I’ve started to reply to this a few times but I dont think there is a “good” answer. Me personally I think strikes and boycotts are functional protest methods. They hurt innocent people just trying to survive but the difference is that they dont “just” hurt those people. They also hurt the rich at their bottom line.
The real problem I have with traffic protests is that they dont actually do anything other than alienate the protesters. If you could do mass traffic protests so that it actually made a difference to outweigh the other side of the coin then it would be different. But you would need a nationwide organized protest. Which we are nowhere close to.
Thanks that makes some sense. I think the thing is they’ve been effective in the past, and not much else has.
Maybe there has to be some sort of sacrifice to gain progress.
I guess some of the postwar progressive (economic) reforms - largely now abolished - were actually a product of democractic pressure rather than protest - but some of the other ones like anti-racism stuff still did require sacrifice and protest on top of that. And the prevailing economic conditions were quite extreme at that time.
When people have less to lose there’s less cost.
What’s your opinion on strike action ?
I’ve started to reply to this a few times but I dont think there is a “good” answer. Me personally I think strikes and boycotts are functional protest methods. They hurt innocent people just trying to survive but the difference is that they dont “just” hurt those people. They also hurt the rich at their bottom line.
The real problem I have with traffic protests is that they dont actually do anything other than alienate the protesters. If you could do mass traffic protests so that it actually made a difference to outweigh the other side of the coin then it would be different. But you would need a nationwide organized protest. Which we are nowhere close to.
Thanks that makes some sense. I think the thing is they’ve been effective in the past, and not much else has. Maybe there has to be some sort of sacrifice to gain progress.
I guess some of the postwar progressive (economic) reforms - largely now abolished - were actually a product of democractic pressure rather than protest - but some of the other ones like anti-racism stuff still did require sacrifice and protest on top of that. And the prevailing economic conditions were quite extreme at that time. When people have less to lose there’s less cost.