By Jesse Zarley
Special to the cardinal
When most people think of mass protests, they usually conjure up images of the 1960s: the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and the fight for women's and gay liberation that emerged from them.
These struggles had tangible results in the end of the war in Vietnam, the erosion of Jim Crow and the legalization of abortion.
Despite these successes, the concept of mass protest has been relegated to the annals of history, a distant place that is remembered with nostalgia but ultimately inaccessible to the millions of people who want to win equal rights and end the injustice they see in the United States and abroad.
Many detractors say marching up State Street or attending a rally will change nothing, and that instead we should accept that the world is messed up but cannot be fixed, or else that we should focus on electing candidates who will go to bat for us.
The eruption of a mass movement around immigrant rights and against anti-labor legislation in France has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt the true power and efficacy of mass protests.
In response to a bill that would turn the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants into aggravated felons overnight, make lawbreakers of anyone who assists them, and fund construction of a massive wall on the United States-Mexico border, over a million people marched in Los Angeles, 500,000 in Dallas and New York City, and hundreds of thousands more in dozens of other cities across the country to demand equal rights for all immigrants.
The pressure brought by this movement has forced Congress to drop the most Draconian measures of the bill, effectively shifting the terms of the debate.
Over the past month in France, hundreds of thousands of workers and students took part in frequent strikes to demand the repeal of a law that would create a two-year trial period for all workers under 26, during which employers could fire them without cause at any time.
After students and workers took to the streets and shut down over a third of the nation's universities and many of the airports and rail stations, the right-wing government of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was dealt the black eye of scrapping their prized legislation.
In both of these examples, students have played an integral role. The 40,000 Los Angeles high school students who walked out of school and French students who occupied their universities were large contributors to the success of their struggles.
These cases vindicate the strategy of mass protest and the importance of students in them. I know that I am not alone when I say that Monday's protest made me feel that winning equal rights is not an artifact of our parents' generation.
The fight is alive. ¡Sí, se puede!\
Jesse Zarley is a sophomore and a member of the International Socialist
Organization. His guest article appears special to The Cardinal. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
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