In Chile, 1920, Arturo Alessandri was elected as president. He based his campaign in a series of social reforms. The problem was that he had a minority in Congress and all of his projects were ignored or postponed indefinitely. In september 1924 he manage to get his proposals to congress but, at the last minute they were postponed again and instead the congressmen started to discuss a salary increase for themselves. The problem was that that day around 50 army officers, captains and lieutenants all from middle or working class background were present and were in favor of the new social laws. The president of the Senate ordered everybody to leave the building, but the officers, while they were leaving, started to hit the bottom of their scabbards against the floor, in an event known as “ruido de sables” (rattle of sabers). The congressmen were so scared that five days later they approved the social laws of the government: 8 hours labour day instead of 12, suppression of child labour, collective bargaining, occupational safety laws, legalization of trade unions, among others.
I’m not saying people should do the same, but I think we need to remember that politicians screw us because we let them. If we manage to scare them a bit we might get something.