The Importance of Rallies, Marches, Walkouts, Sit-Ins, and Other Non-Violent Protests

"Non-violent resistance (NVR) is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political non-cooperation, Satyagraha, or other methods, while being nonviolent. This type of action highlights the desires of an individual or group that feels that something needs to change to improve the current condition. It is largely but wrongly taken as synonymous with civil resistance. Each of these terms—nonviolent resistance and civil resistance—has different connotations and commitments.” 

“Civil resistance is political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it can involve systematic attempts to undermine the adversary's sources of power, both domestic and international. Forms of action have included demonstrations, vigils and petitions; strikes, go-slows, boycotts and emigration movements; and sit-ins, occupations, and the creation of parallel institutions of government. The phenomenon of civil resistance is often associated with the advancement of democracy.”

Perhaps some of the greatest examples of nonviolent resistance and civil resistance have been at the hands of leaders and people like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Nelson Mandela, Alice Paul, Rosa Parks, amongst many, many others. From the Freedom Riders, to the Marchers at Salem, to the #NeverAgain and #EnoughisEnough protests (Marjory Stoneman Douglas student activists), we have seen great political and societal change from these nonviolent forms of demonstration.

Let’s take a quick look at some historical NVR’s:

Exhibit A:
1848-1920: Unites States: Women’s Suffrage was a political movement that spanned over a century, where women protested in order to receive the right to suffrage, or the legal right to vote, in the United States. This movement emerged from the broader movement of women’s rights; in 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention (the first women’s rights convention) passed a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage. It was a long battle, and included many marches and much protest, but eventually, in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, giving women the right to vote.

Exhibit B:
1823-1829: Ireland: One of the first mass-membership political movements of Europe, the Catholic Association was founded by Daniel O'Connell to use non-violent means to push the British government to pass Catholic emancipation, which culminated in the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 by the government of the Duke of Wellington

Exhibit C:
1819: England: Peterloo Massacre: Famine and chronic unemployment, coupled with the lack of suffrage in northern England, led to a peaceful demonstration of 60,000–80,000 persons, including women and children. The demonstration was organized and rehearsed, with a "prohibition of all weapons of offence or defense" and exhortations to come "armed with no other weapon but that of a self-approving conscience". Cavalry charged into the crowd, with sabers drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured.

Exhibit D:
1955-1968: United States: The Civil Rights Movement included tactics of nonviolent resistance, such as bus boycotts, Freedom Rides, sit-ins, marches, and mass demonstrations, were used during the Civil Rights Movement. This movement succeeded in bringing about legislative change, making separate seats, drinking fountains, and schools for African Americans illegal, and obtaining full Voting Rights and open housing. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of "the Beloved Community" was inspired by his leading Christians in nonviolent resistance.

Exhibit E:
1968: Worldwide: The protests that raged throughout 1968 were for the most part student-led. Worldwide, campuses became the front-line battle grounds for social change. While opposition to the Vietnam War dominated the protests, students also protested for civil liberties, against racism, for feminism, and the beginnings of the Ecology movement can be traced to the protests against nuclear and biological weapons during this year. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that “nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” I’ve been thinking a lot about the innumerable wise words of Dr. King. Coretta Scott King, an author, activist, and civil rights leader (and wife of Dr. King) stated that “nonviolence is the only credible response to the violence we’re seeing around the world.” Many people question what the purpose of walk-outs, sit-ins, and protests are, saying that they don’t actually do anything. I would whole-heartedly disagree. I think there is great power in the collective, in unifying people under a cause, and standing with each other and supporting one another.

The example I often give when responding to the question “do you think that just wearing a specific color assigned to your protest day and showing up for a rally/march really matters?” is that of breast cancer awareness. Wearing a pink ribbon or pink clothing during Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a pretty standard and accepted social display of support. No one ever thinks twice about it. I’ve never seen anyone complain or riot about people walking for breast cancer awareness, raising funds for victims and survivors, or posting pictures on social media wearing pink for #breastcancerawareness. 

BUT WHEN IT COMES TO SEXUAL ASSAULT, THEY ALL COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK.

I cannot even comprehend the amount of backlash I saw and received for wearing black in support of Dr. Ford and ALL sexual assault survivors on our day of protest last week. I mean, literally, so many people blasted me on Facebook. I was truly dumbfounded and appalled. It rocked me, to my core. What was the difference? You have a victim, who took a polygraph test about her assault and showed ZERO signs of lying, who KNEW her assulter before she was assaulted by him, and spoke out about it when this person was being interviewed for a lifetime appointment to the highest COURT in the USA. And when millions of people want to stand up and stand with her and victims like her, wear black to unify together and draw attention to the issue, people really want to degrade all these women, say horrible things about them, disregard their democratic showing of protest and make them feel like trash?? Really?? 

So much of what I’ve seen and read these last couple weeks makes me sick. I am disgusted, appalled, outraged, and disheartened by the last of empathy and understanding and support of victims and survivors. But I (we) cannot let this stop us from using our voices, from standing up for our beliefs, from supporting each other because we fear the repercussions of doing so. THIS IS NOT FOR NOTHING. THIS IS NOT IN VAIN. What we’re doing is IMPORTANT. IT MATTERS. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. Even if that difference doesn’t come about quickly or visually, it matters to the millions of people who’ve experienced sexual assault, to know that WE BELIEVE THEM, that we support them and stand with them and will fight for them.

People make the mistake of thinking that the only goal of protests and nonviolent resistance is to reform law and change practices. While this is a main goal, of course, it is not the ONLY goal. We stand, we sit, we march, we chant, FOR THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THESE TRAUMAS. 

THIS IS NOT FOR NOTHING. 

THIS IS NOT IN VAIN. 

THIS MATTERS.

THIS IS IMPORTANT.

THIS DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

To All My Activists & SJW: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. #SELFCARE

Social Justice Warriors get a lot of flak out there. Many people see the “Social Justice Warrior” as a product of liberal-arts-school-brainwashing. You name it, I’ve heard it. Not just from older individuals, but even peers who don’t identify with what ‘social justice warriors’ typically identify with politically. As an activist, both in the government and non-profit sectors, I’m on the receiving end of a lot of this. People diminish the work you do, usually with hostility in my experience, because they don’t understand it or because they don’t want to. This post isn’t for them. This post is for all my sisters and brothers out there fighting for equality and justice and social/political reform.
Recent times have been trying, to say the least. The last two years have felt like Groundhog Day in a torture chamber. [This is not a post about Trump. Frankly, I cannot possibly summon the amount of emotional stamina to post about him right now.] This is a post for all those people with boots on the ground, who are part of grassroots activism, who volunteer, who attend rallies and marches and other forms of nonviolent protests, who strive to make a difference within your own circle. This is for all my social justice warriors out there who do so much work, who give so much of themselves every day, and never get any acknowledgement.

Here’s the thing. The last two weeks have been very difficult, for many of us. Most of the women I know, and including myself, have experience with sexual harassment and sexual assault. This issue is extremely close to home. As activists, we utilize our experiences and the experiences of those around us as fuel to power ourselves, our machines. Our experiences are like coal, burning in our hearts, boiling in our guts, producing steam that runs through our bloodstreams to power our generator and create energy. Being an activists requires accessing and using our emotional experiences on a daily basis, which can be an extremely daunting task, especially during these times of heightened duress.

And the past couple weeks have been just that. Heinous. In my speaking out in support of Dr. Ford and against Judge Kavanaugh, I have been on the receiving end of much vitriol and virulence. As an outspoken activist, this is a burden, an awful side effect, of what I do. Knowing this, and willingly taking it on, does not make it any easier. At the start of all this, I was full of righteous indignation at the mistreatment of Dr. Ford. But wave after wave of disgusting comments, news segments, and social media posts...my fire was beginning to burn out. This issue is so close to home, that it felt as if everything that being said to/towards/about Dr. Ford was also being said about me, also being said about women that I know and love.

This experience was extremely damaging. Again, as an activist, I am used to these feelings of sadness, disheartenment, of seeing inequality and injustice, and experiencing immense sympathy and empathy; I am used to channeling these feelings into action, into fire and steam and energy. But this time was different. This time was reminiscent of November 8th, 2016. This time felt like a new rock bottom, even though we thought we were already there.

My sadness and anger at the injustice and mistreatment of a victim of sexual assault morphed; I began feeling depressed. I began to feel resentful of the people that I know, who’d expressed beliefs and thoughts about this situation that I didn’t agree with. I began to feel hopeless. That’s a word I do not use frequently. Disheartened, baffled, appalled, angry, outraged, definitely. But hopeless…hopeless is not a word I use on the reg, nor do I use it lightly. Hopeless resembles parts of my life when I dealt with depression, when I dealt with life-altering experiences and the darkness of being sucked into a metaphorical black hole.

And after seeing the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA MOCK A VICTIM OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN FRONT OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE [thousands of which laughed and cheered in the background] MADE ME FEEL HOPELESS. It also made me feel so disgusted at humanity that I couldn’t eat. I was nauseous. I was beyond hurt- I was obliterated. 

The past couple days I have felt nothing but hopeless.

As a person who deals with anxiety on a daily basis, I could feel my anxiety pumping at a higher frequency. My hands were shaking for days on end. My chest felt fluttery, my blood like a live-wire under my skin. I was so anxious, and so depressed, and so utterly heartbroken, that I just powered off. I couldn’t deal with it anymore. For three nights in a row, after work I just went home and did nothing, because I couldn’t do anything. I felt hollow. I couldn’t stop feeling like at any moment I would implode. The feeling and level of anxiety that I normally felt right before a panic attack was constant. I couldn’t sleep. Those of you with anxiety or sleeping disorders know that feeling well. I went to work, at a job that I love and at which I feel fulfilled every day, and felt like crying the whole time. And I did at times. I cried in private moments of despair and grief, for not just past experiences, and just for what Dr. Ford was going through, but for what all survivors have gone through, for the world that we live in, and knowledge of the world we could live in.

I watched Tina Fey’s “sheetcaking” sketch on SNL’s Weekend Update many times. I read posts of others feeling the same way, I talked with friends and coworkers feeling the same things, but still felt empty inside. On an off-chance, a random thought that occurred to me in a deep hour of despair last night, I tweeted one of my favorite activists, Sophia Bush, and asked her what she does as an activist to stay positive and keep fighting. I know she must get a lot of tweets, so I didn’t expect anything in return. Maybe another social justice warrior, another activist would see it and respond with their tips and tricks to staying in the game when you feel like you have nothing left to give. To my utter surprise/relief/joy, she responded this morning. What she said was this: 

It was such a good reminder for me, it something I definitely needed to hear. TAKE A DAY OFF. In my past studies in psychology, they used the old adage “you can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.” Self-care is so important, and it’s vital to understand what self-care your body and soul needs, because none of us are the same!

Dr. Barbara Markway states, in an article titled “Seven Types of Self-Care Activities for Coping with Stress,” that “when we’re stressed, self-care is often the first thing to go. Why is this?

1. Our brains go into fight-or-flight mode and our perspective narrows. We don’t see we have options—options for coping with stress and making ourselves feel better.

2. We’re so busy trying to solve problems that we’re stuck in “doing mode”—trying to get more and more done—when switching to “being mode” may be just the break we need.

3. We may not have a “go to” list of self-care activities. Self-care has to become a habit, so that when we’re dealing with stress, we remember that, “Hey, I need to take care of myself in this situation.” And, you need a variety of activities to try—if one doesn’t work, you can switch to another.

Fortunately, there are several pathways to self-care, and none of them need be difficult or take a lot of planning:

SENSORY

When you feel stressed and need a calm mind, try focusing on the sensations around you—sights, smells, sounds, tastes, touch… This will help you focus on the present moment, giving you a break from your worries.

Breathe in fresh air.

Snuggle under a cozy blanket.

Listen to running water.

Sit outdoors by a fire-pit, watching the flames and listening to the night sounds.

Take a hot shower or a warm bath.

Get a massage.

Cuddle with a pet.

Pay attention to your breathing.

Burn a scented candle.

Wiggle your bare feet in overgrown grass.

Stare up at the sky.

Lie down where the afternoon sun streams in a window.

Listen to music.

PLEASURE

A great way to take care of yourself when you’re coping with stress is to engage in a pleasurable activity. Try one of these ideas.

Take yourself out to eat.

Be a tourist in your own city.

Garden.

Watch a movie.

Make art. Do a craft project.

Journal.

Walk your dogs.

Go for a photo walk.

MENTAL/MASTERY

You can also give yourself a boost by doing a task that you’ve been avoiding or challenging your brain in a novel way.

Clean out a junk drawer or a closet.

Take action (one small step) on something you’ve been avoiding.

Try a new activity.

Drive to a new place.

Make a list.

Immerse yourself in a crossword puzzle.

Do a word search.

Read something on a topic you wouldn’t normally.

SPIRITUAL

Getting in touch with your values—what really matters—is a sure way to cope with stress and foster a calm mind. Activities that people define as spiritual are very personal. Here are a few ideas:

Attend church.

Read poetry or inspiring quotes.

Light a candle.

Meditate.

Write in a journal.

Spend time in nature.

Pray.

List five things you’re grateful for.

EMOTIONAL

Dealing with our emotions can be challenging when we’re coping with stress. We tend to label emotions as “good” or “bad,” but this isn’t helpful. Instead:

Accept your feelings. They’re all ok. Really.

Write your feelings down. Here’s a list of feeling words.

Cry when you need to.

Laugh when you can. (Try laughter yoga.)

Practice self-compassion.

PHYSICAL

Coping with stress by engaging the body is great because you can bypass a lot of unhelpful mental chatter. It’s hard to feel stressed when you’re doing one of these self-care activites:

Try yoga.

Go for a walk or a run.

Dance.

Stretch.

Go for a bike ride.

Don’t skip sleep to get things done.

Take a nap.

SOCIAL

Connecting with others is an important part of self-care. This can mean activities such as:

Go on a lunch date with a good friend.

Calling a friend on the phone.

Participating in a book club.

Joining a support group.

It can also mean remembering that others go through similar experiences and difficulties as we do. We’re not alone. Simply acknowledging that we’re all part of this human experience can lessen isolation and lead to a calm mind. That’s the best self-care strategy I know.”

So please, take of yourselves! I’m working on taking care of myself too! And making self-care a true part of my daily routine!

“Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”

-Eleanor Brown

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shyness-is-nice/201403/seven-types-self-care-activities-coping-stress