If You Want to be Heard, Use Your Feet
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Angelos Sofocleous
Publication (Outlet/Website): Assorted In-Sights (In-Sight Publishing)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/11/23
The solution to problems identified by individuals and groups is not words alone. You have to use your feet. As we catalogued in an article entitled US Women’s Rights Hero: In Celebration and Appreciation of Lana Moresky, it can come in the form of a lifelong struggle for the equality and dignity of women in one country by one person (Jacobsen & Sofocleous, 2016).
In other cases, it can take more people, which becomes the basis for social movements. Undoubtedly, one person can bring change. They always, however, necessarily need other people’s support; and that’s where social movements begin to form and bring change in the world.
Where the frequently cited heroes and heroines of various countries and eras are cited as the catalysts, but, in fact, they might turn out to be the downstream consequence of culture. That is, the cultural setting pitted the desires of various individuals and groups in society apart from one another, where the most viable solution seemed to come from the citizenry becoming fed up. They wanted more from something or of someone in society.
Those social movements can be seen throughout the history of the world. Indeed, right through the Civil Rights movements, and other social movements, even the blogging (writing) campaigns within Bangladesh continue, especially as things come to a head (Sofocleous, 2016).
From the era of Ancient Greece, where masses could decide to expel (ostracise) any citizen of the city-state of Athens, to the various movements in the 20th century that managed to bring an end to colonialism around the world, and the social movements which fought for equal human rights among people of different genders, colours and religions, one might feel as though there is a periodic and cyclic nature to the continual uprisings.
Recently, there have been plans for a women’s march in Washington (Rogers, 2016) as despite the fact that the inequality gap between various societal groups has shortened in the last century, there is still a lot to cover until we are able to praise ourselves that we have achieved equality (Jacobsen & Sofocleous, 2016).
It was a reflection of women among other peoples distressed by the divisive rhetoric on the American campaign trail by the, at the time, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is now the President-elect.
For the women’s march planned for January 21st, 2017 from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House, which was planned on Facebook and is meant to be after the Trump inauguration, 100,000 women planned to take part in it. Breanne Butler is an organizer for the women’s march on Washington.
“We’re doing it his very first day in office because we are making a statement,” Butler said, “The marginalized groups you attacked during your campaign? We are here and we are watching.” (Rogers, 2016).
Real emphasis needs to be given on such marches: While the internet can play a massive role in getting the general public informed and involved in protests, and as it serves as a concrete means to set up, advance, and organize a social movement, there is no doubt that real change takes place in the streets where the voice of people is heard and practical action is taken.
Of course, the statements do not come to the level of the Turkish government’s recent proposals about rapists being acquitted based on marrying the woman that they sexually assaulted (Davies-Owen & Jacobsen, 2016).
Despite the recent attempts of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to establish an authoritarian regime, after the coup that took place in the country in July 2016, by imprisoning thousands of military generals and officers, journalists and scholars who opposed the Turkish government (Said-Moorhouse, 2016), thousands have taken the streets to oppose the proposed bill (Al-Jazeera, 2016).
“We will not shut up. We will not obey. Withdraw the bill immediately!”, the protesters shouted to the government, giving a very straight and clear view of what a social movement taking the streets can bring about (News Limited, 2016). Statements of the Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag that this “is a step taken to solve a problem in some parts of our country” cannot be described in any other way than being utterly ridiculous.
The words, then the actions, followed by the attempts for a culmination, but each began from the catalyst of reaction to events by individuals and groups to divisive rhetoric. The divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail. No need to reiterate details known to most. Word of mouth, social media, conversations with spouses, within families, with friends, and in communities and organizations turned into action.
Actions such as the increased monetary funding and socio-cultural support for nonprofit organizations representative of particular aspects of political platforms and policies including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Civil Liberties Union (Chokshi, 2016).
The marches planned on Facebook for Washington seem akin to the protests and marches for Black Monday in Poland over reproductive health services and rights including abortion services by tens, even hundreds, of thousands of women and the 70,000 women marching and protesting in Argentina over the high femicide, murder of women, rate in the country (Jacobsen & Jackson, 2016; Jacobsen & Machado, 2016).
Without these marches, the above issues would be a mere headline in a newspaper or another issue commented on the news. But because of all those thousands of people that became united under a common goal and scope, the above issues have managed to get globalized. Thus, frustration and anger caused by the above proposed laws, and pressure to the respective governments, is no longer Polish, Argentinian, or Turkish. It is global. And this is all thanks to those social movements.
These feet marching and protesting are heard by the leaders and tend to create either more uproar, at a minimum debate, and sometimes substantial democratic reform to create a country more aligned with the desires of the citizenry, which is part of the international human rights movements and has been for a long time.
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.
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