This morning I received an
email regarding a climate march taking place soon, to coincide with the Paris
Climate Summit that starts on November 30, 2015. It included a video of the
climate marches in 2014, which was both inspirational and a little worrying.
The video got me thinking: do marches work? What do they accomplish? My first
instinct is that they do little but soothe the protesters themselves. They
could connect the activists together in a stronger community, inspire activists
to get even more passionate, and encourage the marchers to feel like their
views are being heard. But are they really having those impacts? Are there any
outside impacts, aside from the positive benefits to the marchers themselves? I
wanted to find out a little bit more.
The Atlantic’s piece from 2014
called Why
Street Protests Don’t Work, details some recent marches and the effects of them,
and finds that social media and online activism has negatively affected the
impact of protest marches. Now there are many marches that do not accomplish
anything. An article called Marches
and Demonstrations Do Work, For A Variety of (Good and Bad) Reasons,
details how marches do have an impact, but that impact is often negative
against the cause of the protest. The author details how immigrant marches in
Arizona in 2006 and 2007 , intended to bring support for undocumented
immigrants, actually caused more racial tension, and increased calls against
legalizing the large numbers of undocumented immigrants who filled the streets.
Another article in favour of protests, says that the important act of showing
those in power they are being watched is more than enough to make protest
marches worthwhile.
Most of those I spoke to here
in Canada about protest marches, from people in their 20’s and 30’s, to people
in their 40’s and 50’s, did not think that protest marches have any impact at
all on the politics at large. These are people who sympathize with the goals of
the marchers in many cases, and yet see this form of activism as fruitless, or
even as working against the objectives. A few people made hesitantly supportive
comments, but nobody could voice what real impacts protests would actually
have, instead vaguely referencing solidarity, spreading information and
awareness, and creating visibility for the cause as the more tangible benefits
of protest marches. Many young people are disillusioned with activism, finding
that nothing much changes despite the energy poured into their causes.
There was some optimism about
protests and marches from those I spoke to. Some people believe that peaceful protests
are an important way to express yourself in today’s society, and that marches
and demonstrations have a huge impact compared to “armchair activism” aka
online activism, clicktivism, on social media. An article
on Slate described protests as one of the only ways that disenfranchised
people have to engage with democracy and express their political opinions. However,
when we started discussing violent protests, things got a little murkier. Being
from Canada, we are lucky to be legally allowed to protest, and while things
have gotten a bit unclear with the previous Harper government’s condemnation of
masked protests, generally we are protected and allowed to express ourselves.
However, in some places in the world, people are so thoroughly oppressed, and
the government so reprehensively despotic, that peaceful protests are not
allowed and the marches often turn violent. Governments would be well-advised
to allow peaceful protests, as shaking a bottle with the lid tightly closed can
shortly lead to a messy explosion. Politicians in Canada might even see peaceful
protests as a way to crack the lid and let out the pressure without any
explosions.
I guess it really comes down to
what the goals of the marches are. If your goal is to raise awareness, and to
show the politicians what you believe in, maybe protests do have a positive
impact. But to affect real change to the laws and political systems of your
country, I have come to believe that marches are not as effective as we wish
them to be. I am, however, stumped as to a better solution.
eta (Dec. 14, 2015): In light of the extremely promising Paris Climate Talks, I should add that it has been said that the global climate marches have had an important influence on letting decision makers know that the people want progress on climate change.
eta (Dec. 14, 2015): In light of the extremely promising Paris Climate Talks, I should add that it has been said that the global climate marches have had an important influence on letting decision makers know that the people want progress on climate change.
"When in 2014 the UN Secretary General convened his UN Climate Change Summit and hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets of New York, it was then that we knew that we had the power of the people on our side." - Christiana Figueres, head of UN climate talks, speaks to the power of our marches in her closing speech to the summit today [Dec 12].
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