A RE-CAP AND A NIGHT CAP
When met on Tuesday September 23 to talk about street protests it was on the heels of the huge Climate March in New York, as well as other cities around the globe, including Paris. And even as we write this re-cap tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Hong Kong as part of a pro-democracy demonstration, defying a police crackdown that included tear gas, batons and pepper spray.
Regardless of what we may think about street protests, what motivates us to demonstrate, whether they are peaceful or violent and what protestors can hope to achieve, it seems likely that they will continue to be part of our political landscape for the foreseeable future.
Our evening began with the general notion that participating in protests is a way to have a voice, to remind ourselves that we are part of a collective society and that we should not feel alone in our positions and our opinions. But the perhaps cynical question of whether protests can really have an impact and can effectively influence government and even society soon reared its head, with references being made back to the anti-Vietnam protests and how much (if any) impact they had on ending the war.
It may well depend on what kind of issue brings everyone out into the street. We noted that demonstrations that seek to stop or support a specific law or policy would seem to have a greater chance of success compared to something like Occupy Wall Street which took on the entire issue of economic inequality. Of course you could say that Occupy Wall Street was really about raising awareness, but for several voices in our audience it still wasn’t clear how much public and/or political momentum the movement was able to generate.
A woman from England made the interesting point that in some cases protests should be viewed and even judged across class lines, pointing out that the solidarity of Benetton-wearing members of weller to do British society were not necessarily welcome among working class protests when the miners struck in the 1980s. However not everyone was ready to accept the idea that we should judge people by their reasons for joining a protest, suggesting that in many cases a cross-section of society is best. It is worth noting that a number of non-Arabs, including Jews, joined the recent pro-Palestinian protests in France.
We then moved on to the specific events of this past summer in Paris, Sarcelles and Ferguson. There were mixed feelings about the police in Paris banning the pro-Palestinian protests, although there was general support for the notion that demonstrations in Paris always seem to carry the risk of violence, with the famous “casseurs” somewhere on the margins. As for the presence and role of the police, there was certainly debate about whether their presence in general is a stabilizing or provoking force.
One member of the audience argued that the police should be supported as ordinary people doing a difficult job under orders from on high and felt that even the militarized police presence during the early days in Ferguson helped ensure that the situation didn’t get worse. Although others agreed that the police, and even the CRS, can offer a feeling of safety when tens of thousands take to the streets, there was little agreement that the militarized police in Ferguon was a welcome sight or made the situation any better.
As for violence itself, it’s never truly welcome but there was the suggestion that in some cases it can help the cause by focusing attention on the protests and the issues at hand. As one voice argued, dramatic images of hoses firing water on marchers helped get the Civil Rights Movement on TV and may have in turn helped influence public and political perception.
The idea of protests falling on class lines then came back onto the table in regards to Ferguson when a brief exchange ensued over whether the demonstrations and protests by the African-American community were about racism or economic inequality. There was support for both positions, although trying to separate or even distinguish between the two when looking at race relations in America is a herculean and perhaps impossible task.
As the evening drew to a close one member couldn’t help but wonder whether protests are becoming an even more vital part of our democratic society, remarking that if we can only get so much out of our elected officials by voting then perhaps street protests are the only effective way for our voices to be heard. Not every protest results in change and there may always be a risk of sentiment spilling over into violence but given the world today it is not surprising that the street continues to draw a crowd and play a powerful and often important role in popular society.
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