Violent protests or moaning in front of the television

It seems to get from bad to worse at the moment when it comes to cuts in the UK. While normal people have to tighten their belts more and more, the rich seem to get richer. This causes a lot of demonstrations and protests at the moment and some of them turn violent. However, is this really bad. I mean, nobody likes smashed windows but do peaceful protests really change something or is this an illusion. Do politicans really listen to people or just secretley laugh about us. Is the only real solution violence to make them wake up or does it make things worse?