ACR Essay. Degtyar Valentyn

The Worthy Civic Activism

Argument	Counterargument	Rebuttal
Citizens should engage into protest activities	It is dangerous	Mass actions are designed secure for majority of participants and are mostly peaceful
Mobilizations do good for the population	Protests are neglected by authorities	Community and labor protests bring direct result, wider mobilizations promote democracy and civic liberties
Personal gain from protest activism is worthy especially for youth	For youth protest is nothing but fun, young people should better work or promote themselves to be successful in their lives	Activist youth develop dense personal networks, they are active-minded, they tend to be very successful

Citizens should be active and engage into protest activities. This is safe, effective and overall worthy of efforts. This is particularly actual for youth.

Firstly, going out into the street with a march or a picket in Ukraine is rather safe. However, there may be widely spread worries that this is dangerous, because there may be fights between opposite groups of activists or police may otherwise repress protesters. Of course, this is possible, so activism involves certain risk, but it is in Ukraine rather mild comparing to other countries. Moreover, mass actions are by most designed to be secure for their participants. Radical actions are usually performed by small groups where individuals know what they are doing. In contrast, mass actions are secured by police and it is the event organizers who carry responsibility for everything, so average citizens are free of any charges if they do not obviously engage in any direct violence. Majority of protest mobilizations in Ukraine are peaceful.

Secondly, civic mobilizations do empower people and often bring direct positive result. Many people doubt that social protests are effective. Partly, they have the point. Research by CDS sociological group indicates that in 2012 only 5 out of each hundred of protest actions in Ukraine resulted in positive response by the authorities [1]. This figure, though, is small, because general political rallies are taken into account. At the same time, the same research shows that more than half of local community protests, such as actions against construction in the neighborhood or public utilities problems, are successful resulting in satisfaction of protesters demands or solving of the problem [1]. The same is actual for mobilizations of labor unions or workers initiative groups caused by unpaid wages or cuts. This points to the usefulness of social protests for the wellbeing of society and using them for solving definite local problems and labor relations.

Thirldy, protest activism is not only good for collectives, but for individuals as well. It is useful for youth. Some people can object that for youth protest is nothing but fun, young people should better work or promote themselves to be successful in their lives. Responding to this claim I should note that it is controversial, so it can be countered by some general assumptions and knowledge. For activist youth it is possible to develop dense personal networks, that they later benefit from. As these people are active-minded they mostly sustain enough wellbeing to be happy and get what they want from life. For example, time revealed that many of the late 60-ies student protest participants were very successful as they took over key positions in Western societies.

Therefore, as indicated by comparative observations and national research participation in civic activism and protest mobilizations in Ukraine is a worthy activity to do. Besides, this is something to be proud to tell the children about.

List of References:

 1. Centre for Society Research - http://cedos.org.ua/protestmonitor/digest/peremogy2012