• Tiger666@lemmy.ca
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    29 minutes ago

    Name one non-violent protest that changed the material conditions of those protesting, I’ll wait.

  • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    American Revolution. French Revolution. Iranian Revolution.

    Just a few very violent, and successful, revolutions.

    • stinky@redlemmy.com
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      1 hour ago

      If we allow them to make us violent, they will crush us with police/military force. It’s already happening. Do NOT get baited into killing your own insurgency.

      The guy who shot Hortman had “no kings” posters in his car. He was trying to incite violence so the police would have an excuse to shoot protestors. Don’t let these people bait you.

      • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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        1 hour ago

        Have you seen the videos of the No Kings demonstrations around the country? They were enormous! Not only were they far larger than I expected, they were MANY times larger than I expected.

        The MAGA Nazis can try to suppress those crowds, but no matter what the outcome, they will lose. This isn’t pre-Internet Tiananmen Square, where the government can simply deny it happened. The entire planet will know.

        If they fire on American protesters, no matter the justification, the MAGA Nazis government will make enemies of every Democratic nation in the world.

        • stinky@redlemmy.com
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          21 minutes ago

          I agree, and I think that OP is trying to say, non-violence such as the no kings protests will be more effective than bloodshed

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    General strikes accomplish a fuck of a lot more in a shorter amount of time. When the owners of the administration can’t get their poptarts to the stores to be sold, the bank calls their loans and shit gets real.

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      2 hours ago

      Right after Covid ended, the nurses in the NYC hospitals decided that after being so heroic for over a year, they deserved raises, and some other benefits. The hospitals flat-out refused anything.

      The nurses went on strike. Within 72 hours, every single one of their demands was met, including a fat raise.

      Unions and strikes work.

      • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        52 minutes ago

        Yeah, too many people keep acting like “hold up a sign” and “start shooting” are the only two political actions possible. There is a vast array of disruptions and threats to the status quo that do not require violence.

  • hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    my fucking ass 👅🥾

    Bolsheviks, Stonewall riots, suffragettes, all famously peaceful movements that got their rights by staying on their knees and asking nicely.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Those are successful, yes. But then you have Arbenz’s Guatamala and the FARC in Columbia and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and democratic revolts in Hong Kong and Kashmir and the French Revolution and the Polish Resistance and the failures of socialist revolts across Africa and the Middle East.

      I think part of the problem is how we define “successful”. Because it’s easy to see how the Spanish Anarchists failed to defeat Franco. Meanwhile, we largely consider the Civil Rights Era in the United States a success, despite many of its leaders being assassinated and its efforts quashed and undo under the Nixon/Reagan Era.

      Militant insurgencies end when they are crushed by police/military. Peaceful protests don’t “fail” nearly so dramatically, they just fade away.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      BBC tier neoliberalism.

      “Real victory is when you stop trying to resist” might as well be the Keir Starmer campaign slogan

  • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 hours ago

    Let me know what all the peaceful protests on climate change did leading up to and since the Paris Agreement.

    Civil disobedience, including violent action, absolutely has a place in changing the policy of the state.

      • StonerCowboy@lemm.ee
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        3 hours ago

        List all the regimes that weren’t brought down by peaceful protests and singing kumbaya. No worries we will wait.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution was one instance, assuming you squint and ignore all the NATO soft power involved.

          The 2018 and 2024 Armenian Revolutions also technically qualify. Although, the fact that they had two in six years raises questions of their effectiveness.

        • Trollception@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Um, you sure you don’t mean all the regimes that “were” brought down by peaceful protests and singing kumbaya? Either way I really don’t have the desire or time to look any of that up for you.

  • Octagon9561@lemmy.ml
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    3 hours ago

    This is complete utter propaganda, especially considering it’s coming from the BBC. History has shown us time and time again that the ruling class never gives up its power peacefully.

  • perestroika@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    There’s a book on the subject written by Srdja Popovic.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueprint_for_Revolution

    Summary: protests that start (and try to remain) non-violent have a greater chance to succeed, because they can attract more people to their cause.

    Critique: with some regimes, it’s not possible to non-violently protest. For non-violent protest to work, the environment must respect a minimum amount of human rights.

    Case samples:

    • US during the civil rights movement era: yes
    • USSR under Gorbachev: yes
    • Serbia under Milosevic: yes, with difficulty on every step (Popovic was there doing it)
    • Israel under Netanyahu: probably yes
    • China under Xi: practically no (not for long)
    • USSR under Kruschev/Brezhnev/Andropov/Chernenko: not really
    • Russia under Putin: no, don’t even hold a blank sheet of paper
    • Iran under Khamenei: only if you’re doing a bread riot
    • Saudi Arabia, USSR under Stalin, NK under the Kim dynasty: no, and execution would be a possible outcome

    …etc. In some places, you can’t organize. Then your only option is to fight. As long as you can publicly organize, definitely do so - it’s vastly preferable. :)

  • fdnomad@programming.dev
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    4 hours ago

    I honestly cant recall seeing any peaceful protest accomplishing anything of significance in my lifetime. Most successful protests I hear about are the French lighting up Paris when they try to raise the retirement age. They just try again 2 years later though.

  • Ougie@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Well that’s total bs, in Greece there’s been dozens of non-violent protests far exceeding 3.5% that have failed spectacularly.

    • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
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      4 hours ago

      Clue: peaceful protests in the entire western world achieved nothing for the past half a century. You had the massive Greece protests, the Gilets Jeunes in France, the 15-M in Spain, the Occupy Movement in the US, the BLM protests in the US too, the anti Iraq war protests all over Europe… None of them achieved anything meaningful. The EU and US are NOT democratic.

  • lemonaz@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Didn’t BLM 2020 protests have over 3.5%? I don’t think they accomplished much except put pressure to prosecute Chauvin. Like literally just that one guy.

    • percent@infosec.pub
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      40 minutes ago

      Weren’t those violent though? Or maybe I’m thinking of something else. The COVID era memories kinda blur together in my brain. I definitely remember a lot of destruction around that time though

    • Mesa@programming.dev
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      2 hours ago

      I wanted to make an ironic, exaggerated comment here, but irony doesn’t really work when it is 100% in line with what these people would actually say.

      Change is so slow because this country has managed to form and propogate such a thoroughly oppressive system, that to call it out is to only reinforce what the people have been taught since day one.

      These “freedom people” want their privilege so bad that they are willing to keep a monarch/oligarch in office who will perpetuate an oppressive system under the guise of ignorance.

  • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Thanks Bernie the sheepdog.
    Make sure the sheep don’t make waves.
    And don’t forget to say pissrahell has aright to defend itself