Quotes About Protest

In 1965, I marched for equality.

This whole business of calling farmers all kinds of cheap names, such as Khalistanis, Urban Naxalites, was resorted to by BJP to weaken and damage the farmers' battle against the farm laws.

You will notice that the Occupy Wall Street crowds - and the progressives who support them - focus on bringing the wealthy down to earth rather than lifting the 99 percent. They have a nearly religious belief that too much wealth is fundamentally immoral and unhealthy for society.

I think there's a weapon of cynicism to say, 'Protest doesn't work. Organizing doesn't work. Y'all are a bunch of hippies. You know, it doesn't do anything,' because, frankly, it's said out of fear, because it is a potent force for political change.

As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world.

There is a weapon we can fight with. That is the weapon of political action.

It's much easier to wear a Chairman Mao button and shake your fists in the air and all that, then to actually read the Communist manifesto and things like that and actually become involved in politics.

History shows that all protest movements rely on symbols - boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, flags, songs. Symbolic action on whatever scale - from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to wearing a simple wristband - is designed to disrupt our everyday complacency and force people to think.

In 70s America, protest used to be very effective, but in subsequent decades municipalities have sneakily created a web of 'overpermiticisation' - requirements that were designed to stifle freedom of assembly and the right to petition government for redress of grievances, both of which are part of our first amendment.

It's been really hard to watch the news of this Anonymous and LulzSec stuff because most of what they do - defacing Web sites and running denial-of-service attacks - is not serious. It's really just nuisance.

It is just not something we need to forget easily, to just bend the knee, to put on our t-shirts, Black Lives Matter, and one week after everyone forgets that.

In 1982, fellow film student Amanda Richardson and I went to Greenham Common for the day - to see what was going on and to shoot some video. The day turned into a weekend, the weekend into seven months, and the dozens of hours of footage turned into a film - 'Carry Greenham Home.'

Here in Canada, the people who oppose the tar sands most forcefully are Indigenous people living downstream from the tar sands. They are not opposing it because of climate change - they are opposing it because it poisons their bodies.

Police brutality is definitely still very alive and active.

We were like heroes, to stand there and observe the police, and the police were scared to move upon us.

The fact that we live in a world where black people have to strategize so they're not brutalized by police is insane.

You have someone like Colin or many of the other athletes who have knelt, especially athletes of colour, and if you're not respecting what they're saying, if you're not believing their charges of police brutality or racial inequality, you're saying that they're lying.

I just - I come from a very little town where the militarization of the police force is a very real issue.

Gandhi protested against restrictive policies. So did 'Guru.'

Political movements always belong to the young.

Clothes are a big part of a free society, I think, and what you wear is so indicative of the political climate you're living in.

Riots born out of political issues aren't the same as those born out of personal greed.

There are beautiful songs people write about love and dancing. But it's political issues that should be addressed.

Through the years, I had became involved with social and political issues, such as racial discrimination.