TIL that in Taiwan in 1989, there was a movement called "Snails Without Shells" where nearly 50,000 people slept on the road of Taipei’s East District to protest the escalating housing crisis

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2020/08/23/2003742128

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2020/08/23/2003742128

391 points · 11 comments · view on lemmy.world

11 Comments

riskable@programming.dev · 36 pts · 116d (2 replies)

How did they solve the housing crisis? The rest of the world would like to know!

crimson_iris@piefed.social · 62 pts · 116d

“Besides inventing the term ‘snails without shells,’ I feel like the movement achieved nothing besides depleting me of all my resources,” Lee laments in his 2015 memoir. “But although I complain, I don’t regret it. Real estate prices are still so high that the regular office worker can never imagine owning a home one day. I can only keep telling myself, ‘I must insist on my ideals, and I believe there will eventually be justice.”

They apparently didn't.

Riverside@reddthat.com · 10 pts · 115d
[ removed ]
FahrenheitGhost@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 116d (8 replies)

If we tried something like this here in the U.S. there would be injuries, deaths, and a lot of arrests.

JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 116d (6 replies)

Occupy?

explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 115d (5 replies)

And yet still people have the nerve to tell us to protest peacefully.

All they had to do was pay him enough to fucking live.

quick_snail@feddit.nl · 4 pts · 115d

Destruction of corporate or State property is peaceful protest. It's nonviolent.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · -3 pts · 115d (3 replies)

Peaceful protesting is the only effective way unless you plan on starting a violent revolution that will kill lots of people and result in a dictator.

Martin Luther King Jr. had this figured out. You should read some of his work.

cy888@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 115d

MLK only succeeded because the powers that be had a choice between MLK and Malcolm X.

If Malcolm X wasn't a credible force, MLK would have been as effective as OccupyWallStreet

explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 115d (1 reply)

Malcolm X was right

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 115d

He didn't actually accomplish much. I've read some of his work and while his intentions were good is execution was frankly terrible.

Violence with just get you labeled as a terrorist by the government and ultimately the public. However, it is much harder to ignore violence and arrest on innocent people. The civil rights movement happened because of two general things:

  1. People were willing to suffer for the greater good

  2. There was clear leadership and direction in the movement. The leadership pushed for very specific things and had a clear plan of how to get to the destination. Protests that protest vague ideas get no where since there is no clear actionable change.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 115d

Bold of you to think that Taiwan didn't have those things