When facing an aggressive fascist government, asking for protest permits and traffic marshals is often futile and counterproductive. There is a place for polite demonstration, but it won’t do the job on its own.
There are two types of protest:
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The modern American Liberal tradition, where you arrange to gather in a way that doesn’t inconvenience people and try to change hearts and minds with signs, speeches and theatre. This is the threat of power rather than the use of it; the idea is to demonstrate to politicians that a committed voting bloc opposes them.
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Then there is the other type of protest, used by the American underclass and most of the non-US world. In this version, you arrange to gather in a way that causes as much inconvenience as possible. The idea is not to change hearts and minds; the idea is to shut shit down. This is the use of power, not just the threat of it.
The first is a demonstration. The second is a strike. Both of them can be done peacefully and non-destructively.
