HOW TO ORGANIZE A PROTEST OR MARCH

WHAT YOU NEED: THE BASICS…

• A clearly established issue or cause that needs to be addressed, including specific goals
• A group of people to organize the protest or march who have the capacity to do so
• A well-thought out plan (without a plan, the protest or march is going to fail—but don’t worry, read on for some helpful ideas and suggestions).

ESTABLISH THE GOALS

The first part of organizing a successful protest or march is to consider what the goal is going to be. Is it to raise awareness? Do you want to disrupt business as usual? Do you want to force an issue into the open? Do you want to protest a particular injustice?

Asking questions about your goals can help the group organizing the protest or march to clarify their purpose and to make sure everyone is on the same page, which can be critical in ensuring a successful protest or march. You don’t want have half your group looking for a riot while the other half wants to look good for the media. Exploring the many facets of your issue, for example local developers and government agencies engaged in gentrification that displaces low-income people to make way for upscale housing, can lead to new angles that can shape your goals.

It also helps to consider multiple levels of goals. While your primary goal might be to draw attention to the threat of fascism, you should also consider other secondary goals such as getting new people involved, generating excitement, or increasing your group’s name recognition.

CHOOSE A TARGET

Once you have a goal and focus for your protest or march, you should establish a target or series of targets. Ideally, these will be institutions or individuals that are related to your goal in some way, and preferably, those that have some degree of power to grant your demand. Perhaps they might be completely unwilling or unable to grant a demand, which means they could be useful to demilitarize the system.

For example, if you are protesting against the threat of fascism, you might want to direct your protest against a company profiting from it in some way, a Congress member who is a fascist, a spineless liberal member who is failing to stand up, or some other such target. All too often, protests or marches lack focus, who hasn’t seen a march winding its way through town with no clear destination or with no focus?

Protesting can be an effective educational tool, but most often, it is much more empowering to direct that anger and energy towards a specific target. Would you prefer to stand on the corner by your house yelling about the war or would you rather yell in the face of those who make the slaughter possible?

CHOOSE A DATE

Sometimes, you can’t control the date of your protest or march. For example, a politician or a corporate executive might be coming to town. In that case, the date will be set for you. However, if you are able to set the date yourself, for example it’s an issue that allows some flexibility, you would do well to give your group plenty of time to advertise and prepare materials.

Additionally, when choosing a date, you should consider traffic (pedestrian and vehicular) in the area where you will be protesting or marching. Are Saturdays particularly dead in your downtown? You might want to have it on a weekday instead. Is your target closed on the day you choose? Then you should probably choose a day when it is open. If your downtown is a ghost town, it may not be worth organizing a protest or march in that area. Nothing is more disempowering than a protest or march that nobody sees and from which participants leave feeling as though they accomplished nothing.

CHOOSE A MEETING PLACE

You will want to choose a meeting place for the protest or march that is near any targets that you want to go by, stop at, or at which you wish to conclude. If your location is over a mile from your intended target, you are likely meeting too far away. Additionally, you should choose a meeting place that is easy to find, for example a park, and always provide the nearest intersection to make it easier for people to find.

Depending on the political situation, you may want to meet at a place such as a park at which people can legally gather. In some places, there may be obscure laws that state that political gatherings need to have permits and/or prior approval. In general, these can typically be avoided without much consequence.

CHOOSE A ROUTE

If you’re organizing a protest march, once you have chosen your meeting place and targets, you should figure out the route. Marches that decide this in advance generally go the smoothest, after all, you don’t want to take a wrong turn down a dead end street or make some other embarrassing mistake.

Generally, you will want to take the route that gets you to your destination in a reasonable amount of time. People tend to get bored on long marches and nothing is easier to dismiss than a march that looks like a horde of zombies (unless of course it is a zombie-themed march). Most often, the routes that are the best will be on visible streets or by those with related targets.

PLAN PROMOTION

Once you have the logistical aspects of your protest or march covered, you will want to get started advertising (you very well may want to do this before you have some of the details figured out). We suggest that you begin by creating a flyer that contains:

• The date, time, and location of your protest or march
• An eye-catching graphic or two
• A website or email for more information
• A brief background on your protest or march (the “why” and “what” of what you are protesting)
• Anything you want people to bring: for example, signs, banners, etc.

This flyer may be the basis of your advertising and outreach. You should make several 8.5×11 or larger copies to post around town along with quarter or half-size copies to distribute to people by hand. A successful advertising strategy will include posting flyers at “sympathetic” businesses locations, like a coffee shop, and handing them out at events where sympathetic people will be. For more information about canvassing, check out that separate tool.

You should also aim to tell as many people as you can about your protest or march via face-to-face conversations. Additionally, you should plan to do additional advertising on the Internet. Unless the protest or march is being organized on incredibly short notice, Internet advertising should never substitute for direct, in-person canvassing.

That said, Internet advertising is critical. You should post your protest or march wherever sympathetic people might see it, including social media so that you can invite your friends, while encouraging others to do the same. You can never do too much advertising, always push yourself to find new places and ways to advertise. It’s critical if you want to have a successful protest or march.

SHAPE THE MESSAGE AND CREATE MATERIALS

While it is good to encourage people to bring their own signs and banners to your protest, you may want to make sure that a coherent message is being presented to your targets, passersbys, and/or the media. To do this, it often helps to produce a series of compelling signs and visuals with your message.

For example, you might want to have a banner at the front of your protest or march that makes your message clear, for example, “Stop Police Brutality Now.” In some cases, especially for not quite legal protests that plan to occupy the streets, it helps to have additional banners down the side that can help prevent cars and police from driving into the protest or march (and potentially protecting people from being arrested).

Aside from a lead banner, it can also be helpful to produce signs for the protest or march because no matter how many flyers you distribute asking people to bring signs, you can be pretty sure that a good number of people won’t have signs. An easy way to mass produce signs for minimal cost is to use stencils and spray paint to spray onto cardboard.

Beyond signs, it is generally helpful to have a leaflet that you can distribute to pedestrians and drivers as you protest or march. Your leaflet should include a basic explanation of the issue, a website for people to get more information, and ideally, a way for them to get involved in future organizing efforts.

STICK TOGETHER

As you think about the logistical aspects of the protest or march, it is also important to think about how to keep the crowd together. Keeping the group together gives you the maximum visual impact, gives protesters and marchers a sense of strength and unity, and ensures safety (particularly if you are marching in the street and are concerned about traffic or police).

For marches, one way to do this is by having people in the front who are in communication with people in the back who can then adjust the pace if necessary to ensure that the march isn’t thinning out and that people are not being left behind. Moreover, you will want organizers in the front to ensure that the march follows its intended route.

HANDLE THE MEDIA

Dealing with the media is a whole other topic, and there is a good debate to be had if it is worth it or not. Generally if you are organizing some kind of protest protest or march, you should plan for some kind of interaction with the media. You should also be prepared for the fact that the media has two basic goals: 1) to sell its product; and 2) to protect the status quo.

Consequently, you can expect the media to do everything in its power to minimize the point of your protest (because dissent is a challenge to the status quo) and to focus on the most outlandish or sensational aspect of your protest. Did someone get arrested at your protest or march? You can bet that will be a big focus of the news coverage. Is there someone who looks “weird” by so-called “mainstream standards” at your protest? You can be pretty sure they will talk to that person.

It is easy to spend hours talking about how the media works to minimize dissent, but suffice it to say, they rarely want to portray your efforts in a positive light. Consequently, if you plan to talk to the media, it helps to make an effort to consider a few points before hand:

Designate one or two “media spokespeople” from your group. Have them actively seek out reporters and offer those reporters interviews.

Spokespeople should have a few key talking points, agreed to beforehand by the rest of the group, that they wish to share with the media. Talking points that deal with why you are doing and what you are doing are definitely the best.

Be prepared for the traps: don’t answer questions like “are you disappointed with the small turnout?” or others that aim to give the public a disempowering view of your protest or march. Play up the positives of what you are doing.

MONITOR THE POLICE

In addition to the media, another one of those adverse forces that you will likely have to deal with is the police. In all cases, police are never your friends. When it comes to protests or marches, they generally have one goal; to minimize the disruption through repression. This can range from arrest to enforcing arcane ordinances requiring a picket line to be constantly moving. In some cases, they want to neutralize dissent altogether and may respond in incredibly brutal ways.

Before your protest or march, it is a smart idea to consider what you are going to do if the police come. While debating “what if” scenarios can be crippling, it is typically helpful to consider the big ones: What will you do if a person(s) is arrested? Do you wish to obey police orders? Who will represent your group to the police (if you want anyone to do so)? At what point will you challenge or cease challenging their authority?

Beyond these questions, it is also helpful to designate a few people to deal with the police. Typically, having one person engage with the police (wait for them to approach you, never defer to their authority) is helpful. That person can relay information to the larger group. In addition, it is a good idea to have a couple people with video cameras recording the actions of the police in case of arrests and/or other repression. The person(s) designated as police liaison(s) can also help to keep the crowd calm.

Finally, you would do well to consider what you will do if people get arrested at the protest or march. When an arrest happens, the legal/police liaisons should gather as much information as possible. This should include the names of the person(s) arrested, what was happening, what the police did or said, officer’s badge numbers, witnesses (and a way to contact them), and any photos/video of the arrest. In addition, at the conclusion, it is imperative that the organizers pass a hat to collect money for bail and invite the group to come to the jail to get the arrestees out and show their support.

DIVIDE UP ROLES

With the suggestions above, you may be thinking that it seems like an awful lot of work to fall on one person or just a few people’s shoulders. And it is. Consequently, it often helps to split the work into a series of roles. For example, a few people can be designated legal observers, a few people can leaflet, a few people can be paying attention to the speed and direction of the march, and a few people can deal with the media. By designating roles, you can greatly enhance both the efficiency and effectiveness of your protest or march.