Does protesting in the streets ever work?

Does doing mass protest ever work?

On local issues I can see it working. Ie protesting against your local council or your workplace.

But on huge issue like war. Vietnam war you have demostrations after demonstations. Did that stop the war? The US only stopped when they lost the war. The iraq war protest didn't stop the war. In UK the mass protest against the ban on fox hunting didnt change anything.

Live 8 is a mass demostration by itself against the G8 summit. Does it do anything?

That was just because Franco was feeling generous when he kicked the bucket.

I completely agree with the sentiment though. Revolutions are a good way to kill people and destroy infrastructure.