Starve the Fed and other street protests

In LA near Hollywood & Highland, there was a large-ish gathering of protesters with various variants of "End the Federal Reserve" signs.  It's impressive though a bit esoteric for the average passerby.  They probably wouldn't understand what "Starve the Fed" means.  Of course, street protests aren't usually the best forum for nuanced political debate, but perhaps it raises awareness and gets people to read more online. 

I have often doubted the effectiveness of street protests, as the time spent protesting is very labor-intensive.  Big protests like the antiwar protest in NY I went to in 2003 take hundreds of thousands of man-hours.  200,000 ppl x 3 hours = 600,000 hours which is several lifetimes worth of work.  It seems like there must be a way to better harness all those hours toward maximum productivity for the cause.