We talk about the “march of progress” in a metaphorical fashion but the phrase can also be seen to be literal. Over the centuries people have gathered together to march, in order to peacefully protest and let those in power know their feelings. And as a result of many of these marches momentous changes have been made in society. The people who have particularly used this form of protest are people who were traditionally the weakest members of society due to their gender, race or color.
Women are one sector of society that has always been relatively powerless. The Greek poet, Aristophanes, wrote a comedy called Lysistrata about 411 B.C. Here the heroine, Lysistrata, organizes the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands until the war ends. The fact that the women in this play are powerless and that it is a comedy sums up women’s position in society even back then. But it was the Roman women, not the Greek women, who first marched in protest in 195 B.C. They were protesting the fact that they could not inherit their husband’s property. The laws on this subject had been going round in circles. First there was a law that allowed them to inherit property. Then there was a new law taking this right away. Finally it was decided to overturn the second law and give the women back their rights to inherit. When the women heard that this might not happen they marched to the Forum and as a result the law not allowing them to keep their inheritances was cancelled. Thus one of the first marches in history was a great success.
The tactic of marching was employed many hundreds of years later by women when they wanted to be given the right to vote. In the early 20th Century this was not a right women had and thus the Suffragette Movement was born. The right to suffrage or vote was demanded in many ways, not all of them peaceful, but on the whole the women tended to use peaceable tactics. In 1911, after the State of California had granted women suffrage, 3000 women marched in New York. And while we take women’s right to vote for granted nowadays, women have still not achieved full equality. It is for this reason that they are still marching, whether to demand equal pay, equal opportunity or merely the right to dress as they please without being accused of bringing sexual assaults on themselves.
Women are not the only underdogs of society. In the heyday of colonialism, the subjects of colonial powers were also marginalized. In India, Gandhi organized a non-violent march to protest the Salt Tax levied by the British rulers. Salt was under the complete control of the rulers and this meant that all Indians had to buy this basic necessity from them. And so Gandhi along with 78 male supporters decided to march to the coast and “get” salt from the sea. Along the way he was joined by more and more people. The peaceful march however, was far from peaceful, because the police beat the protestors and approximately 80,000 Indians, including Gandhi, were arrested. The march for salt was in fact a march for independence. It was also the beginning of the end for the British since it led to a change of attitude, which in turn led to negotiations being opened between the Indians and the British.
The American Civil Rights Movement took a leaf from both the suffragette movement and Gandhi. Blacks in America marched for the right to vote. But even after the Civil Rights Act giving Blacks the right to vote was passed in 1964, there was resistance in Alabama to it becoming a reality. As a result, there were three marches in 1965. The first march became known as “Bloody Sunday” because 600 of those marching were beaten up by the police. As a result even more people attended the second march. The marchers in the third march were protected by 2000 soldiers and they eventually arrived in Montgomery, the capital of Alabama. These three marches were a turning point and afterwards there was further legislation and a wider acceptance of the rights of Blacks to vote.
Marching is still a common form of protest. In 2010 Marchers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) marched to bring attention to the plight of farm workers in Florida. They compared their working conditions to that of slavery. These conditions are possible because many of the farmworkers are illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala or Haiti and thus are not protected by civil rights. The farmworkers are taking a leaf from history and hoping to change the situation. Consequently, they organized a three day march between April 16-18 2010; but only time will tell how successful their campaign will be.
But there are marches other than protest marches. In war time there have been death marches. Both the Nazi and the Japanese in World War 2 forced their prisoners to walk under terrible conditions and many died before they reach their destination. In 1934 Mao Zedong was just one of many who were in power. But “The Long March” that was in reality a retreat, left many dead on the wayside and his position clear. This march was a form of death march since of the 80,000 who started, only 6,000 made it. However, later it was regarded as a great victory and from one point of view it was: it led to the turning point in the Communist Revolution. Some marches do not appear to achieve anything in the short term but from the point of view of history we can see how they have a significant effect on society as a whole.
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