Sunday, January 27, 2013

It Matters: Martin Luther King's peaceful protest methodology


While MLK and the American civil rights movement were not the first to use peaceful protest and civil disobedience it is one of the best examples of the methods behind peaceful protest. Peaceful protest adds power to a movement and limits the options of the people or ideology being protested. If the protesters are met with a violent reaction then public opinion will shift to their side. however if the protesters were using violence to try to achieve their goals then public opinion will cry out for to stop the movement at whatever cost. When MLK used children and teenagers in the Birmingham Alabama protests he limited the options of the police and administration. The town of Birmingham was limited to only two viable options on how to deal with the protest. They could allow the protesters to protest thus appearing weak to the towns white population which could hurt the local politicians in the next election. Or they could go with fighting the protest's, which is what they did. By fighting the rest of the country saw images of kids being knocked down by powerful fire hoses and attacked by dogs. Seeing these images turned the country against the racist south and caused a change in the nation. By challenging the status quo using peaceful methods they were able to achieve their goals and provide an example of the power of peaceful protest for the coming generations. 
This would not be the last time the world saw change through peaceful protest. During the Arab spring of 2010 and 2011 the protesters in Egypt were able to band together and oust an authoritarian leader and regime. They did this without the use of fighting or violence. It’s fair to say that without the examples set in the past the protesters in Egypt would have resorted to guerrilla warfare to accomplish their goals. The countries in the Arab Spring that did and are using violent methods to achieve their goals have had to fight longer and harder before the corrupt leaders were ousted from power. While some countries could not use peaceful protest the ones that did experienced success faster. As seen in the time line of the Arab spring Egypt had its first organized protest on January 25th 2010, Mubarak resigned on February 11th 2010.  Syria on the other hand started to protest on around the beginning of April 2010 they are still fighting the government today with over 5000 people dead.  

Time line of the Arab spring
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/16/arab-spring-timeline-_n_1153909.html