Dowsing for Divinity

Apparently a member of the British government has said she doesn’t think repeat protests are British.

Protest — long-drawn-out, repeated and sustained protest — is very British indeed.

Indeed, repeat protests — often involving destruction of property, sometimes even loss of life — have historically been the only way to get change to happen.

Here are some examples from history.

• The Poll Tax riots, 1381 and 1991
• The Peasants’ Revolt, 1381,
  a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the poll tax, socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years’ War, and instability within the local leadership of London. 
• Protests against enclosures of common grazing and agricultural land, 1480 to mid-1500s.
• The Pilgrimage of Grace, October 1536 to February 1537, an English Catholic popular revolt caused by the English Reformation, Dissolution of the monasteries, Rising food prices, their goals were the Repeal of the Act of Supremacy, Restoration of Mary Tudor to the line of succession, Removal of Thomas Cromwell
• A group of women who demanded the vote outside parliament in the 1640s (I read this in a book, can’t find another source)
• The Luddites in the 1810s,
  a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who opposed the use of certain types of automated machinery due to concerns relating to worker pay and output quality. They often destroyed the machines in organised raids. 
• The Bristol riots, 1793, 1809, 1831, 1932, 1944, 1980, 1986, 1992, 2011 (could be counted as a repeat protest although they were sparked by different issues) and the toppling of the Colston statue in 2020.
• The Swing Riots, 1830, a widespread uprising in 1830 by agricultural workers in Southern England and Eastern England in protest of agricultural mechanisation and harsh working conditions. 
• Scottish resistance to the Highland Clearances, 1825 to 1855. Scottish peasants were displaced from their land and homes by the aristocracy who wanted to use the land for sheep farming.
• The Tolpuddle Martyrs, 1833-38,
  six English farm labourers who were sentenced in March 1834 to seven years’ transportation to a penal colony in Australia for organizing trade-union activities in the Dorsetshire village of Tolpuddle.
• The mass protests for the Tolpuddle Martyrs, 1830s
• The Chartists in the 1850s, a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People’s Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement.
• The Suffragists and Suffragettes, early 1900s, an activist women’s organisation who, under the banner “Votes for Women”, fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. 
• the Battle of Cable Street, 1936, a clash in London’s East End where thousands of anti-fascists prevented Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists from marching through a predominantly Jewish area, resulting in street fighting, barricades, and police intervention, symbolizing resistance against fascism and antisemitism.
• The Crofters’ War, 1882. Crofters on the Macdonald estate on Skye resisted attempts by the landlord to remove sections of their grazings at Braes in April 1882, and the Crofters War began. This time, crofter protest and resistance spread across the region, affecting Skye, Lewis, Tiree and parts of western Sutherland particularly hard. Added to this was support from urban Scotland and a broadly sympathetic Liberal government
• Glasgow Rent Strikes, 1915, a series of tenant mobilizations by Glasgow, Scotland tenants opposing rent increases by landlords, who raised rents following a housing shortage.
• The Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, 1932, which sought to highlight that walkers were denied access to areas of open countryside which had been fenced off by wealthy landowners who forbade public access.
• The Jarrow Marchers, 1936, also known as the Jarrow Crusade, was an organised protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the English town of Jarrow during the 1930s.
• Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1957 to present — an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 
• Gay rights protests and Pride marches (1950s to present)
• The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, 1981-2000, was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England.
• The Miners’ Strike(s), 1984-85 — protesting against pit closures and the resulting unemployment
• Mass protests in solidarity with the miners and the nurses’ unions, 1980s
• Twyford Down anti-road-building protests, 1980s, which stopped other roads being built
• The poll tax riots, 1990-1991,
  a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge, introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The largest protest occurred in central London on Saturday 31 March 1990, shortly before the tax was due to come into force.
• The Newbury Bypass Protest, 1996, against the destruction of woodland by building the Newbury bypass. This is the one where Swampy came to fame.
• Mass protests against the Iraq War, 2003 (London’s largest ever protest)
• Many protests about the system of apartheid in South Africa
• Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League
• Many protests about the system of apartheid in Israel, theft of Palestinian land, and genocide of Palestinians, 1970s to present
• Extinction Rebellion, 2010s onwards: a UK-founded group that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action on climate change.
• England riots, 2011 which were a response to the police shooting Mark Duggan
• Climate change protests, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2024
• Anti-Brexit protests, 2016 and ongoing
• Anti-Trump protests (every time he visits the UK).

… and many many more. Dissent and rebellion is a proud British tradition.

I omitted all the horrible racist protests (race riots against Black people in the 1800s, and anti-migrant protests recently), because they’re definitely not worthy of commemoration.

And many of these protests were inspired by previous protests (most notably the Poll Tax riots, as people made badges with “poll tax riots 1391 and 1981” written on them).

Did I miss out your favourite protest? Please add a comment with details.