Stop talking about “protests”

Stop talking about “protests”

by Peter Bergel

480 words

I am tired of hearing about “protests” and “protesters.” Those terms sound whiney and powerless to me. 

“Protest” means to object, which is, of course, what we are doing when we hit the streets, but we’re doing something equally – or I would say more – important. We are demonstrating. What are we demonstrating? We are demonstrating support for our issue and point of view. We are saying “here is a crowd of people who agree that (insert the issue).” We want those who hold the power in our society to change something. That’s more than just objecting to the status quo – more than just “protesting.” It is articulating a vision of something more satisfactory.

Why is this important? The key dynamic is the perception of who holds the ultimate power. Is it those “in power,” or is it the people? It is demeaning for the people to plead with their elected officials for a little more this or a little less that. They are our servants and are supposed to work to deliver what the majority of us want. That’s what democracy means. Ultimately, we elect those who do what we want and unelect those who do not. (We all know that money from the wealthy and the corporations perverts this idealistic model in practice, but let us set that aside for the moment.) 

The media have veered away from the terms “demonstration” and “demonstrators” which were once common. When they instead call our actions “protests” and those who participate “protesters,” they are casting us in the role of supplicants to masters. When we ourselves use those “protest” terms, we accede to the perception of ourselves as supplicants. In other words, we give our power away. While we are in the very act of asserting that we are powerful, we accept a description that paints us as powerless. 

Let’s believe in our own assertion of power and redouble our efforts to demonstrate it, not only by behaving as if we were powerful, but also by claiming a powerful name for one of our mass action tactics. We are not “protesters,” we are “demonstrators,” and we are demonstrating our strength.

And while we are thinking about demonstrating our strength, let’s think one step further. Demonstrating is a numbers game. Demonstrations that increase in size over time demonstrate increasing support for our issue(s). And if that is true, what do demonstrations that decrease in size say? 

One general rule (to which there may be occasional exceptions) is “if your next demonstration is not going to be larger than your last demonstration, don’t do it!” That may sound like anathema to some organizers, but we must think strategically rather than tactically. To be effective, we should always let our strategy dictate our tactics, not the other way around. We demonstrate if it serves our overall purpose, not just because we decide we want to.

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Peter Bergel is a retired director of Oregon PeaceWorks, a veteran of many public interest campaigns and the editor of The PeaceWorker, an online peace magazine.