Resources for protesters
Taking part with your eyes open.
Sober, sourced guidance for people preparing or joining a gathering: common myths, documented stories, what research says, the question of violence and a checklist to get ready.
These pages summarise public research and facts without taking sides on any cause. Figures are rounded and sometimes disputed: go back to the sources before quoting them. They are not legal advice.
Common myths
Seven claims you often hear, what is known about them and what is not.
“Protesting achieves nothing.”
What the data says
No protest is certain to get what it asks for. But a study of 323 resistance campaigns recorded between 1900 and 2006 found that about 53% of nonviolent campaigns achieved their goals, against about 26% of armed campaigns.
In the United States in the 1960s, nonviolent civil rights protests increased the vote, in neighbouring counties, for the party that defended those rights.
Limits and nuances : The campaigns studied were mostly about changing a regime or ending an occupation: the results do not transfer as they are to a local demonstration. Succeeding also takes time, preparation and often several actions.
“You need millions of people to matter.”
What the data says
Researcher Erica Chenoweth observed that nonviolent campaigns aiming at regime change had succeeded with the active participation of about 3.5% of the population.
That is a pattern observed in a small number of cases, not a law. Since 2010 the success rate of such campaigns has fallen sharply while their number has grown.
Limits and nuances : Numbers matter, but so do duration, the diversity of the people mobilised and the ability to organise. A well-prepared local gathering has effects that turnout alone does not measure.
“The more spectacular or violent, the more you are heard.”
What the data says
You are seen, not necessarily supported. Experiments with the American public show that extreme or highly disruptive protest actions reduce support for the movement.
The analysis of the 1960s points the same way for violence: violent protests put public order in the foreground and pushed the vote back for that party.
Limits and nuances : This work is mostly about the United States. Other countries, other periods or other balances of power may give other results, and some authors point to cases where disruptive means paid off.
“Violence is unavoidable at a large protest.”
What the data says
The data says otherwise: in the United States in summer 2020, over 94% of demonstrations linked to the Black Lives Matter movement took place without violence or property damage.
Limits and nuances : This does not deny the violence that did occur, nor its victims. The data covers one country and one period. The causes of an escalation are many and have to be documented case by case.
Sources [5]
“We always know who the rioters are.”
What the data says
Situations vary: isolated individuals, groups who came looking for a fight, participants carried away by tension, sometimes an escalation linked to how the crowd was handled.
Blaming one side in advance (“they are all protesters”, “they are all infiltrators”) prevents understanding and prevention. Only investigations establish the facts.
Limits and nuances : There is no typical profile. Calling someone a “rioter” on the strength of an image or a rumour risks serious mistakes.
“Protesting always disrupts everyone.”
What the data says
Most gatherings take place within a framework set in advance. In France, for example, any march or gathering on the public road must be declared beforehand: the aim is to organise traffic and safety.
The most disruptive forms are also the ones that, in the experiments mentioned above, lower public support the most: it is a tactical choice each group can weigh.
Limits and nuances : Rules and tolerance for disruption differ from country to country: see ARALLIA’s Legal section for yours.
“You have to be an activist to take part.”
What the data says
A gathering published on ARALLIA is open to anyone. You can take part without your name appearing: participation is non-public by default, and the participant space lets you write under a pseudonym or anonymously.
Each movement publishes its claims and charter: you know what you are coming for before you come.
Limits and nuances : Coming alone is possible; coming with one or two people, with a meeting point, is safer (see “Getting ready”).
Stories of people who took to the streets
Six well-documented episodes from different places and times. They prove nothing on their own; they show how gatherings were prepared and what their organisers said or wrote about them.
Summaries written by ARALLIA from the works cited, without direct quotation. Turnout figures are estimates. Further testimonies, reviewed and moderated, may be added later.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Birmingham (United States), April 1963
Arrested during the Birmingham protests in Alabama, he wrote from his cell a letter to clergymen who thought his actions untimely. In it he describes the steps of a nonviolent action: establish the facts, negotiate, prepare, then act directly.
What to take from it : A public action rests on earlier work: verified facts, a dialogue offered, participants prepared.
Sources [7]
Mohandas Gandhi
Salt March (India), March–April 1930
From 12 March to 6 April 1930, Gandhi and a few dozen marchers walked about 390 kilometres to Dandi to challenge the British tax on salt. The procession grew along the way, and the episode made civil disobedience known around the world.
What to take from it : A simple, concrete demand that everyone understands mobilises more easily than a long programme.
Sources [8]
Lech Wałęsa and the Gdańsk workers
Gdańsk shipyard (Poland), August 1980
The strikers drew up a list of 21 demands and obtained, through negotiation, permission for an independent trade union, Solidarity. Lech Wałęsa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
What to take from it : A numbered, public list of demands makes it possible to negotiate, then to check what was actually obtained.
Sources [9]
Toumi Djaïdja, Christian Delorme, Jean Costil
March for Equality and Against Racism (France), October–December 1983
Setting out from Marseille on 15 October 1983 with a handful of marchers, the march reached Paris on 3 December before a crowd estimated at around 100,000. Its initiators, including a priest and a pastor, drew on the nonviolence of Gandhi and King.
What to take from it : A long march that goes from town to town can grow stage by stage and meet people who would not have travelled.
Sources [10]
The Baltic Way
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, 23 August 1989
About two million people formed a human chain of nearly 675 kilometres between Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, fifty years to the day after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact.
What to take from it : A simple gesture, open to all and easy to repeat (holding hands), can bring very different people together.
Sources [11]
The Monday demonstrations
Leipzig (East Germany), 9 October 1989
Around 70,000 people marched in Leipzig despite fear of repression. The slogan “No violence!” was widely taken up and the march dispersed without confrontation.
What to take from it : A shared commitment to nonviolence, known to everyone before setting off, protects participants.
Sources [12]
What research says
Six frequently cited pieces of research. Each adds a piece of the picture; none is an instruction manual.
Why Civil Resistance Works (2011)
What the research shows
Across 323 campaigns between 1900 and 2006, about 53% of nonviolent campaigns reached their goals against about 26% of armed campaigns. The authors explain this mainly by broader, more diverse participation, which can also lead supporters of the other side to change position.
Limits and nuances : Large-scale campaigns (regime change, independence, end of occupation). Causality is still debated.
Sources [1]
The Future of Nonviolent Resistance (2020)
What the research shows
The success rate of nonviolent campaigns fell over the 2010s while their number grew. The author sees, among other things, the difficulty of building a lasting organisation when mobilising very fast.
Limits and nuances : A recent trend, several interpretations, a still short period.
Sources [3]
Twitter and Tear Gas (2017)
What the research shows
Digital networks make it possible to gather very quickly, but without the organising work that builds trust, the ability to negotiate and to last, a movement stays fragile.
Limits and nuances : Analysis based on case studies (Egypt, Turkey, the United States, Hong Kong…), not on systematic measurement.
Sources [13]
The Strategy of Social Protest (1975)
What the research shows
In a sample of 53 American challenging groups between 1800 and 1945, groups with precise goals and a structured organisation more often obtained satisfaction. The author also notes that those who used disruptive or even violent means more often succeeded.
Limits and nuances : An old study with a small sample; the finding on disruptive means has been much debated since. It is cited here so the debate is shown as a whole.
Sources [14]
Agenda Seeding: 1960s Black protests (2020)
What the research shows
In American counties near nonviolent civil rights protests, the vote for the party favouring those rights rose; near violent protests it fell, and the theme of public order took more space in the media.
Limits and nuances : One country, one period, a statistical method that estimates the effect without being able to control for everything.
Sources [2]
The Activist’s Dilemma (2020)
What the research shows
In experiments with the American public, protest actions judged extreme reduce support for the movement, because respondents identify with it less.
Limits and nuances : Online experiments, American samples, stated reactions rather than observed behaviour.
Sources [4]
The question of violence
Violence is rare at gatherings, but it is among their first risks. Here is what is known, what each person can do, and what ARALLIA refuses to organise.
What we call violence
The word covers realities better kept apart: harm to people, damage to property, clashes between groups, and the use of force by authorities. Each calls for a different response and a different responsibility.
What the data shows
The great majority of gatherings take place without violence. The work cited above also shows that violence lowers public support and moves the debate from the cause to public order.
That does not mean violence does not exist: it has many causes (provocation, tension, isolated individuals, organised groups, crowd management) that only careful investigation can establish.
What organisers can do
- Declare the gathering where the law requires it and plan the route with the authorities.
- Publish the nonviolence commitment in advance and repeat it at the head of the march.
- Provide recognisable welcome and mediation people, whose job is to inform and calm: no coercion, no pursuit.
- Provide a fallback point, access for people with reduced mobility and an identified first-aid point.
- Communicate instructions and changes through the event’s official feed, not unverified channels.
- Open a placard review space so that messages respect the charter.
What each participant can do
- Stay with your group, spot two exits and a meeting point.
- Move away from a situation that is getting tense rather than towards it; do not physically step in between.
- Call emergency services (112, the European emergency number) for anyone in danger.
- Alert the organisers or the welcome people, who know the ground and the arrangements.
- Do not pass on a rumour or an image you are not sure about.
What ARALLIA does not organise, and why
ARALLIA does not organise the pursuit of a person, their arrest, the tracking of individuals, or filming people in order to name them as guilty. A wrong identification, a crowd turning on an innocent person, participants put in danger: the risk is real and it is borne by people who did nothing.
In France, the law allows anyone to apprehend the perpetrator of a flagrant serious offence punishable by imprisonment in order to bring them to a judicial police officer. It is a strictly limited power that makes the person using it liable if they go too far; it is not among the roles offered on the platform.
Filming a public gathering is in principle possible, but publishing images that identify people in order to accuse them exposes you to mistakes and prosecution. Hand material to the authorities instead. Rules vary by country: see the Legal section.
Sources [15]
Getting ready
A short list, useful for a first gathering and for the hundredth.
Before
- Read the movement’s claims and charter, then the event page (place, times, instructions).
- Check whether the gathering was declared where the law requires it; if in doubt, ask the organisers.
- Agree a meeting point with someone you trust; share your route with them.
- Charge your phone, bring water, food, your medication, some cash and ID if your country requires it.
- Prepare your placard and have it reviewed in the participant space if the event offers it.
- Tell the organisers in advance about any accessibility need.
During
- Follow the event’s official feed for instructions and changes.
- Stay aware of the crowd, spot the exits, avoid bottlenecks.
- Drink water, find shade or shelter, do not hesitate to leave the march.
- Help someone in difficulty without taking risks, and call 112 if needed.
- Do not respond to provocation; avoid feeding tension.
After
- Let your trusted person know you are home.
- Read the event summary published by the organisers.
- Report content that breaks the charter to the platform rather than arguing it out in the street.
- Look after yourself: an intense day is tiring, even without incident.
Sources
References used on this page. ARALLIA is not affiliated with any of them.
- [1] Erica Chenoweth et Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Columbia University Press, 2011.
- [2] Omar Wasow, « Agenda Seeding: How 1960s Black Protests Moved Elites, Public Opinion and Voting », American Political Science Review, vol. 114, n° 3, 2020.
- [3] Erica Chenoweth, « The Future of Nonviolent Resistance », Journal of Democracy, vol. 31, n° 3, 2020.
- [4] Matthew Feinberg, Robb Willer et Chloe Kovacheff, « The Activist’s Dilemma: Extreme Protest Actions Reduce Popular Support for Social Movements », Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 119, n° 5, 2020.
- [5] Roudabeh Kishi et Sam Jones (ACLED), « Demonstrations & Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020 », septembre 2020.
- [6] Code de la sécurité intérieure (France), articles L211-1 à L211-4 : déclaration préalable des cortèges, défilés et rassemblements sur la voie publique.
- [7] Martin Luther King Jr., « Letter from Birmingham Jail » (Lettre de la prison de Birmingham), 16 avril 1963.
- [8] Judith M. Brown, Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope, Yale University Press, 1989.
- [9] Timothy Garton Ash, The Polish Revolution: Solidarity, Jonathan Cape, 1983.
- [10] Abdellali Hajjat, La Marche pour l’égalité et contre le racisme, Éditions Amsterdam, 2013.
- [11] Anatol Lieven, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence, Yale University Press, 1993.
- [12] Steven Pfaff, Exit-Voice Dynamics and the Collapse of East Germany: The Crisis of Leninism and the Revolution of 1989, Duke University Press, 2006.
- [13] Zeynep Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, Yale University Press, 2017.
- [14] William A. Gamson, The Strategy of Social Protest, Dorsey Press, 1975.
- [15] Code de procédure pénale (France), article 73 : appréhension de l’auteur d’un crime ou d’un délit flagrant puni d’emprisonnement par toute personne.