Death at the London G20

[Into the blue]

Don't forget to wear your helmet.

[tumbles]

all this needless baton action when a few firehoses do the job right

[Mikefule]

Originally Posted by MrBoogiejuice

So you believe protest is futile?

I think the two biggest protest rallies ever held in Britain were:

To stop the illegal war in Iraq. I agreed with the protest. I even went so far as to feel guilty for not going. The war went ahead.

To stop the ban on fox hunting. I did not agree with the protest, but supported their right to protest. Fox hunting was banned.

I believe that protest rallies and marches generally achieve less than the more boring methods of persuading the authorities.

[olduniman]

I have taken part in many protests over the years starting with the Vietnam War. Along with hundreds of thousands of others I marched twice in London against the Iraq War without effect. It was clear to me later that the only way to have prevented British participation would have been for a hundred thousand people to blockade Downing Street for weeks. As the French philosopher Alain Badiou has pointed out (lecture, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 25 Sep 06); when a government is about to use extraordinary violence and we object, we are schooled to march peaceably and then go home to tea with a sense of accomplishment. The rulers are thus entitled to conclude that they have approval, because there was no evidence of serious disapproval. Neither do they fear violence on a level even weakly comparable to what they are about to unleash on the innocent.

Individual acts of protest are important, but unless they grow into something significant I suspect they may benefit the protester's self-image more than the cause.