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Are protests useless since the governments just ignore them and change nothing? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

peaceful protests are useless because the government can safely ingore them. violent protest forces the government to take action, just look at the history of the civil rights movement in the US. The objective of effective protest should not be to announce your displeasure with the governments actions, but to make it more costly for them to continue than to capitulate.

Heres a good quote from Stokely Carmichael about this:

“Dr. King's policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That's very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.”

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

To add on to this, I dont think you have to choose between persuing progress within the current system and building support for revolution, rather persuing progress within the current system shows the proletariat that your movement gets shit done and the two objectives work in harmony. The biggest concern is making sure reformists or other liberal movements do not take credit for any gains made and use them as proof that complete liberation is possible under capitalism when in fact it is not. The revolutionaries have to be seen as the champions of this progress in the eyes of the masses in order to build support for revolution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: