Consultancy for Organizing Civil Protests

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today titled “French Lessons: A Parisian Coaches Radicals in the art of Protest.”

For me the article was interesting for two specific reasons: first, consultancy is the in thing. The modern world provides endless opportunities for ‘consulting’ on every conceivable human action! Second, there are people in this age and time who aspire to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s ideal of non-violent protests. The only difference being that Gandhi did not have the vision to turn his teachings on Satyagraha into an easy to use crash course.
Xavier Renou, residing in France, is a Protest Consultant. For $67 you can attend a weekend course of Renou and learn the art of peaceful protests. And we use to think that the huge civil demonstration at the G-20 Summits or the NATO Meetings was simply the outcome of popular discontent. From the marketing of a protest drive to dealing with police action during such protests, Renou provides training for everything. Western consumer culture, Free Tibet Campaign, environmental protection, political style of French President Nicolas Sarkozy the list for Renou’s protest projects is endless. The WSJ reports that Renou recently counseled an anti-NATO protestor on phone while sitting in a Paris Café.

Renou has founded his own group Les Désobéissants or The Disobedient Ones. He has introduced the concept of guerilla protests where more focused protests replace the ineffective mass demonstrations. Renou has made used of, according to him, innovative gestures like barging into a nuclear submarine dressed as a clown or marching in a zombie’s attire in a supermarket. The global financial crisis has proved to be a blessing for Renou’s business as popular protests have gained momentum. Nevertheless, the financial benefits of the project are barely impressive and Renou hopes to get funding from such regular clients as Friends of the Earth.
Does Xavier Renou’s approach mark the beginning of a new phase of civil protests in modern democracies or is it merely one of the emerging marketable ideas which will be soon be commercialized? Is Renou’s protests for such a wide variety of issues a reflection of his genuine concerns for the cause or is he attempting to create a clientele for his business?
[Picture and Video Courtesy: Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2009]