Yet he has built a protest movement which demands nothing less than a political revolution in Italy.
One reason is that nothing sucks the energy out of a protest movement faster than winning power.
The practice spawned a protest movement known as the "blue buckets", where people stuck buckets to the roof of their cars to imitate the lights.
He became the figurehead of a protest movement in Seattle last November, when he participated alongside thousands of Americans in demonstrations outside a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting.
The Bush administration has reason to hope though that as a protest movement speeded American withdrawal from Vietnam, pressure from Iranians may have a similar effect on Iran's proxy war in Iraq.
With a deficit of about 9% of GDP last year, an unemployment rate surpassing 25% and a protest movement that is showing flashes of violence, some worry that Spain is being sucked into a Greek-style death spiral.
But it is not hard to conceive of circumstances that could lead to a wider protest movement.
The United Democratic Party, a new protest movement, has few clear policy ideas.
BananaRepublic was for a clothing firm, and not a political protest movement.
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The following month a group of masked activists associated wearing masks associated with the Anonymous hacktivist movement staged a protest in Tokyo.
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But is there any objective measure by which the reach of a global e-protest movement can be assessed?
When the Occupy Wall Street protesters first began to assemble it seemed like a small and not all that impressive version of a large twitter fueled protest movement that had sprung up everywhere around the world.
Others believe that they would work, but would do more harm than good by encouraging Iranians to rally around the government at a time when the protest movement looks as though it might just bring about change.
The plain evidence from Tahrir Square is that Islamists make up only a fraction of Egypt's protest movement, albeit an enthusiastic and well-disciplined one, and that they have largely followed events rather than led them.
Popular support is a fickle thing, and if the protest movement spreads in the coming weeks, as it very well might, Mr Sarkozy's poll ratings could slip.
Less than a handful have any notoriety outside the protest movement, including chess champ Gary Kasparov, who is asking for your support in advertisements all over the blogosphere.
The Five Star Movement, riding a wave of popular protest and discontent, is expected do well in the polls, but its leader Beppe Grillo has ruled out making alliances with other parties.
Former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the first round of voting and was the favoured candidate of many in the protest movement, said the declaration was a "seizure of the future of Egypt".
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was a saint-genius who turned opposition to British rule into a mass movement and demonstrated, through non-violent protest, that virtue has its own inescapable power.
One of the best-known figures in the anti-Putin protest movement, Sergei Udaltsov, has been placed under a travel ban by investigators in Moscow.
The news about Oakland traveled around the world early this week, and now some within the movement think it provides them with a reason to escalate the protest into attempting a general strike next week, something that has not been tried in the U.S. since pre-World War II.
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The Evening Standard, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, went so far as to hold a fashion shoot in the Occupy London camp, to celebrate the 'radical chic' of the protest movement.
The Robin Hood protest is expected to be a single day event and is part of the general Occupy Wall Street movement which got its start in the offices of Adbusters magazine in Vancouver, Canada this summer.
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