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Demonstration bring people together. They talk and exchange ideas, minds change. Writers cover the events, sometimes they modify their ideas and often they change how we discuss issues. Politicians see this and decide what ideas aren’t represented and decisions are made accordingly. It’s basic stuff.
A well mannered protest like this could shift opinions. Perhaps some of the public expected climate change protesters to be like continental May Day protesters (dressed in black, there to smash things, happy to use violence). The fact they aren’t... means the ideas might reach a new audience.
Even ‘failed’ protests such as the Jr Doctors strike in 2015 changed some things. Who didn’t modify their opinion of J.Hunt, who thinks he could ever now fight an election?
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miro_o
I think it’s unfair to just flame the cynicism of @cycleclinic ... actual empirical evidence of protest having changes things would be better.
To bite... I think the use of the Suffrage movements are oversimplification - from History classes in school we learned the violent protests were considered a setback, but the non-violent protesting and awareness-raising actually rallied support from some males of the time. If it weren’t for their protests then a way couldn’t have been paved toward the eventual “look what we did in men’s absence” argument when the law needed changing post-ww1 due to voters having been out of the country for too long to vote.
Similarly my tongue-in-cheek use of Vietnam, those protests informed a generation both politically and if nothing else, musically. An entire counter culture formed through it, and some of the most appreciated art (musical/pictorial/etc) of the 20th century owes a debt to that movement.