The Public: Protests

The speaker discussed many aspects of public involvement that was both consistent and inconsistant with the readings and class discussion. Her experiences as a campaigner and an organizer shed light on the role of the public and how it effects public policy and government responsiveness. In particular, our speaker addressed the role of violence in protests, establishing legislative priorities, and holding a protests to empower a group and that is neglected and show a display of solidarity, or to empower the organization and its members.

In our class discussion, we discussed the role of violence in protests. Our professor, in response to a question posed about the topic, said that violence can be a grey area in which there is never a right or wrong answer. The speaker addressed this point by discussing what could be considered violence. The speaker felt that there is a distinction between tactical violence and senseless violence. She described senseless violence as acts of violence that serve no purpose other violence for violence sake, such as burning a car for no apparent reason. The speaker described tactical violence as acts that serve a specific purpose of the organization and address issues and problems that facing said organization. She gave examples like a person of color physically attacking a Nazi or white supremacist because they want to harm you. She also justified forms of violence like smashing a window and looting to get food and supplies if you have a family that is hungry during events like natural disasters. I agree with her perception of violence, specifically things like looting to keep your family alive when a country/state should be providing you services to keep your family from dying. I have always believed that violence in some circumstances is not the answer, but when certain groups of people have been targeted and abused for centuries, they reserve some right to defend themselves.

In addition to the discussion of violence, the speaker also addressed the importance of establishing clear legislative goals when developing a protest. In this discussion, she stressed the importance of starting by establishing a list of demands and problems facing the organization and determining how best they can be addressed by long term policy decisions. From this point the speaker discussed the importance of establishing a target or the protests, usually a legislator or administrator that can draft or propose legislation to fix the problems. The speaker also said that it is important to assess how accessible the target is and how likely they are to change and address the problems being presented by the organization. This extensive process was not similar to the process proposed by the Washington Post article “4 lessons for today’s Women’s Marchers from the Suffrage Movement.” In the Post article, the author directly states that is alright to not have goals at the beginning of a march, but rather, the focus should be on the wide spread nature marchers rather than the goals of the march itself. The article also suggests that a politician will be swayed by incentives rather than the emotional pleas of an organization. I believe that the speaker is right in saying that it is important to have specific goals to establish a specific purpose and prevent the protest from being misunderstood. On the other hand, I do agree with the Post article that discussed the importance of the sister marches on the day of the Women’s March in DC. The sister marches demonstrate the wide spread nature of the insurgency that spurred the formation of this movement. However, I feel that the post article implies that public input has no effect on public policy which is debatable at best, because of the nature of our elections and the idea of voter accountability.

The speaker also discussed the importance of protests that motivate and empower the organization itself and protests that show solidarity with a community to get people to join the the organization. In our class discussion, we evaluated the importance of these two types of protests. In doing so, we established that each type of protest is important in forming a movement. Our class specifically addressed the Tea Party movement in 2009 and 2010 and the surge in voting it caused in Republican areas as a result of the protests. The speaker also gave examples of how both of these styles are important to changing public policy and strengthening the voice of a movement. She specifically addressed rallies that occurred after the Pulse Night Club shooting led by queer Muslims to show solidarity and unison between the two communities that had been harmed as a result of this tragic event, and often pitted against each other. She also talked about an audio-visual project in DC in response to the natural disaster in Puerto Rico to spread awareness of the desire situation and the lack of news and political coverage the victims recieved. I believe that both of these protest styles are vital to empower organizations, to gain additional memberships, and to give power to the people and raise awareness for neglected issues.

The speaker’s discussion of violence in protests, establishing legislative priorities, and holding protests to empower a group and that is neglected and show a display of solidarity, or to empower the organization and its members.