Anatomy of a Good Protest

[Regicidal Insomniac]

I live in Ottawa and one thing I always find about demos in our town is that the conclusion always seem anticlimatic. We converge, march around, have some little speeches, then gradually disperce.

I've been thinking about a more effective and exciting way to bring protests to a close and thought it would be interesting to open a discussion here. Since people tend to come from a wide variety of location, perhaps you could share about how protests in your hometown tend to end and which direction you think would be more striking and/or politically effective.

What do you think?

[cormacobear]

I've been to a few protests where a local political party, with the same view, or the students Union, passed out a handfull of flyers to everyone to drop in mailbaoxes after the protest.

Or you could all bring tents and camp out in front of Martin's residence till he fixes what your protesting about, like say when Bush leaves the country again. :lol:

[STI]

I was at one where we did the same thing as corm is talking about, except it was little signs to put in windows. Then we watched a movie about the Gulf War and had a discussion (at a church...yuck!).

It was one of the coldest days of the year, and I was only wearing a tshirt under my coat. I had to wait about an hour for the bus after the 'meeting' ended, and I got sick.

Bastards. :D

[cormacobear]

E-mail, rally organizers, ask them if they have a generater, microphone, podium, and speakers to set up at the destination. Go to your local University ask at the Faculty of political science if any like minded professors would be willing to speak. You can also e-mail local political parties that share your stance and sk if any of them would like the oppertunity to speak. Having pre-arranged speakers assures you'll get more effective press coverage, it also serves as an excellent source of inspiration for the crowd.

[Guest1]

Try to organize protests around strikes and union action. The most effective weapon we have is economic power, and workers will appreciate the support and solidarity in that struggle.

At the same time, alot of the students at these protests are often very radical, and the workers, especially in Canada, are finding themselves in situations where they are looking for answers. As they see their union leaders betray them time and time again, calls for a general strike are becoming frequent amongst the grassroots, and having students there who share those ideas can support that emergeant radicalism.

Flying picket squads! Me and an organization I'm working with here in montreal are trying to get one together.

[STI]

Will you be in Ottawa, CYM?

[pedro san pedro]

Flying picket squads! Me and an organization I'm working with here in montreal are trying to get one together

i love this idea!!

you should have some form of costume so that you can be recognised easily, though giant kangaroo suits probably isnt the way to go

a toy i had for making protests more fun was a wheely bin (a rubbish bin on wheels) with an amp, cd player, speakers and batteries inside..... a'la portable sound system. add a john lennon cd and the revolution is guarteed to start of its own accord