HP Headquarter Protest Analysis

HP Headquarter Protest One sunny day in November, about 200 people just fell down laying on the ground on the park and in front of buildings with signs next to or on them. These people were laying down at Hewlett Packard headquarter which is also known as HP as a sign of protest. This protest showed the importance and effectiveness of peaceful protest which is happening very often in modern days. People have different opinions on this particular protest because the reason of pretest has been an issue for a long time and this protest really showed with action. In November 17th 2014, 200 citizens, college students, Palestinian right organization members and some retired soldiers gathered up together at HP headquarter to protest the company
Susannah Nuchenberg, the participant of HP protest in Palo Alto stated “We lay there on the lawn of the HP campus with the signs...It was a peaceful response to the Palestinian civil society call for boycotts. Every name matters”. It was a peaceful protest that didn’t harm anyone or any properties which is more meaningful. Her statement of every name matters powerfully reinforces the idea of nonviolent protest that these activists were doing. The protesters action was opposite from what HP was doing which made the protest more meaningful. As they were fighting for Palestinians who died out of bombing, the not using violence protest supported their claim and reasons better. If they used any kind of force during the protest, the whole meaning of protest would have gone because it is no different from HP Company which they are protesting to. It doesn’t violate or go against any moralities. This peaceful protest worked out best and was also effective as it drew attention without any damage of properties or harming
Some people like Thomas Lee, the writer of the SF gate thinks it wasn’t a effective protest because it did not use violence in the protest of only 200 people which didn’t draw much attention. To some people, it might have seem like it didn’t draw much attention compare to other protests with thousands of people or a violent protest but it influenced many citizens even some Europeans without using the violence which is morally right and fits with their purpose. Using nonviolence was the key point of this protest action as protesters were protesting for attacked Palestinians. Also, some argued that it didn’t affect the company and their income so it is not going to stop anything. Their point is right in that it doesn’t bother company as much as using violence as their income is not reducing nor money is spent to fix broken things, but with many people boycotting and protesting on the street can change their image to ordinary citizens. And the companies work hard to maintain good image to the people so they can buy the companies’ product. But as the protesters were influencing more citizens, HP would have to stop their action to bring back their good image so people can start to buy their product more again. Although there were some minor weaknesses, it was still an effective way of protest that