“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s (sic) original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”  Oscar Wilde.  

In our turbulent times, in the light of ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, the right to protest must be protected more than ever. The majority of people support protest as a function of democracy and free-speech, aligning with the  principle of the Greater Good in its varied forms. Whilst protests based on hate and racism appear to be on the rise, the need for peaceful protests supporting life, dignity and freedom are all the more urgent and necessary.

On the 21^st day in the 29^th year of the reign of Ramesses III, over three thousand years ago, the tomb builders working on the Valley of the Kings went on strike. Protesting over unpaid wheat rations, three strikes occurred that year, during the daytime and at night, the workers carrying torches. Finally, the tomb builders declared their strikes were not only out of hunger but a protest against the “evil” or disorder engendered by the moral failing to fulfil agreed terms.

Contemporary governments may also find protests as troublesome and challenging as did the vizier of Ramesses III back in the 12^th Century BC. Nevertheless, as the tomb builders rightly claimed, protests generally arise from a moral injustice; whether it be unfair employment practices, the capturing of wealth and political power by a singular group, or racial and religious divisions. As long as humans exist, protests will exist.

Studies of present-day hunter-gatherer societies, reveal that their strong ethos of moral community is protected by individuals who resist any attempts at personal domination. Leading some anthropologists to theorise that early human societies may have evolved through women-led uprisings against dominant males, as women needed a collective environment to share their childcare burdens; a theory which may explain the development of matrilineal societies where lineage and inheritance came through the mother (matriarchy is different, relating to primary political and social power).

To protest is to attest, to bear witness. To name the injustices causing hardship, suffering and privation. Whether it’s Gisèle Pelicot refusing to take on the shame of her husband’s deeds, an actor inserting a genocide protest into an interview, or Emma Sulkowicz carrying a 50-pound mattress around with her,  wherever she went, representing the man she said had raped her. Protests aren’t confined to the streets, they occur everywhere. In private and in public. Within the four walls of a home, within offices, factories, businesses, restaurants, and every other sphere of life. From the woman who finally says ‘No’ to her abusive partner, to the employees who finally say ‘No’ to unfair pay. To say ‘No’ is self-defence, a moral assertion, a statement of self-respect and personal worth. To say ‘No’ is to protest.

Protests are an engine of progress. “Change happens, because ordinary people get together, imagine what their lives could be and push on the system” (Barack Obama). Protests have led to institutional change and forced global corporations to pay fair wages; from the Magna Carta’s principle of trial by jury to Uber drivers winning their case to be treated as workers rather than self-employed. In the recent election of the new Pope, whilst observers were looking forward to seeing white smoke announcing the election of a new Pope, an international group of Catholic women released pink smoke to protest against the all-male conclave and to highlight their demands for female ordination and inclusion in the church’s decision-making processes.

Protest and democracy go together, as does free speech and civil rights. From a school girl sitting outside the Swedish parliament protesting about lack of action over climate change to tens of thousands marching through the streets, protest is essential for the proper functioning of a democracy. In 2005, Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister at that time, when visiting Jawaharlal Nehru University, was faced with a demonstration by students waving black flags protesting against his economic policies. Rather than objecting or ignoring the protestors the PM began his speech by quoting Voltaire, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.” The following day the PM matched the words with suitable action: learning that some of the demonstrating students had been given warning notices and others detained by the police, the PM personally spoke to the University asking them not to punish the demonstrators “..as the protest was the students’ democratic right.”

Rivers of protest run through our conversations, WhatsApp messages, social media, books, art, music, history, myth, folklore and more. Protest is part of our moral journey. Despite the assertions of cynics and sceptics, most people have a moral instinct. We react viscerally when something is unfair or unjust; few of us relish violence and are normally horrified at the idea of war. The largest, global protest in human history, was the one against war. The French academic Dominique Reynié has calculated that in the first four months of 2003, approximately 36 million people across the globe participated in protests against the US and its allies planning to invade Iraq; the largest protest being on 15^th February when an estimated 14 million people took to the streets in over 800 cities.

The beliefs of ordinary people for fairness in government actions, particularly as relating to the proscribing of the group Palestine Action, have been evidenced in peaceful demonstrations in which over 1600 people have so far been arrested.

Thirty years ago, on 29^th January 1996, four women managed to enter the British Aerospace Plant at Warton, Lancashire, and taken hammers to a Hawk aircraft to disable it and prevent it being sent to Indonesia where it would have been used in the brutal occupation of East Timor.  Known as the Ploughshares Four (the name being taken from the biblical verse ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks’), after their action, the women stayed in the hanger waiting to be arrested. They had caused £1.5m worth of damage.

During their court case the group argued, the disarming of the Hawk aeroplane was an act of crime prevention, that British Aerospace was in breach of the Genocide act, aiding and abetting genocide. Their defence argument referenced international law and the Nuremburg trails, contending it was not sufficient to refrain from committing crime but “we also have a responsibility to act to prevent crime when we see it happening.” Adding that “Governments and companies such as British Aerospace are often treated as if they’re above the law. Their crimes are usually unrecognised. This is the point of international law: to control the worst excesses of these bodies.”

Joy, relief and happiness exploded in the courtroom when the jury delivered its verdict: ‘Not guilty. One of the Ploughshares Four described it as “ordinary people being vindicated by ordinary people in Liverpool, on behalf of ordinary people elsewhere”. 

Exactly twenty-one years later, on 29^th January 2017, the British Aerospace plant at Wharton was once again the focus of a protest when a Quaker and a Reverend, Sam Walton and Daniel Woodhouse, carrying bolt cutters and other tools broke through the fence and calmly made their way to a hanger, fully aware they could also be walking towards a ten-year prison sentence, planning to stay on site after their action, till arrested. Amongst their implements was a hammer belonging to the Ploughshares Four.

Sam Walton had long campaigned against the arms trade, contending that it fuelled conflict, famine, mass rapes, and prevented development and progress. The war in Yemen being one of the worst consequences. Sam was well informed on Britain’s arms trade with Saudi Arabia, the selling of bombs, tornado and typhoon jets. The Reverend Daniel Woodhouse had been engaged in soul-searching, debating what the nature of his ministry should be. Like Sam he was well aware of the horrors caused by the arms trade, the war in Yemen and British government policy.

In court, Sam and Daniel argued their action had been for the Greater Good, as their intention was to save innocent lives and prevent war crimes, by physically disabling the war planes.

 In his summing up, the judge accepted their logic: fewer planes, meant fewer bombings and less destruction of civilian targets. Going on to conclude: “I heard about their belief of BAE’s role in the supply of aircraft to Saudi Arabia. I heard about their beliefs regarding events in Yemen, that they included the death of civilians and destruction of civilian property, and the basis for their beliefs that this amounted to war crimes.” He continued: “I heard that they had tried other methods of protest and letter writing in the past. I heard that they had not taken this decision lightly given the scale of the destruction they believed was occurring in Yemen.”

Sam and Daniel’s defence had prevailed, both were acquitted. A victory not only for them but also for victims of war and the principle of the Greater Good. Placing the highest value on human life rather than planes and property. It’s to be noted that neither in 1997 or 2017, after the Ploughshare protest or Sam and Daniel’s protest, no Home Secretary rushed to proscribe them as terrorists.

Democracy isn’t safe in the hands of governments, whatever the hue of their political parties. Politicians will “…sacrifice our common future to expediency and impose oppressive laws to bind us” (George Monbiot). Protest is the voice and practice of democracy. Embodied in demonstrations, hunger strikes, letter writing, petitions, sit-ins, boycotts, civil disobedience, art and more.

In The Dagenham Women’s strike of 1968, 187 women, protesting at being classified as unskilled, not only brought Ford’s largest factory to a standstill, as (ironically) they were the only ones who knew how to make the leather seat covers for new cars, but their strike also contributed to the passing of the Equal Pay Act of 1970, creating a seismic shift for the rights of women workers.

The powerful Roman Catholic Church was challenged by the Irish women’s campaign for abortion rights.

#HomeToVote. Perhaps for the first time in history, the #HomeToVote hashtag was first utilised in Ireland’s same-sex referendum in 2015, generating over 72,000 tweets, and an epic return of voters. Three years later in 2018, the abortion  campaign also sent out a call across the globe: #HomeToVote. Planes, trains, boats, buses and cars brought thousands back, to cast their vote, break the rigid power of the Catholic Church, and release Irish women to exercise their own choice.

Protests have changed the face of our world: abolishing slavery, overturning empires, ending apartheid; supporting justice, equality and the rule of law. More than ever, in our fracturing world, we need peaceful protests supporting civil, legal and human rights for all.