After watching the Occupy Wall street protest fail last year because it did not have enough people I will say this.

If 2 million people were on the streets of NYC and surrounded wall street thing's could have been accomplished.

The US has well over 300 million people so it would at least take 1.5 million people all in one place to be effective.

In the UK where the population is around 60 million it would probably take 750,000 people outside of Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle to run the Monarchy out of town and free the people of the UK from the rule of the Royal Sceptre but considering a million people were on the streets celebrating the diamond jubilee that's doubtful.

As for the Military industrial complex to be shut down i figure it would take at least 500,000 people outside the headquarters of Lockheed Martin and another 500,000 simultaneously outside the headquarters of Raytheon.

Thoughts?

Sadly i bet that guy was severely dealt with after Hong Kong was handed back

I believe he was executed. I remember seeing his one man stand on TV when it happened, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Such amazing courage! Bless him.

Yep chinese troops massacred alot of tiananmen demonstrators

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man

MrsGood wrote:
Thank you very much for that Mrs Good. I'd looked it up in the past, and read that he'd been executed, but your link suggests there were conflicting reports - 2 different claims of his being executed in differing circumstances, and others that he was never found. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear there's a possibility that he escaped unharmed.

MrsGood wrote:
According to George Galloway it never happened

When I made this thread I was thinking about protest in the Western World....

Specifically, Monarchy, Wall Street, Military Industrial Complex

But I respect that protesting is a world wide issue...

Not to take away from the Demo thread oioioi made...

RealAmerican wrote:
Spoken like an American

RealAmerican wrote:
If the effects of the Monarchy, Wall Street & the Military Complex were limited to the Western world you'd have a point.

RealAmerican wrote:
Over a million people went out onto the streets to protest the Iraq war but it still went ahead.

An effective protest is one where the police stand back and allow the people to drag the politicians out into the street and string them up from lamp-posts

I disagree. Occupy wall street was just the beginning of a global movement that has achieved a lot. I know for a fact that occupy atlanta has helped keep people in their homes. Occupy is a general movement which has been important in part because it has brought a lot of people together. The labor movement has embraced occupy and used it to mobilize against the war on unions and labor in general.
As long as there are people inspired by a protest or moved to do something then I see it as a success.

oioioi wrote: There are no boundaries when viewed from above, Their greed and power lust, see's no boundaries either.

You can potest to you are blue in the face, nothing will ever change the system the system itelf needs changed

Black Cloud wrote:
Did humans not create the system? if not who did? and who has the power to change it?

RealAmerican wrote:
I think you already no the answer to that, it doesn't matter how many protest, marches strikes petitions get signed nothing will change

Black Cloud wrote:
The system is not the same in every country, iv'e been in 3rd world country's were it's totally different life.

Black Cloud i have no idea what your talking about, when the majority of people want the system to change it will.

To say protest, marches strikes petitions get signed and nothing changes is simply not true at all.

Sadly, I think that the optimum number of protesters is proportional to the population where the protest is being held. 50%+ is a good start and would make the untouchables nervous.
A million demonstrators in a city of 10 million (or worse: a country of 60 million) doesn’t cut it. Large populations work against us in this kind of scenario (it shouldn’t, but this is the world we live in. Welcome to Earth).
That’s why I favor something like a general nationwide strike, it requires the minimal amount of effort for people to participate in with the maximum effect; it hurts the bottom line. Demonstrations can still be held on the day of the strike to somewhat silence the Status Quo poodles [mostly media] that’ll always claim that people are only after an excuse to skive off work.

and Justice for All wrote:
I think it's circumstantial of what is being protested...