Thread by @keikoinboston

Thread on how to evaluate a protest event/protest movement when deciding whether or not to support it with your time, money, and goods.

I’ve tried to keep these questions as open as possible so they’re applicable to any type of protest event or movement in any location.

People rarely make investments or take jobs without doing research so why should activism be any different?

When deciding whether or not you want to support a specific protest event or movement, go beyond the hashtags, memes, slogans, and heroic/moving images/videos.

I should note that there is no such thing as a perfect protest event/protest movement. People attend/join for their own reasons which may not always be aligned with the reasons of their fellow attendees/members or with leadership or even with stated goals.

These questions are intended as a guided exercise.

This is going to be long so:

Tl;dr: Don’t blindly support/boost protest events or movements because they have good slogans.

Do your research. 

Ask critical questions. 

Follow the money.

(tl;dr continued ↓)

(tl;dr continued ↑)

Differentiate between true leadership and people accumulating personal power and wealth. 

Abuse in the name of a greater good is still abuse.

Tangible change > symbolic victories.

*

Questions to ask yourself before/during/after attending a protest and before you donate money/time/goods to a protest event or protest movement. 

Many of these questions are also good to ask if you are evaluating an event/movement as an outsider.

• Who is leading/organizing this? 

• Do they have legitimacy to speak for the group whose issues they claim to advocate for or are they usurping authority?

• Is it “leaderless”?

If leaderless, who is getting the most attention on social media and in the media and functioning as de facto spokespeople?

• If you know the names of organizers before a protest event, review their social media accounts and any past media coverage for red flags that might suggest you don’t want to be involved.

• Do leaders/organizers/spokespeople have ties to specific organizations? (ie: houses of worship, schools, unions, activist groups, political parties, nonprofits, extremist groups, etc.)

Do your values align with these orgs?

• Are leaders/organizers/spokespeople engaging in common-enemy politics (divisive) or common-humanity politics (we’re all in this together)? Both?

• Are leaders/organizers welcoming to all? Do they prioritize/deprioritize certain voices? On what basis?

• Does leadership surround themselves with competent junior people who complement their weaknesses or do they surround themselves with yes people?

• Are leaders/organizers/spokespeople behaving in an abusive manner towards the the general public?

Towards protesters/members?

Towards opponents?

• What are they asking for?

• Who benefits from the outcome?

• Is the protest event/movement what it seems or is there deception involved?

• Have you read all of the materials they have put online or printed about their goals? If not, why not?

Do you fully align with the goals?

If not, is that okay with you? Is that okay with them?

• Has there been scope creep from where the protest event/movement started?

If yes, does that shift still align with the needs of the people they are advocating for?

• If the protest is about specific individuals who have been harmed, does the protest event honor the memory/wishes of the victim and/or their loved ones? If not, why not?

• Who are leadership partnering with? Are those partnerships useful? Financial? Political? Performative?

• Do partner groups add value to the protest event/movement?

Do they bring peaceful or violent individuals to protest events?

Do they espouse other views that are in conflict with the protest event/movement?

• Who are the attendees/members?

• Is this primarily a local protest event/movement or is it drawing individuals/groups/money from outside the region?

• If they are fundraising, who is funding the protest event/movement? 

Are there large donors?
Who are they? (ie: political party, religious groups, wealthy individuals, corporations)
Do your values align with these groups/individuals?

Is it all grassroots?

• Is there transparency about where the money is going? 

• Are you being asked to send money to:
- individual's account
- organization's account
- account set up expressly for protest event

• Is your presence and support consistently welcomed and appreciated regardless of your ability to donate financially or are you pressured to give beyond your means?

• Is money going towards stated purposes?

Is too much being spent on overhead?

Being used frivolously?

Primarily being used to line someone’s pocket?

Disappearing?

• Do stated goals/demands make the lives of people it purports to advocate for tangibly better or is the protest primarily street theater?

• Is the protest event/movement pulling focus from issues that others call “real issues”?

• What are their tactics?
 
Non-violent? 
Peaceful? 
Friendly?
Bridge-building?
Coalition-building?
Education-oriented?
Propaganda-oriented?
Verbally aggressive? 
Physically violent? 
Terroristic? 
Mixed?

• If they are violent, are they violent against people? Against property? Against animals? 

• Do they eject or welcome bad actors and violent individuals?

• If you attend, are you at significant risk of being arrested or physically harmed due to their tactics and/or counterprotesters and/or law enforcement response?

• Are you in a position to be arrested?

Do you have health problems requiring medication?

Do you care for a dependent?

Do you have a job that you could lose?

Do you have bail money?

Can you fund a legal defense?

• Has anyone been seriously injured or died as a result of the protest event/movement?

• Are you in a position to be physically harmed?

Do you have health insurance?

Do you have stable employment?

Do you have loved ones who can take care of you?

Can you pay for medical expenses?

• Is anyone harmed by the protest event/movement? 

Harm may include:
- loss of sleep due to noise
- physical harm
- mental health harm
- death
- property damage/loss
- loss of revenue/wages
- job/business loss

• How much does the harm cost them? (ie: medical bills, lost income, clean up costs)

• How much is this costing taxpayers in law enforcement resources? 

• Are the costs reasonable to support protesters’ First Amendment rights or are taxpayers paying for something hardly anyone wants?

• Is there a cost to local, independent businesses? To tourism? To public health?

Are organizers/leaders doing anything to mitigate those costs?

• Could the resources (money, time, goods, energy) being spent on this protest event/movement be better spent if allocated to something else?

• How organized are they?

Do they provide guidance on messaging?

Provide medics?

Is there a clean up crew?

• Do they offer any training? (ie: non-violence, street medic, media, informed decision-making on consequences, etc.)

• Protest groups sometimes have rules for in person and online behavior.

Do they follow their own rules?

Do they enforce them?

Are there different rules for different people (ingroup v. outgroup, leaders v. followers)?

• If this a protest event/movement that has been going on for some time, is there transparency and accountability of what has been accomplished to date? 

• Are those accomplishments concrete, tangible changes that improve people’s lives or are they largely symbolic?

• What are their proposed solutions?

Are they detailed?

Realistic?

Fundable?

Viable in the long-term?

• Are they doing anything else besides protesting?

- educational events
- feeding the hungry
- cleaning up neighborhoods
- public art projects
- voter registration
- other political action
- collecting donations for something other than protesting

If not, why not?

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read! 🌺

This thread is informed by 6 years of independent study of protests as an outsider, in-depth coverage and analysis of one multi-event protest, past conversations with activists and people who have attended protests, and…

… dialogue in an online forum for an international craftivism movement.

Thank you to @lovekoan @berb_ass @MyNextAct and others who preferred to remain anonymous who provided feedback on my draft in the past few days! 💖