{"id":288330,"date":"2026-04-27T16:44:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/288330\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T16:44:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:44:47","slug":"berkeley-activists-new-book-dissects-42-protests-over-300-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/288330\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley activists’ new book dissects 42 protests over 300 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/Andr\u00e9 Carothers and Annie Leonard. Credit: Brooke Anderson<\/p>\n

One day a few decades into the eighteenth century, a small, hunched man named Benjamin Lay declared at the Quakers\u2019 yearly meeting in Philadelphia that God respects all peoples equally, regardless of race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThus shall God shed the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow creatures,\u201d he cried, before plunging his sword through a book containing a bladder of berry juice, which sprayed on nearby congregants. The meeting erupted in chaos.<\/p>\n

Lay\u2019s performance is one of the more obscure examples of protest included in the new book \u201cProtest: Respect It, Defend It, Use It,<\/a>\u201d by Annie Leonard and Andr\u00e9 Carothers, longtime activists who also happen to be North Berkeley neighbors. The book explores the role peaceful activism has played in advancing the public good and the need to protect this right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the book documents some 42 protests, from Lay\u2019s in 1738, which led to the banning of slave-owning Quakers from meetings and paved the way for abolitionist movements that followed, to the No Kings marches that began in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are events that American schoolchildren learn about in elementary school, like the Boston Tea Party and Rosa Parks\u2019 bus ride, as well as lesser-known acts that took place elsewhere in the world. Among the latter are the Save the Narmada Movement in 1989, when more than 50,000 people came out against the damming of the Narmada River, one of the largest anti-dam protests in Indian history, and efforts in 2014 that saved the Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon from oil exploration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Activists marched to Quito\u2019s National Electoral Council to deliver petitions calling for a referendum to ban oil exploitation in Yasun\u00ed National Park. Credit: Mitch Anderson | Amazon Frontlines<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan stands in the rising waters of the Narmada Riverin 2017 as an act of nonviolent resistance against the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, which threatened to displace over a quarter million people. Credit: Hari Katragadda | Deepa JaniPhoto<\/p>\n

The user-friendly volume contains lots of photos and what Carothers calls \u201cbite-sized nuggets of text\u201d that describe each protest, supplemented with essays by the likes of San Francisco author Rebecca Solnit and labor activist Dolores Huerta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leonard and Carothers will appear at a book launch at Mrs. Dalloway\u2019s at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28. Registration<\/a> is suggested.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The authors are experts on the subject. A lifelong activist who has protested around the world, Leonard was executive director of Greenpeace US from 2014-23. She has also created \u201cThe Story of Stuff<\/a>\u201d project in Berkeley, co-launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC<\/a> and campaigned against pollution. Carothers, an activist, writer and organizer, has been involved in campaigns and protests on climate change, human rights, environmental protection and nuclear disarmament for more than four decades. He worked for Greenpeace for 13 years and cofounded the Rockwood Leadership Institute<\/a>, a training organization for activists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking with Berkeleyside, they discussed the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to squelch peaceful protests, how UC Berkeley has handled issues of free speech on campus, and what Berkelayans should do to keep the city\u2019s long legacy of activism alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n

How did the idea for this book come about? <\/p>\n

Annie Leonard: Protesting for a better world is in our DNA. We\u2019ve seen it successfully advance so many different causes. Talking to Andr\u00e9 constantly, I saw an increasing crackdown on the right to protest during the years I was at Greenpeace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

How was that crackdown manifesting at that time?<\/p>\n

Leonard: I saw a broader crackdown on protests that took a number of different forms: bogus laws called SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation] that outlaw constitutionally protected free speech or peaceful protest and lead to bogus lawsuits. All these different ways that protest was being criminalized. It starts and ends with the vilification of protest. As we studied it more we learned that one of the first things nondemocratic rulers \u2014 and big polluting companies \u2014 do is vilify or demonize their critics. And we have seen this on overdrive in recent years where protesters are called terrorists or enemies of the state. People calling protests \u201cI hate America\u201d rallies. Black Lives Matter protesters, free speech protesters, Gaza protesters have all been vilified and demonized.<\/p>\n

What are the particular challenges we\u2019re facing right now under the Trump administration?<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Carothers: Right now we have an information ecosystem that\u2019s trying to normalize everything that is happening in this country \u2014- mass surveillance, selective prosecution, jail sentences for people who throw tomato soup on a protected work of art. These stories remind us that history did not start this morning. We need to understand the long arc of history to remind us that things are not the way they should be in this country.<\/p>\n

What were your goals for this book?<\/p>\n

Leonard: To draw people in and open their hearts and minds and recognize the value of protest as a right. We wanted to remind readers that 1) people who are peacefully protesting are part of a long democratic tradition and that 2) protests helped bring us many advances we take for granted today \u2014 from weekends to having wheelchair access on curbs and women\u2019s right to vote. Our country is cleaner, safer, more fair and more democratic because of the role of protesters. We wanted to remind readers what\u2019s at stake if we lose this right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What are some of the protests in the book readers might not be familiar with?<\/p>\n

Leonard: The Section 504 protests of 1977 that many people say really supercharged the disability rights movement. They happened right here in the Bay Area. Another is when ACT UP [Aids Coalition to Unleash Power] put a giant condom over Senator Jess Helms\u2019 house in protest of his homophobic actions to prevent health clinics from educating people about safe sex and AIDS prevention.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/A condom on Jesse Helms\u2019 house drew attention to the senator\u2019s homophobic pronouncements and policies, which had prevented lifesaving research and aid to communities impacted by HIV. Credit: Doug Hinckle | Washington BladePhoto<\/p>\n

Berkeley\u2019s claim to fame in terms of protests \u2014 the Free Speech Movement in 1964 \u2014 was not included in the book. Though there are a couple of references to Mario Savio. Why did you leave that out?<\/p>\n

Leonard: There\u2019s between 1,000 and 100,000 protests every single day. So many people lobbied us to include this one or that one. We were only allowed 42. I call the book \u201ca protest tasting menu.\u201d Because we are such fans of Mario Savio we did include his beautiful quote [\u201cThere\u2019s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can\u2019t take part \u2026\u201d] Andr\u00e9 thinks it\u2019s the best quote on protest in history. The hardest part was choosing which protest. We wanted as diverse an assortment as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UC Berkeley has recently faced scrutiny over free speech issues. How would you rate the university\u2019s response to pressure from the Trump administration as it seeks to exert ideological control over higher education?<\/p>\n

Carothers: While UC Berkeley leaders argue they were legally bound to share community data to protect funding, the decision to comply reflects, in a way, a dereliction of duty to the moment that we are in. [Editors\u2019 note: In September, UC Berkeley officials acting at the behest of the UC Office of the President handed over names and personal information<\/a>of 160 students, faculty members and staff to the federal government, in response to its investigation into antisemitism on campus.] Non-compliance is an essential tool that has been used throughout history to slow and reverse authoritarian overreach. Especially when many people and institutions do it at once. The University of Pennsylvania and Harvard have all mounted robust defenses. And that defense would have been more powerful if the University of California had joined in. There is, of course, a risk. But history will likely praise the more principled stance, five, 10, 15 years from now. Most of the protesters described in our book were vilified at the time. \u2026 Jailed, bankrupted, called traitors, communists, troublemakers. But their principled stand eventually won the day and also won history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/An iconic image from the Free Speech Movement, which erupted on the Berkeley campus on Oct. 1, 1964. Credit: UC Berkeley Libraries<\/p>\n

What is Berkeley\u2019s legacy in terms of protest movements?<\/p>\n

Leonard: Berkeley is seen as an epicenter for peaceful protests \u2014 from the Free Speech Movement to community protests against waste incineration to Berkeley High School students protesting against the Vietnam war. I often say Berkeley is the \u201cprotest pace car of the nation.\u201d For decades Berkeley has shown the world the power of peaceful protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What about this commonly held notion that marches like No Kings really don\u2019t have any effect? <\/p>\n

Carothers: There are many reasons why protests are valuable. They help people who are on the sidelines see what citizen muscle looks like. They bring an issue that they might not know about onto the public stage. They create a community. What the people of Minneapolis did for each other, which is now called neighborism, is the bedrock of effective resistance. They are one rung on the ladder of engagement. When people feel safe and secure in non-violently protesting at a No Kings march, they are much more likely to do the next thing that is required.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are there other Berkeley protests that were left out of the book that you\u2019d like to recognize? <\/p>\n

Carothers: How the Black Student Union at Berkeley High, formed in 1968, successfully lobbied for more Black teachers and instructors, making Malcolm X Day an official holiday and establishing the first ever Black studies department. There were no organized actions. Students got together across race and class lines and said, \u201cThis is what we want.\u201d The Berkeley Unified School District agreed. That served as a model for schools in the Bay Area and across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What message do you have for readers?<\/p>\n

Leonard: We need to share stories about the role peaceful protest has played in making our city \u2014 and the country \u2014 better. We need to push back on attempts to curtail the right to free speech and peaceful protest. And most importantly \u2014 we need to engage in peaceful protest ourselves. We protect our democratic rights by using them! This is the moment for Berkeley to shine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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