How to Organise a Protest

If both this article’s title and featured image resonate with you, I presume you have grievances worthy of unleashing the zombie apocalypse onto unsuspecting civil rights violators, but there’s just a problem: you don’t know how. Well, that’s just fine. In the past year I’ve attended dozens of protests and helped organise a few, while taking down notes about what works and what doesn’t. And while there’s no magic trick to move the masses, I have plenty of tips for those who don’t want to learn it all the hard way.

The most important thing to remember is that starting a protest is very much like running a business or running for office, and the same tactics apply. I would encourage you to read Guerilla Marketing, a classic book about promoting one’s platform compensating for lack of means with ingenuity. Its lessons translate readily to the world of activism.

Following this line of thinking, let’s make a business plan for our protest. First of all: what is our goal? If it’s merely to vent our anger, then let’s just gather a few like-minded friends with signs and make a picket line at our elected representative’s office. I’ve seen several protests just like that, and there’s nothing wrong with them; in fact, it shows decisiveness where otherwise opportunities would be squandered by fatalism.

But then I presume, for the remainder of this article, that it just won’t cut it for you. You want to think big. You want a big crowd and a loud message. You want the media to show up and give you prime time coverage. You want the unfortunate target of your ire to wet its diapers. You want to raise hell.

Numbers

So let’s look at the other end of the spectrum. Some minor protests, with negligible planning, have spread like wildfire online and fuelled movements of their own, like the Ukrainian and Iranian protests. I mention these in particular because ethnic communities make for the best assets in mobilising resistance. Second best is to harness the power of an organisation; AdBusters, behind the Occupy movement, comes to mind. In contrast, rallying the random masses requires an acute level of exasperation that is seldom seen in practice; the Freedom Convoy stands out here, and even then, it was started by a community of truck drivers.

The morale of the story is to define the next item on our business plan: our audience. Whom are we trying to rally? Who might be receptive to our message? Just shooting into the void hoping random people listen makes for a poor strategy; it’s much better to build upon like-minded activists for a foundation. If you can’t answer this question already, then it’s time for some homework. The world of activism rests on overlapping communities of fellow activists with common goals, and we’re unlikely to get anywhere without reaching out to them.

I said overlapping communities here, and I mean it, so let’s aim broadly here. For example, I’ve attended an online workers’ rights talk where both migrants’ rights activists and climate activists were invited. The link with the former is fairly obvious, as migrants are a primary target of labour violations, like the latter make the link with heat waves and workers fainting in sweltering warehouses. By the way, I’m not even a worker myself, merely a civil rights activist, and I did attend out of genuine interest.

Another example is the Iranian and Ukrainian communities rallying together to protest. While the connection may not be obvious, both communities share similar grievances and values, and both struggle to overcome protester fatigue, so why not? Yet another: I’ve just shared a poster by climate activists at COP27 exposing fashion brands’ hidden supply chain links to Russian oil which funds the Ukraine war; this is quite the bundle of overlapping causes. Just look for connections with similar causes and movements, and you’re certain to find allies eager to join you.

Resources

On to the third item of our business plan, and that one’s going to hurt: what are our means? Odds are they’re really bad. Hell, let’s just state it for the purpose of this article: we’re broke. We need to either run our platform on peanuts, or somehow raise money. The latter shall be the topic of an upcoming article, so let’s assume the former. Remember Guerilla Marketing? It’s time to put it into practice.

More than money though, spreading the word takes time, and the less of a community one builds upon, the longer it takes. In my experience, it takes about a month to rally people in significant numbers; less than that and the message may not spread far and early enough to reach people and let them put the protest on an empty slot in their agenda, while if the campaign lasts too long people might forget or lose interest. Brace yourself for running an election campaign during that whole month, reaching out to lots of fellow activists and apathetic strangers alike, shaking hands on the ground, canvassing, distributing leaflets and posters, sending emails and sharing posts. Really, organising even a modest rally is hard work.

Nowadays, though, it can really be done with peanuts, thanks to computers and social media. Our first step shall be to turn our dream protest idea into a marketing platform. It needs a name, preferably with a catchy slogan (like “Woman, Life, Freedom!“), and some kind of sales pitch. It could use a logo, a distinctive colour scheme, and an eye-grabbing font. It might even ride on some catchy symbol, like the Canadian flag or purple ribbons (hey, why not all dress up as zombies while we’re at it?). Remember: We’re trying to sell people something. We’re trying to get their vote. We’re not just activists, we’re acting like businessmen and politicians, so we need to embrace their mindset (the fact that we’re running on peanuts notwithstanding).

So our first weapons are the graphics and publishing suites. If you don’t know how to use Photoshop (or more realistically, a free alternative), time to learn. There’s no need to be good at it; in fact, the simplest designs are often the best. Just think of Save Old Growth‘s, for instance, which looks like something a fifth grader could have come up with and implemented with MS Paint, and yet it’s both notable and distinctive.

Settings

The next item on our list is: where and when should it take place? The location can easily make or break a protest. It’s best to make it at some iconic venue, like a state legislature—especially when trying to reach politicians, which are the targets of most protests. Good locations are well-known (nobody should have to look it up on a map!), visible, accessible, and related to our target.

Timing matters even more so. If nothing else, there should be no other event at that location. A protest I was looking forward to was abruptly cancelled because it coincided with the Santa Claus parade. Another protest, which I attended, coincided with a competing rally at the same time and location, leading to avoidable disruption. Really, these are rookie mistakes.

There are also days and times which work better than others. Protests draw larger crowds on weekends than weekdays, outside business hours (at least on weekdays), around noon rather than early in the morning or in the evening. Let’s also avoid statutory holidays, since we’re bound to compete with other events. It’s worth looking at local event announcements just to be sure we’re not choosing an inopportune time slot.

Then there is the matter of notifying the authorities. At some locations and in some contexts it may be legally necessary, although contentious so I won’t elaborate at length here, but the main issue is whether one prefers being met by the police upon arrival for notifying them or rather being surrounded by them for omitting to do so. One context in which I would recommend doing so is for a street march though (mass jaywalking!), for obvious safety issues (and even then, I would recruit volunteer safety officers in orange vests just to be sure).

Case in point: I recently attended a “Kill the Drill” rally in town, held on a Saturday at noon. The protesters marched from Centennial Square (at the core of downtown Victoria, very well known, highly visible) to a nearby Royal Bank of Canada branch at a busy intersection down main street, surrounded by police officers (which would have tagged along whether notified or not). Whether to hold the event when the branch was open or closed is debatable; while the pressure would have been tremendously worse if the mob had surrounded the facility during work hours, doing so under heavy police presence might have prompted a heavy-handed response.

Promotion

Once this is settled, we can move forward to spreading the word. The first who should be notified are the media, so we need a press release; this basic step is what sets professionals apart from amateurs. And it’s not just a matter of sending an email to the editor, it also has to be formatted properly and worded professionally in order to be taken seriously. This one step may determine whether cameras will show up at our event, and since we protest organisers are attention whores we sure as hell want the media coverage.

By media, I don’t mean merely the mainstream media, but also all kinds of alternative media, starting with hobbyist bloggers such as myself. It’s worth spending a few hours scouring the web and social media looking for other outlets, like podcast channels, independent media, nonprofit organisations, and so forth. No need to ponder whether they’ll be interested; like the salespeople and politicians we emulate, we’re shameless spammers trying to sell our platform and sending tons of press releases via email is cheap.

Then we need to spread our announcement through the social media. If nothing else, we need a Facebook Page, and then a Facebook Event; it’s amazing how many protests omit either of these steps, and this too is a rookie mistake. The latter in particular can reach even people that do not follow us in any way so it’s golden. Also, time to spread these posters we made to every group that will not ban us outright for spamming, with a bold “Please share” caption. A video announcement can also be worth it, assuming our concept has the potential to go viral, and then we can also spread the word via Youtube and TikTok.

Paid online advertisement may prove worthwhile. Granted, we’re running our campaign on peanuts, but promoting a post on Facebook or Twitter for a local audience can be done with a shoestring budget so it’s worth contemplating.

Tangible forms of promotion, such as flyers, actual posters, banners, stickers, and signs, can be significantly more expensive, but they are certainly worth the expense if we can spare the budget. Dealing with a professional printer may prove an unexpectedly difficult ordeal, though, and even a gentle introduction to the topic is worth an article by itself. One may be tempted to do it at home with a cheap printer, but it may prove even more expensive and the results may be lacklustre, if not outright disastrous.

Spreading these stickers and posters in town is universally regulated under bylaws, and if the rules aren’t followed then the offending material is routinely taken down, although these rules are widely flouted without consequence. This too is worth looking into, especially if we need our material to remain on display for a significant duration. There is also the matter of taking these down after the event, although that too is widely flouted in practice and is largely left to one’s conscience.

Success?

There is no surefire formula for a successful protest. If nothing else, the weather can throw a wrench into our plans, although I’ve seen protests succeed even under pouring rain. And even spending a lot of time and effort reaching out to lots of like-minded people, doing everything right, sometimes mysteriously fails to translate to significant turnout. So brace yourself for disappointment, and don’t give up; practice makes perfect and persistence pays off. We’re zombie protesters, after all, and zombies notoriously die hard.