We can trust the government to spend our money wisely. to defend minorities against stronger or larger groups; to resist anti-democratic forces such as oligarchs, controlled media and corporate lobby groups. We can trust it to make sure everyone’s needs are met. workers are not exploited. Our neighborhoods and quality of life are not sacrificed for corporate profits. We can trust it not to abuse the political process. Not to wage aggressive wars against other nations. not to break the law. There can’t be many people who have lived in the UK – or many other nations – in recent years and still believe this tale. We have seen what happens if we leave politics to governments. Fairly elected or not, they will abuse their power without effective public pressure. They will change political rules to favor their party, subordinate the public interest to that of corporations and billionaires, target vulnerable groups, sacrifice our common future to expediency, and impose ever more oppressive laws to bind us. Trust in governments destroys democracy, which survives only through constant challenge. It requires an endless disruption of the friendly relationship between our representatives and the powerful forces: the billionaire press, the plutocrats, political donors, cronies in high places. What provokes and disrupts, above all, is protest. Women march on Washington in January 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Photo: Bryan Woolston/Reuters Protest is not, as governments like ours try to make it out to be, a political luxury. It is the foundation of democracy. Without it, few of the democratic rights we enjoy would exist: the universal franchise. civil rights; equality before the law; legal same-sex relationships; progressive taxation; fair employment conditions; public services and a social safety net. Even the weekend is the result of protest: strikes by garment workers in the US. A government that cannot tolerate protest is a government that cannot tolerate democracy. Such governments are becoming the global norm. In the UK, two policing bills in quick succession seek to shut down all effective forms of protest. They allow the police to stop almost any demonstration on the grounds that it causes a “serious disturbance,” a term so loose that it could include any kind of noise. They would prohibit chaining yourself to bars or other fixtures and “interfering” with “essential national infrastructure,” which could mean just about anything. They expand police stop and search powers, an effective deterrent to political action by black and brown people, who are disproportionately targeted by them. They can even ban big names from participating in any protest, for reasons that seem completely arbitrary. These are the powers of dictators. In the US, state legislatures have undermined the federal right to protest, giving police the power to use offenses such as “trespassing” or “disturbance of the peace” to break up demonstrations and make arrests. Proposed laws in states like Oklahoma and New Hampshire have sought to grant immunity to drivers who run over protesters or to vigilantes who shoot them. In Russia, a new law against “discrediting the armed forces” has been used to prosecute dissidents who engage in actions as mild as writing “no to war” in the snow. Similar draconian laws are being imposed by governments in many other nations. Why do governments want to ban protest? Because it is effective. Why do they want us to accept their narrow vision of democracy? Because it makes our power ineffective. Subscribe to our Inside Saturday newsletter for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the magazine’s biggest features, as well as a curated list of our weekly highlights. Protest governments seek to ban broaden the scope of democracy. They allow us to challenge illegalities and resist oppressive politics. They are the engine of policy change and the early warning system that draws attention to critical issues that governments tend to neglect. The unusual people in these images understand this – from suffragettes picketing the White House in 1917 to Patsy Stevenson being manhandled by police at Sarah Everard’s vigil last year. from relatives of those killed in Amritsar, India in 1919 to those who took to the streets after the killing of George Floyd in the US. Almost everything important is rapidly falling apart: ecosystems, the health system, standards in public life, equality, human rights, employment conditions. It happens while elections come and go, representatives formally address parliament or congress, serious letters are written and polite petitions are presented. None of this is enough to save us from planetary and democratic collapse. Business as usual is a threat to life on Earth. Disrupting it is the greatest civic duty of all. They will continue to demonize us as a threat to the democracy we seek to protect. They will continue to arrest us and increase the penalties for the good citizen. And we will continue to defy it, as people have for centuries, even in the face of state violence and repression. Everything we value depends on it.
The Pussy Riot Red Square game, 2012
Photo: Anna Artemeva/AFP/Getty Images “Pussy Riot was founded in October 2011 because we didn’t want Putin to stay in power forever and we felt that if we didn’t get rid of him, he would bring a lot of pain to our country.” says Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of the Russian protest-cum-punk band. On January 20, 2012, eight members of Pussy Riot took to the platform in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square and staged a guerrilla performance of their song Putin Zassal (Putin has pissed himself off). Operating anonymously at the time, the women wore brightly colored ski masks as they sang and set off smoke bombs. “We had religious rehearsals for the whole of January,” recalls Tolokonnikova. “I come to the square many times in advance. Trying to figure out when there would be less police cars. to get climbing gear for our shoes because the podium was covered in ice. discussing in detail what to do if we were detained.” Immediately after the performance, the women were detained. “We spent eight hours at the police station and they let us go. Exhausted. But happy.” This day is remembered as the great discovery of Pussy Riot. After their next performance – held at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow – three members, including Tolokonnikova, were prosecuted for hooliganism and the veil of anonymity was lifted. But through multiple arrests and prison sentences – and as Putin has tightened his grip on power – the group remains determined to give voice to the resistance. In the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, the stakes have risen. “Protest activity is becoming more and more dangerous in Russia,” says Tolokonnikova. “You face 15 years in prison for calling a war a war, not a ‘special military operation.’ And yet, people protest every day. Not because they want to be heroes: because they can’t lie to themselves.” G.S
Police dogs attack civil rights protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963
Photo: Black Star/eyevine In early 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. described Birmingham as “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.” He and other civil rights leaders organized a campaign of nonviolent protests, placing students at the center of the movement. Eugene “Bull” Connor, the city’s public safety commissioner and staunch segregationist, ordered the use of fire hoses and police dogs to quell the protests. Images of Charles Moore with a dog attacking a young man on May 3, 1963 drew national attention to the Birmingham movement – and led to Connor’s ouster from office. G.S
The lady in red in Gezi Park, 2013
Photo: Osman Orsal/Reuters About three million people participated in the wave of anti-government protests that swept Turkey in the summer of 2013. It began with a small, peaceful protest on May 28 against the planned demolition and redevelopment of Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul. The police then attempted to disperse the protesters using tear gas and water cannons. This image of activist and academic Ceyda Sungur being teargassed quickly became an emblem for the movement. Images of the “lady in red,” as she was dubbed, appeared on posters and online graphics, sparking protests across the country. G.S
Barbara Kruger’s vision goes global in 2020
Photo: Andrzej Golc, courtesy of Sprüth Magers The artwork Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground) was originally created by Barbara Kruger as a poster urging people to attend the March for Women’s Lives on Washington in April 1989. The demonstration was organized in protest against the efforts of the Republican government to overturn Roe v Wade that year. A former editorial designer at Condé Nast, Kruger knew how to create a memorable image: “I was able to use the fluency I developed with images and words and turn them into my own commitments as an artist.” Today, Kruger’s rallying cry for bodily autonomy continues to be heard around the world. In this photo, a Polish version of the poster, first created in 1991, is seen plastered on a street in Szczecin in 2020. Poland’s abortion laws are among the most restrictive in Europe. “Language has power. And the speed and accessibility of that power depends on its readability,” Krueger says of her decision to translate the text into…
