"I am not afraid, I am not afraid, I will fight for liberation, 'cause I know why I was made." A choir of 20 people of all ages is standing in a half-circle, with one in the middle conducting.  

What sounds like a contemplative choir rehearsal has a serious cause. They hold signs that read "No sleep for ICE" and "Hilton stop housing ICE." The group is standing in a Minneapolis hotel lobby where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees are staying.  

But then the police arrive and ask them to disperse. Before entering the hotel, the organizers had given clear instructions: Just sing until the police arrive, don't escalate the situation.

Minneapolis has become the scene of various forms of protest. To counter violent attacks by ICE officials, residents are getting creative by keeping them awake at night with singing, loud noise, and once even putting on a rock concert.

Nonviolent protest from global Gen-Z movements  

More and more US citizens are using a wide range of nonviolent protest methods. Some of these include coalition building, i.e., seeking broad support for their cause.  

Often, the focus is on non-cooperation, by simply refusing to cooperate with the authorities. In Minneapolis, citizens patrol the streets and warn neighbors in chat groups about officers in the area. 

Or people resort to a boycott: Last week, organizations across the US called on people not to go to school, shop, or work. But the country did not come to a standstill on that day. So, does nonviolent protest work? 

Examples elsewhere in the world show that it can. The so-called Gen-Z protests in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Madagascar over the past two years brought down their respective governments — and were largely nonviolent.  

Ivan Marovic, one of the leaders of the protest movement against Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, says the most important aspect in nonviolent protest is to motivate as many people as possible for as long as possible.  

The movement, Otpor, overthrew Serbia's government in 2000, after students had protested for over two years.

A rule of thumb in political science says that if at least 3.5% of a population participates in nonviolent protests against an authoritarian regime, it is usually successful. But numbers alone do not make for a successful protest.  

"The reason why movements succeed is because they apply continuous pressure," says Marovic, who is now executive director of the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) in Washington, DC. "This is why we talk about the transformation of a protest into a movement." 

Minneapolitans are hungry for protest

The protest in Minneapolis already fulfills these criteria, says Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, an organization that orchestrates protests like the one in front of the hotels.  

Neighborhood groups organizing action on Signal regularly reach their limit of active participants. Ajay is convinced that at least 4% of citizens are involved, even beyond those marching on the streets. "People are really hungry for things that materially get in the way of the ability of authoritarianism to function," says Shiney-Ajay. 

The 3.5% rule might not apply to every protest across the board, says Lee Smithey, professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Sociology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. "It might be hard to apply that rule to a smaller-scale campaign, like in a particular neighborhood or city."

 

What humor can do for a protest movement 

To keep people engaged in the protests, Shiney-Ajay draws inspiration from other movements, such as Otpor. She was particularly moved by the Serbian protesters’ sense of humor. On the leader's wife's birthday, one neighborhood tied her favorite flower, daisies, to a turkey and paraded it through the streets.  

Marovic recalls that the action was not primarily intended to mock the president's wife, but rather to criticize the whole political system. Since the whole country understood the symbolism behind it, the action became a joke that united the protesters. 

"Using humor in movements helps those movements to shift perceptions about those who have power," says Marovic. "It undermines existing power relations." 

Beyond undermining leaders, humor also helps alleviate the fears of the population: "Because one of the things that prevents people from joining movements is fear of repression or violence," says Marovic. 

Protests imbued with humor can make difficult times easier and bring people together. That is the essence of nonviolent protest, emphasizes Smithey —  anyone can participate. Without violence during protests, children, the elderly, and people from all sorts of backgrounds have the space to be there. Everyone can do their part — even if it's just to spread the word.

Highlighting protest achievements to fight apathy 

One of the most dangerous threats to protest is apathy, the feeling that protesting is pointless or not worth the risk. That's why Shiney-Ajay keeps reminding protesters of the successes that her movement has already achieved: For example, some hotels have stopped accommodating ICE, and the number of officers in Minnesota is being reduced.

Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official in charge of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, had to leave his post after an ICE officer shot protestor Alex Pretti in January. The Sunrise Movement then posted on Instagram: "YOU did that. We did it together. We have made it impossible for ICE to do their job." 

ICE did not respond to DW's request to comment at the time of publishing. 

To keep people active, Shiney-Ajay already has the next idea for a protest in Minneapolis: "We've wondered, can the city government start doing construction on all the highway entrances around the Whipple [detention] building? [...] We have a lot of potholes in Minnesota. Maybe we should repair them right about now." 

Edited by: Rob Mudge