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To folk saying “If we weren’t in #lockdown, we’d be marching!”
Haven’t you been paying attention? THEY DGAF whether or not you march!
There’s a reason for that, and the fault is on our side. We have to stop thinking of marches as the quintessence of protest.
Hear me out...
Haven’t you been paying attention? THEY DGAF whether or not you march!
There’s a reason for that, and the fault is on our side. We have to stop thinking of marches as the quintessence of protest.
Hear me out...
I love a demo as much as the next person: the atmosphere, the optimism, the pageantry! But you have to know what it’s for:
- to win support
- to engage new activists
- to restore weary activists!
- to show force
Worthwhile aims, but success in any by no means guaranteed
- to win support
- to engage new activists
- to restore weary activists!
- to show force
Worthwhile aims, but success in any by no means guaranteed
An ill-judged demo can lose you more support and goodwill than it gains: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2019/oct/17/protesters-dragged-off-dlr-train-as-extinction-rebellion-delay-commuters-in-london-video?CMP=share_btn_tw
An ill-attended demo can make your cause a laughing stock rather than a force to be reckoned with: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-march-leave-farage-betrayal-sunderland-london-a8826126.html
But what’s possibly even more depressing is to be part of a demo that looks like an almighty success in the moment, but that becomes a footnote, rather than the making of history: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/08/we-were-ignored-anti-war-protestors-remember-the-iraq-war-marches
The short story is that a demo is only an event.
It is only as powerful as the movement it galvanises, and to which it provides the most visible layer.
And it is only effective when the force that it builds is turned to the purposes of the movement that drives it.
It is only as powerful as the movement it galvanises, and to which it provides the most visible layer.
And it is only effective when the force that it builds is turned to the purposes of the movement that drives it.
What you can do today, in #lockdown, to pave the way for an effective demo later, is build your movement...
Join a political party or start your own. Subvert your parish newsletter or WI branch...
Find a structure that helps you win allies and develop strategy.
Join a political party or start your own. Subvert your parish newsletter or WI branch...
Find a structure that helps you win allies and develop strategy.
If you work, then a trade union will let you do all this... we’ll even teach you how!
AND we’ll help protect you against difficult times in the workplace, which, given that we’re on the brink of a cataclysmic economic collapse, seems pretty likely for lots of us. #joinAUnion
AND we’ll help protect you against difficult times in the workplace, which, given that we’re on the brink of a cataclysmic economic collapse, seems pretty likely for lots of us. #joinAUnion
One day it’ll be safe to go out. And I’m sure we will want and need marches, protests and demos of every kind.
Let’s make sure we have the movements in place to power them.
In the meantime, watch @PrideMovie and remind yourself how it should be done!
#ThereWillBeBanners
Let’s make sure we have the movements in place to power them.
In the meantime, watch @PrideMovie and remind yourself how it should be done!
#ThereWillBeBanners
