Why criminalising protest won’t stop people from rising up for causes that matter

On 4 July, the UK Home Office added Palestine Action to their list of terrorist organisations. The order, made under the Terrorism Act 2000, means anyone found so much as wearing a Palestine Action badge now risks a prison sentence.

The ban is the latest in a series of clampdowns that began with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022) and the Public Order Act (2023), which criminalised “locking‑on”, broadened stop and search and handed courts the power to jail peaceful climate activists for up to five years. A new Crime and Policing Bill, introduced last week, will let police pre‑emptively arrest protesters for carrying (not using) smoke flares. There has rarely been a tougher time for people wanting to peacefully exercise their right to protest.

At Social Change Lab, we study protest movements and examine their role in social change. Our research shows that, even though we hear a lot of opinions about the negative side of protests – ‘they cause backlash’, ‘they polarise people’, ‘they’re just annoying’ – they have many positive effects. This is particularly true when protests are seen as constructive and when protesters are campaigning on issues that have wide public support – something that is certainly true of climate issues. Some key ingredients of success include having large numbers of participants, being strictly non-violent, and having broad and diverse coalitions of people united on clear, cohesive demands.

Read more:

• From anti-war to Palestine Action: The way we protest is changing – so how did we get here?
• Renowned photographer Misan Harriman on Black Lives Matter, Gaza and finding hope in protest
• Meet the furious Gen Z protesters who want the super-rich to pay their fair share: ‘We have a voice’

Violent protests are a no-no – but non-violent protests are often more likely to help than hinder social movements. A study on Extinction Rebellion’s impact found that the campaign succeeded in increasing public concern for environmental issues and led to greater dissatisfaction with governmental climate inaction. The declaration of a climate emergency by the UK government came soon after.

Similar climate protests in Germany (by Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion and Ende Gelände) also increased climate concern, especially when overall levels of climate concern were low. A more recent study found that disruptive tactics are better than non-disruptive tactics at raising onlookers’ climate concern and making them keener to change behaviour. Protests also trigger greater active support (in sign-ups and donations) and shift people’s voting intentions to parties with stronger climate policies.

They also influence policy: the Insulate Britain campaign contributed to the rollout of a 1 billion GBP home insulation scheme and the Restore Wetlands campaign in Sweden meant vital government spending on restoring depleted wetlands (which emit huge amounts of CO2) was protected .

Protests also need to be seen as part of a whole system of social change. Here too, there is evidence that disruptive actions – even those which the public doesn’t like – can bring more support to more moderate groups campaigning on the same issue.

It’s also important to realise that the impacts of protest movements often take a long time to unfold, especially when protesters are pushing for systemic changes. The civil rights movement lasted for decades. While even peaceful actions like sit-ins were often subject to segregationist violence, the movement ultimately paved the way for historic new legislation and a reshaped trajectory for the US.

The Suffragettes fought for over a decade, constantly evolving and reshaping their tactics, experiencing backlash and repression (including being subjected to forced feeding) – but their actions led to unprecedented progress in women’s rights. More recently, Insulate Britain declared, three months after their campaign ended, that they had failed – not knowing then that they’d helped set a ball in motion that led to improved home insulation for up to 300.000 households.

Protesters believe passionately in what they are fighting for. Prison sentences and police clampdowns won’t deter everyone. But innovation and flexibility have always been a part of protest and we are likely to see some shifts in strategies and tactics now.

Because success depends on so many moving parts – timing, momentum, public mood, political openings – the most impactful movements are often those that stay nimble, ready to adapt to shifting events and trigger moments. The No Kings protests – possibly the largest protests in US history – were driven by rising authoritarianism but united people across a spectrum of grievances, from draconian immigration crackdowns to mounting hostility toward LGBTQ+ communities.

There’s widespread agreement that movements are most powerful when they mobilise masses. And so, counterintuitively, the polycrisis we face – climate collapse, authoritarian drift, growing inequality – may be a rare window of opportunity. Movements are sensing it. They’re coalescing not just around single issues (for example the new Widerstands-Kollektiv in Germany), but around a shared story of systemic harm – climate, racial injustice, cost of living – all driven by the same entrenched interests.

Increasingly, protest is shifting focus toward the architects of this crisis: the fossil fuel companies, financiers, and political enablers. Activists are finding creative ways to apply pressure – from citizen’s arrests that capture public imagination to strategic disruption targeting the insurers who underwrite fossil fuel expansion.

It’s like striking a flint against stone. Each protest may only spark briefly – but hit it right, at the right time, and the fire catches. Movements don’t always know which action will ignite the blaze, only that they have to keep striking. In an age like this, it may only take one well-placed spark.

Cathy Rogers, PhD (senior researcher) and Markus Ostarek (consultant director of research) are from Social Change Lab, a nonprofit that conducts research on protest and people-powered movements to understand their role in social change.

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