Austin - Why Do People Protest?

A Protest is normally a large group of people that disagree on an event, but feel that they aren’t heard. Due to this, the Protesters use ways to be heard and look for others who agree with them to join in the protest. One-hundred and fifty years ago, the first group of people had doubts about an event and protested about it.

There are various ways of protesting. New Zealanders have been protesting for over a century for causes they are passionate about! There are a lot of crazy events in history, some of them have been caused by Protests. The most common way of protesting now is “Marching”. Marching is where a large amount of people walk on the streets protesting to be heard. Some holding signs, others shouting for justice. This isn’t the only way, some types of protests, are strikes, where people don’t work to convince leaders to do something. Other ways are petitions, petitions are where people sign a form to protest an issue they want to change.

You’re probably thinking “do Protests work?”, well it kind of depends. If citizens work hard enough, and officials agree, Protests can be successful. However, if the Protesters don't work hard, or the officials disagree on their statement, the Protest may not work.

A famous example of a Protest is one that was led by Kate Sherpard. Kate Shepard’s Protest was caused due to women not having enough rights. Her Protest was carried out by a type of Protest called “Petition”, that type works by people that agree, sign the paper. If officials hear this, the Protest could work out, after many attempts, Katy Sherpard finally succeeded. Not only this, but, this was the first time in history that women got rights.

Another great example is, The great strike, The great strike is where Wellington watersiders and Miners from Huntley figured they had horrible working conditions and weren’t getting paid enough in return, they decided to not work. They stayed in strike for about eight weeks to make the prime minister give them better conditions and money, but the prime minister sent special police to lightly beat up protesters. About eight leaders were arrested but some grew to be politicians and create better laws for work environments.

In conclusion, people Protest about things they think are wrong, or that they want to change. Protests can change for the better, at least if officials decide to see and agree.