The Viability of Protest Politics

I liked Richard's treatment of the New School occupation. I'm not sure what is in me, or our culture, or the generational attitudes of post-baby booms progressives, but I have a visceral cringe reaction to a lot of protest politics. I'm not quite sure why that is, though I suspect part of it has to do with being pretty skeptical about their efficacy. In my political life it's hard to think of mass protests, actions of civil disobedience playing a crucial role in any recent progressive victories. Indeed, some of largest and moving actions I've been around: the anti-war marches and the immigrant rights marches, were absolute successes as actions and expressions of a collective progressive political demand, but it's hard to say they succeeded.

But it's also hard to think that we're going to overcome the massive power of entrenched interests without some sustained collective form of politics in the streets. The longer I am in Washington, the more I know that to be the case.

That's part of the reason I've been so enthusiastic about A New Way Forward, which Zephyr wrote about here. Right now we have this strange situation in which there's a tremendous amount of frustration, anger, rage, and populist backlash in the country, but none of it organized enough to make concrete demands.

There's a vacuum in our politics that some kind of mass protest movement might fill, but I just don't know a) what it will look like b) whether it would simply meet the same fate as the anti-war and immigrants' rights movements. Thoughts fellow Notioners?

Comments (14)

1. "There's a vacuum in our politics that some kind of mass protest movement might fill, but I just don't know a) what it will look like b) whether it would simply meet the same fate as the anti-war and immigrants' rights movements. Thoughts fellow Notioners?"

   I think the reason it doesn't work anymore is because the press doesn't cover it anymore so no one really knows about it. It doesn't matter if you get 3 million people to show up, if it doesn't get press coverage no one will know about it. It might have a place but I don't know what it is.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 04/12/2009 @ 8:34pm

2. I agree, and will go one further. I have an almost allergic reaction to rallies. I have walked away from many. I cannot chant; I can sing, but I cannot chant. (To the point where when a friend wanted to mock me, she made a cartoon of me saying "no justice no peace" and put it on my door.) I'd always rather enable 100 12 person meetings instead of one 1200 person one, given the choice. And yet they play a role--not the only role, but a role. I think where they become troubling is where they become confused with the underlying goal, where the event becomes the goal instead of the means. (Which is similar to the sometimes-fetishization of the internet, where an action seems better to some simply because of the technology which enabled it.)

   Maybe one way of thinking of protests is a kind of stake in the ground, a landclaim: this idea exists.

   For aNWF, I think of the rallies we held this weekend as doing four things: 1) creating new groups where none existed, connecting local organizers 2) raising awareness in the local areas, opening people's imaginations 3) helping legitimize the predominent support for nationalization 4) the direct action of calling MOC at the rallies 5) helping people feel less alone, a positive feeling of coming together, too.

   I feel right now as if we are all potential architects, standing in a field full of rubble, bricks, glass, stones, wood--there are so few civic institutions standing right now--and we pick up three pieces of wood to nail them together because shelter seems so important. This is the act of a rally--three pieces of wood. Temporary and weak. The institutions needed to translate the public's intelligent desires and thinking will take far more than three pieces of wood. But its one start.

   Posted by zephyrteachout at 04/12/2009 @ 9:35pm

3. Posted by zephyrteachout at 04/12/2009 @ 9:35pm

   I can't agree more. I participate occasionally in Critical Mass. I think that for most people it has become about the event, the ride. I think many people have grown short-sighted, Critical Mass has the potential to be a great equalizer on the road but the riders have to make it that. It has to become an event about increasing awareness not just a ride.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 04/12/2009 @ 11:21pm

4. Hello darkness, my old friend,

   Ive come to talk with you again,

   Because a vision softly creeping,

   Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

   And the vision that was planted in my brain

   Still remains

   Within the sound of silence .

   In restless dreams I walked alone

   Narrow streets of cobblestone,

   neath the halo of a street lamp,

   I turned my collar to the cold and damp

   When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of

   A neon light

   That split the night

   And touched the sound of silence.

   And in the naked light I saw

   Ten thousand people, maybe more.

   People talking without speaking,

   People hearing without listening,

   People writing songs that voices never share

   And no one deared

   Disturb the sound of silence.

   Fools said i,you do not know

   Silence like a cancer grows.

   Hear my words that I might teach you,

   Take my arms that I might reach you.

   But my words like silent raindrops fell,

   And echoed

   In the wells of silence

   And the people bowed and prayed

   To the neon God they made.

   And the sign flashed out its warning,

   In the words that it was forming.

   And the signs said, the words of the prophets

   Are written on the subway walls

   And tenement halls.

   And whisperd in the sounds of silence.

   -----Though I would tend to concur that an angry mob is hardly the crecendo that befits our self images or our higher natures... the sense of isolation that many of us are experiencing with our 'internet fixations' is not optimal for passionate involved citizenship...;^)

   ...but first... people need to remember how to be friendly... inclusive... and disparaging of the 'low brow' negativity that the FOX network has foisted onto our social lives...

   Posted by ttr at 04/13/2009 @ 01:19am

5. Uhhh....,sorry Chris but that "Vacuum" is between the ears when it comes to protesters!

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/13/2009 @ 07:26am

6. Uhhh....,sorry Chris but that "Vacuum" is between the ears when it comes to protesters!----Posted by comancheamerican at 04/13/2009 @ 07:26am

   (Stand by for fun...)

   So, RIO....you'll say the same thing when the PRO-LIFE protests are held in DC on the next anniversary of Roe v. Wade?

   (BTW, yes...I'll save your post for that...heheh)

   Posted by Mask at 04/13/2009 @ 07:47am

7. ABOUT THE REPUBLICAN TEA PARTY

   As we see more chilling videos about this new Republican movement, we must go beyond shock to take other steps to condemn and stop it before it is too late. So many of those involved in this movement have in effect declared war on America. Conservatives--even the Republican Party--is organizing encouraging lawless political activism, even violence and "revolution" bacause they lost. It is an insurrection (not free speech) against America's legitimate government and civil society. Democrats never behaved like this when they were not in power. Somehow, conservatives believe they have a devine right to govern forever. America is a country of laws; will it remain so? Before it is too late, we must abort this. These ILL-INFORMED AND MISLED protesters are instigating action against the President and our government. They are inciting people to rise up against the legitimate government of the United States. The Justice Department, law enforcement, true patriots, statesmen and women, must act before it is too late. It is civil war, not a benign protest movement. Different radical right, extreme groups and individuals, white supremacists, racists, neo-nazis and worse are gathering under the banner of this movement. I am truly concerned for this nation--the evil results this so called movement will ultimately produce. Some in such a movement will surely take the laws in their own hands and cause harm. Is it what we want as a democratic nation? We saw a bit of that during the last Presidential campaign--at Palin and McCain rallies. These people are now poised to violently challenge the will of the people as expressed through the ballot box. Is this what America wants? Is this the image America wants to project the world? God help us

   Posted by drsam8 at 04/13/2009 @ 08:06am

8. Who will be the Right's "Bill Ayers"?-----Posted by snowball666 at 04/13/2009 @ 08:13am

   Uh, snow? They've ALREADY had one or two-

   Eric Rudolph?

   Michael F. Griffin?

   James Kopp?

   John Salvi?

   McVeigh and Nichols?

   Posted by Mask at 04/13/2009 @ 09:10am

9. I'm rootin' for Rio.---Posted by snowball666 at 04/13/2009 @ 12:23pm

   Too old and too much of just a simple bloviator. Even Larry has an "escape plan".

   RIO likes TALKING a good game on "totalitarian socialist takeover"...but he either doesn't really believe it or really doesn't care THAT much one way or the other.

   Posted by Mask at 04/13/2009 @ 12:24pm

10. Some sure seem scared of Republicans! Talk about Chicken Little crying that the sky is falling!

    Posted by jsens at 04/13/2009 @ 1:44pm

11. Posted by snowball666 at 04/13/2009 @ 1:04pm

    Nawwww...he's just into TALK about doom and destruction. Doesn't really believe it, else he'd be packing for the Caymans or his "bunker" up in the Black Hills of the Dakotas.

    Posted by Mask at 04/13/2009 @ 2:34pm

12. TEA Party!!!!! Protest IS patriotic! Remember libs crying this as they were protesting the Iraq war? Now, when the other side protests, the left get's a little uncomfortable! Well, you losers are not going to be able to stop this movement, we conservatives finally have one, and look out, here we come! We are the people that pay the majority of taxes that fund this pathetically liberal gov't and WE, when truly united, will always defeat the immoral, weak, inept, cradle-to-grave liberals that continue to suck this country dry, all the while condemning it. These are great times, and your little party is just about over. Obama is the most embarrasssing Pres. this country has ever had, and we're taking it back, my little bitches!

    Posted by barry25 at 04/13/2009 @ 3:01pm

13. Posted by barry25 at 04/13/2009 @ 3:01pm

    Hey, barry, why you think even Beck doesn't want to speak at the Tea Party where he's going to be (San Antonio)???

    Worried about what "signs" he might get his picture taken with? Or if somebody starts shouting out "burn the books" again?

    Posted by Mask at 04/13/2009 @ 3:38pm

14. I agree with Chris that there is a palpable feeling of anger amongst the citizenry. The above comments are proof of the childish bickering and hypocrisy present in both right and left; republican and democrat. Unfortunately, blind loyalty to a president or party has enabled our government to expand its' power. We have become subservient children, allowing our government to trample the rights granted to us by the Constitution. Only when we see the present system for what it is, awakening from our long slumber, will we realize the necessity for other parties and viewpoints. It is our duty, then, to rediscover the simplistic power of the ballot box. We do not have to confine ourselves to two parties, for in doing so, we have played into the hands of the status quo. It is time for the perpetual stanglehold of the two-party system, as well as the federal reserve, to end!

    Posted by ajcimin at 04/13/2009 @ 8:05pm