I was wondering if americans ever hold mass protests / marches.
I can think of a couple of thinks you should protest about
Only 2 weeks holiday a year (to enable a tiny minority of your population line their pockets). DON’T ACCEPT IT!!
The fact that your president was not even democratically elected.
Don’t get me wrong - you may be protesting in your thousands but we don’t hear much about it in Europe. Obviously you have had some great civil liberty movements in the past but now it seems you accept whatever your goverment does.
Bingo. There were protests on both sides after the 2000 Election. There were protests leading up to the war, there are still protests in response to the war. There were walk-outs on college campuses leading up to the war.
How recent are you looking for? What was it? six or seven years ago there was “The Million Man March” on Washington. That one had a couple of groups follow their lead with marches of their own.
There have been recent protests against the anti-abortion bill that W. signed last week.
Recently we’ve had mass demonstrations on both sides of the war(s), on both sides of the abortion issue, for various civil rights issues (admittedly these aren’t nearly as big as they were a few decades ago), and on both sides of various free-trade issues, off the top of my head. Protests are so common that they’re hardly even newsworthy, at least beyond the local news.
And on a much smaller scale, we had a mass protest outside of a state senator’s office after he changed his vote on a gun-control bill. People on both sides of the issue turned out. Since only 24 hours had passed between his vote and the rallies, it appears that people can mobilize quickly when they want to.
Almost any controversial news story is likely to bring protestors on both sides of the issue to picket in front of the White House on only a few minutes’ notice. As Chronos sayd, it’s so common, it rarely merits news coverage.
As for the controversy surrounding the presidential election, there were plenty of demonstrations by all sides. However, that was 3 years ago, and those who remain energized by the issue are now working on the 2004 election.
Maybe the question is why the British media isn’t reporting them? We have plenty of protests. God bless 'em except when they shut down my subway stop because of them One of the many fun things of living in a big city.
We also have rallies, in SUPPORT of things, imagine that!
Protests are so common around President Bush that protestors are often herded into “Free Speech Areas” to keep them out of the way. This may be why the foreign media does not hear about them.
Why should we protest two weeks’ vacation, though? Technically, there is no law in place (well, maybe in some states, but not that I’m aware of) that requires that employers give any paid vacation time! Two weeks is simply a customary amount–some companies give more, especially to employees with seniority, and some probably give less, or even none at all. Besides, people are much more worried about their health benefits. It’s probably tough to organize people to protest on issues of working conditions these days–not because people don’t feel strongly, but because any complaint about your job these days is met with eyerolls and cries of “At least you have a job!” I know that’s what happened to the clerical workers who went on strike at the University of Minnesota. They were protesting low wages and rising health care premiums. Instead of people in the private sector feeling that they were in the same boat and rising up to protest with them, they instead started saying, “Why are they whining? Our wages are low, and our health care costs are rising, too! Get over it!” So, I doubt a protest would be effective on that issue at the present time, and people who are working to change those things are often working in other ways–lobbying Congress, etc.
I’ve seen loads of footage of recent(ish) footage of protests in the U.S…the anti globalisation protests were well documented over here. I don’t know if its the way that the media portrayed it but when these things turn a little ugly the U.S police always seem to wade in mob handed.
If it’s protests you want, just watch the news about the pan-American Free Trade Conference next week in Miami.
They are meeting to work on a free-trade agreement between all of the countries in this hemisphere (except Cuba). The police in Miami are currently working on an “embed” system for journalists similar to what was seen in the beginning of the war in Iraq.
We currently have a very controversial free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. The prospect of a hemisphere-wide free-trade agreement is sure to ignite quite a protest.
Having lived in DC for 3 years, 1999 - 2001, I can attest to the numerous protests that made working 1 block from the White House miserable. In no particular order: Protesting the Word Bank (which I worked next too, yippee!), protesting abortion, protesting China’s occupation of Tibet and many others. The abortion protesters turned out to be the biggest pain in the ass. It seemed that a large number of them had never been on a subway before and kept getting caught in the doors, keeping the train from moving. After 10 hours of work and wanting to go home, I felt like aborting them right there in the metro station.
The protests I never understood were the large groups who protested about conditions in their home country. Not the groups who blame the US for their countries problems, just the people who protest about the government or something similar. What exactly is the point of that? Is it supposed to change anything? On that subject I have to agree with Howard Stern’s comments when he saw a group of Honduran’s protesting in New York? “What the hell do you people think you are going to accomplish? If you want to protest problems in your country, go to your country and protest.” or words to that effect.
As for “1. Only 2 weeks holiday a year (to enable a tiny minority of your population line their pockets). DON’T ACCEPT IT!!”
Vacation time is determined by the employer in the United States, not the government. If someone is unhappy with the amount of vacation they are receiving, shouldn’t that person be out looking for another job and not protesting in the streets?
So yes, we still do mass protests, but I’m sure that within a year or so such events will be determined to be a security risk, and will be banned for our own protection. After all, what more juicy terrorist target than a bunch of Merkins in a tight mob.
Partially crowd action is not being reported because the U.S. National Park Services stopped estimating crowd sizes after 1995’s Million Man March – an African American Male thing – when the promoters filed lawsuits claiming the ParkService estimate of the crowd (hint: >1million) was too low.
It is cool to say on TV 250,000 protested in Washington today. It is yawn inducing to say (as US news now does ) “thousands and Thousands marched today”.
Some of the biggest Marches of the past 10 years:
1995 Million Man March - D.C. +500K<1million
1993 Millenium March - DC (Gay Pride/Rights) - +300,000
1997 Promise Keepers - DC (male evangelical Chrsitians) 100’s of thousands [see above]
2000 Earth Day 30th (environmaentalists) 100’s of thousands [see above]
There are alternate pro-choice and pro-life Marches, some on important anniversaries or recent events can swell thier numbers to 100’s of thousands [see above].
Already hit were the anti-Iraq stuff & anti-globalists – you can see how hard it is to grasp w/o taking a stab at how big the crowds are – it becomes meaningless … & I think that is why you have a sense there are no marches.
Were I one of these groups I would demand ParkService estimates and b^tch about it afterwards – but at least my group could know we put at least 400K people on the street – as opposed to a vague “100’s of thousands” …
This might be a red herring. If all (or most) of the suppliers are offering only X terms, then can you really find what you want? In the case of such a market failure, it’s appropriate for the government to step in and lay down minimum standards. (You betcha I want government-mandated four-weeks paid vacation for all!)
It’s disingenuous to assert that most or all job suppliers are only offering two weeks. Two weeks is standard for entry-level positions, but plenty of companies offer more, and most offer more with seniority.
Just to be clear, I’m not making such a specific assertion. I don’t know what the average is, but it’s certainly not as high as four, five, or six weeks, as is the case in other countries. My only assertion is that whatever the exact number is, it’s too low. And from my point of view, four weeks of annual paid vacation time is not something that individual working stiffs should have to bargain for on an individual basis, because, for the most part, we’re not going to get it, and, for the most part, employers have all decided on a similar set of formulas to limit working peoples’ paid leave.
Out of curiousity, where were the “mass demonstrations” in favor of the Iraq war? The only ones I recall hearing about were either “support our troops” efforts, or a handful of nuts who think dropping a nuke on Iraq would solve all our problems. Certainly nothing comparable to 20,000 people amassing in the streets…
One of the many fun things of living in a big city.