- Thinking About It by Zee Feed
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- Why disruptive protest?
Nadia Rao, 59, writes: Dear Zee Feed. Can you explain in concrete, practical terms how the protest outside the Myers Christmas windows launch in Melbourne furthers the international cause of Palestinian liberation? I am a person with a left-wing perspective, but I consider this protest to be picking on Australian children.
This is, essentially, the question asked by Nadia over a series of comments left on our Instagram post about the protest planned for the unveiling of Myer’s Christmas windows (both the launch itself and the protest have since been called off since the post).
I’m going to answer in good faith, in as few words as possible, using as clear and straightforward language. Because a lot of people do think this way! So I reckon it’s important to explain why certain approaches to change are taken, especially given the events of the last two weeks.
The shortest answer I could possibly give you (98 words): Protests demand an action from the government. Being disruptive is a threat: “Do XYZ, or we will keep messing up the things you care about”. Protestors are demanding the Vic gov specifically to a) cancel its agreements with the IDF, and b) influence the federal Labor gov to stop funding Israel & sanction it. As a public PR event that Vic gov cares about, the Christmas windows are an ideal target. The more disruptive protests get > the worse a government looks > the more inclined they will be to give in to the demand to restore order and keep power.
A much better answer: Protest is one way for a group to make a demand of the people in power. It’s not just about awareness-raising (although that is also important) – there is always an ask for an action to be taken.
In this case, it is for the Australian government to stop funding Israel’s genocide of Palestine. Currently, Australia funds it both directly and indirectly. (In other cases it might be: stop approving coal mine extensions, don’t blow up this Indigenous landmark, secure the return of a political prisoner, etc).
But there’s a power imbalance, so the govt is unlikely to listen to demands of random members of the public. You need leverage.
One way to get some leverage is to disrupt things that are important to a government. That’s why it’s always things like: stopping traffic, chaining themselves to machinery, doing graffiti on big business and banks ($$$), and interrupting public ‘PR’ type events – like the unveiling of the Myer’s windows.
It’s a kind of threat: we won’t stop making your (the government’s) life more difficult until you meet our demand.
The general public will also be inconvenienced with disruptive protests. That’s part of it, because as well as being annoyed at the protestors, the public also gets pissed off at the government for ‘allowing’ the inconvenience. The more disruptive protests get, the worse a government looks. If it’s close enough to an election, the government may worry it will lose votes.
They will then be forced to more seriously consider the demands made by the protestors.
It’s not picking on children, it’s picking on a corporate business and the government.
Here is the concrete & practical bit: Governments like to be seen as “pro-family”, so the Christmas windows are a good target for non-violent disruption. It says specifically to the Victorian government, we will keep doing this until you…
Cancel your agreements to collaborate with the Israel Defence Force. Vic gov has its own direct agreements to work with the IDF that specifically references “sharing opportunities” from “global tensions”. You can read what is known about that here.
Pressure the federal Labor government. A one of the country’s strongest state Labor governments, Vic Labor is in a good position to pressure their peers in the federal Parliament to make the most impactful decisions on Palestine. This is particularly relevant close to a federal election.
Disruptive protest isn’t the only option – you said in your comments that you’ve participated in protests before, so I know you already understand that. Lobbying, letter writing, organised events, art, publishing are more compliant ways to make the demand. Some argue that these are examples of “asking nicely”, and that governments rarely listen when the public asks for something in a nice, quiet way. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any major movement that succeeded without disruptive behaviour (and almost always including some kind of violence, but violent resistance is a different topic altogether).
You might not agree with the strategy of disrupting public events. That’s fine. You might not think it will work, and that’s fine too. Nothing is guaranteed to work. If there was one method that had a 100% success rate, we’d all just do that.
But what I’ve laid out is how and why it is a practical tactic to further Palestinian liberation, from Melbourne.
Interestingly, this week Australia supported two draft resolutions at UN meetings that call for Palestinian sovereignty. Reports say it is the first time Australia has done this in decades. This is not because of the Christmas windows protest. But I do think the persistence and escalation of collective efforts across Australia for the past 12+ months is pushing the government in the right direction, combined with the fact that we are only months out from a federal election with Labor’s popularity falling a lot.
So, there you go. To Nadia and anyone else who has been wondering about this, I genuinely hope this helped.
Take care of each other this Sunday.
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