Protest expresses relatively overt reaction to events or situations: sometimes in favor, though more often opposed. Protesters may organize a protest as a way of publicly and forcefully making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or may undertake direct action to attempt to directly enact desired changes themselves.

Self-expression can, in theory, in practice or in appearance, be restricted by governmental policy, economic circumstances, religious orthodoxy, social structures, or media monopoly. When such restrictions occur, opposition may spill over into other areas such as culture, the streets or emigration.

A protest can itself sometimes be the subject of a counter-protest. In such a case, counter-protesters demonstrate their support for the person, policy, action, etc. that is the subject of the original protest.

Historical notions

• Northern Europe in the early 16th century (Protestant Reformation)
• North America in the 1770s (American Revolution)
• France in 1789 (French Revolution)
• The Haymarket riot, 1886, a violent labor protest led by the Anarchist Movement
• Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement
• SOS (Save Our Sons) where moderate middle class women who would hold silent protest vigils-founded in 1965
• The Stonewall riots in 1969 protesting the treatment of homosexuals in New York City
• The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
• The many ACT-UP AIDS protests of the late 1980s and early 1990s
• The Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity against the World Trade Organization
• Anti-globalization Protests in Prague in 2000
• Feb. 15, 2003 Iraq War Protest - ''6-10 million in 60 countries

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Forms of protest

Commonly recognized forms of protest include:

Public demonstration or political rally

Some forms of direct action listed in this article are also public demonstrations or rallies.

• Protest march, a historically and geographically common form of nonviolent action by groups of people.
• Picketing, a form of protest in which people congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in ("crossing the picket line"), but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause.
• Street protesters, characteristically, work alone, gravitating towards areas of high foot traffic, and employing handmade placards such as sandwich boards or picket signs in order to maximize exposure and interaction with the public.
• Lock-downs are a way to stop movement of an object, like a structure or tree and to thwart movement of actual protestors from the location. Users employ various chains, locks and even the sleeping dragon for impairment of those trying to remove them with a matrix of composited materials.
• Die-ins are a form of protest where participants simulate being dead (with varying degrees of realism). In the simplest form of a die-in, protesters simply lie down on the ground and pretend to be dead, sometimes covering themselves with signs or banners. Much of the effectiveness depends on the posture of the protesters, for when not properly executed, the protest might look more like a "sleep-in". For added realism, simulated wounds are sometimes painted on the bodies, or (usually "bloody") bandages are used.
• Protest song is a song which protests perceived problems in society. Every major movement in Western history has been accompanied by its own collection of protest songs, from slave emancipation to women's suffrage, the labor movement, civil rights, the anti-war movement, the feminist movement, the environmental movement. Over time, the songs have come to protest more abstract, moral issues, such as injustice, racial discrimination, the morality of war in general (as opposed to purely protesting individual wars), globalization, inflation, social inequalities, and incarceration.
• Radical cheerleading. The idea is to ironically reappropriate the aesthetics of cheerleading, for example by changing the chants to promote feminism and left-wing causes. Many radical cheerleaders (some of whom are male, transgender or non-gender identified) are in appearance far from the stereotypical image of a cheerleader.