Whatever happened to protests?

Protests are still going on – you should join in with the mass lone protests on Parliament Square – they sound great fun, and, hopefully will ultimately serve a purpose!

Posted about 1 year ago by flippy

I think it’s a combination of things, partly that people care less now because they think they can’t change anything but maybe also a fear that they will be arrested during a protest.

Therefore you end up with all the normal people who want things to change but are afraid of losing their job/home/credibility refusing to participate and protests being populated by the so-called ‘crusties’ or people looking for an excuse to have a ruck.

And of course the government has made it their business to slowly erode the right to protest.

Posted about 1 year ago by Brian

Nope, ‘twas the End Of Politics, or EOP, as I like to call it. When the fucking cuntflapping waste of space that is the Labour party got in to power, they proved one thing. That they’re exactly the same as the fucking cuntflapping Tory party. But with nicer hair. Now Cameron has nicer hair, and he’ll get in.

Sadly, nobody cares any more.

Posted about 1 year ago by Juvey

I went on an anti-top-up fees March, that did a lot of good. Mind you we did get bored and go to the pub before the rally…

Posted about 1 year ago by AppleDave

Well, as you say, the protests are still going on; it’s just that they largely get ignored.

Brian: haven’t most of these protests always been made up of rent-a-mob crusties who’d protest against anything if there was some fizzy cider and a dog on a string as a take-home present? (With the honourable exception of the Countryside March, of course. I went on that. Twice. Smash the system, comrade.)

Posted about 1 year ago by part-timer

People still protest regardless of whether or not there’s any hope of their opinion being counted and, indeed, regardless of whether or not they have anything approaching a valid point. Remember the churchy-types outside parliament in January protesting against anti discrimination legislation? They may be idiots, but they were still protesting. I’ll say nothing about the countryside alliance marches..

Posted about 1 year ago by hither_green_hippy

There are lots of factors. There is now a degree of apathy about certain issues – it was clear that the vast majority of British citizens opposed the war in Iraq but the Government went ahead with it anyway.

I also think that it was easier for people to protest against a Tory government because they represented a clearer enemy that the Labour party. Perhaps people of my generation still automatically think of Labour as inherently benign, despite all the evidence to the contrary. It was really easy to villify the Tories, but at least they scrapped the poll tax after the riots. The Labour party just adds another layer of spin.

Personally, my reason for avoiding protests is that most of them get hijacked by people with very different agendas to my own. Did I oppose the war in Iraq? Yes. Do I want to walk alongside people demanding “Justice for Palestinians”, waving “We are all Hezbollah” banners and chanting for the destruction of Israel? Not really.

Posted about 1 year ago by themanwhofellasleep

easter protest campaign

Posted about 1 year ago by tagthecity

You need to get a new book of lefty stereotypes, part-timer, yours is showing its age. You’re more likely to see religious or reactionary types than crusties out protesting these days – gay-hating Christians, cartoon-hating Muslims, Jerry Springer the Opera, Behtzi, whiny motorists, foxhunters, famers. Crusties are usually too monged up on smack mushrooms to give a fuck anyway.

Posted about 1 year ago by cutta

I don’t know why you’d object to justice for anyone, themanwhofellasleep, but having been behind a large group all wearing “Soldier of Allah” bomber jackets and chanting through megaphones at an antiwar march a couple of years ago I do agree with your overall point. The guy running about trying to sell Marxist DVDs for a tenner was pretty funny though.

Posted about 1 year ago by cutta

If justice means a two-state solution, then I’m happy for justice for Palestinians.

What interested me recently was the response to the “kidnapping” (or whatever you want to call it) of the British sailors by Iran. There were massive protests outside the British embassy in Tehran, with Islamist students shouting slogans. Where was the equivalent protest outside the Iranian embassy in London? Why weren’t the British public interested in protesting? Cynicism? Apathy? Laziness?

Posted about 1 year ago by themanwhofellasleep

Personally, it was my ignorance of the situation. Not having access to military GPS data I have no idea who was in the right. And being part of an ignorant angry mob is just a bit embarrassing really.

Posted about 1 year ago by cutta

TheManWho… I agree. I hate it when issues get lumped together. There was a march recently that I’d agreed to go on. (I didn’t, as it happens, ‘cause I was shockingly hung over that day. There are times when saving the world is just too much bother.) It was sold to me as a “don’t replace Trident now, it’s an overly expensive and inefficient solution” march. Then I found out it was that, and a “stop the war in Iraq” march as well. As if anybody who agreed with one position would automatically agree with the other.

Sloppy and annoying thinking, that’s what it is.

Posted about 1 year ago by Robo

Maybe protesters turned up, saw Yvonne Fletcher’s memorial, and figured it ain’t worth being shot over? Or maybe protesting at the cruel and inhumane feeding and clothing of “our boys” and the anointed saint of military motherhood when we’d be waterboarding theirs in a secret location for months yet seemed a touch hypocritical?

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

themanwho…, those protesters outside the British Embassy in Tehran only amounted to about 200 students. It’s hardly massive – but made for good footage, obviously. I bet you more than 200 people walked past the Iranian Embassy here and, ooh, tutted, or shook their head ruefully.

Posted about 1 year ago by johnpaulghetto

To my eternal shame, I came down from Liverpool for the poll tax riots, seduced by the local WMC’s offer of a £5 return coach trip. Me and a mate missed the violence, and didn’t dare ask why the return coach was half empty. Thankfully, no-one asked why we were weighed down with shopping either. I’ll always fight the power, but not when the sales are on.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

Horrifically, Rik, I’m related to some of the crusties you dismiss as stereotypes, so I’m reasonably confident they exist- and scanning the footage of Stop the War marches and that kind of thing shows they can still be persuaded to come out in force. (It’s a bit rich for you to accuse me of stereotyping, BTW, when you brand anyone who isn’t actually wearing a tie-dye T-shirt as a fascist.) Since when were farmers, motorists and huntsmen “reactionary”, BTW?

And I’ve been meaning to ask- is your picture actually of you? If so, presumably you weren’t behind the camera. I hope you’ve got the appropriate licence to display it in public, having made such a song and dance about mine.

Posted about 1 year ago by part-timer

I know it was only 200 students in Tehran, but that’s still 200 more than turned up outside the Iranian embassy in London. I think it really amounts to cynicism. The people who normally turn up to these kind of marches are incredibly suspicious of the current government, so any protest would have amounted to: “Let the sailors go. If the GPS co-ordinates given to the public by BLIAR’s government are correct. Which they probably aren’t. And by the way, just because we want the sailors released, that doesn’t mean we endorse current UK foreign policy.” And that’s a bit of a mouthful to chant.

Posted about 1 year ago by themanwhofellasleep

Whilst it was rather before my time (I was seven in 1990) it wasn’t just the rioting that brought the poll tax down- the huge numbers of people who didn’t pay it must surely have been a factor. Of course, that had repurcusions in the disenfranchisement of large numbers of poorer people, and the 1991 census was considered deeply flawed due to the number of people who didn’t fill it out.

Posted about 1 year ago by alstorer

It is because of THE MAN. Back when I was a politcally active youth THE MAN stopped us leaving the school and going to protest in Southampton City Centre anti- Iraq war march.

I showed them though. I SULKED throughout my ICT lesson.

Posted about 1 year ago by braintree