The Millbank Protest
Let’s be honest
We’ll start with the fire-extinguisher. It was an act of stupidity by an individual. It could have resulted in someone’s death. Watching the videos of this red chunk of metal hurtling towards the ground still makes me sick with apprehension of what could have happened and sheer relief that a significant tragedy was avoided, albeit by chance.
However, it did not represent the broader direct action of vandalism that took place on Wednesday and it did not represent the wider peaceful march. It has been roundly criticised and condemned by all concerned. In just one example of many sublimely collective actions on Wednesday, the thousands milling below in the forecourt booed the action before chanting as one ‘stop throwing shit’. So for those who choose to reduce the arguments surrounding the events of yesterday down to this one incident, it ought to be understood that the full significance of the wider action taken against the Millbank building will be missed by such side-stepping tactics.
And let’s put another thing to the side too. 200 ‘idiots’ it was not. I stood in front of Millbank. I saw the glass smash. I saw the banner drop from the roof. And I cheered alongside three thousand people (students, lecturers, employed, unemployed, young and old) when I saw it. Sure, a minority still, but a significant minority crossing lines many of them will have never felt needed to be crossed before. Once again, many media commentators and NUS representatives have attempted to reduce the facts of the day into a simple statement which they can condemn, thus securing their selection as the Labour parliamentary candidates of the future.
No other way
Vandalism is not violence – a semantic point which many will disagree with, but one worth consideration. Those who condemn Wednesday’s ‘violence’ saw images of broken glass illuminated by the smoke and red flame of a flare. They saw individuals hammering at windows and tearing down panes with their own hands. At one point, there was a rather feeble attempt to throw a coffee table against the window. It is these images which have burned themselves into minds of onlookers by virtue of their novelty.
I saw individuals push against police lines. I saw protesters throw missiles, some of which made their mark and resulted in injury to others. I saw police lines push back. I saw batons falling upon the heads, necks, and shoulders of protesters seemingly without restraint and out of rage. I saw a line of riot shields storm forward without warning and connect against the skin of those on the front line once, twice, three times until they were knocked to the ground or knocked into submission. Strangely, as protests go these actions seemed par for the course.
My understanding of violence is force against people. My understanding of vandalism is destruction or damage to property. And it is the latter that has led to mutterings of troublemakers and anarchists. It is a sad but neat and fitting demonstration of how obsessed we are with the material, the capital, the market at the expense of the individual.
So I don’t see the actions of many against the bricks and mortar and glass and metal of Millbank on Wednesday as violent. I see them as actions of anger, frustration and desperation. And thus I see them as justified.
Many mass protests have taken place over the past twenty years. Almost uniformly they have achieved little or nothing. And today we hear David Cameron say ‘We won’t go back’ despite Wednesday’s events whilst explaining ‘there have been protests – both peaceful and sometimes protests that have turned quite nasty – under all government’ as if the public expression of our nation’s citizenry were a merely administrative formality to be endured. It is this deafness to our cries that has created the culture of desperation that is taking hold of the country. What must we do to be heard?
And let us be clear of the context in which this desperation is manifesting. For better or for worse we have a coalition government which almost no-one expected when they voted last May. One party to that government campaigned explicitly on the issue of tuition fees. They signed a pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees. They made a promise to the electorate and they are now reneging on that promise. They have defaulted on their half of the democratic obligation. Having paid with the currency of our votes we find we’ve been short-changed. The representation and democratic process which we believed we had bought have not been honoured. We were plied with false promises and played for fools. Our voices were ignored. There is no other way now.
I’m glad that nobody got hurt in the Millbank protest. I admire those who participated in the protest. With regards to vandalism, I believe, instead of painting the walls of a given institutions, demonstrators could use placards instead.
Maintain searching around until you find one.
Maybe if a few of you kum-by-ah merchants had supported the miners when it mattered instead of chattering about principles of non-violence, the whole country might be different now.
The prospect of losing a job and house etc might just crystallise a few peoples thoughts as to whether or not walking down a road with a witty placard will improve their situation.
“Or you have to get a majority of this country to vote for higher taxes. Good luck!”
I am pretty sure that if the people knew that tax avoidance and evasion accounts for up to £120bn of lost revenue a year, they would vote for it.
“I’m fed up with the blame being attached to the lib dems on this.”
PS – for the record, I am a member of the scottish green party.
“For better or for worse we have a coalition government which almost no-one expected when they voted last May.”
I’m fed up with the blame being attached to the lib dems on this. Labour commisioned the browne review, and would likely have responded in exactly the same way had they been in power.
It has been clear for years that getting 50% (+) of school leavers to go to uni was unaffordable under the current system, so something has to change. Either we pay for it out of general taxation, or we pay for it by a graduate tax, or we pay for it by fees. (or something in between the last two but with an element of the first, which is what the browne/coalition compromise seems to be). That is the debate we need to have.
If you want it to be paid for out of general taxation then you have to find some other area of government expenditure to be cut – not just for the next few years but permanantly. Or you have to get a majority of this country to vote for higher taxes. Good luck!
Turns out those Lib Dem promises on tuition fees were made in bad faith, too…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg
“There is no other way now.” No other way than – what? I am always doubtful of the “There is no alternative” line, given who first said it.
Yes, the media and politicians ignore peaceful demos (Iraq), and disorderly demos (Poll Tax, Millbank) do get media attention, and in the case of the Pol Tax, do seem to change policy.
Even so, I still doubt that “there is no other way [than violence]. For one thing, non-violence is a core green principle. And for another thing, the State can do violence much better than us. They have armour, arms, and discipline. All we have is a lot of excited bodies moving in crowd mode.
The police, it seems, were restrained on Wednesday because of the criticism they got at the G20. I saw Sky News winding up the Met, clearly wanting them to clamp down, and this is what we will probably get next time.
This is a difficult issue, but the principle of non-violence is vital, and we must stick by it.