Buy essay on Non-violent social change strategy: a protest

In this paper I would like to touch on the theme of student protests that rocked the western world in 2009. They can be called outstanding examples of non-violent methods of social protest.
I should say that at the moment isolated student protests have become quite a strong movement in many parts of Europe and the USA. The most active such protests were in Croatia, Greece, Austria, Germany, California, with a somewhat smaller scale, students were protesting in the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, France, Macedonia, Poland, as well as in the states of the U.S. east coast.
The purpose of the protests was to stop the “economization” of education that took place in most Western European countries. So the social change desire was to make education more available, as it is very expensive, so that only part of students have real opportunity to get it.
It must be said that there is no single reason for the emergence of such strong protests. In 2009, the imposition of several factors led to another wave of protest movements. But the main reason is still a long process of “economization” of education. In recent years the government has much less funded education system. In addition, private companies invade the sphere of education and science, sometimes even before the privatization of universities.
We can say that this new wave of student protests is the first powerful international movement, which differs substantially from the standard view of previous social protests. However, the movement for improving the education system has many specific differences, which we consider in this work.
The student protest that took place in November-December 2009 were demonstrating the high level of solidarity among their members. In Germany, student protests took place simultaneously with a very strong movement of pupils and students, in France this movement was accompanied by a parallel strike by teachers against the educational reforms of Sarkozy. (World Socialist Web Site)
An important characteristic of the current protests is the high level of communication between the various centers of protest activity, the similarity of their claims and, in some cases, the similarity of methods of struggle.
What is a social strategy of a student’s protests?
A common characteristic of the protests is that students are almost completely abandoned the “classical” forms of civil resistance: picketing, petitions, marches, etc. These methods were used only in France and during the week of the general student solidarity struggle. Months of protest against plans to raise fees in the form of marches, pickets – all these “fancy” protests fell flat: they were simply ignored.
Now the most popular form of student control is the so-called “occupation” of the university, which is sometimes accompanied by a strike. However, from country to country, university occupation has significant differences. In most European countries such occupation has been reduced to capture the students of one or more of the major lecture halls, and the training process lasts for all comers. This form of protest was realized in Germany, Austria, Britain, Italy and Spain. However, the lecture halls have a discussion platform on which the protesters formulate demands put forward, discuss strategies for further action and pursue alternative seminars and lectures. (World Socialist Web Site)
On the other hand, there are examples of much more radical protests in Croatia and California. In Croatia, the students of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Zagreb in the midst of local elections more than a month kept his body, completely stopping the occupation. They joined the majority of universities in Croatia. After the suspension of the protests in November, the Croatian students again took several universities and a number of individual faculties (that not without power confrontation with hired guards and police), completely cease training. We can say that the Croatian students on the path of a full-fledged strike. In Holland, the students acted no less radical: in Groningen, students resorted to the occupation of the office of the University administration. (CNN.com)
In California, the fight is becoming more radical: increasing number of fights with the police and the pressure on the administration. (CNN.com) Despite obvious differences in the form of student protests, all these actions have something in common – they all do not fit into the usual legal limits. Occupation of any species are not permitted forms of social protests. On the other hand, such protests do not seem too radical.
In conclusion, I want to say that in my opinion the example of student’s protests – is a very good example of a non-violent social change strategy. I think that the strategy of students was very effective for some reasons: first of all, because of large number of participants who took part in mass protests, and secondly, because the protests were all over the world: the USA, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Moldova and other European countries; and thirdly, the student protests were widely reported in the media, especially in the Internet, attracting a large number of participants.
I think that goal of social change strategy was achieved, and the states drew attention to the need to reform education and make it accessible to all students.
Awareness of these lessons of student movements is necessary for both theoretical understanding of today’s prospects of social protest in general – and in education in particular, and for practical attempts to change our world for the better.

Works cited
“Students and school pupils protest”. International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). World Socialist Web Site. Web. 16 June 2010
“Protests of tuition increase continue on California campuses”. CNN.com. Web. 16 June 2010