Trucker Blockades - One Day On

One day later and the trucker protests have disappeared from public view. The Ministry of Truth could not have done a better job.

In Buddhist Protests in Vietnam 1963, I had constructed a table comparing two non-violent protests (Buddhist and Rosenstrasse). The following table is an updated version with my subjective assessments of Rachel Corrie and the recent Trucker Blockade.

Metric	Rosenstrasse	Buddhist	Rachel Corrie	Trucker Blockade
Year	1943	1963	2003	2005
Number of protesters	600 at any one time. 6,000 involved.	Unknown. In the thousands.	One (1)	Probably dozens
Length of the protest	A week	May to August	Several days	8 to 10 hours
Were the protestors were seen as being capable of causing social unrest	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Reputation of the regime	The reputation of the Nazi regime had suffered because of a military disaster (Stalingrad)	The Diem government was very unpopular with the people over its repressive tactics.	Two-thirds of Israelis probably supported the government	The Howard government is in good shape. There are no serious challenges.
What were the protestors' aims?	They were simple and straightforward: Give us our husbands back	General and vague. They were against the various policies of the Diem government.	Stop the demolition of a Palestinian house.	Relief against rising fuel costs
Did the protestors expand their demands to overthrow the regime?	No	No, but the government saw them as challenging it.	No	No
Was the regime leadership was divided over this issue?	Yes	Yes	No	No
Number of casualities	None	Ten (10) dead by suicide 1,400+ arrested and placed in concentration camps Unknown number were wounded and missing	One (1) murdered.	None
Did protest achieve its aims?	Yes. Their husbands were all released.	Yes. The Diem government was overthrown on 1 November 1963 in a military coup and the prisoners were released with proclamation of religious freedom.	No	No