Protest: Respect It Defend It Use It - Hardcover

Leonard, Annie; Carothers, Andre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1952338336 ISBN 13: 9781952338335

Publisher: Patagonia, 2026

Synopsis

An excellent introduction to the power of public dissent." -- Kirkus

"If supporting grassroots activists taught us anything, it is that when enough individuals come together, it is possible to take on a system." -- Yvon Chouinard

What would the world look like if we couldn’t express outrage against the systems we disagree with or support the changes we seek?

Our right to peaceful protest is under attack, and we must act now!

Protest: Respect It Defend It Use It offers a powerful look at the role peaceful activism has played in advancing the public good—and shines a light on the urgent need to protect this democratic right. This is not a how-to guide. Rather, it is a celebration of what collective action can achieve, an invitation to be inspired, and a reminder that each of us has the capacity to make a difference.

Featuring more than 40 iconic campaigns from around the world, the book combines photos, artifacts, and memorable quotes to create a vivid testament to the power of public dissent. Guest essays from Jane Fonda, Tennessee Representative Justin Pearson, Dolores Huerta, Nemonte Nenquimo, and others reveal how protest shaped their own commitment to driving change. Through storytelling and first-hand reflection, readers are invited to witness, reflect, and engage in peaceful activism—right here, right now.

Rivers that don’t catch fire. The freedom to marry whom we love. Clean air and water. Even weekends off. Peaceful protest—protected in the U.S., as in many countries, as a cornerstone of participatory democracy— helped bring about each of these victories. Free speech, dissent, and public mobilization are essential tools for advancing so many causes, including environmental protection, workers’ rights, human rights, self-determination, and climate, social, and racial justice.

Yet even as protest has delivered lasting progress—and perhaps because of it—the right to speak freely and organize is increasingly under threat. Crackdowns are no longer confined to authoritarian regimes; anti-protest sentiment is spreading across established democracies. Activists are being vilified, targeted, and even criminalized. In the U.S., anti-protest laws have been enacted in 49 states. SLAPP suits—meritless legal actions used to silence dissent—are on the rise. New legal concepts like “negligent protest” are being used to hold organizers liable for damages, while violent actions by anti-democratic forces are reframed or excused.

Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary of one of history’s most consequential acts of protest—the signing of the Declaration of Independence—this book is an invitation. It invites readers to learn about the creativity, courage, and impact of peaceful protest, to be inspired by those who came before, and to recognize that this essential democratic right belongs to everyone—now more than ever.

 

About this title

About the Authors

Annie Leonard is a lifelong activist who has protested on multiple continents over many years. She spent seventeen years with Greenpeace US, including serving as Executive Director from 2014 to 2023; created The Story of Stuff film, book, and organization; co-launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC; and campaigned against the international trade in hazardous waste and technologies around the world. Annie speaks and writes frequently about environmental and democracy issues, focusing on pollution, waste, consumerism, climate, and activism. She has appeared in numerous media, has testified before Congress, and has received a number of awards for her work, including an honorary degree from Vermont Law School and inclusion in Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment.

André Carothers is an activist, writer, and organizer. André has been involved in campaigns and protests on issues of climate change, human rights, environmental protection, and nuclear disarmament for over four decades. He worked for Greenpeace US for thirteen years, including serving on the board of directors. He is the cofounder of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, a training organization for activists, and works as an organizational development consultant and coach for leaders in the social change sector. He has served as an adviser and board member of numerous organizations, including International Rivers, the Center for Environmental Health, the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Furthur Foundation, Rainforest Action Network, and the Story of Stuff Project


Robert Reich is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and he served as secretary of labor in the cabinet of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. He was also a member of President Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board. In 2008, Time magazine named him one of the Ten Most Effective Cabinet Members of the century; in the same year The Wall Street Journal placed him sixth on its list of Most Influential Business Thinkers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Protecting Our Right to Protest  

Annie Leonard

I could not have been in a more fitting place when I heard the news—standing next to a giant oil flare so hot that I worried my vibrating cell phone would melt. The sudden buzzing came from a flood of messages from around the world. The jury verdict was in, and it could bankrupt Greenpeace.

I’d traveled almost four thousand miles from a North Dakota courtroom to Lago Agrio, Ecuador, to see the maze of oil pipelines, storage tanks, and pumping stations where thriving rainforest once stood. The Ceibo Alliance, an Indigenous-led network working to protect the Amazon, had organized the visit for representatives of Indigenous nations from other parts of the country where new oil leases were planned. Their forests were still intact, but the leaders were under heavy pressure to consent to drilling, and Ceibo wanted them to witness firsthand what that would mean. I’d been invited to tag along, because I, too, had a personal connection: My home state of California is among the top importers of Ecuadorian oil and I wanted to see where it came from.

Our hosts led us by open ponds of dark, oozing crude and pumps with water too contaminated to drink. They spoke of fish with tumors and a toddler dead after playing in a fouled river. They warned of settlers drawn to the area by the new roads, who then clear the forest even more. They explained that the oil company had promised schools and health clinics, but what the people of the area got instead was illness and hunger. They lost the forest that sustained them; it had been their pharmacy, grocery store, building supply depot, and home.

As the reality of a future living alongside oil pipelines sunk in, the visitors asked “How can we prevent this? How can we protect our forests and communities?” A translator summarized the responses bubbling up from the group: “Stand together. Speak out. Work with your allies here and around the world. And peacefully protest.” 

That is just what Greenpeace US had done. And now it was facing a $660 million verdict.

The Verdict Heard Round the World

The messages on my phone were still racing in. Not only had Greenpeace lost, but the jury’s monumental verdict left the future of Greenpeace US in jeopardy. Friends and allies messaged me expressions of outrage and shock. One colleague said simply, “We are fighting monsters.”

Energy Transfer’s legal attacks against Greenpeace US started in 2017. The energy development company accused Greenpeace of defamation, trespass, nuisance, and civil conspiracy around the Indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock, where at its peak, ten thousand Indigenous people and allies had gathered to try to stop the construction of the company’s Dakota Access Pipeline.  

As executive director of Greenpeace US at the time, I was very familiar with the limited support role the organization, invited by the Indigenous water protectors themselves, had actually played in the historic protests. Testifying under oath one week earlier, I explained that peaceful protest is woven into 

democratic tradition. I shared that I was proud of Greenpeace's unshakable commitment to nonviolence, respect for Indigenous leadership, and sense of urgency about the climate crisis. I hoped the jury would see Greenpeace’s support of the campaign for what it was—nonviolent, respectful, lawful, and limited—and bring this meritless lawsuit to a close. Instead, they returned a verdict that starkly illustrated the existential threat environmental and social justice movements face today. 

The right to protest, enshrined in the constitutions of any democratic society, is central to the US  origin story and national sense of identity, as it is in so many other countries.   The eighteenth-century colonists who signed the Declaration of Independence  were themselves engaged in an act of protest against a distant monarchy’s attempts to control them. Protest has been used for many generations to make countries freer, fairer, safer, and healthier. 

People know this, even those who live in more repressive societies  . They share a broad understanding that peaceful protest is integral to a healthy democracy and is an important tool for creating change. Multiple studies show that a significant majority of people from across the political spectrum recognize it as a critical form of free speech and believe that we should all be allowed to express unpopular opinions. We understand it's part of democracy, even when it's messy, uncomfortable, or inconvenient.

For four decades—seventeen years working with Greenpeace and over twenty more with allied organizations—I have seen change forged when people put not just their voices but their bodies on the line. I have used my constitutionally protected right to protest in myriad ways: speaking out at rallies around the country, occupying the New Jersey office of a trafficker in hazardous waste, blocking the road in front of the White House with a truck modified to look like a belching smokestack, hiking into the Nevada nuclear test site, and refusing to vacate the lobby of a Senate building or oil company’s office, along with dozens of others, to bring attention to the need for climate action.

That’s why, as I stood beside the huge oil flare with Indigenous leaders calling for different kinds of protest to protect their forest, communities, and way of life, the devastating effects of potentially losing our right to do so hit me so hard. What our Indigenous friends said in Lago Agrio has never been truer: The power to stop the corporations and governments wreaking havoc on our communities and the planet must come from us, the people, speaking out and taking action together.

What Is Protest? 

When we think of protest, we often envision a group of people gathering in a public square, holding signs and banners. Sharing dissenting opinions, in speech or writing, can also be an act of protest, as can recruiting others to join the cause. A protest can involve thousands of people acting together or one person standing or kneeling alone. It can include direct action, where people courageously put themselves in the way of an imminent harm in order to stop it and draw attention to the cause. At other times, protest requires refraining from action and refusing to cooperate in the face of unjust laws, unfair systems, or undemocratic rulers, thereby depriving them of legitimacy and support. 

In some places, wearing a specific garment is an act of protest; in others, removing one is. Refusing to eat—a hunger strike—is a form of protest. And providing food and water to others can be an act of protest, if the recipient is a migrant crossing the desert into the US or a voter waiting in line near a polling station in the state of Georgia.  A protest can be refusing to work (a strike), refusing to buy something (a boycott), or refusing to move (an occupation or blockade). 

Some protests are symbolic, permitted, and avoid causing discomfort; they may seek to be joyful, family-friendly, and inviting. Others deliberately cause disruption and delay, with the participants willing to risk scorn and arrest to stop what they see as a greater wrong, convey a sense of urgency, disrupt the status quo, and increase pressure on decision-makers to act. 

The constant in all of these is that the protesters feel morally compelled to make their voices heard. And for those excluded from the decisions that impact their lives, protest is often the only avenue available. 

Many scholars and practitioners apply the term protest more narrowly, distinguishing protest and persuasion from nonviolent civil disobedience, noncooperation, and other disruptive action. In this book we use the term broadly, to include all of these, providing they are peaceful in means and ends. Violent activities and protests that oppose the vision of a more just, sustainable, equitable, and healthy world are not what we’re talking about here.

We protest because it works. The most effective protests are part of an ongoing strategy, employed at key moments in a campaign and to increase pressure on decision-makers. As Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” Protest interrupts business as usual, shines a spotlight on a wrong or a demand, elevates an issue on the public agenda, makes the movement for change visible, recruits people to join the cause, strengthens bonds among participants, challenges the legitimacy of undemocratic rulers, and shifts the balance of power between decision-makers and people seeking change. The protests in this book helped bring us rights and progress we value and may even take for granted today: weekends, women’s right to vote, desegregation, same-sex marriage, cleaner air and water, wheelchair ramps on curbs, and much more. Would we have achieved these advances without protest? We certainly hope so. But in each case, protest sped up the progress.

Protest Under Attack

It’s precisely because protest works that it is under threat. Andre and I have long been tracking the increased weaponization of language and laws against protest, both having experienced it directly as organizations we were involved with were sued for exercising our rights. We wanted to share our growing concerns and invite readers to join us in respecting and defending this cornerstone of our imperfect but invaluable democracy.

But now, it’s dramatically different. Protesters previously operated within a relatively stable and familiar set of democratic norms, rules and institutions. We could assess the legal and personal risks of engaging in different kinds of protests and generally assume a basic level of due process, albeit inequitably applied. But the democratic backsliding in recent years has drastically changed the context in which we protest.  

Attacks on protesters in nondemocratic countries are widely known, but liberal democracies are not immune. In 2024, Amnesty International documented twenty-one European countries where peaceful protesters have been branded as terrorists, foreign agents, and anarchists in attempts to turn public opinion against them. “Across the continent, authorities are vilifying, impeding, deterring, and unlawfully punishing people who peacefully protest,” explained Agnčs Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. Also in 2024, Australia’s Human Rights Law Center analyzed every bill across the country that affected the right to protest and concluded that “people’s ability to come together freely and peacefully to speak out on issues they care about is being steadily eroded in Australia.”

As we finish this book in late 2025, we are no longer just concerned. This is now an emergency.

To defend our right to protest, we must identify the ways it is under attack, so that we can name them and effectively push back. The attacks serve interests that protests challenge—interests that prefer to silence critics rather than honestly grapple with the issues they raise. These anti-democratic, anti-protest forces are counting on the public to not critically examine or push back on their outrageous claims and agenda.

So let’s do exactly that.

Edition details

• Publisher: Patagonia
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1952338336
• ISBN 13: 9781952338335
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 276