Unity or Diversity: Lessons from the 2018 French Yellow Vest Protests
Paris, December 15, 2018 (ABC)
Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan’s Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, proposes a correlation between nonviolent resistance and mass mobilization fueled by diverse populations gathering to protest. When a campaign is predominantly characterized by nonviolent resistance, populations that vary in age, physical ability, gender, risk tolerance, etc. are able to participate in protests. This differs from more violent forms of resistance which limit certain groups from joining due to restrictions they face from certain moral, physical, and ability-based factors. When campaigns are nonviolent and amass large & and diverse groups of people, they create an environment for demonstration that is more conducive to success in a campaign. A single unit increase of active participation increases a campaign’s likelihood of success in achieving its goal by over 10%.
French Yellow Vests
During the 2018 French yellow vest demonstrations, protests amassed a diverse gender and age-based turnout. What started as a collection of protests geared towards boycotting high fuel prices and costs of living under the Macron administration, soon grew to encompass a myriad of grievances among the French population which manifested in retirement protests, women’s rights movements, union marches, and environmentalist demonstrations. Though the Yellow Vest campaign resulted in achieving one of the major goals of negating a tax that led to the increase of fuel prices, the Yellow Vest campaign may be considered a failed movement because its end did not satisfy the multifaceted social and economic calls among the people. Though there was a relatively unilateral consensus regarding Macron’s resignation, the ultimate inclusion of numerous movements within the greater campaign, led it to become disjointed and eventually diminish This was reflected in the gradually diminishing turnout of demonstrators. There was no umbrella organization present within the campaign, nor were there significant attempts to consolidate leadership. Where there is diversity, there is a campaign that amasses large numbers and typically yields successful results. The distinction between diversity and unity, though, may be indicative of how successful a campaign will be in achieving its goals.
2017 Anti-Kabila Campaign
The 2017 anti-Kabila protests are an example of a successful protest that had a more streamlined set of goals. Delayed elections and collective calls for the former DRC president Joseph Kabila to resign motivated the campaign. Though there was not as much diversity in terms of age and ability, there was an overwhelming female presence at demonstrations interacting with security forces. Though there were groups on the fringes that attacked the government, there was a clear media distinction between those involved in the campaign and those in radical groups with alternative goals and tactics. During the French yellow vest protests, 59% of demonstrations were yellow vests and other groups and 41% were sole yellow vest protesters, though mainstream media sources did not always clarify between them. The success of the anti-Kabila protests may likely be attributed to a more aligned set of goals that were present in demonstrations associated with the campaign, and a clear distinction of participants present in the media. In this way, the actions of the protests become more distinct and there is a cohesive nature about the campaign itself. Diversity creates a more blurred landscape in campaigns, making it more difficult to create a distinct line between the tactics and moreale of mainstream versus peripheral demonstrations. This collectively shapes domestic and international perceptions of a campaign, and therefore greatly influences its success.
Anti-Trump Movement
The anti-Trump protests sought to resist the policies and procedures of the Trump administration, with the ultimate goal of pushing the former president out of office. The anti-Trump campaign included diverse people spanning across different age groups, races, religions, sexual orientations, and genders; there was a breadth of motives initiating their participation in the campaign. However, throughout the campaign there was not always a distinction between protesters’ association with different causes incorporated within the greater movement. In this way, protester identity appeared more nebulous and there was less clarity in labeling fringe groups and those part of the more general movement.
At the conclusion of the protests, Trump’s resignation was a result of electoral procedure. There was a diverse population with mass participation, but his ultimate exit from office was not a result of protests, but of an existing constitutional procedure. This begs the question of whether or not members of the anti-Trump campaign would have been more successful or achieved success in a shorter time frame if they’d consolidated their various motives into one that was more cohesive and therefore more unified.
Conclusion
Diversity brings numbers, but numbers without cohesion does not necessarily lead to success. Varied groups lend themselves to a higher volume of people and therefore an increased chance of success. But without those numbers being driven by or toward a unified objective, the efforts may not yield a result that fully encompasses the aims of its participants. This is not to say that all protests will find success with unity and diversity among its population, or that the lack thereof will be responsible for the campaign’s failure. However, when analyzing the 2018 French yellow vest protests, and other global protests that occurred in a similar time frame, it is understood that merging diversity and unity in protester objectives, allow for more clarity in collective tactics & media coverage and for a more streamlined and successful achievement of campaign goals.
