclear Power Plant Rally on 19 September 2011 at Meiji Shrine complex in Tokyo. Sixty thousand people marched chanting "Sayonara nuclear power" and waving banners, to call on Japan's government to abandon nuclear power, following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.[1]

A protest (also called a remonstrance, remonstration or demonstration) is an expression of bearing witness on behalf of an express cause by words or actions with regard to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations. Protesters may organize a protest as a way of publicly making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or they may undertake direct action in an attempt to directly enact desired changes themselves.[2] Where protests are part of a systematic and peaceful campaign to achieve a particular objective, and involve the use of pressure as well as persuasion, they go beyond mere protest and may be better described as cases of civil resistance or nonviolent resistance.[3]

Various forms of self-expression and protest are sometimes restricted by governmental policy (such as the requirement of protest permits),[4] economic circumstances, religious orthodoxy, social structures, or media monopoly. One state reaction to protests is the use of riot police. Observers have noted an increased militarization of protest policing, with police deploying armored vehicles and snipers against the protesters. When such restrictions occur, protests may assume the form of open civil disobedience, more subtle forms of resistance against the restrictions, or may spill over into other areas such as culture and emigration.

A protest can itself sometimes be the subject of a counter-protest. In such a case, counter-protesters demonstrate their support for the person, policy, action, etc. that is the subject of the original protest. In some cases, these protesters can violently clash.

Historical notions

Protesters against big government fill the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall on September 12, 2009.
An artist's depiction of a prototypical angry mob protesting with the threat of violence

Unaddressed protests may grow and widen into civil resistance, dissent, activism, riots, insurgency, revolts, and political and/or social revolution. Some examples of protests include:

Forms of protest

A protest can take many forms. The Dynamics of Collective Action project and the Global Nonviolent Action Database [5] are two of the leading data collection efforts attempting to capture protest events. The [6] Dynamics of Collective Action project considers the repertoire of protest tactics (and their definitions) to include:

The Global Nonviolent Action database uses Gene Sharp's classification of 198 methods of nonviolent action. There is considerable overlap with the Dynamics of Collective Action repertoire, although the GNA repertoire includes more specific tactics. Together, the two projects help define tactics available to protesters and document instances of their use.

Typology

March next to the Benito Juárez Hemicycle; August 27, 1968. Mexico City.

Thomas Ratliff and Lori Hall[7] have devised a typology of six broad activity categories of the protest activities described in the Dynamics of Collective Action project.

Economic effects of protests against companies

Protesters outside the Oireachtas in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

A study of 342 US protests covered by The New York Times newspaper in the period 1962 and 1990 showed that such public activities usually affected the company's publicly traded stock price. The most intriguing aspect of the study's findings is that what mattered most was the amount of media coverage the event received. Stock prices fell an average of one-tenth of a percent for every paragraph printed about the event.[8]

Some forms of direct action listed in this article are also public demonstrations or rallies.

Written demonstration

Written evidence of political or economic power, or democratic justification may also be a way of protesting.

Civil disobedience demonstrations

Any protest could be civil disobedience if a “ruling authority” says so, but the following are usually civil disobedience demonstrations:

As a residence

Destructive

Non-Destructive

Direct action

Protesting against a government

The District of Columbia issues license plates protesting the "taxation without representation" that occurs due to its special status.

Protesting against a military shipment

By government employees

Job action

Main article: Industrial action

In sports

During a sporting event, under certain circumstances, one side may choose to play a game "under protest", usually when they feel the rules are not being correctly applied. The event continues as normal, and the events causing the protest are reviewed after the fact. If the protest is held to be valid, then the results of the event are changed. Each sport has different rules for protests.

By management

By tenants

By consumers

Information

Civil disobedience to censorship

By Internet and social networking

Protesters in Zuccotti Park who are part of Occupy Wall Street using the Internet to get out their message over social networking as events happen, September 2011

Blogging and social networking have become effective tools to register protest and grievances. Protests can express views, news and use viral networking to reach out to thousands of people.

Literature, art, culture

Protests against religious or ideological institutions

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Protests.
Look up protest in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  1. "Thousands march against nuclear power in Tokyo". USA Today. September 2011.
  2. St. John Barned-Smith, "How We Rage: This Is Not Your Parents' Protest," Current (Winter 2007): 17-25.
  3. Adam Roberts, Introduction, in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 2-3, where a more comprehensive definition of "civil resistance" may be found.
  4. Daniel L. Schofield, S.J.D. (November 1994). "Controlling Public Protest: First Amendment Implications". in the FBI's Law Enforcement Bulletin. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
  5. Global Nonviolent Action Database
  6. Dynamics of Collective Action Project
  7. Ratliff, Thomas (2014). "Practicing the Art of Dissent: Toward a Typology of Protest Activity in the United States". Humanity & Science. 38 (3): 268–294.
  8. Deseret Morning News, 13 Nov. 2007 issue, p. E3, Coverage of protests hurts firms, Cornell-Y. study says, Angie Welling
  9. Mcgrath, Ben (November 13, 2006). "Holy Rollers".
  10. "Critical Mass London". Urban75. 2006.
  11. "Pittsburgh Critical Mass".
  12. "Critical Mass: Over 260 Arrested in First Major Protest of RNC". Democracy Now!. August 30, 2004.
  13. Seaton, Matt (October 26, 2005). "Critical crackdown". London: The Guardian. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  14. Rosi-Kessel, Adam (August 24, 2004). "[*BCM*] Hong Kong Critical Mass News".
  15. D. Parvaz , Iran's Silent Protests
  16. Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-955201-6.
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