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When I say that demos don't really do anything other than diverting energy, that there's no point in begging for the goodwill of our rulers (and threats that are never followed up is just the macho way of begging), the retort I get most often is that demos help radicalise people, build connection, show solidarity. Even if the demands are never listened to, it feels good to do *something*, to have agency.

Does it, though?? They're kinda terrible at that too though??? I don't see people energised by demos, I see them push themselves to go joylessly to the marches, "como quem dá-se ao carrasco", with the attitude of a religious penitence, a moral duty, inevitably leading to the well-known extreme rates of burnout. Connection is a joke, people cop-jacket everyone and only ever trust their little cliques, every potential recruit is kept at arm's length, it's borderline impossible for an immigrant to find at a demo people to go back home together let alone the level of opening and interdependence that comradeship would require.

Displays of solidarity I think is the least bad one, sometimes it can be helpful to see support for you on the headlines, particularly for heavily persecuted causes like Palestine or sex work, or invisibilised ones like Kurdistan or anarchists in Ukraine. But even then, is this really the best way to show solidarity? How many demos even make it to a headline, and is the effort worth those few seconds of feeling seen?

I suppose there's a point in taking a stance *locally* for global causes, e.g. when you march for Palestine you can see the relief on the face of every single non-German person you pass by, because this massive genocide whitewashing doesn't hurt just the targets of genocide, it vicariously hurt all of us watching it. (Though what we have to deal with, German cops and unconvincing gaslighting, is peanuts compared to, you know. Literal fucking ethnic cleansing. But it's not *nothing*, to be the witness to it, to live in the belly of the beast).

But once again, is that the best way to reach out to marginalised ppl around you, to march with slogans and worried faces? What if you, dunno, sit by the station with a guitar and play happy resistance songs? Proposition all the libraries and cultural spaces you can find until you find one willing to host poem readings from Palestinian writers? Make friends with refugee families and learn some Arabic while offering a sympathetic ear? Offer your professional skills for fundraising efforts? Start a fundraising effort? Set up a little infostand challenging media narratives, armed with facts, zines, a smile and a lot of diplomacy? Bring those supportive banners to the legal hearings of criminalised immigrants rather than distant protests? Go visit cultural centres, get to know people, then act as a bridge between scenes (e.g. talk with both queer Palestinians and traditional queer orgs to invite the one to speak at the other)? Bake vegan+halal cookies and bring to the Palästina-tresen? Spot a person wearing a kufiyyah or watermelon pin and, look I know this is my most extreme and controversial proposal by German standards, but: fucking open up to a stranger, tell them "I stand with you"?

If the goal is to show solidarity, or to build a revolutionary personality, or to make bonds, then I challenge you to this exercise: If you stay home rather than going to the demo, what else could you do to advance those goals? If 5 or 30 or 100 people drop out from the demo and spend the same amount of time and energy on another activity--what kind of other activities can you imagine? Do you think they'd be more or less effective than calling the cops to inform them that on such and such day 1000 ppl are going to walk around holding signs?