When protest works

In their new book, “Protest: Respect It. Defend It. Use It”, Annie Leonard and André Carothers assemble a series of protest movements to show how collective action has shaped political and social change, relying on examples rather than formal theory.Protest is presented as a varied set of tactics, with internal disagreements acknowledged and treated as part of how movements function.The book situates current efforts to restrict protest within a longer pattern in which dissent is tolerated when marginal and resisted when effective.Across its cases, the book underscores that many rights now taken for granted were contested and that the space for protest remains uncertain.See All Key Ideas (function($) { $(document).ready(function() { const bulletPoints = $('.bulletpoints'); const toggle = $('.bulletpoints-wrapper .content-expander'); if (bulletPoints.length > 0) { const bulletPointsHeight = bulletPoints[0].scrollHeight; if (bulletPointsHeight && bulletPointsHeight <= 170) { toggle.remove(); } toggle.click(function() { bulletPoints.toggleClass('visible'); $('#expander-container.bullets').toggleClass('visible'); $(this).toggleClass('visible'); }); } }); })(jQuery); Protest arrives with a clear sense of purpose. Annie Leonard and André Carothers avoid constructing a grand, unified theory of dissent and offer no rigid framework to explain why movements live or die. Instead, they have assembled a curated history: a series of episodes of resistance, each functioning as both narrative and instruction. The perspective reflects the authors’ own backgrounds. Annie Leonard spent nearly two decades with Greenpeace US, including a period as executive director, and has been involved in campaigns on climate, waste, and environmental justice. André Carothers has worked as an organizer and adviser across a range of social movements, including time with Greenpeace and as cofounder of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, which trains activists. Both have operated within the kinds of campaigns the book describes. That experience shapes the selection and framing of the case studies, which lean toward movements where sustained organizing and nonviolent pressure are central. At its core, the book rests on a simple claim: protest works. From abolitionism to climate strikes, from labor organizing to Indigenous land defense, the case studies are familiar yet deliberately eclectic. The authors show that protest is not a singular tactic but an expansive repertoire—a march or a boycott, a blockade or a refusal to comply, spanning large demonstrations and more solitary acts. Waorani leader Nenquimo with the Pekinani, traditional leaders and warriors. In February 2019, they jointly mobilized after filing a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian government to protect their territory from oil drilling in Puyo, Pastaza and the Ecuadorian Amazon. Image by Mitch Anderson (Amazon Frontlines). The authors avoid playing referee. They acknowledge the friction within movements—between pragmatists and disruptors, advocates of nonviolence and those who accept escalation—but do not attempt to resolve it. These tensions are treated as part of the terrain. This gives the book a certain looseness. A political scientist might look for causal inference or a sustained treatment of counterfactuals, but that is not the book’s focus. Instead, the accumulation of examples does the work. Patterns emerge: protest often accelerates change already under way, can appear disruptive before it is accepted,…

This excerpt is published under fair use for community discussion. Read the full article at Mongabay Environmental News.