A week ago today, thousands of women and their allies were preparing to protest. Some were putting the finishing touches on their signs. Some were already on board buses headed across the country. The next day, from Washington D.C. to Antarctica, women marched peacefully, to show their solidarity with each other. They marched to show their disdain for misogyny. They marched to be counted and heard. But will their efforts amount to real change? It depends upon what happens after the march. While many people perceive protest marches as an exercise in democracy, that may be the wrong way to think about them. Protests are about consuming democracy. What matters more is the production of democracy.
A week ago today, thousands of women and their allies were preparing to protest. Some were putting the finishing touches on their signs. Some were already on board buses headed across the country. There were probably some knitters still weaving in the ends on their their pink “pussyhats.” The next day, from Washington D.C. to Antarctica, women marched peacefully, to show their solidarity with each other. They marched to show their disdain for misogyny. They marched to be counted and heard. But will their efforts amount to real change? It depends upon what happens after the march, in homes, streets, internet fora, and especially voting booths across America. While many people perceive protest marches as an exercise in democracy, that may be the wrong way to think about them. Protests are about consuming democracy. What matters more is the production of democracy.
Let’s leave aside for a moment the inevitable howls of “No, you idiot, we’re a Republic,” which aren’t relevant to this discussion, and think of “democracy” as a system of government that affords average citizens the ability to exert control or influence over the policies that affect their lives. This privilege comes at the cost of vigilance, since the citizens must pay attention to what’s going on and which officials are responsible for which messes, and to be considered democratic, there must be some means of voting the bums out of office, even if they are replaced with other bums.
In 2012, author John Michael Greer penned a series of essays on the subject of producing and consuming democracy. He notes that for protests to work, they must accomplish two goals. First, the protest must convince the politicians in government that it represents a significant number of potential voters. Second, the protest must convey a credible threat that if no change occurs in accordance with the will of the protesters, the effect of their displeasure will be felt, probably at the ballot box. If there is no legitimate threat, and no fear, there is no reason to grant the protesters’ request. Protests that merely ask “Please?” are safely ignored by those in power. These depend upon the kindness of antagonistic politicians, and good luck with that.
According to Greer, effective protesters are consuming democracy when they imply that the bums will be voted out. However, for that threat to be realistic, there must be a stockpile of democracy at hand. This means potential candidates available to replace those officeholders, who stand ready to enact policies agreeable to the protesters. Democracy is produced by the hard work of organizing, funding, and raising up viable opposition. Protesters who have worked at producing democracy have a better chance of getting what they want while consuming democracy later, just as cars with a full tank have a better chance of going any distance. This assumes, of course, that the protesters seek political change.
Their day of consuming democracy over, last week’s marchers must now settle into the long haul of producing democracy. Perhaps the march filled needs such as companionship, spiritual nourishment, or cathartic release, but these aren’t threats to power. Lacking any well-defined goals, these protests may go the way of the Occupy movement. However well Occupy injected the subject of inequality into the national conversation, it quickly fizzled, producing little political change. The time to organize is now. One of the reasons Hillary Clinton did as well as she did was because she had been organizing for several years, leaving Sanders to play catch-up. One possibility is to lift some techniques from the Tea Party (of all places!), and a guide to doing so has been circulating around the Internet for a couple months.
Other methods of convincing sitting politicians to bend to the will of the people, such as direct violence, may have been effective throughout history, but are beyond the scope of this article as well as beyond the pale in this culture. The new administration will likely seek to curtail even peaceful protests, though, as they set about creating their new reality. Times may grow difficult. Let us hope that last week’s marches were not merely consuming democracy, but a start at building resistance.
Pre-march photo! #womensMarchAntarctica ❤️? pic.twitter.com/NaRyZaIvsM
— linda zunas (@lindazunas) January 21, 2017
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