Millions of protesting workers in China where the labor share of national income is declining even more rapidly than it is in most of the world. China is indeed playing a major role in these global changes; it’s become pretty largely an assembly plant. Noam Chomsky, lecture Havens Centre 8th April 2010, ‘The Role of the Radical Intellectual’
What’s important is the people who have come on this march. We have built relationships with Muslims, Jews, Christians, blacks, whites. We want to dismiss the idea that’s it’s a religious war, which it isn’t. Tony Benn
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Elie Wiesel
To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly. Mahatma Gandhi
I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn’t be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise. Malcolm X, autobiography
Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom. Nelson Mandela
Sometimes I think that I was forced to withdraw into depression because it was the only rightful protest I could throw in the face of a world that said it was alright for people to come and go as they please, that there were simply no real obligations left. Elizabeth Wurtzel
When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him. Bayard Rustin
It is the nature of a man as he grows older – to protest against change, particularly changes for the better. John Steinbeck
And the shipyard workers did what they came to do – they carried their campaign to the streets of London. Martin Bell, BBC news
For truth’s sake, our Protestantism must protest perpetually ... No peace with Rome. Charles Spurgeon, The Sword and the Trowel, 1873
40,000 people gather on the streets of Seattle to protest against the WTO. The 90s: The Decade that Connected Us s1e6: The Countdown, National Geographic 2014
The SMASH EDO Campaign has no formal structure and as such has no leaders or organisers. On the Verge, PSTV 2008
Earl Dodge Osborne became EDO Aircraft ... By 1947 EDO Aircraft had become the EDO Corporation and for the next five decades continued to produce military equipment and weapon systems. In 2003, with the war on terror thriving, the Corporation bought out the defence manufacturers Emblem and took over production at their factory in Brighton, England. ibid.
We had this factory in our backyard that was producing the munitions and various weapons that were being used in Iraq. ibid.
After months of continuous pressure the factory and Sussex Police strike back. ibid.
Right from the beginning we were extensively filmed. ibid.
What was originally a law that was designed to protect people from stalkers became basically a charter for corporations to get a form of PF by marshal law outside their premises. ibid.
Whilst the court papers are served, Sussex Police begin to enforce the injunction. ibid.
Then it was just open season for them; any excuse to arrest anyone. ibid.
We won: the injunction case was overturned. ibid.
With the collapse of the injunction a huge victory party was held at the factory. The court case was a major financial and PR disaster for EDO ... The company had spent over a million pounds trying to create an exclusion zone around their factory. During the court case EDO were cross-examined about their complicity in war crimes and by the end of the proceedings only two defendants were left to challenge the misuse of the harassment law. As evidence of collusion between the company and police emerged the courts were forced to scrap the injunction. ibid.
The police have refused to investigate themselves as to whether they colluded with the company. ibid.
April 2007: A delegation from Palestine joins one of the weekly noise demos. They see where some of the weapons used to maintain the occupation are manufactured. ibid.
The infamous karaoke demo ends with five arrests and the karaoke machine seized. ibid.
It’s now got to the point when some mornings Paul Hills has to ‘smash EDO’ just to get into work. ibid.
Curb on protest ‘is draconian’. The Times 23rd April 2005
Stop the SPP Rally Toronto, Canada 16th February 2008. The Nation’s Deathbed, PSTV 2008
Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and MeetUp have become a central tool for activists. ibid.
This first line of riot cops they didn’t have any gas masks ... Most of them had a white patch on their shoulder ... Stood there I would say for about an hour and a half to two hours ... A shift change ... These guys had a red patch on the shoulder ... The third shift change of riot police ... The intimidating factor has been stepped up by police. ibid.
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. Abraham Lincoln
If the protest got to the point where there was actually insurrection or actual violence between the NATO military forces and the local population then clearly American military commanders have the authority to use deadly force in the protection of their military assets. Bill Arkin, former US Army Captain
In ’70s America, protest used to be very effective, but in subsequent decades municipalities have sneakily created a web of ‘overpermiticisation’ – requirements that were designed to stifle freedom of assembly and the right to petition government for redress of grievances, both of which are part of our first amendment. Naomi Wolf
There are no demonstrations at all in the streets! No, no-one is against us. They all love me; all my people love me. My people would die to protect me. Muammar al-Gaddafi, February 2011
Remember when we carried banners? Alan Bleasdale, GBH: It Couldn’t Happen Here starring Robert Lindsay & Lindsay Duncan & Michael Palin & Julie Walters & Tom Georgeson & Andrew Schofield & Jane Danson & David Ross et al, director Robert Young, Laura to Jim Nelson, Channel 4 1991
Only through the conscious action of the working masses in city and country can it be brought to life, only through the people’s highest intellectual maturity and inexhaustible idealism can it be brought safely through all storms and find its way to port. Rosa Luxemburg
On 16th October 1968 Tommy Smith and John Carlos’s controversial demonstration stunned the world. Yet it wasn’t the only black protest on the victory rostrum. And nor was it spontaneous. 1968 Olympics: Black Power Salute
The black power disciples Tommy Smith and John Carlos, the Olympic 200 meters gold and bronze medallists, have been suspended by the United States Olympic Committee and given forty-eight hours to leave Mexico. BBC Good Morning Mexico news report
In 1969 nearly one hundred Native American activists seize Alcatraz ... They hold the island for nearly two years. Alcatraz: Defying the Rock, PBS 2005
Soon entrepreneurs started building factories to house the stocking frames ... These frame-knitter workshops with their high long windows to let in light were all built together around 1820. Mark Williams s2e2: More Industrial Revelations: What to Wear? Discovery 2005
The knitters took their employers to court with little effect. So, under the mythical leadership of one General Lud well-organised gangs of knitters smashed the frames of any employers who broke the law. ibid.