There is a weird dark side to advocacy protests and no one is talking about it

We change our avatars and hold signs over the freeway but does it make us feel empowered?

Symbolic Protest Vs Direct Action

In the introduction to direct action, I mentioned that demonstrations are only a symbolic show of power. As our society leans further into the simulacra, the majority of protest ideas are symbolic:

• changing one’s profile pic to support a cause,

• putting up banners on the freeway,

• creating supportive memes or graffiti, and

• all manner of political performance art.

Protestors tend to include various aspects of symbolic protest in their direct actions, so it can be confusing at first to tell the difference. Here’s how to tell: Direct actions tangibly affect the thing being protested, while symbolic protest usually has the objective of raising awareness or showing advocacy. Advocacy is important, but it’s not the final boss.

In the direct action protest training workshop, I compare two environmental movements. The image for the symbolic protest is that of climate activists throwing paint on works of art. There is no successful quantity of botched paintings that will do anything at all to the climate (unless the artists or owners being targeted are climate criminals? If someone has info on that let me know). The only objective is to draw attention to the cause. Thus, this is a symbolic protest.

Compare this to Julia Butterfly Hill, who sat in a redwood to prevent loggers from being able to tear it down. Of course her movement wanted people to know about their cause. But first and foremost, they want to stop the logging of redwood trees. Luna, the 1,000-year-old tree she squatted in, was over 200 feet tall. Cutting down that tree with a person in it would be equivalent to pushing them off a twenty story building. There is a beautiful symbolism to this act: cutting down a 1,000 old tree should be treated as seriously as killing a person. But it’s not only symbolism, since loggers who will happily slay old trees don’t feel the same way about people. When Hill linked her own life to that of the ancient redwood her action directly prevented the tree from being taken down.

Louis Rossman’s drive to turn one’s profile pic into Clippy is a clear example of a symbolic protest. In his call to action, Rossman explains why he’s using Clippy as a symbol to represent the right-to-repair movement. If this event had a 100% success rate, and everyone on earth changed their avatar to Clippy, would it do anything at all to stand in the way of tech enshitification? No, and I appreciate that Louis Rossman states that clearly in his follow up video.

“I don’t plan on just having you people just turn your profile pictures to a Clippy, to do just do that, like that by itself doesn’t do shit.”

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxZWeyzVNOFE9rCauRUA-51vFwMzPaRXlj?si=x2DOHnPFt3mujicQ

Rossman concludes his videos with a list of tangible actions that people can take (some direct, some legislative) beyond this simple symbolic gesture.

Louis Rossman and those climate protestors care deeply about their causes. But there are other groups who turn to symbolic forms of protest precisely because they aren’t serious about change. Hence the tiresome lip service from corporate social advocacy campaigns. Sure, Target was a big fan of diversity until it actually required even a modicum of effort. One wonders if Target would be just as happy to switch out their pride apparel for Nazi flag as if it’s the next seasonal holiday. I think people are pretty tired of corporate awareness campaigns. It’s time we paid less attention to what these organizations say they support, and paid more attention to what they actually do.

Advocacy is important but those serious about making change will want to choose protest tactics that have a more tangible connection to the levers of power. After all, at a certain point plenty of people are aware of the problem. Then what?

I think we all know, deep down, that corporate banks and hotel chains don’t actually care about queer pride, no matter how many parade floats they sponsor. But there is a subtle disadvantage to symbolic protests that is not so talked about, and it affects all of us.

The bleak, fatalistic nihilism of symbolic protestors

Awareness campaigns can be clever and artistic, and thus rewarding as a form of self-expression. Marching among thousands of people can be a joyful catharsis. But raising awareness puts the onus to act on other people. Why bother making people aware when you could just do the thing yourself?

Let’s say your neighbor is always raising awareness about the burnt out lightbulb at the end of the hall. He has posted flyers about the lightbulb. He’s written clever chants about the lightbulb, and whenever the landlord is near his voice quakes in rhyme, his fist in the air. He dressed as a lightbulb at Halloween, year after year. Every time you see him, he makes sure you’re aware how dangerous the dark hallway is at night. Surely you’d think said neighbor cares deeply for this cause. You might also think he is waiting for someone else to change that lightbulb. Maybe it’s a matter of principle—"not my job!” or maybe he simply can’t reach it with his tallest ladder. Regardless of the reason, every time he advocates for someone to change the lightbulb, he’s reinforcing the notion that that someone isn’t him.

One day you find an old lightbulb in a drawer and you screw it into the socket at the end of the hall; that’s direct action.

My example is silly. If your reaction was to scoff, roll your eyes, or even a quiet rage, sit with that feeling. It’s much easier to change a lightbulb than to change society! this feeling reminds us. Get close enough to sniff it out; this feeling is nihilism. Hopelessness. Despair. How dare I make such a careless comparison, when we are so tiny, so isolated, so demeaned and damn tired and the things we are up against are monstrous, horrific and apocalyptic.

Advocacy campaigns are considered “good enough” when people don’t believe they have the agency to do more than raise awareness. They are the token of the powerless.

It’s like that turning point in Mad Max: Fury Road, when one of the characters [POTENTIAL SPOILERS] suggests that they should ride out into the endless expanse of the salt flats and hope they can get across before they die. [/END SPOILERS] Max says, “hope is a mistake. If you can’t fix what’s broken, you’ll go insane.” He’s pointing out that hope is what you do when you’ve given up, when you have accepted that you, personally, have no power to make change.

Too many of us have come to a place where we have accepted that change is out of our hands. There are people with power, and we can only hope that if we express ourselves adequately, they will listen.

I believe this is one reason more people don’t participate in protests. If the vibe is “send a message…it’s better than nothing,” that’s just not good enough to motivate some of us to put on pants. That feels like riding off into the desert and hoping it will rain.

Direct action is self-empowering

I’m not here to dunk on your favorite advocacy campaign. Here I am advocating for direct action. Raising awareness about political strategy. Total hypocrite right? It takes one to know one and I know that feeling. A feeling like me standing with my little sign is like throwing a penny in a wishing well.

I just want you to set your sights higher than mere hope. I have participated in protests that felt charged with excitement, as if the air were electric. As if change could happen at any moment. As if we were on the verge of something great. I want you to have that feeling too.

I’m not saying that direct action makes it easy, or even that you will win. But it is empowering. Instead of telling power what you want, take it. Instead of asking power to stop, stop them. Go to where they are doing bad things and stand in their way. Disrupt the tools they use to spy and oppress. Go to where they are harming people and block their access. Don’t just take to the streets. Take to the ICE compounds. Take to the oil rigs. Take to the Trump hotels. Take the air out of their tires.

Easier said than done. Where the hell is an oil rig? What do I do when I get to the ICE compound and men with guns don’t let me in? Now you start to see the work that must be done. You start to connect the dots between what you want and how you will achieve it. You make lists, you assign tasks, you find allies and resources. In short you get organized.

Symbolic protests can be a creative and fun way to spread awareness. I urge everyone to consider ways to incorporate self-expression into their political acts. Just understand that making a statement doesn’t make a ruckus…or a movement.

Direct action flyers you can hand out at the next demonstration

If you do plan to attend a demonstration, think of ways to make it a step towards taking action towards a specific, concrete goal. Marches and rallies are a great way to meet other people who want to organize for change. If you don’t have any other ideas, I’ve made some flyers about direct action you can hand out.

All of these flyers are designed to print pretty in B&W to save on printing costs.

• Direct Action Protest flyers 8.5 x 11 (full-size printer paper)

• Direc Action Protest flyer - quarter sheets (to use, set your printer to print 4 copies to 1 page and then cut them into quarters)

• Older version of direct action protest flyer - the “more info” links go to the old article, but the material is evergreen. The revision is a little more accurate/careful in its wording, but overall you can still use this one if you prefer it.

  In this post I wanted to go deep on an idea. But if you’re still not clear on what to do, I’ll be outlining more protest strategy from my own training and experiences, and the lessons of history. You should also check out my brief protest strategy guide, How to Plan an Effective Protest.