Protest is Dead. Long Live Protest.

Utne Magazine has an article about the futility of protest as a strategy in and of itself. Protesting was effective during the 1960's, and rallies were noticed and taken seriously by the media and government. Now it's so commonplace, it's virtually ignored. I saw a good example of it on the news yesterday, where WTO protesters in Germany were ignored, the delegates simply flying unfazed into the conferences via helicopter.

The article, "Protest is Dead. Long Live Protest" (Joseph Hart, Utne May/June 07), suggests that we need to go beyond protesting and examine a broader strategy. Key in this broader strategy is collaborating and cooperating with the organizations and people we're protesting against; sitting down and hashing it out rather than relying solely on symbolic dissension. In Hart's next article, "Meet the New Boss: You" (Joseph Hart, Utne May/June 07), Hart points to Matt Leighninger, a government/nonprofit organization facilitator who advocates shared governance. Shared governance goes beyond the us vs. them , protester vs. evil corporation view, and focuses on solutions instead. He suggests we attend our local board meetings, and start from there. It will take a little more thinking than marching around with a sign, but the results may prove to be more effective.