Without the ability to peacefully protest you no longer have a functioning democracy. From that moment onwards you are effectively living in a repressive authoritarian regime. And looking at countries around the world where that is already the case, it don’t look too pretty from what I can see.
The origin of the word democracy comes from the greek ‘demokratia’ and essentially means “the power of ordinary people”. That is the theoretical definition of democracy. In the real world it does not really work like that. In Rutger Bregman’s brilliant book “Humankind” he painfully illustrates how the reality of modern democracies is that we do not have any genuine power other than the power to choose who has power over us. Or as Bill Hicks so perfectly put it about his own country but sadly applies to here as well:
“Go back to bed America. You are free – to do as we tell you. Watch this! Shut up! Go back to bed and congratulate yourself on living in the land of Freedom”
We might like to think we have more control but we don’t. The only time we can genuinely exert our democratic right to oppose government policy is by taking to the streets. And yet here in the U.K, amidst the turmoil of the Pandemic, they are trying to hurry a bill through Parliament that would curtail our rights to peaceful protest to such an extent it would effectively be outlawed.
We look at other societies, both in the past and in the present, that succumbed to fascism and wonder how it could ever have happened. Well, it happens just like this. Incremental changes in the law eroding our freedoms so gradually that you do not notice until it is too late. Like a lobster that doesn’t know its being boiled to death because the heat is slowly rising.
I never quite got (and still don’t) how people saw the pandemic restrictions as a curtailment of our freedom. Yes, in the obvious sense. Our movement has been severely compromised but only because we had to keep away from each other in order to reduce the transmission of the virus. Same for mask wearing. This measures were not designed to oppress but to protect. This bill, however, is designed to do exactly that. To take away your freedom, to take away your rights as a citizen. This is genuine cause for a reactive response. We must fight this or suffer the consequence.
One of the reasons they want to implement this bill is that our Government never want to see a repeat of what happened with the first two major Extinction rebellions which both effectively brought London to a standstill for nearly two weeks. Thousands of people from all walks of life abandoned their normal lives and travelled from all over the country to stand & march together and to voice their utterly justified fears regarding environmental collapse. These were not trouble makers. They were concerned citizens, families, ordinary people. Our Government should have gone..shit, look at how desperate these people are, maybe we should actually do something about this? We’d better get on it right away. Spoiler alert: they didn’t. They did fuck all. Instead their conclusion was let’s not bother solving the climate crisis..let’s instead clamp down on people’s ability to protest, that’ll solve the problem right there… job done.
The police are being blamed and they are indeed guilty of a very heavy handed approach but they are also just following orders. Their excessive response is being demanded from above. In the first XR rebellion the police were lovely and sympathetic. By the time the 2nd one came along, Boris was in power, and their attitude and behaviour changed completely. They were more forceful & deliberately provocative. They were trying to rile people up. I saw on a few occasions police surrounding and intimidating disabled people in wheelchairs in the hope it would cause an angered and hopefully violent response.
It didn’t matter that the entire ethos of XR revolved around non-violence, they were still trying to incite it so they could discredit them. That would then give them justification to subsequently usher in draconian measures exactly like the bill they are currently trying to make law. It didn’t work with the rebels because they were mostly peace loving hippies (not a slur by the way) but they have continued this approach most recently with the Clapham Common vigil for Sarah Everard and with some of the BLM marches. And so, despite almost all confrontations being a result of deliberate police provocation to these entirely peaceful protests, they have used it to validate this bill being brought this in.
If you value your freedom you will sign this petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579012
I would like to point out that I have been on many protests for a wide variety of different causes over the years (many featured in these shots) and they have all essentially failed in their intention which was to sway government policy. And yet even with a horrendous strike rate that is no reason not to do it. It is our lawful right and we must be able to exercise that right whenever we feel the need. If we allow them to take this from us that is when shit really goes south. You might have never been on a protest and never go on one but isn’t it our job to protect this for all generations to come?
Truth is they don’t want us to galvanise because they know that together we are strong, divided we are weak. When you join thousands of like-minded people on the streets it is very empowering. It gives you a sense of hope rather than a sense of helplessness. It reminds you that you must never stop fighting for your rights. And if enough of us took to the streets (apparently only 3% of the population to initiate genuine change) we would be impossible to ignore. The main reason they don’t want us unified in intent, is because it is terrifying to them. And it means that they would be unable to serve their own agenda. They would have to listen to us. And so we must always protect our right to scream and shout until they do.
p.s the shots this week and in this post are a collection of my favourite shots from protests gone by so some you might have seen before…
And here is the petition one more time: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579012
p.p.s if you a subscriber I really hope this photos appear in your email normal size. If not I will be staging a protest outside WordPress hq demanding to know wtf is going on. If they are dinky thumbnails as before please click on title of post or here and it will take you through to my website where you can see em as intended…
Thank you, yup, it’s pretty scary…but the authorities are in fact the ones who are scared. In protest we become unified which is the last thing they want..
Another awesome post, this one raises a very serious real issue we face today, losing our freedoms and the right to even protest
OH yep, I can see there is :)
This is such a brilliant post – is there a way I can share it on FB please?