Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

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States fight back 75 consolidation of state powers but remained inadequate in the eyes of senior police officers. Sir Charles Pollard, Thames Valley Chief Constable from 1997–2002 considered that ‘If anything we have not been bold enough in seeing where the line is and going right up to the line to stop people who are basically criminal people doing serious things – and it is that robustness we have still not quite got’ (BBC 2 True Spies). Chief constables continued lobbying for more powers, something confirmed by Amanda Webster, Deputy Sheriff of Lancashire, commenting on her experience of running training sessions at the Metropolitan Police Academy at Hendon, London. In her view amongst the police the ‘the will to stamp out extreme protest has intensified’, producing an ‘effective lobby ...to curb the Movement’. The inclusion of animal rights and similar protests within the Terrorism Act 2000 was part of a ‘backlash against extreme protest’, to which she adds ‘similar draconian legislation will not be far behind’ (Webster 2002). Underlying the fractured and episodic media representation of public order issues within the public sphere lay police and movement cultures interacting on a day-to-day basis. Asymmetrical access and media credibility structures the images of these interactions, which become dominated by ‘newsworthy’ events (Wahl-Jorgensen 2003). A repetitive cycle of representation has been established revolving around Cohen’s tripartite schema. In the run up to a protest event, police and senior politicians issue public announcements emphasising the violent intent of protestors and the likelihood of damage to property which are implicitly and or explicitly linked to a more abstract threat to democracy and or civilisation. Such statements are justified retrospectively through past examples of riotous assembly and warn of future repetitions. Whilst political figures typically defend the right of citizens to legitimate protest, there are also appeals for ordinary citizens not to participate in ‘extreme’ AGM actions. As we showed earlier (Chapter 3) this cycle of representation owes much to global networking within and between police, intelligence and political offices of state, foregrounding ‘fear’, ‘terror’ and ‘anarchy’. Once established as dominant discourses within the public sphere, these tropes tend to silence participants’ substantive grievances and motivations, collapsing complex multiple identities to a ‘mob’. This discursively constructed ‘mob’ then becomes the ‘object’ of policing strategies and operational practices. The application of this label conceals the presence of numerous ‘respectable’ and thoughtful citizens committed to positive change within society. Attempts by activists to gain mainstream media coverage for systematic debate on contested issues such as social justice, rights of assembly and freedom of speech is effectively foreclosed by their ‘deviant’ construction. Traditionally this silencing process has been part of the establishments’ capacity to manage and control political debate and shape public expectations (Middlemass 1979), something made increasingly difficult by modern media technologies (Thompson 1995). Generally, politicians also attempt
76 States fight back to trivialise activists’ substantive claims as naïve, irrational, dangerous, un-democratic, self-interested etc. The subordination of AGM activists through dominant discourses within the bourgeois public sphere effectively blocks public engagement with the contemporary equivalent of the ‘crisis’ identified by Cohen (1972). To engage with the substantive issues raised by the AGM would mean implicitly accepting the existence of a crisis in institutional trust amongst the general public and the need to radically alter mechanisms of interest representation. Creating ‘new’ folk devils – May Day 2000 and 2001 The largely peaceful demonstration in Parliament Square on May Day 2000 tipped into limited violence and property damage after police allowed protestors to leave Parliament Square and enter Whitehall. Some shops, including a McDonalds, were damaged and, more controversially the Cenotaph and a memorial statute to Winston Churchill were defaced. There were 30 arrests and 5 reported injuries on the day. Despite these low figures the dominant representation of the event on the following day’s front pages was that of a ‘riot’. Headlines included ‘Anarchy thugs riot in central London’ (The Times 02.05.00), ‘Rioters dishonour war heroes’ (The Daily Telegraph 02.05.00), ‘Protests erupt in violence’, (The Guardian), ‘May Day Mayhem’ (Daily Express), ‘Riot Yobs desecrate Churchill Monument’ (The Sun). Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly described the protesters as being ‘beneath contempt’, portraying ‘The people responsible for the damage caused in London today’ as ‘an absolute disgrace’ and their actions as having ‘nothing to do with convictions or beliefs and everything to do with mindless thuggery.’ (The Guardian 2.05.00). The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, whilst recognising the distinction between ‘legitimate’ protest and criminal action, portrayed the demonstration as ‘criminality and thuggery masquerading as political protest’ (The Guardian 2.05.00). The subordination of protestors’ motives to mindless violence proved difficult to maintain even in apparently ‘strong’ cases which were pursued via the public sphere regardless of the consequences for individuals’ targeted in this manner 12 . Three instances of criminal damage became the condensation symbols around which appeals for public denunciation were orchestrated. Two of these, damage to the Cenotaph and the decoration of Winston Churchill’s statute with a grass Mohican, transgressed ‘war heroes’ whilst the ransacking of a small McDonalds outlet reaffirmed the targeting of global corporate brands. The protestor photographed spray painting Churchill’s statue gave himself up amidst a nationwide police hunt for more than 200 people. However, far from being a ‘mindless thug’ the protestor was a 25-year-old former soldier with an active service record in Bosnia. As The Guardian pointed out he did
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Complexity and Social Movements Che
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Complexity and Social Movements Mul
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Contents List of figures vi Acknowl
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Acknowledgements With thanks to all
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Preface ix activists and engaged ci
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2 Introducing global movements poli
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4 Introducing global movements arou
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6 Introducing global movements esta
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8 Introducing global movements Thes
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10 Introducing global movements exp
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12 Introducing global movements che
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14 Introducing global movements Fra
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16 Introducing global movements ‘
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18 Introducing global movements for
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20 Introducing global movements and
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2 Prefiguration and emergence Intro
Page 35 and 36: 24 Prefiguration and emergence on T
Page 37 and 38: 26 Prefiguration and emergence 9 If
Page 39 and 40: 28 Prefiguration and emergence Prop
Page 41 and 42: 30 Prefiguration and emergence agai
Page 43 and 44: 32 Prefiguration and emergence C. E
Page 45 and 46: 34 Prefiguration and emergence The
Page 47 and 48: 36 Prefiguration and emergence Glob
Page 49 and 50: 38 Prefiguration and emergence In t
Page 51 and 52: 40 Prefiguration and emergence Neo-
Page 53 and 54: 42 Prefiguration and emergence from
Page 55 and 56: 44 Identities, protest dynamics and
Page 79 and 80: 68 States fight back when trust in
Page 81 and 82: 70 States fight back academically,
Page 83 and 84: 72 States fight back streets from d
Page 85: 74 States fight back ‘green Parli
Page 89 and 90: 78 States fight back beneath Big Be
Page 91 and 92: 80 States fight back ran out. The p
Page 93 and 94: 82 States fight back The attempt to
Page 95 and 96: 84 States fight back Accounts of th
Page 97 and 98: 86 States fight back hair, infringe
Page 99 and 100: 88 States fight back crisis is in e
Page 101 and 102: 5 Ecologies of action within global
Page 103 and 104: 92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
Page 105 and 106: 94 Ecologies of action embedded in
Page 107 and 108: 96 Ecologies of action The assimila
Page 109 and 110: 98 Ecologies of action compatibilit
Page 111 and 112: 100 Ecologies of action linking up
Page 113 and 114: 102 Ecologies of action occurred wi
Page 115 and 116: 104 Ecologies of action leading to
Page 117 and 118: 106 Ecologies of action siege of in
Page 119 and 120: 108 Beyond resistance to global nex
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126 Beyond resistance to global nex
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7 The death of collective identity?
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130 Global movement as a parallelog
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148 The map is not the territory th
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150 The map is not the territory of
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152 The map is not the territory Ne
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154 The map is not the territory mi
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156 The map is not the territory or
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158 The map is not the territory mo
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160 The map is not the territory of
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162 The map is not the territory ne
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Notes 1 Introducing global movement
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166 Notes 12 Ya Basta’s! subseque
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168 Notes 19 This practice has been
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170 Notes Afro Bloc parading drum b
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172 Bibliography Barker, C., Johnso
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174 Bibliography De Sousa Santos, B
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176 Bibliography Grubacic, A. (2003
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178 Bibliography Lash, S. (2002) Cr
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180 Bibliography O’Neill, J. (200
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182 Bibliography Thompson, E.P. (19
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Index Note: Page numbers in italics
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186 Index class: affinities 93; and
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188 Index G7 23 G8 23, 100; meeting
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190 Index London 52, 63, 69, 116; E
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192 Index Poland 44, 45; ‘Orange
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194 Index Taylor, P. 168 n.2; call
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