A protest throng

May 24, 2006 10:38 PM

In the papers, I routinely read about thousands of people pouring into the streets protesting some sort of injustice in what seems like a spontaneous gathering. What are the logistics behind this? How do people know where to go? And how does mob mentality function internationally, exactly?

I've been to a few organized protests, but in the States, they don't seem to occur on the same frequency as those internationally. Is it because of geography? Many also seem to take place in the middle of the week, which I assume is when most people are working. Or is everybody just damn lazy?

Also, in the ones that I've been to (mostly anti-war), it seems like an exorbitant amount of planning and marketing is involved, so they seem rather subdued and careful - to a point.

I think geography may have a lot to do with it, but what other factors in additional to political outrage are needed in drawing such a large turnout?

posted by i8ny3x to society & culture (9 comments total)

I believe you're thinking about flash mobs. I'm not sure but I remember them being mainly organized by rapid text messaging and stuff like that.
posted by shokod at 11:07 PM on May 24, 2006

I'm not thinking about flash mobs, actually. Besides, aren't they more a fad in somewhat developed countries? I'm talking about the less-developed ones.

On Tuesday, I read that thousands upon thousands of Iranians were protesting over the government's shutdown of a state paper after it published an offensive cartoon. The shutdown was announced on the same day. Somehow, I don't think Persians decided it would be fun to risk their freedom over a flash mob.
posted by i8ny3x at 11:13 PM on May 24, 2006

A phone tree is a popular technique for mobilizing activists on a moment's notice. Of course, they have to already be activists, and that requires quite a lot of work. Saul Alinsky in the book Rules for Radicals lays out some excellent methods for creating an activist community.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:19 PM on May 24, 2006

It happens via the web these days, but different protest organizers have been doing this for a long time. The recent immigration related protests were all organized in LA for example with big posters all around the city as well as a ton of web-based organization telling people where to be and what to bring. It has an aggregate effect as well. Say for a hypothetical example, a website like moveon.org sponsors a rally in a city like Ann Arbor when Bush comes to town, every left-wing related organization (student groups for example) will read about it on MoveOn and spread the word throughout their different groups creating a large, broadbased effect.

As for an Iranian protest that is pro-government, one would imagine they have propaganda people for that. As for your example of what seems to be anti-government protest, one would imagine various Iranian blogs would be an important factor in motivating student groups, especially.
posted by tweak at 11:22 PM on May 24, 2006

Don't discount the potential of media reporting to make the event a self fulfilling prophecy. Here in the UK, a day or so before the demonstration, there might be a interview with one of the organisers, a politician and a local police chief saying that they have the whole thing under control. There will be several mentions of the size of a predicted crowd. There will be a summary of what the protest is to be about and there will a pretty accurate description of where it is.
posted by rongorongo at 1:07 AM on May 25, 2006

If you push people hard enough, then most of them will become activists.

If we take an example of the anti-government protests like the Ukraine's Orange Revolution, you have people who were already activists. They were triggered by the election results, and many just streamed to the most central location in the city. There was also a lot of communication via text messages, IM, blogs and email - but a lot of it was just people going down to the city center, hearing that they'd meet others like themselves down there.

What happened in Poland the week Pope John Paul II died, was based on a very similar mechanism. People flocked to churches, places where he had spoken, and to the street bearing his name. All the electronic channels were active as well, and a lot of it was people asking their friends to go with them, who'd ask their friends to go with them, etc. Public transportation also helps fascilitate these things - people would meet up on buses, in the subway, and spread the word.

I don't know how well these two examples would translate to American cities and towns, lacking central locations as they do.
posted by jedrek at 1:58 AM on May 25, 2006

Protests are a mixture of spontenaety and planning. Generally, even if the exact whereabouts and details of a demo/action are secret, the fact that it will happen on a certain day is circulated widely. Then, when the time comes, people are alerted to the time and place via phone, the internet, text message, flyers and all other types of publicity.

Think of it like your friends organising a night out. One friend might come up with a plan of something to do and a place to do it and then phone up your other friends and it will be agreed. Those friends might get other friends along etc...

The other way that protests amass protesters is simply via people seeing it going on outside their window. This is often where a protest/demo/riot/action is related to a particular geographical area (the race riots in LA, the rights of workers for deprived young people in France). So, people see others protesting and might think, 'Hey, that applies to me too,' and get out there.

Protests often happen during the week because there are many activists who live on the dole/welfare and spend their whole time doing political stuff. They also involve a lot of students.
posted by pollystark at 2:00 AM on May 25, 2006

Bill Buford's Among the Thugs, which is about his experiences with football hooligans, has some fascinating stuff about mob psychology.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:35 AM on May 25, 2006

Posters and flyers help. I live downtown, so I can usually hear the noise of a protest and then head out to see what it is. More often, I check the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's website to see if there's any breaking news on a protest. Sometimes I'm just walking by a protest and I join in (if it's something I absolutely agree with). I don't go to many protests anymore (having become more small L liberal), but I think a lot of stuff is organized online, by phone and by text messaging.

A lot of times, labour unions, political groups, student associations and the like can quickly rent a bus and send a ton of members to a protest.
posted by acoutu at 8:52 AM on May 25, 2006