Comparing two protests (aka Bring a jerk doesn't make people like you....)
The last few weeks have seen a bit of disruption come to the Dutch administrative capital of Den Haag.... first we had the farmer's protests and then that was followed by a building and construction protest.... the farmer's one is still ongoing, but I'm not sure if the construction is planned to continue through the year... and meanwhile, we've also had strikes by the primary school teachers (which actually affects our family not so much, as both my wife and I hold jobs where we aren't generally working in the daytime anyway!).
The teacher's strike is one that I support quite strongly... teachers and teaching in general are one sector that creates and produces REAL impact to the public... not like a good deal of jobs for jobs sakes... or money creation or make-work jobs. Teaching (especially for younger children) moulds and informs the public of the future... and it is important and critical work that is too often treated as cheap daycare. Anyway, that is a topic for a different post and not too relevant for this one...
So, both the farming and construction sectors are striking in response to the Dutch government's plan to reduce nitrogen emissions from this country (You can read more in English here)... something that needs to be done, but seems to have rubbed certain sectors in a bad way. Anyway, that is by the by.... this post is a comparison between the two styles and methods used by the two different protests and how it affects the way that I perceive their causes. Keep in mind that this is my personal experience with them... and it is a small sample size of n=1 and completely anecdotal (so, good enough for internet meme-ing but not a real study!).
So, the farmer's protest was first (actually, they've done a couple since that first one....). It involved driving tractors along the motorways and main roads into the centre (Malieveld...) during the morning peak hour... needless to say, tractors aren't that fast... and it backed up traffic for quite a huge distance. Apparently, it was one of the biggest traffic jams ever to have hit The Netherlands! This was followed by a gathering in the local protest field (Malieveld) and a march on the Chambers of Government. They also parked tractors on some of the ingress roads, blocking one of two lanes of traffic....
All in all, it was disruptive... but not really that bad. I did wonder at the time, whether or not this sort of thing is conducive to your public message... I seem to think that it is a good way of getting attention, but not necessarily positive attention. I'm a pretty unflappable guy... so, it didn't bother me much... but I can imagine that there were people who were turned off quite strongly by the whole thing. Anyway, apart from running red lights and stopping traffic flow across intersections on the smaller roads.. I found the whole thing pretty inoffensive (but perhaps counter-productive).
Fast forward to the construction worker strike.... in which they cribbed from the same protest plan, but "improved" it. So, they did a drive in with their marginally faster construction vehicles... and parked them on Malieveld... so far, so similar. However, they took the opportunity to dump tonnes of sand on the field... which is a pretty dickish move if you ask me. The field is a public protest field.... but also a public field for community events and other events (like the Cirque de Soleil will be hosted there in a few weeks... and there are carnivals there as well.).
They also took the opportunity to block ALL the ingress roads completely. So, unlike the farmers who slowed traffic by blocking one road... the construction workers completely blocked the ingress roads around Malieveld... not really an improvement for public image, but effective if you were laying siege to the city (or just trying really hard to piss off it's inhabitants).
During my drive into the city to pick up my kids... I came across some of the construction workers... just walking around eating their lunch as a pack on the roads... blocking the roads, littering and just being arseholes to the traffic that was going around them. So, behaving like drunken teenagers who thought that they owned the place and screw everyone else... just that they were (probably...) sober. Not a good impression....
Anyway, on the basis of these two protests... and my personal experiences of both. I have to say that the farmers did a much better job of it... they stayed relatively polite and inoffensive... disruptive, but not disabling... and didn't go and make a mess of a public field. I have to say that the construction workers didn't do themselves a favour with this particular protest... especially when it was in such close proximity to the farmers protest, and thus easier to remember and make the comparison. I get that some of the younger guys in the construction protest were perhaps not under any direct control from the organisers... but that makes it more imperative that the organisers stress how the protesters should behave. Being jerks... contrary to common internet behavior... doesn't sway people to come around to your point of view.
Anyway, that said... I have to say, I support the teachers the most... but they didn't block any roads. They just took the day off...
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I took quite a lot of photos on a number of protests over the years. Quite easy to get on the side of those speaking when you hear their side of the story. Difficult to know the whole picture, though.
Yeah... I know that there is more to the story that the little bits that I see and get affected by... but I wonder if many people will take the time to go further and learn more about the grievances of the protesters?... or will they just annoyed and leave it at that negative image?
It seems like in our modern world many employment groups seem to think that sending a message to Government officials that pay them (I imagine this is why the farmers, teachers and construction workers are striking) is best put forward by affecting the general public who indirectly pay their wages through taxation.
I agree with you teaching as a profession is wildly underpaid for the effort they put in - and under appreciated by even parents. You can kind of understand a lack of support from single people, or couples that decide raising a family is not for them - because their taxes will still contribute to the teachers wages. But so often people fail to look at the bigger picture - the children being taught could go on to be doctors or nurses that help them in future, fireman that put out a fire that they might have died in, Police that recover stolen goods - education is really essential.
Emissions definitely need working on, I’m not really up with Nitrogen but I can see where farming racks it up - not so much construction but I guess it must. If reducing emissions means in a change in practice or greater raw material costs - the groups would be better suited to request Government subsidies or grants to cover it.
But blocking roads and traffic just frustrates the people who contribute to their pay, while doing nothing to the Government officials who decide these things and most likely just avoided going anywhere on those days. Rallying support for a cause is better suited if you get the general public on your side - rather then aggregate them.
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Keep up the great work!
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you are probably right. but... but....
who can say any good word about terrorism and terrorists?
but sometimes, people just have nothing else to do nowadays!
imagine where is you, and where is the Prime minister... he's almost a fiction, as abstract, as God. nothing people can do to be heard. going to the streets and blocking the roads is a slender substitute to solving the problem of being heard, at all. like the terrorism acts. basically the same for me, when people are 146% deprived of the voice, and of the power.
"people have the power" ? not anymore. not in our out-of-joint time and society. @c0ff33a
Thanks for the curation... Nitrogen as far as I understand it, is a more urgent problem than the Carbon problem... it is causing algal blooms and dead zones in water bodies.
In this case, the teachers/construciton/farmers... aren't being directly paid by the government (we have a different education system here...). The Dutch Government recently passed (or proposed) a set of bills that would cut back severely on the Nitrogen emission caused by the various sectors (not education... that is a pay award problem!).... and farmers and construction consider it to be too steep and with unfair exceptions for things like the airport.
Anyway, I did take the time afterwards to learn about what was happening... but I wonder if more people would just get a negative reaction and get cranky at the protests rather than learning more about it.... to me, it seems like a desperate action that is unfortunately more counter-productive than a campaign of persuasion.
It's interesting how different groups handle protesting different. I've found primary and secondary industries (work that is more physical) always tend to be more aggressive. If you have ever worked at those places they are often structured similar to the military and do not expect professional or refined behaviour from their workers (do the job, do it properly and safely and well).
On the other hand if teachers or other government employees (few other services or white-collar jobs have enough power to be in strong unions). tend to have more subdued protests due to the relaxed environment they work in.
In Korea every male adult has done military service. When the farmers or manufacturing workers (steel, cars and shipping mostly) protest things get extreme fairly quickly. It's actually threatening manufacturing because no one (including Korean companies) want to deal with militant (their word not mine) Korean unions.
When the government workers protest, they get told off pretty quickly because they are on public money.
My favourite Korean protest of all time was when the Buddhist monks and Christians were protesting a government idea to start taxing the priests. They had their followers helping them. Oddly, it was only the rich churches and temples protesting this (the ones where priests drive luxury vehicles).
I suspect next year, there will be absolutely insane protests in Korea regarding the US and Japan (US-ROK cost sharing measures and GSOMIA/WW2 historical disputes), especially if the right parties unite and defeat the left parties at the election next year.
It's strange... I never really thought that Korea would get militant protests... of course, that is an idea based on absolutely nothing!... Nationalist protests are always the worst everywhere in the world... people feel threatened and they fear for a loss of an imagined identity... sadly, this means that all attempts at nuance on all sides goes out the window.... good luck for the coming year!
Another problem that is coming is mainland Chinese vs. Any other group of foreigners especially around universities.
Lots of Chinese students here attacking anyone in support of Hong Kong, Taiwan, other chinese boundarybdisputes and general humans rights issues. I know its a big problems in Australia, too. In Korea it's technically illegal for foreigners to protest without special permission, but it is rarely enforced for obvious reasons.
Hmmm... I haven't been following it so much in Australia, but there is definitely the problem of "foreign influence" in our institutions and other sectors of the economy. I haven't really followed what has been happening in the universities though....
People do the oddest things when they are frustrated and feel marginalized. This is such an interesting study in human behavior. One group chose to make their grievance known without disrupting others lives, while another group caused havoc. It reminds me of the classic story of the sun and the wind.
Haha... yes, I haven't heard that story since I was little! I should try out those fables on the kids... they are really decent lessons!
People no longer respect certain occupations, strike action has become a daily event, sad people no longer hold the respect they once had and deserved.
Yes... it is strange that it has come to this... but there used to also be a time when there were many more strikes.
It's not good to strike, when others are one strike because you're lost in the shuffle @bengy. One strike at a time is all we can handle in Texas. 😁
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Haha... One at a time for me as well!
Farmers protest a lot in France too. Last year they dumped manure on a council car to protest about the weather. I shit you not
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Lol, did it fix the weather?
I bet it did!
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