80 Protest Quotes

Political agitation, by the passions it arouses or the convictions it engenders, may in fact stimulate men to the violation of the law. Detestation of existing policies is easily transformed into forcible resistance of the authority which puts them in execution, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between the two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government.

Every new baby is a blind desperate vote for survival: people who find themselves unable to register an effective political protest against extermination do so by a biological act.

It should be remarked that, as the principle of liberty is better understood, and more nobly interpreted, a broader protest is made in behalf of women. As men become aware that few have had a fair chance, they are inclined to say that no women have had a fair chance.

I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.

The road toward equality of freedom is not easy, and great cost and danger march alongside us. We are committed to peaceful and nonviolent change, and that is important for all to understand - though all change is unsettling. Still, even in the turbulence of protest and struggle is greater hope for the future, as men learn to claim and achieve for themselves the rights formerly petitioned from others.

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest.

The citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth's political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal, he is a traitor. That he may be the only one who thinks he sees this decay, does not excuse him: it is his duty to agitate anyway, and it is the duty of others to vote him down if they do not see the matter as he does.

I've got a fierce passion for politics but I can't stand the smarmy, hypocritical upper-middle-class dictator nation that prevails and has always prevailed in this country. I'm up for petrol bombers, mate, and fighting in the streets.

Every campus, of course, also has its rabble of young 'liberals,' who are forever making a din as they 'demonstrate' for 'world peash,' 'snivel rights,' and the like, and who, if we may judge from their appearance and their yammering, are as afraid of war as they are of soap. I am sure that every student here present fully understands the importance of staying on the good side of the young 'intellectuals' -- I mean the windward side, of course.

'When I made my theoretical model, I could not have guessed that people would try to realise it with Molotov cocktails.'

'Brothers and sisters, our democracy has been hijacked. Brothers and sisters, all electoral freedoms in this country are over so long as it's controlled by corporations. Brothers and sisters, we are not going to allow these streets to be taken over by the Democrats or the Republicans. Because it's all of us who have built this city, and we can tear it down unless they give us what we need.'

Why have I sold out? You think I'm supposed to grow old, beating some trite old protest drum that people don't hear anymore? Please; protest is now just a backdrop for a Diesel clothing ad in a slick fashion magazine. My goal is to create a metaphor that changes our reality by charming people into considering their world in a different way. It's time - for me, at least - to be clever and seduce people by entertaining them. I'll never be heard if I'm always ranting and griping.

The rise of National Socialism is the protest of a people against a State that denies the right to work. If the machinery for distribution in the present economic system of the world is incapable of properly distributing the productive wealth of nations, then that system is false and must be altered. The important part of the present development is the anti-capitalist sentiment that is permeating our people.

Much protest is naive; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come. Protesters who hold out for longer have perhaps understood that success is not the proper goal. If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone's individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.

There ought to be a million-person march on the Mall... that can be heard in the living quarters of the White House.

Do not treat me in this fashion. Don't leave me out. Have I not Always spoken the truth in my books? And now You treat me like a liar! I order you: Burn me! Those who lead the country into the abyss Call ruling too difficult For ordinary men. Ah, what an age it is When to speak of trees is almost a crime For it is a kind of silence about injustice!

Last week I was in Italy hanging out with Linux freeware activists in a college event sponsored by a dance club that's run by some kind of anarchist dive with Communists, and feminists, and hackers, and the media, and professors, and guys with piercings who hate Berlusconi.

As I looked out on the crowd, I was witnessing things I had witnessed in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina or in squares in Belgrade: it breaks my heart when I see it in my country.

It's a moving world, but that's no reason To shoot some of those missiles Think of us as fatherless scum It won't be forgotten 'Cos we'll never say anything nice again, will we?

'The accompaniment is ornamented with bells, horns, and female choir, but it is Elvis' voice upon which the words depend for their dramatic effect. In a departure quite uncharacteristic of country music, there is a fierce, almost shocked indignation and passionate intensity in his voice, transforming a fairly ordinary song into a vehicle for savage social protest.'

Never grow weary of protesting. In this sensitive business of dealing with the public which depends on faith and good will, protest is a most effective weapon. Therefore protest.

Now, years later, I still have trouble when I think about Chicago ('68). That week at the Convention changed everything I'd ever taken for granted about this country and my place in it... Everytime I tried to tell somebody what happened in Chicago I began crying , and it took me years to understand why... Chicago was the End of the Sixties, for me.

Now listen here, I ain't talking 'bout no revolution and I' not talkin' about no demonstrations.

The newspapers said, 'Say, what you're doing in bed?' I said 'We're only trying to get us some peace.'

(after playing 'Chant Down Babylon' by Hugh Griffith) - Well at our house, before we go to bed every night, we always chant down Babylon for five or ten minutes, and yet it's still there in the morning.

'The only time I've seen any rebellion was in the fifties, sixties and early seventies. The rest of it you can keep.'

Thomas Friedman dismissed the protesters in Quebec City as members of the 'Coalition to Keep Poor People Poor.' ...The Coalition to Keep Poor People Poor might as well disband; its apparent goal is being accomplished in spades by pro-market forces. If the prospects of the world's poor improving their lot is one that supposedly upsets anti-capitalist protestors, they can confidently put their gas masks and get back to the shopping mall - global capitalism can be trusted to keep the poor in check without any help.

I believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men of our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence for fighting for our cause, but by non-participation of anything you believe is evil.

I love Karl Lagerfeld, and they [PETA] hate him because he showed fur in his collection, and they protested his fashion show. People were chanting outside, 'KARL LAGERFELD IS A MURDERER! KARL LAGERFELD IS A MURDERER!' And I thought, 'Wouldn't it be fabulous if Karl Lagerfeld actually was a murderer?' Like, what if he just fuckin' lost it one day...backstage, at a show, in Milan...and bludgeoned Elsa Klensch to death with a platform shoe. 'I HATE THAT BLOUSE!'

When the Nazis arrested the Communists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist. When they locked up the Social Democrats, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat. When they arrested the trade unionists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist. When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest.

Picket lines and picket signs Don't punish me with brutality Talk to me, so you can see Oh, what's going on What's going on.

'Shelter me from the powder and the finger / Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger.' - 'Powderfinger'

Mass non-violent protest is predicated on the humanity of the oppressor. Quite often it doesn't work. Sometimes it does, in unexpected ways. But judgements about that would have to be based on intimate knowledge of the society and its various strands.

We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when police remove them they say no. We can't have that. That is a revolt to the system. Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move you move. If you don't move, you invite the police to use force.

It's called Operation Chaos. The dream end, I mean, if people say what is your exit strate... strategery, the dream end of this is that if this keeps up to the convention, and we have a replay of Chicago 1968, with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that, that's the objective here.

Your Excellency, Mr President: I greet you, in the name of the many thousands of people in Britain who stood against the tide and opposed the war and aggression against Iraq and continue to oppose the war by economic means, which is aimed to strangle the life out of the great people of Iraq.

If you, or Colonel Dalrymple under you, have the power to remove one regiment you have the power to remove both. It is at your peril if you refuse. The meeting is composed of three thousand people. They have become impatient. A thousand men are already arrived from the neighborhood, and the whole country is in motion. Night is approaching. An immediate answer is expected. Both regiments or none!

Stop the War and Stop the Genocide, read the banners being waved in the demonstrations in Rome and here in Bari. For Peace. Against War. Who is not? But how can you stop those bent on genocide without making war?

Distorting hackneyed words in hackneyed songs He turns revolt into a style, prolongs The impulse to a habit of the time.

Word motherf**kin life/f**k this ni**a think?Cuttin taxes, takin off welfare/We 'sposed to just sit here, go broke and die, starvin?

Written in red their protest stands, For the Gods of the World to see; On the dooming wall their bodiless hands have blazoned 'Upharsin,' and flaring brands Illumine the message: 'Seize the lands! Open the prisons and make men free!' Flame out the living words of the dead Written-in-red.

Every person who ever thought he had a right to assert, and went boldly and asserted it, himself, or jointly with others that shared his convictions, was a direct actionist. Some thirty years ago I recall that the Salvation Army was vigorously practising direct action in the maintenance of the freedom of its members to speak, assemble, and pray. Over and over they were arrested, fined, and imprisoned; but they kept right on singing, praying, and marching, till they finally compelled their persecutors to let them alone.

What we do need to worry about is the possibility that we will be reduced, in the face of the enormities of our time, to silence or to mere protest.'

[at Rock the Bells, San Bernardino, California, 2007] 'Sixty-eight years ago just after World War II, they claimed they were the greatest generation.. And I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. All the potential for greatness is in this generation right here. 'Cause I know that this fucking government took this country to war for a lie to withstand its empire and millions of you across this country said no. Stood up, and said no! And with the whole world watching, this generation here, in this country, we have to step up! We have to step up! We have to take it from the concert stage, from the crowd, and into the streets and prove that we won't let these fascists rule us any longer. This generation. Are you standing in line? Are you believing the lies? Are you bowing to the flag, you got a bullet in your head...'

'He has the nerve to call us violent when last year there were 80,000 cases of police brutality filed against departments all over the country this sheriff pig is poppin' off, poppin'off about how we're violent. Well, shit, he belongs to the most violent gang in US history.' [Referring to a Sheriff who tried to get a concert banned]

'You know they went after King when he spoke out on Vietnam. He turned the power to the have-nots. And then came the shot'

'Shutdown the devil sound'

Mosalsky: Good folk! Maria Godunov and her son Feodor have poisoned themselves. We have seen their dead bodies. [The People are silent with horror.] Why are ye silent? Cry, Long live the Tsar Dimitry Ivanovich! [The People are speechless.]

Jocks have completely taken over music... And just to get back at them, I'm going to start playing basketball. (1993)

[at Rock the Bells, New York, 2007] 'A couple of months ago, those fascist motherfuckers at the Fox News Network attempted to pin this band into a corner by suggesting that we said that the president should be assassinated. Nah, what we said was that he should be brought to trial as war criminal and hung and shot. THAT'S what we said. And we don't back away from the position because the real assassinator is Bush and Cheney and the whole administration for the lives they have destroyed here and in Iraq. They're the ones. And what they refused to air which was far more provocative in my mind and in the minds of my bandmates is this: this system has become so brutal and vicious and cruel that it needs to start wars and profit from the destruction around the world in order to survive as a world power. THAT's what we said. And we refuse not to stand up, we refuse to back down from that position not only for the poor kids who are being left out in the desert to die, but for the Iraqi youth, the Iraqi people, their families and their friends, and their youth who are standing up and resisting the U.S. occupation every day. And if we truly want to end this fucking miserable war, we have to stand up with the same force that the Iraqi youth are standing up with every day, and bring these motherfuckers to their knees. Wake up:'

[at Alpine Valley, 2007] 'A couple of months back when we played this show at Coachella, Valley, that was our first show back, I said a few things from the stage that the next day, Fox News ran this whole piece about us saying that the President should be assassinated. But those fascists always get it wrong when it's from a band in the corner standing up. What we said was that the whole Bush Administration should be put on trial for war crimes, and then hung, and then shot. But this made me think about something: It made me think about what the fuck they're so afraid of. It made me think about what scares them. Is it really four of us from Los Angeles that have a point of view? Is it really just this music, and these rhythms, and these words? Is that what they're scared of? I started to think about it and you know, my conclusion is this: naw, they ain't scared of us. They're scared of you. They're scared of you. They're scared that you might, come election time, throw Bush, and Cheney, and all their fascists out of power. That's what they're scared of. And let me say this: that the Democrats are scared of you too, because they know that you see through their bullshit too. Because when Bush was wiretappin', spying on citizens, torturing innocent people, they were supposed to be the people to defend us from them. And they didn't do shit. So the Democrats are scared of you too. Why? Because they know they're coming to power. But they're scared because they know that if they don't fuckin' start pulling troops out of Iraq, then we're gonna go and burn down every office, of every Senator that doesn't do their jobs. All we're saying is that the world is watching us right now. The whole world is watching us. The brothers and sisters in South America that are dealing with this imperialist violence have their eyes on us. Our brothers and sisters in Iraq got their eyes on us because we are the ones who are gonna have to put an end to this nonsense. So wake up! Come on, wake up! Wake up...'

[At the Grand Olympic Auditorium, September 13 2000 - the last RATM show before their 2007 reunion] 'So who went out and joined us for the Democratic National Convention? I've never seen so many fucking cops in my whole life. It's like everybody knows when everybody went out there, the only thing we were out there to do is express how much we hate both the Democrats and Republicans because they sold this fucking country out. And by expressing our rights to resist, what do they do?...they open fire on the crowd. I don't care what fucking television station said the violence was caused by the people at the concert, those motherfuckers unloaded on this crowd. And I think it's ridiculous, considering none of us had rubber bullets, none of us had M16s, none of us had billy clubs, none of us had face shields. All we had was our fists, our voices, our microphones, our guitars, our drums, and anytime we get beaten in the streets for protesting, we take it to the court system, and the court system don't wanna hear it. Look what happened to Amadou Diallo in New York, they shot that brother 41 times and let all four officers go. It's time for a new type of action in this country.'

Phil, screw you and your Nazi friends; we're now going to sing a folk song.

If a labor leader of national scale is arrested by the police, I will call a general strike.

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

The road toward equality of freedom is not easy, and great cost and danger march alongside us. We are committed to peaceful and nonviolent change, and that is important for all to understand - though all change is unsettling. Still, even in the turbulence of protest and struggle is greater hope for the future, as men learn to claim and achieve for themselves the rights formerly petitioned from others.

Death - by hanging! - that, at least, I did not deserve. The death part - all right, somebody has to stand for the responsibility. But that - that I did not deserve!

'Hey buddy, my daddy died for that flag.' 'Really? I bought mine. Yeah, they sell them at K-Mart and shit.' 'He died in the Korean War.' 'Wow, what a coincidence. Mine was made in Korea.' No one - and I repeat, no one - has ever died for a flag. See, a flag : is just a piece of cloth. They may have died for freedom, which is also the freedom to burn the fucking flag, see. That's freedom.

I know very few who are willing to die for their convictions. I wouldn't be hit on the head with a billy club or have mace squirted in my face. When I was younger and a radical at American University maybe: as a matter of fact, I was at the march on the Pentagon just last year, right in the front taking pictures, just being there to find out what was happening, and I was knocked down and stepped on. I don't want to do that again. It didn't accomplish anything. They lied about everything that happened. Everything in the newspapers were just lies.

We, the undersigned, gathered in Pilgrimage to the capital of the State in Sacramento in penance for all the failings of Farm Workers as free and sovereign men, do solemnly declare before the civilized world which judges our actions, and before the nation to which we belong, the propositions we have formulated to end the injustice that oppresses us.

Imagine the National Guard being called against a group of peaceful people. How far can we get; how disgraceful can it become? It's the most disgraceful, the most wicked thing I've seen in all my years of organizing farm labor.

When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again. He has confirmed his own humanity. Through non-violence, he has confirmed the humanity of others.

This one goes out to Dick Cheney and his army of satan.

But in Britain we don't win many gold medals at the Olympics, because we've chosen not to. It's a political statement. 'cause we hate our national anthem. Because it's 'God Save the Queen' you see. God save the queen. Now, the queen lives in a very big house with barbed wire outside and people with guns in front of that. That's one saved fucking queen, I tell you.

To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men.

Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.

But I think we have to be very vigilant. We have to stop the rot wherever we find it. Some fifty years ago, a few people created horror, but far too many, knowing about it, tolerated it. It started then just as now - with graffiti, vulgar jokes, and knowing winks. Then it was the Jews, now it is the Turks and the Vietnamese. The moment one hears somebody say something offensive to human dignity in any way, whether against foreigners or people of other faiths or colour, one must protest and argue. These individual attitudes must never go unchallenged. The obscenity of discrimination will only be stopped if we accept individual responsibility for never, in a single instance, allowing it to go unchallenged. That, I think, is our task - yes, as our parents' children.

'We cannot rule out the possibility that many citizens will join the march because of widespread promotion and mobilization these days... we cannot rule out the possibility that some citizens may join it as a kind of activity because it's a holiday... we should not think that many people taking to the street will necessarily mean they are against Article 23.' --Regina Ip responding to reporters' question on her views on the July 1 protest, June 29, 2003.

Howard Fineman: The people who don't pay their taxes on principle are heroic people, in the manner of Gandhi and Martin Luther King? Ron Paul: I think if they're defending the constitution and they know what they're doing, and this money is supporting some real evil in the world. Preemptive war? That's pretty evil as far as I'm concerned. And so much waste in a system of government that has just overrun our liberties? Yes, I think that in many ways it's heroic for people willing to risk their freedom in order to defend what they believe is freedom.

I hear the music of youth on the warden's radio. Somehow I cannot reconcile this with good music. However it is one form of protest. The youth of today are protesting for many reasons and they want to be heard. One way of being heard is through their music. I do enjoy The Beatles however; their music has a definite beat and in many ways their music is good music.

Any attempt at demonstrating (rallies) will immediately result in adequate and strict reaction by the armed forces.

'Wake up!'