The merits of protest

At the moment, everywhere you look whether it be social media or in the press or on TV, it seems everyone is protesting about something – whether it be the cost of living crisis, wages, conditions, climate change, oil production or animal rights. 

All protests by definition will cause an inconvenience – otherwise what is the point of a protest? But there has been much made recently of specific types of protest and their success rates for their causes and whether or not they alienate the people they try to get onside. 

So let’s go back in history a bit and look at some protests and longstanding campaigns and techniques employed by groups.

 Protest groups and campaigners against bad employment practices or to secure the right to vote for women, were vilified at the time. 

But with the passing of time we see them very differently, we think of these activists as heroes in most cases.  

It seems odd to us in 2023 that as recently as just over 100 years ago, women could not vote or we sent children up chimneys and down mines. But both of these examples were perfectly ‘normal’ and accepted by the majority at the time. 

Let’s now look at some of the disruptions currently being caused by animal rights activists. 

For any campaign to be successful there is a need for the aim to be clearly stated, then plans on how you will achieve it. 

The ‘how’ is usually the longest part as the majority of campaigns need a change in law.  

When my group runs campaigns we work out what our end goal is and what is the best way to achieve it – sometimes it could be a local petition, sometimes meeting with the person who is the decision maker, sometimes education is sufficient. 

However, what happens when you have already done all of those things and it seems that no one is listening? 

A lot of people perhaps don’t appreciate that all usual avenues have been explored before then deciding on a more direct course of action. 

In my experience, the majority of activists have far better things to be doing than standing at a demonstration.  

We have a democratic right to protest, although we know that this basic right has been massively eroded in the past few months.  

But what is it that changes a protest into a ‘disruption’? 

We have seen several examples of disruptions at racecourses as well as other places.  

Their aim is to shut down racecourses – rather than simply protest about the fact it happens. 

They haven’t yet achieved that, however, they have certainly got everyone talking about it – so is this a success in itself?

 Press coverage was massive and it opened up debates which would never have been had if these disruptions had not happened. 

Whatever your opinion on disruptions like these, we need to remember that many of the laws we have in place right now are down to people campaigning for change and putting their own safety and liberty on the line.