Protests

PROTEST IS A MEANS for the common people to assert power over their oppressors. People have protested against the ruling class at least since biblical times. The specific forms of protests are varied and range from aggressive riots to nonviolent acts. Taking to the street in unison for demonstrations or marches, insurgencies, coups d'états, industrial actions (strike, go-slow, workto-rule), boycotts, petitions, taking over buildings, hunger strikes, and sit-ins are all forms of resistance that signify protest against any number of particular social conditions. Protesters congregate around an ideology or an individual who embodies an ideology, and their numbers can range from small groups to large masses.

Protest movements, as we know them now, first started to develop during the 19th century as the working classes became more educated. The spread of education made the boundaries between the working and the lower middle classes less clearly distinct. This brought with it a desire to have more say in the running of things. Inevitably, this led to various conflicts with the ruling classes. By the end of the 19th century, a number of different protest groups had emerged. Some complained peacefully, others used violence, sabotage, and threats to try and force change.

Resistance leads to protest on a myriad number of issues, both left and right. The bipolar viewpoints that dominated left and right during most of the 20th century were significantly challenged by the fall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union at the turn of the 1990s. As J.A. Laponce explains in his book Left and Right: The Topography of Political Perception, the boundaries of left and right shift across time and from country to country. However, he also argues that some contrasts are quite clear when a dualistic approach is applied. Thus, Laponce sees the left as egalitarian rather than hierarchical, concerned with poor people rather than the rich, and emphasizing free thought over religious dogma.

Each of these contrasting qualities has given rise to the most interesting moments of protest in history. Protest on the left embraces a sense of discontinuity over the weight given to tradition and continuity by conservatives. Whether we consider protest in an Old Left or a New Left context, political resistance increased substantially during the 20th century. Formal organized opposition to ruling elites before the twentieth century took the form of peasant revolts, slave rebellions, and the occasional ethnic uprisings.