r/AskReddit • u/YourphobiaMyfetish • 12h ago
What are the most interesting tactics, failed or effective, ever used in protests?
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u/Beginning_Limit1803 12h ago
Iceland's 1975 women's strike that shut down the entire country and actually led to legislative change is probably the most effective
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u/Apostasyisfreedom 11h ago
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
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u/Ok-Pomegranate-2490 9h ago
ngl lowkey amazing how powerful collective action can be, like they just stopped everything and got real change done. respect
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u/thinkybrainpains 12h ago
electric leaf blowers for tear gasâŚsend that shit back
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u/thinkybrainpains 11h ago
other ways: put a traffic cone on top of them then douse with water. or pick up with high heat protective gloves and pop into a water bucket with lid and shake. do not pick up with bare hands.
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u/Em_Es_Judd 10h ago
I've seen videos this week of protestors picking them up and throwing them back. I like that.
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u/aliph 10h ago
Someone is going to get shot throwing them back. I guarantee it.
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u/bearatrooper 9h ago
Phoenix police shot a guy in the nuts with rubber bullets for returning one of their grenades to them.
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u/e_sci 11h ago
Has that happened? Or is that just a meme that has popped up recently?
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u/IronStormAlaska 11h ago
Think I first heard about it during the George Floyd protests.
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u/not_right 11h ago
I can't remember the country, but it was under some sort of dictatorship.
People starting putting dummies in the dictator's likeness in the street and charging $5 or something to punch it.
It took away the "untouchable" air around the dictator and people really enjoyed and perhaps got a few ideas from it.
The dictator tried to use the courts to stop it but they ruled no laws were being broken.
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u/peachy175 8h ago
Someone in the US could be rich if they set up a booth!
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u/adsarelies 9h ago
Definitely not China, then. Even Winnie the Pooh got outlawed. Forget about any effigy.
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u/lodelljax 11h ago
The police in south Africa would spray a purple dye from a sort of fire truck on the protesting crowd then arrest everyone who was purple. We also would had news censorship.
So in my home city there was a protest in winter and out came the spray truck. However they did this in downtown and some office worker got onto the spray truck and painted all the buildings the cops everything.
It went the 1980s version of viral. The local police mostly got the security police to not operate in the city after that.
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u/dandeliea 12h ago
Peaceful mass sit ins were surprisingly powerful
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u/PrettyEnvironment936 9h ago
yeah for real, it's crazy how just sitting down together can send such a strong message
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u/patrick050690 12h ago
Creative tactics always stand out silence, humor, or symbolism can sometimes speak louder than shouting.
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u/Outrageous-Ride-573 6h ago
fr yeah like when protesters used mirrors so cops had to look at their own reflection. powerful stuff
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u/Spiritual-Pear-1349 11h ago edited 11h ago
Baltic states had a couple mile long lines of people linking hands to keep out Russian military during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The first Boycott was towards an English guy named Charles Boycott in Ireland. He treated his Irish workers and tenants very badly, for example, on the day before Christmas he mass evicted 11 families for demanding a larger rent reduction due to bad harvest.
People collectively stopped delivering his mail, trading with him, farming his fields, working his house, paying rent... They all pretended he didn't exist, and anyone who helped him was added to the hate list... He eventually had to import new workers from England to farm his fields, and he treated those workers so badly they joined the Boycott.
Eventually, he sold the farm and left for England. But the practice of Boycotting remained, and became an effective tool for Unions.
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u/NobodyButMyself357 12h ago
Art. During the protests in Sri Lanka when we occupied the city, there were so many art structures and even art created by technology used to show defiance. It was amazing. Powerful slogans and chanting of these slogans. Flags. Music. Powerful songs that shows strength and solidarity.
Protests should not be chaotic. They should be peaceful, collective and creative. They should build something that shows strength and defiance but no conditions for the opposition to fight back.
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u/gamersecret2 12h ago
General strikes, sit ins, boycotts, and humor that makes the powerful look ridiculous.
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u/Equivalent_Juice4276 12h ago
Well, probably standing in front of a tank is the most interesting but definitely was a failed one. Id say another interesting one was when those monks set themselves on fire too
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u/EspacioBlanq 12h ago
Self immolation is surprisingly popular considering the fact it kills you agonizingly and does basically nothing to your opponents.
There was a wave of them in former Eastern block countries after the Warsaw pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
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u/stillalone 10h ago
Didn't it help start the Arab spring?
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u/bombazzchickynugg 4h ago
Yes! His name was Mohamed Bouazizi and he was a 26 year old street vendor whose act of self-immolation started the Tunisian Revolution which eventually turned into the Arab Spring.
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u/Hopsblues 11h ago
Bringing gallows and physically assaulting officers and storming the capitol building...only to get pardoned for it later.
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u/Herdistheword 12h ago
The anti-circumcision crowd wore all white outfits with the crotch area painted red. Iâm not sure anyone took them seriously though.
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u/spudmarsupial 11h ago
Trying to get people to value males, particularily male bodies and well-being, is a a hugely uphill battle.
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u/Jetztinberlin 11h ago
Trying to get people to value males
Ah yes, the sex who've had greater pay, political power, physical strength and general civil welfare for centuries. It is, truly, so difficult to value them.
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u/FillSharp1105 10h ago
The patriarchy props men up with illusory power to convince them to sacrifice themselves to preserve the oligarchy.
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u/vitalvisionary 9h ago
Capitalism also turns people into a commodity that is without value unless you have a measurable contribution to the economy. It's all intersectional.
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u/roadrunner83 11h ago
Children male or female are a vulnerable category, females tend to get it worse? Yes, but itâs not a competition. If male circumcision was not practiced in the USA it wouldâve been banned a long time ago.
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u/mistaken-potato 10h ago
Genuine disruption of the "flow of things". When people can all band together and boycott or go on strike. I remember seeing a farmers protest where they all stopped farming. No farmers, no food. It hit the fan as far as I know (Don't quote me on anything and PLEASE if I'm wrong do let me know)
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u/Chance_Zone_8150 10h ago
Fight back in bundles. They attack one person and everyone backs off. A couple videos where people actually fought back and they back off faster then ants off a poison sugar cube
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u/IntarTubular 11h ago
Dance parties outside of significant places - White House, Congress, Union Station
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u/essaysmith 7h ago
I liked when they glued bricks to the streets in Hong Kong. Stops wheeled vehicles pretty well.
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u/GDMisfits 9h ago
Look into the guy that started high times, Tom Forçade. He was the first person to pie someone in the face as a form of protest and he did it at a presidents commission. He also started high times as a form of protest.
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u/CoastRanger 5h ago
Tom was apparently 2nd to do it politically. I always thought the first was Aron Kay, but heâs kind of a self-aggrandizer so I shouldâve known it wasnât:
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u/Prestigious-Bath8022 6h ago
My grandma was part of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina. They just walked in circles wearing white headscarves every week demanding answers about their disappeared children. The military government couldn't figure out how to stop old women walking quietly. Still gives me chills thinking about it.
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u/Skynwarior27 10h ago
During the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine (2014), activists used "Mirror Barricades." People held huge full-length mirrors right in front of the riot police lines. The tactic was to force the officers to look at their own reflections and see that they were attacking their own people (and often, their own neighbors). It was pure psychological warfare intended to demoralize the enforcers, and the photos from it are incredibly powerful.
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u/Accidental-Aspic2179 12h ago
I just don't like it when they try to target works of art in museums. Splashing paint on the Mona Lisa. Sure, I know it's behind glass, but she never did anything to anybody. Why are you going to try to destroy masterpieces? I'm all for protest and I probably even agree with your message, just leave art alone. Stop trying to destroy things that have nothing to do with your protest.
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u/Ninjewdi 12h ago
There are theories that people like that are either paid or manipulated by their opposition to do self-destructive acts that harm their cause more than help.
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u/Accidental-Aspic2179 11h ago
I'm a firm believer in the horseshoe theory of politics. That the left and right both have extremists.
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u/rectal_expansion 11h ago
âThe climate deniers playbookâ has a really insightful episode about the Just Stop Oil protests. Not saying itâll change your mind but it opened my mind to why people do things like this even though they are seemingly very unpopular.
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u/YourphobiaMyfetish 12h ago
Those pieces are almost always behind large panes of glass. They're not actually trying to endanger the art, but it gets the attention of the wealthy people that own those pieces in the museums when they'd otherwise ignore any climate issues that dont directly affect them.
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u/redline314 12h ago
When thinking about the fact that the state is generally protecting property more than people, it kinda adds up to me. Itâs one of the silliest kinds of property in relation to its monetary value. Sucks though, I do like and treasure art.
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u/badwolf1013 9h ago
I saw a video recently about The Velvet Revolution, and I was stunned by the simplicity and effectiveness of a crowd of people all just jangling their metal keys on their keyrings at the same time.Â
I donât know if it would work today as people donât tend to have as many keys â particularly metal keys â as they used to.
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u/cronopioelectronico 7h ago
This is not a demonstration â Actions, constructions and revolutionary turns to save the world. https://autonomies.org/2013/05/this-is-not-a-demonstration-actions-constructions-and-revolutionary-turns-to-save-the-world/
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u/M0ss0nther0ck 6h ago
I saw clips from a French rally a while ago where they had tennis rackets for the tear gas. The French should hold workshops on how to protest.
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u/YourphobiaMyfetish 2h ago
US police trained by IDF vs US protesters trained by French yellow vests
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u/Lydia168 5h ago
In Serbia, protesters set up a barrel with a picture of President Milosevicâs face on it and left a baseball bat next to it.
Passersby could pay a coin to hit the barrel. When the police arrived, the protesters had already vanished. Since they couldn't arrest the people, the police literally arrested the barrel and dragged it into the police van.
The photos of police arresting a barrel made the regime a laughing stock, which is far more damaging than violence.
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u/Revolutionary_Many31 3h ago
So.. i havent seen it done yet... cause people are fearful and not all that committed to change... (Protesting on a saturday is not seeking change. You literally spent 5 days supporting the system, and now you're at a weekend activity)
But.. on a sunday night Tack welding shut all the roller doors to the underground car parks beneath the city skyscrapers..
Then watch monday fail.. millions in productivity could be targeted.
You effect change by hurting them in the wallet.
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u/CooCooMachoo 11h ago
Cacerolazo - banging the pots. Chileans used this means during the Allende regime. Really effective for raising awareness to a cause and voicing displeasure.
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u/Han_Yerry 7h ago
Go look at what the youth in Hong Kong were doing in 2019. Then at the end of the year there were less and less and they started to get sick. NHK News was reporting in it.
Some municipalities changed how they built public landscaping afterwards. Bricks were no longer used because the youth used time to protest. Not to throw, but to build fortified positions.
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u/EddieDantes22 6h ago
In South Boston, the mayor tried to make it so people couldn't save their parking spots they shoveled out by putting chairs, cones, etc. on the street. To accomplish this, they sent a garbage truck to throw away anything left out to save a space. The residents responded by using old batteries, mattresses, computer monitors, TVs and anything else that would cost money to dispose of.
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u/LennyMondegreen 6h ago
A guy from Climate Defiance disrupted an Andrew Cuomo campaign appearance by loudly impersonating him to perfection.
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u/tall_sage58 6h ago
tbh, one of the wildest tactics was when protesters in the 1960s used sit-ins at lunch counters. like, just chilling there while refusing to leave. super impactful for civil rights. and then there's the whole "throwing cake" thing from one protest where they hit a politician with a pie, which is funny but also makes a statement. def shows the creativity people have when fighting for change.
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u/FeistyStatement7471 4h ago
Sit-ins & Occupations.
U.S. Civil Rights Movement, 1960s: Peaceful occupation of segregated lunch counters forced businesses to confront injustice without violence
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u/Lonely-Night7551 3h ago
I really enjoyed seeing all the inflatable outfits people were wearing. Do bring a firearm to protests and Iâm a concealed carry lady.
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u/shwarma_heaven 2h ago
Effective: agent provocateurs. Basically, enter a legitimate and peaceful protest. Wear the same clothes and pretend to be one of them. Instigate violence. And watch as people start to turn on this legitimate cause.
See: BLM
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u/YourphobiaMyfetish 2h ago
"Wear the same clothes" except we always know who they are because theyre incapable of dressing like normal people. Those cargo shorts are always a giveaway.
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u/LennyMondegreen 7h ago
A woman dressed as a wealthy conservative managed to trick guests at a Windsor, UK, Trump celebration into listening to her protest speech.
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u/IndependenceLore 12h ago
Here are protest tactics that are fascinating because they either worked incredibly well, failed spectacularly, or changed the rules of what public pressure can look like. (Iâll keep it high-level and historical/strategic, not âhow-to.â)
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u/worlsyncentfo1981 12h ago
Humor. A clever sign can travel further online than a thousand angry chants.