I used to live with someone who couldn't handle crowds and couldn't handle going to protests. They wanted, so badly, to be in the streets and fighting alongside everyone else, but they just couldn't handle it any time they tried. They'd had some very traumatic experiences from previous protests, and it just became this huge barrier.
So they'd bake zucchini bread. It just-so-happens that protests tend to happen when zucchini is in season, for whatever reason. So, what they landed on, was baking zucchini bread. While everyone else was out in the streets of Springfield facing down cops and shouting until their throats grew horse, blue and red flashing in their eyes, ears ringing, escaping arrest... This friend of mine would bake zucchini bread, lots and lots of zucchini bread. All these little loaves of zucchini bread. When everyone got back from the protest, they would go around to everyone they knew who'd gone and bring them a loaf of warm, fresh-baked, zucchini bread. We were college students at the time, living on-campus, so it was easy for them to just walk around to everyone's little apartments and dorms and bring them a loaf.
When your throat is scratchy and raw and your mouth is dry from shouting long after you ran out of water, when you can barely speak, there is something about warm soft moist zucchini bread that is so perfect. So comforting, emotionally and physically, acting a salve on your throat and mouth; each bite followed by guzzles of water.
And it became so expected that it became fuel. It allowed you to go back out the next night yet again, knowing you could handle it, because you'd have zucchini bread waiting for you when you got home. Movements take all kinds of roles; and some people have to take on the important work of baking zucchini bread. You don't need as many people baking zucchini bread as you do people marching in the streets, but by G—d you absolutely need someone who bakes the zucchini bread, or whatever else it is they can do to take care of people after each battle, help them recover, and help them keep fighting.
there's an, I think Mao quote about this, though I can't find it. Along the lines of "Every soldier is supported by 12 farmers, seamstresses, blacksmiths, miners, ironworkers, armorers, etc"
Tooth-to-Tail Ratios, or: The Army Runs on Math
When most people talk about, cover, or write about protests, all of the focus is on the front lines, even though protracted protests, at least in my experience, seem to require a tooth-to-tail ratio of at least 4 to be able to be sustained.
Tooth-to-tail being "frontline soldier to the people who support him" ratio.
You can't have fighters on the front lines without, at least for the US Military, about 70% of them being non-combatants (page 42 (paper), 58 (digital)) as of 2007 when the report was written. That's 70% non-combatants for something as large as the US military -- for things with less scale and less streamlining, you're looking at even higher percentages of non-soldiers.
but like most things the military studies, it's applicable outside the military, and, honestly, probably moreso.
to sustain a protest more than three days or so, you need:
- reserves, who aren't on the active line at the start and you swap out gradually, because even if you're unemployed, your body just can't do 3 nights in a row
- supplies and materiel, that is, water, anti-gas/spray solutions, medical supplies, gear, etc. spare bike parts, signs, shields.
- medics
- food that isn't just powerbars, which requires people willing to cook it or bankroll catering, snacks, and food that keeps you going (zucchini bread as the example here)
- marshalling and logistics of organizing and sustaining the protest, finding and connecting people, running comms, coordinating scouts, etc
But most coverage of the events focus on just the people on the front line. And the truth is, those people would fold in six hours were it not for the logistical lift that everyone else does, almost automatically without thinking when this stuff happens. Often from seeing previous gaps.
Clashing with cops brings glory and endorphins, but it's also the fastest way to be taken off the field (arrest, or worse). if that's not your thing, there's plenty of other roles, and everyone but people who've got dietary restrictions will accept cake breads, as a start.