So the Summer of rage[tm] is drawing to a close without all that much rage being in evidence. Anger, disgust and even outrage but none of the rage we were promised. so I’d just like to get in before the usual suspects do and suggest that we are about to move into:
The Autumn of anarchy
This may or may not be followed by a re-run of a winter of discontent, which I hope will be followed by the
The Spring of sedition
Remember you heard it here first.
The news tells me that Climate Camp in Greenwich now presumably being in full swing, I don’t know if it is or isn’t I’ve not been down there and have no intention in going. At least not without being heavily armed with non-organic petrochemical based soap to keep the hippies at bay. From their website it seems it’s not meant to be a protest but an educational event, I guess that having it as a camp saves on renting a venue and the publicity and location makes it more likely that bored middle class students will put on posh welly’s and carefully purchased scruffy clothes to go down to be told how guilty to feel and how to “stick it to the man”.
All that aside I must admit I quite like some aspects of what the Climate Camp is doing which from my point of view can be boiled down to just two things:
1) Making use of ancient rights to use common ground, a stroke of utter intelligence on their part , though they might like to recall how the peasants revolt actually ended.
2) It provides a wonderful source of free entertainment, both for those going down there (festivals are so expensive and with climate camp you can experience the same mud and squalor for free*) and for those of us watching from a distance.
Leg Iron provides a rather good summary of how pointless even the alleged softly softly approach the police are taking is. Again the reportedly disorganised “swoop” to the camp was a clever idea for both wrong footing the police and getting maximum attention.
However so far for me the best entertainment has come from this article over at Liberal conspiracy. The article itself is terribly amusing but the arguments between the author and two people they know ** is utter comedy gold. The denials, evasions, melt down and throwing toys out of the pram followed by massive back peddling is wonderful. It’s all of the techniques used by the righteous , as Leg Iron names them, in one easy to digest packet. It should really be preserved as a case study for showing how such arguments work.
Meanwhile I wish everyone down at the climate camp well and whilst you’re protesting about big oil try not to think too carefully about how the plastics in your wellys, phones and the like where made.
*I Don’t go to festivals either so this is utter ill informed prejudice about both things on my part but it makes it al the more amusing for me.
** I also know the people concerned and the author and they’re all three as white privileged and middle class as I am.
So just as predicted if not required there was it seems a certain amount of trouble at todays G20 protests. Having been sat at home working I can only go by the reports sent in by the BBC, blogs and other media outlets. Which probably gives me as much authority to comment as most people we’ll see on TV or read in the papers.
Apart from the numpties that tried to bring an armoured car into the city, which I’d expect to encounter no small degree of interest even on the best of days. Especially when it does look so very confusingly like a real police vehicle:
The rest of the reported violence seems to have been to at least some extent remarkably staged managed, here we have a spontaneous bit of violence surrounded by a veritable wall of photographers.
So it would seem that someone at least was making sure that the reporters got good images of things kicking off. There are also reports of “masked black clad” demonstrators running to the more peaceful bits of the demo (the climate camp) to make the atmosphere there more aggressive.
Given the banks that were attacked are already being bailed out by the Government, one way or another this was effectively state sponsored violence against state property. Even if the state didn’t directly provide a detailed script. With Barricades and fires being set up in the city there should be plenty more action for the mornings papers, certainly enough to drive any talk of expenses or problems at the G20 summit from the front pages. What remains to be seen is if how much more nonsense tomorrow will bring and if we’ll discover whose agenda this is all serving.
I do find myself left with one question still, what are these protesters actually protesting about? Given the mixture of interest groups and banners on display it seems that either:
a) G20 is just a convenient event for people with little to no commno ground to protest at
or
b) The protest is in favour of “Something being done” and “down with that sort of thing”
So appropriately enough tomorrow’s April fools day and the powers that be have declared it to be the day when troubles should begin. After all with so many important people around and security being so very the flavour of the day, any response at all to so much as a gnat farting in the general direction of the great and good must be both appropriate and proportionate no matter what form it takes. There’ll be the usual suspects of course, and no doubt a few people there to ensure that some trouble happens. Just in case people aren’t suitably scared, businesses that might just about be considered somewhere near one of the decreed trouble spots have been warning/ordering staff to stay home or wear disguise. (I’m one of the ordered to stay away)
Fortunately the weather forecast is good which should help make for a lively turn out, and it’s near enough to Easter that I’m sure some students will be able to drag themselves away from dusty libraries to protest about – well what ever it says on the placard the SWP hand them.
For me despite the various pro-capitalism demonstrations adding to the patchwork, it’s seeming all far to directed to lend any support to. It will though of course justify some good headlines, maybe a few news laws or the use of an old one. Mainly though I suspect it will serve to drive ministers expenses from the headlines and bury the almost guaranteed abject failure of the summit to achieve anything other than a few photo ops.
But for all that I wish those that go to make their voices heard well, and hope at least some of them present a clear and coherent message of their own. For me it’s quarter end and this bit of business would be as good a use of my time as claiming for an 88p bath plug (Seriously what’s with that? I value my time too much to even contemplate such a thing is Jacquis time so cheap? On the other hand this pay be why I only have one home.)
So good luck to all those attending on which ever side of the thin blue line they may be. But remember kids don’t take banners from strangers, and don’t forget your latte.
Footnote: Image provided by the lovely people at http://www.sendamessage.nl/.
Quiet a few people of late have been wondering if the government might be getting rather eager for riots to happen this summer, in what they’re already calling a “summer of rage”*, so that they can play with the little reported Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This act basically gives high ranking politicians and officials the power to do whatever they like in the event of an “emergency”, where in its broadest reading an “emergency” is whatever they decide it is. It is in many ways quite a plausible idea, whilst also being somewhat close to the “tin foil wearing” end of the spectrum. I would like to think it’s quite a way from the “likely to happen” end of the spectrum though some of the things being reported do make one wonder. With such wondering in mind a small article in one of the London free rags caught my eye:
London hospitals are on alert today over a severe outbreak of scarlet fever.
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