Kim Voss, a UC Berkeley professor of sociology, says appeals rooted in American values may be more effective today than those evoking memories of the Civil Rights Movement.
Name a single protest taken over by an outside group. It’s not something that happens. Maybe some of the white supremacy groups whose presence alone requires people to reject them or be tainted by association, but nothing on the left. That’s not an actual problem on the left, much less one “on the left forever”.
My first protest was organized against the Iraq War, but in practice also contained more broadly anti-Bush protesters as well as groups promoting third parties, communism, and veganism. None of those were a problem or threatened to take over the protest in any way.
Nothing I say has anything to do with who shows up, but who the organizers target and attract. As I said above, Earth Day had diverse attendee groups but one clear framing. As did, seemingly, your protest. Congrats!
Clear example, if you look at just this year’s mass protests by 50501/indivisible in the US, for “Hands-Off” they had a plethora of defined goals ranging from foreign policy over trans rights to social policy. Meanwhile “No Kings” was just vaguely positioned against autocracy and Trump’s regime in general.
“Hands-Off” had a global turnout estimated between “hundreds of thousands” according to international press and “three to five million” according to the organizers, while “No Kings” reached over 5 million in the US alone according to independent census.
And this is just the ones from the US that made their way over here, I could give you a dozen more crass examples of protests against the extreme right in Eastern Germany that don’t even manifest because the organizers can’t agree on where they stand on the Gaza conflict - which of course has nothing to do with opposing the extreme right.
Name a single protest taken over by an outside group. It’s not something that happens. Maybe some of the white supremacy groups whose presence alone requires people to reject them or be tainted by association, but nothing on the left. That’s not an actual problem on the left, much less one “on the left forever”.
My first protest was organized against the Iraq War, but in practice also contained more broadly anti-Bush protesters as well as groups promoting third parties, communism, and veganism. None of those were a problem or threatened to take over the protest in any way.
I have seen protests hijacked. I blame poor organizing.
Nothing I say has anything to do with who shows up, but who the organizers target and attract. As I said above, Earth Day had diverse attendee groups but one clear framing. As did, seemingly, your protest. Congrats!
Clear example, if you look at just this year’s mass protests by 50501/indivisible in the US, for “Hands-Off” they had a plethora of defined goals ranging from foreign policy over trans rights to social policy. Meanwhile “No Kings” was just vaguely positioned against autocracy and Trump’s regime in general. “Hands-Off” had a global turnout estimated between “hundreds of thousands” according to international press and “three to five million” according to the organizers, while “No Kings” reached over 5 million in the US alone according to independent census.
And this is just the ones from the US that made their way over here, I could give you a dozen more crass examples of protests against the extreme right in Eastern Germany that don’t even manifest because the organizers can’t agree on where they stand on the Gaza conflict - which of course has nothing to do with opposing the extreme right.