To think protest and activism doesn't, for the most part really change anything?

[colta]

I have been involved with activism Gaza for since 2023. Full disclosure I am of mixed Irish Catholic and Lithuanian Jewish heritage. I was horrified at October 7th and then even more horrified at the Israeli government's response. I have attended protests, written letters, donated and did whatever I thought I could to end the genocide. I feel now that nothing I personally can do will change anything. Israel will not even listen to its own people's cries to end this madness and brutality.

I have a friend who's marriage broke down because of her involvement in this activism because she was at the point she was rarely at home or their for her 3 relatively young children. She now lives in a squat and rarely sees her children at all and has essentially lost everything. I admired her dedication and passion but also I think she's paid too high a price and achieved basically nothing for it.

I think this is how I am feeling now that protesting doesn't do much unless its in the interests of those in power to make that change anyway. Netanyahu will keep committing his war crimes for his own personal gain propped up by warmongers and religious extremists, unchallenged by impotent and complicit foreign governments, until it suits them all to stop.

This is the way of the world, individual people have very little power, you vote for change but the same people remain in power, you say no they do it anyway. I am not saying we do nothing of course people should still fight and help where they can but ultimately its unlikely we can change things, especially in relation to world events, I can see how activism might encourage a change in public opinion in a particular country but even then look at environmental campaigning most people would agree now we need to change our ways, protect the environment and yet emissions continue to go up and up and nature continues to be destroyed. I am sure there are some exceptions but for the most part we are pretty powerless.

YANBU - Protest doesn't change things
YABU - Protest / Activism does change things and is worth making any sacrifice for.

@637382gdjdb and @Imtootired I am glad you understand. I think it is just so depressing for those of us who have been involved in this for a long time now to see nothing really changing, its making me very pessimistic and my heart has been broken too many times already.

Maybe you're right, but it feels better than doing nothing. Politicians can't claim noone cares. It gets people talking. Lots of talk will be 'what a bunch of useless nonsense' but some of the talk will come from powerful people who can do something about it. It inspires action and hopefully creates a snowball effect. The best thing is when demands are specific - for example selling F35 parts to Israel.

Sometimes it's about showing the oppressed group they're not alone too. Showing love coming from thousands of people can at least make the group feel better. My mum protested in the 80s and 90s, showing gay people they were loved following the AIDs crisis and Section 28. I was at the protest outside parliament following the Supreme Court trans decision, just showing my friends and community that I still love them. That was worth it for me.

@FruityCider So you don't support women then?

Yes - some of the activities of the Sugragettes were horrible. That bloody woman who jumped out in front of the horse - she could have injured or killed others, as well as herself.

Did she intend to die? I'm not sure what the latest view is. Maybe she was so naive about the power of a racing horse that she just meant to grab the reins? Who knows? But living in the age of horse transport...I'm sure that can't be the case.

I don't think violence is the reason women got the vote and these stunts were not justified.

I'm older and have done a fair amount of protests, so I'm not just some curmudgeon who has a knee-jerk reaction to protestors.

I have found that the most impactful activism for change are local protests and local action - especially in democratic countries with the right to vote, collect signatures for ballot initiatives, meetings with officials, single-issue focus work etc. I'm in the US, so things like a ballot initiative to overthrow abortion rights was defeated in a relatively conservative state. It won because 1. it was a single issue. 2. it was close to home 3. it was decided by the locals about their local state.

When you get to broader, further away conflicts and issues, like Gaza, action in the UK or Europe or the US has almost the opposite effect with various reasons:
People who understand a great deal about world issues rarely see Gaza as a black and white conflict. They wonder why you're so hyper focused on Gaza and not the Yazidis, Rohingya, Sudan, etc. Historians may point out that successful movements were due to the will of the people to change their own circumstances. Viet Nam defeated colonizers by focusing on their own nationalism: first kicking out China, then France then the United States because they were organized, willing to sacrifice and did not later invade their enemies and rape them. Many people rightly wonder why the Palestinians haven't done more for themselves, especially w/ the money Hamas has been funneled. Are there protests against Hamas? I'm not saying that's my position, but it's one many consider when listening to other arguments.

People who have less knowledge of world affairs will wonder how a protest in London is going to convince Netanyahu to do anything.

And then there is the weariness factor. Professional protesters or those who protest about issues where the UK has little control make people uninterested and sometimes annoyed with the constant chattering/noise/angst.

Humans used to have just intermittent, rare or no knowledge of conflicts around the world in a time when the world had MORE violence than it does now. Imagine this: should/would a mother with 4 kids in medieval Japan spend her days and nights trying to convince her friends and family about the evils of the Spanish Inquisition? Or would she be better off trying to get girls access to education?

OP, the best thing I've done is to manage my time, pick one issue that I feel I have some control over in my local area and spend no more than 10 hours a week working on it. Otherwise, you burn out and your family, friends and your health suffer.

Fair point. I was thinking more about protest marches and UK based only.

What is happening in Gaza I find heartbreaking. Sadly I agree with you that no amount of the UK population speaking out seems to make a difference. While our leaders may not be able to change another Countries behaviour, they could do far more with regards to UK companies that supply finance or items that could be used as arms to Israel.

I agree and chapeau bas to your daughter. Some protests have no or opposite effect because they feel like astroturfing to an average person on the street.

It can feel exhausting. I get it. But there’s not a lot of ways to really get your voice heard. You want it to be inconvenient to ignore - either by disruption or numbers or similar. People in politics act for their own interests much of the time so you need them to be interested in you.

for me it makes me feel comforted to be around people who agree with me (I protest on a different topic about women’s rights) and I feel encouraged and less tired after a good protest. I also bring my daughter so she can feel that too and gear up to continue the fight.

the suffragettes protested for decades and it’s still a fight in many places in the world. Protesting is a long game for sure.

I love this advice although I have nowhere near 10
hours a week. But I did lead a campaign to add a traffic light near my kids’ school and went to many many meeting to fight for a new school building that is now being built. And I got funding to create the first school library. So I get a lot of satisfaction from grassroots issues and hope this will create other change too.

👏 👏

I too get disheartened - but there is evidence it can influence decision making and people have given examples. I’d add to that apartheid in South Africa as a global protest.

BUT OMG Gaza - a humanitarian disaster - why oh why can’t it be stopped?

Maybe you should focus on something that you can achieve. I’d suggest something like getting the different communities in the uk together to talk peacefully about the issues. If there are refugee camps in Egypt, you could fundraise for equipment and education.

Fully agree, it xan be disheartening looking at the bad things happening and even just looking in any shop where every bit of packaging in there is going to landfill. Ones own meagre contribution is cancelled out by one second of mcdonalds emissions.
But then seeing everyone at a protest saying what you say, thinking what you think dn trying as hard as you are, well it makes a bit of a difference. not even close to enough of a difference but it makes a bit of a difference

Protests and demonstrations don't work. Governments don't cave in to protests and demonstrations simply because if they give in once, others will see that it works and copy their behaviour.

What works is persuading people to come over to your side. Do that and people will vote for governments who support your issue. People generally don't like being told they are wrong, if you shout at them that what they believe is wrong or make their lives difficult, it just convinces them that they are right, not converts them to your view.

I really do find Gaza protesters tiresome. It’s a really complex situation with massive wrongs done on both sides. Neither Israel nor Hamas is not going to pay any attention to what people in the Uk think. How about protesting about something that you can truly change? The typical trustifarian student bleating on at the university campus about Gaza is so cringe.

Instead of wasting your time protesting, perhaps you should spent it reading up on the history and origins of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and ask yourself why you are opposed to the existence of a state that may very well have saved your Lithuanian Jewish extended family from murderous Nazi antisemitism in the 20th century.