50501

NON-DISRUPTIVE protests don't change anything. Typically, violent protests are risky and potentially counterproductive. They make it harder to recruit larger numbers and easier to justify a proportionate police/government response, further discouraging recruitment. It's also just bad PR. People are stupid, and gullible. All it takes to turn people against your movement is to convince them you're violent and dangerous, which again, bad for recruitment. One thrown brick, especially early on as a movement gains momentum and tries becoming sustainable long term.

Sometimes the thrown brick kicks off the movement, like Stonewall, but you can't count on moments like that with planning. Those are powder kegs set to go off from a spark with decades, CENTURIES of fuel. And even then, the LGBTQ+ rights movement took decades of work and organizing and planning after the fact.

The most successful movements take a long time to build support and establish organization to commit supporters to disruptive actions. And it gets harder the bigger a country is, harder to organize and coordinate over greater distances and life circumstances.

BUT, once you get to that point, by katamari-ing fellow protesters with marches and days of action, getting larger groups to commit to an action organized within the movement, building social support infrastructure to maintain things, you can go further, organize more specific disruptions. Sit ins, boycotts, strikes, blockades, occupations, slow downs, vandalism, interrupting police/ICE operations, shop ins. There's a lot of powerful methods of non-violent protest you can get up to if you've got the support and are coordinated enough.

The civil rights movement wasn't just standing in crowds with signs asking nicely to have civil rights laws pass, they were breaking the law and interrupting the functioning of society. We look at other effective non-violent protest movements. Hong Kong's coordination and disruption tactics were AWE inspiring, and would be effective here if we can get to the point of large scale coordinated disruption.

Actually, here's the wikipedia page for tactics and methods used in the Hong Kong protests for anyone who wants to read it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactics_and_methods_surrounding_the_2019%E2%80%932020_Hong_Kong_protests

What sticks with me, as it applies to organizing in the states, and the west in general, is the fundamental organizing principle of "Do Not Split". There's a lot of infighting and division among protest groups (much of which is intentionally manufactured to weaken said groups) on the basis of specific issues. Communist groups fighting Socialist groups over how society as a whole should be organized. Purity testing over individual belief systems rather than uniting over shared goals despite differences in approach. The fascists don't have this problem. They'll step in line with each other over their shared hate even if the details differ, and it's why they're WINNING...I mean, aside from all the inherited/exploitation gained wealth and power.

If you're someone looking to join the 50501 protests, or are wanting to organize your own, maybe you're unhappy with some of the methodology, remember this: DO NOT SPLIT. If you despise someone and they're fighting the same fight as you, THEY ARE STILL YOUR ALLY. There is no greater cause than fighting fascism together.

May Day, May 1st, is the next major protest event. We are in the early days of this movement. Yes, we should've been doing it years ago, but the next best day to plant a tree is today.

Peaceful protests are more likely to succeed. We need to get 3.5%

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world