Riots haven’t yet opened the way to revolution or to any transformative politics. They probably feed the counterrevolution, the forces that claim to represent law and order. Real change requires that a mobilization of the moment turn itself into a disciplined movement capable of acting day after day. That won’t bring revolution either, but things may move slowly forward–as in Antonio Gramsci’s “war of position,” whose militants aim at cultural as well as political change and work steadily, with a long horizon. “In politics,” Gramsci writes, “the war of position, once won, is decisive definitively.” But that is not a promise.
Michael Walzer, The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On “Liberal” As An Adjective, 17.