The Christian Church has, in the past, used this method to challenge bases of established power - most notably at the start of its history, less readily thereafter. There is seldom, if ever, a place for violent protest, however, and the riotous elements at London's Mayday 2000 demonstration on Monday undermined the efforts of the peaceful majority by concentrating attention solely on themselves, just as they had planned it.
Global capitalism is supremely impervious to both methods of protest.
It is now so universally powerful that only Utopians talk of replacing it. Defenders of capitalism argue that no other system has been proposed that could deliver so many benefits to so many people. But last month's stock-market wobbles showed how volatile the current economic system is, while the responses to this year's environmental disasters, like last year's and those further back, show how it is also inhumanly sluggish. This rings true, but Socialism has a lot of ground to recover if it wishes to compete with the present system. It must prove, first of all, that individuals are willing to work for the common good in a sacrificial way, and that governments who encourage them will get re-elected.