A protest is a public expression of objection, disapproval, or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate by attending, and share the potential costs and risks of doing so. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass political demonstrations. Protesters may organize a protest as a way of publicly making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or they may undertake direct action in an attempt to enact desired changes themselves. When protests are part of a systematic and peaceful nonviolent campaign to achieve a particular objective, and involve the use of pressure as well as persuasion, they go beyond mere protest and may be better described as civil resistance or nonviolent resistance.
Demonstration against the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during the Rio+20 conference in Brazil, June 2012
Demonstration in front of the MPR/DPR/DPD building in Jakarta during the 2019 Indonesian protests and riots
Gandhi leading his followers on the famous Salt March to abolish the British Salt Laws
Protesters in the middle of the road in downtown Manama, Bahrain (2011)
A political demonstration is an action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause or people partaking in a protest against a cause of concern; it often consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, in order to hear speakers. It is different from mass meeting.
Monday demonstrations in East Germany (1989–1991) helped bring down the Berlin Wall.
Demonstration in Canada against oil tankers, 1970.
Greece, 2013: a working-class political protest calling for the boycott of a bookshop after an employee was fired, allegedly for her labor-rights political activism.
Stockholm, 2015: protesters demonstrate against the city's new drastic plans for the Slussen area and interchange.