Agitprop, Part 7
No to Botha
demonstration, London, 2 June 1987
Demonstrations and Marches
The above image is of the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s “No to Botha”
demonstration on 2 June 1987, while British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
was entertaining South African State President P W Botha. It was a large,
impressive march, mobilised at short notice.
Demonstrations are Agitprop. They are works of art and they are
designed. They are also the product of organisation, co-ordination and
logistics.
The best way to get people to attend a demonstration is to get them
involved in preparing for it.
Demonstrations are different in different places. The Anti-Apartheid
Movement demonstrations had a particular look, to some extent because of the
designer who was regularly used to create the posters, and who used very short
slogans and large lettering, black on white.
Two posters were stapled to a stick about 1.5 metres in length, with two
sheets of the grey cardboard called “chipboard” in between, to give stiffness,
and all stitched together with more staples. This technique is still used in
the U.K., but it is not used in South Africa.
Here, people hold up placards in front of them with two hands.
But what South Africans do, which British demonstrators hardly know how
to do, is they dance, and they dance with marshals, who keep the front straight
and maintain a slow pace by marking time at intervals.
South Africans also achieve a visual effect with clothing, such a
T-shirts.
Organisation
You have to get a permit to march. You get it from the police. That is
the first thing.
Then, in South Africa, buses will usually have to be paid for and
arranged in terms of where the pick-up points are to be. This is very
expensive.
In South Africa, and elsewhere, there is nearly always a memorandum to
be handed over at the destination.
The order of business is the assembly, where there may be
speeches, the destination where there may be more speeches, then
possibly a second destination and maybe a final rally in a park or
square.
Often there is a truck that serves as a platform for speakers, equipped
with a public address system.
Really big marches can close down a major city.
Marches are peaceful. They are not supposed to be violent or ugly in any
way. If there are problems, it is usually because of “Agents provocateurs” – people who are not with the organisers, but
are against them.
Mobilisation
With marches, as with other events, the number of people reached by the
advance publicity is exponentially larger in proportion to the time available
for mobilisation. So, if in two weeks you can mobilise 50 000, then in
three weeks you might be able to organise 100 000 and in four weeks,
250 000. These are imaginary figures, of course. The point is that the more
time you give yourself, the more likely you are to get a big crowd.
So get an early start. When is the start? The starting point is really
when the date, time and venue are fixed. After that you
can communicate your event to the world, and especially to your potential
supporters.
As was said above, the best way to get people involved is to give them
work to do. So, you ask people to phone their friends until they have ten, or a
hundred, known people who are committed to taking part in the march. You also
ask people to bring a band of volunteers. You can make them your marshals. You
will need hundreds of marshals for a big demo. If you have too many marshals,
don’t worry, there are plenty of other jobs to be done.
The mobilisation of volunteers is a chain reaction that will serve also
to spread the news. How you get the mainstream media to cover it, is a mixture
of the conventional (press release; press conference) and the original (cute
slogans; cartoons; T-shirts; stunts). Sometimes, celebrity show-business support
can help, but it can also limit.
As much as you can start the chain reaction of mobilisation in your own
organisation, so also you would want other, supporting organisations to do the
same thing. Each organisation is a means of mass communication in itself, and it
needs to be used as such when a big demonstration is called for.
The art of unity-in-action comes into play at such times. It is possible
to accommodate very many organisations in a big march, and you will want to do
so. This means not being sectarian, but it also means preserving the basic
slogans and purpose of the action. Meetings will be held. There may be a
steering committee. Where there are press conferences, the different component
organisations will want to have their say.
Usually, it is possible to defend the basic slogans but at the same time
to allow organisations to express themselves by some variation in the banners
and placards that they bring.
Means of general publicity will include posters in public places,
provided that these go up some time in advance. Posters arriving the day before
the event are a big waste of money.
The prior announcement of speakers expected at the event can be an
important draw.
Each demonstration is a school of organisation for thousands of new
recruits to this form of political expression and Agitprop.
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