Have You Ever Taken Part In A Protest March Or Demonstration?

[naomi24]

If so, for what cause?

[kvalidir]

I was always being carted about around demos ever since I can remember, both my parents are very politically active. For myself I do PRIDE, I've marched and campaigned about NHS and a few other things that I consider very important but more generally I protest with my purse and boycott companies like Nestle and inform them of how much I've spent in a year on rival products and why I chose to boycott theirs etc, and how many people I have managed to recruit to do likewise. I have a reasonably extensive *** list of companies that I do this with, it may make no difference but it might in the fullness of time.

[ummmm]

What's wrong with Nestle ?

[kvalidir]

Personally I boycott them alone for the issues with water, but there is a HUGE list, they are not and have never been a nice company.

http://listverse.com/2018/01/03/10-outrageous-nestle-scandals/

[ummmm]

Oh dear...I didn't have a clue :-(

[Canary42]

Perhaps I've misread something somewhere along the way, but I'm surprised dogs don't like protest marches. I thought they liked walks. Is it because they can't stop for a defecation whenever they want ;-)

[chanel5]

Took part in many civil rights marches in Derry/Londonderry in the late sixties. Got water-cannoned and tear gassed on more than one occasion.

[Theland]

Early 1980's Liverpool and Glasgow. Anti Thatcher and trying to stop the closure of Tate & Lyle Liverpool refinery where me my brother and dad worked.
Should have gone on the London one too but didn't make it

[maggiebee]

Took part in a couple of ban the bomb protests in the early 60s. Think I might have been swept along with the crowd rather than having any real convictions.

[New Judge]

"I also refused to pay my Poll Tax for quite some time,..."

Off topic a bit, but it is hot, why did you fundamentally object to the Community Charge, ken? Bear in mind that it replaced domestic rates and was replaced by Council Tax (identical to domestic rates). Just what was it about the charge that you disagreed with so much? I've asked this question of many people but never really received an answer which helps me understand the issue..

[dave50]

I agree New Judge I have also never had a sensible answer from those who objected. It was a lot fairer, being that every person contributed in some way. It seems to me that they didn't like the idea of suddenly having to pay their way.

[jno]

I went on protests against the Vietnam war. I assumed it would be ineffective but I found out years later it had actually made a difference to the US administration's thinking.

[Ken4155]

Sorry for the delay, NJ. Just seen your post - and would probably not have seen it had it not been for the last post catching my eye at the right hand side of the site.
Okay, i was in private rented property and prior to the 'Poll Tax', apparently £2 per week of my total rent went to my rates. That equals £104 per year. In comes the Poll Tax and both myself AND my wife each have to pay £298 per year. Total = £596! Fair? Not in my book. Then i find out that a couple of work colleagues were able to pay less because their Tory run council had a thing called 'Transitional Relief', which we in Burnley did not have.
Had the rise in payments been brought in on a gradual basis, i wouldn't have had a problem with it but i also think that a person's earnings, rather than the value of their home, should have been used as a basis for Poll Tax. At the time, i was a semi-skilled welder living in rented property while my next door neighbour ran his own very successful little business and owned his home. Yet we both paid the same PT. Hence the very strong Anti Poll Tax feeling i had. Hope this explains it.

[Kromovaracun]

Pride, in a few different cities. Both political versions and 'party' versions.

Protests against fees, though not any of the really big London ones.

I joined the candlelit vigil in London for the victims of the Orlando shooting, which was very touching. Likewise I also went to a similar kind of thing at a local synagogue for victims of an anti-gay shooting in Tel-Aviv some years ago.

I was at quite a small demo outside the NUS against their 'no-platforming' policies and speech codes. Alas I was experimenting with new ways to style my beard at the time and happened to have one that didn't suit me terribly well. So I'm not proud of the pictures...

I'm sure I remember going to some event protesting the Sochi olympics but I really can't remember details. I was invited by someone I fancied at the time anyway and didn't really pay the event itself much attention...

I was at the protests shortly after Boris Nemtsov's death in Moscow, though I went there more to observe than to participate (not that I wasn't sympathetic or anything, it just felt too intrusive to participate myself on something that really affected so many Russians).

When I was very first starting at university I was invited to an occupation (again, invited by someone I fancied...) but chickened out at the last minute.

I have a feeling there might have been one or two more, but I can't remember them offhand.

[Kromovaracun]

Oh, I also went to demonstration against the EDL in Norwich but I can't remember which year it was.

[Zacs-Master]

Being so passionate about something (anything) means you're probably mssing out on some other aspect of life (or even a few aspects) and I'm afraid my smorgasbord approach to tasting everything I can in this short span we have precludes me from any such action.

[Rockrose]

Yes, at 15 we protested about the constant teachers strikes affecting our exams, so we walked out, our year and the year above.
The police were called and tried to 'talk us down' but we were having none of it - made the papers where we lived.

[New Judge]

Thanks for the reply, ken. Been away for a couple of days.

"At the time, i was a semi-skilled welder living in rented property while my next door neighbour ran his own very successful little business and owned his home. Yet we both paid the same PT. Hence the very strong Anti Poll Tax feeling i had. Hope this explains it."

I understand your gripes about the sudden increase. There should have been more of a transition arrangement. However, the issue you raised above is just as evident with Council Tax. There is a house near me where a couple and their three adult children live. They all have decent jobs, so five decent incomes coming in. They pay the same Council Tax as their neighbours, a retired couple living on fairly low pensions.

The same applied to domestic rates which the Community Charge replaced.

[New Judge]

And forgot to comment on the other shortcoming of the Poll Tax: it would have been far fairer if the amount charged was standard across the country. There is no justification for local variations - they just give busybody councillors something to feel important about when they set their local taxes.

[Norwichcropper]

Your Answer...I was one of the 250,000 that took part in the 1998 countryside March for no other reason than I live and worked in the countryside and felt that I needed to March if that makes sense

[Ken4155]

Two wrongs don't make a right, NJ. I am still paying just as much as my wealthier neighbours. T'was ever so :-(