What was the last Protest/March that had a major effect?

[Protagoras]

I'm curious. Reflecting on social change in this country's history I'm quickly forming the opinion that the vast majority of civil dissent in the form of marches and banner waving does little or nothing.

Partly I think this is due to the population which does the marching...

This is or was different in previous eras because it seems (and I'm sure someone will go to lengths to correct me if I'm wrong)...we are missing a key ingredient.

We are missing large numbers of middle aged/middle class people. Labor was perhaps the most significant force in political protest movements in the first half of the last century. Who was it marching for labor? Moreover...how did Labor respond to bullying by the police and counter protestors?

And what did Labor do when it reached the destination? Appears to me that Labor actually hit their target in the pocket book and at the polls.

I'm not sure that this happens now.

Even in the Vietnam war, we had the media showing people of all ages, and familes of all types were directly affected by 60k+ deaths. 1500+ is a huge number in Iraq...but our politicians today have gotten more cunning, and now they shift the deaths to Iraqi's so that our media and American familes aren't nearly as concerned. so instead of hundreds of thousands of pissed off family members flooding the lawn of the Whitehouse...we have a fraction...and fractions who have far from any unified message.

I've got dozens of thoughts spinning in my head right now about how impotent the peace movement was in 2002/2003...how the Presidential theft of 2000 and 2004 were marginalized...how the ongoing war...lack of education...2 million + people in prison...etc...all goes on now with a general din that never forms into a clear sound that penetrates the congress or the minds of the Mass of America.

We need to do something different. I'm just searching for what that different thing is. I think it's got to be something more than a giant street kid party, or a moving concert...it has to be something that translates into gripping media AND votes. What did this in the past with the most success? Perhaps a resident historian can help here.

[RandomKoolzip]

1. I dunno, but the "Battle of Seattle" is pretty legendary in the circles

I travel in.

Not that it was in any way anything but ineffectual. But it still was stunning to see all those people come out of nowhere.

[brainshrub]

2. You are missing the point of a protest.

Protests are ways to network and energise people. The elites have golf courses, the people have the streets.

It takes time to create a social movement, and the protests of 2002/3 did have an effect. If it wasn't for those gatherings, Bush would be in Syria and/or Iran by now.

Look at it this way: Your parents did not raise you overnight; it took years of hard work, sacrifice and love. The same goes for democracies, they need direct citizen involvement over decades in order for the highest ideals of a nation to come into fruition.

[sam sarrha]

3. Kent State.unfortunately the message was if you get near demonstraters we

will kill you.. if you noticed no actual protesters were killed, only inocent by-standers.. and the Message WORKED... it was the last real protest of the Viet Nam war... if not the last real protest

[Liberty Belle]

4. Civil Rights marches clearly led to changes in our laws.

Viet Nam protests helped bring about an end to the war.

I can't think of any since then that have had a significant impact, though.

[Protagoras]

6. I see the 60s as the convergence of two distinct forces

in protest.

On one hand, I think the middleclass becoming disaffected with the war because of the draft and the media attention is what ultimately pressured the government to change there position there. However, I'm not convinced that it was the protests as much as the economics and polls that changed things then. Did middle America vote differently (well for Nixon *cough*) because of the protests they saw...or because little Timmy from down the street got drafted and killed?

The Civil Rights movement, on the other hand, does seem to be a more direct validation of civil disobedience...with the Gandhi-like purpose of showing the brutality of the system. Seeing little kids get beat down, watching the police loose dogs on non-voilent protestors, etc did have an impact...and even so, it was a decades long process...one that lagged beyond belief and only came to a head toward the end due to a variety of social pressures. It also ended in Bloodshed and death...perhaps that blood being the catalyst for change.

Any historians out there know what the immediate public result of Kent State was? I was young (but alive) when it happened...but I don't remember it being talked about in school at the time. Does it take public blood being shed on TV to wake things up?

Gandhi knew it wasn't enough just to march...you also had to non-violently break the law in order to show it's injustice. You had to stand there and take the beating while the world watched. And his appeal was to the WORLD, not just to his own government.

I wonder if India would have changed if Gandhi had been a 20 year old wearing black leather and a red bandana holding an Anarchy sign...seriously. We need to hone the message...but do we have to present a certian sort of messenger as well?

These are the late night Sunday thoughts I have.

[alphafemale]

5. Selma? As far a MAJOR effect goes.

There was also that anti-klan blacklash march that had SOME effect in (Forsythe Co, GA - I think?) (1987?)

Not a major effect on that, but it did drive the klan, once and for all, away from any claim of mainstream acceptance.
And remembering history...they had in living memory been one of the largest fraternal organizations in the country, and were welcomed by presidents into the white house, etc.

But rather than cause a positive effect I think what happened in GA was more an evidence of a change that had already occurred.

[WilliamPitt]

7. A few hundred thousand Iraqis took to the streets recently

and the 'government' scrambled to justify its own existence in the immediate aftermath. So there's that.

[Protagoras]

8. I should have qualified *American* protests

above. My curiosity was aimed at what we're doing here. Though we should definately be learning from what others are doing abroad.

Protests in other countries certainly have a different flavor. And a corresponding greater effect?

Perhaps it's because they're willing at all age and more income levels to put it on the line?

I am guessing the Iraqi's protesting weren't spraying each other with water bottles as they danced to a local metal band...