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There's a protest coming up in October where the stated aim is to close down a massive regional power station. To what end? All it's going to do, if it suceeds (which I doubt because they've been telling everyone their plan for months now) all it'll do is piss off several million people who rely on the station for power, and it'll achieve precisely fuck all.
If the lights do stay switched on it's because neighbouring plants have to increase their capacity to meet demand. Any decrease in pollution? No. tens of thousands of pounds wasted? yes.
Look at climate camp in London? What the hell was the point? So some idiots chained themselves up inside an office? Now what?
Real change will happen when the majority of people want it to. Whilst we've got a few thousand "activists" making the lives of everybody else difficult then nothing will happen.
The only way those million people could have stopped it would have been barging down the gates of downing street and kicking the prime minister to death, violence does solve problems - its just not the right way to solve them.
That's one thing the French do better than us, that's for sure. Had we gone apeshit during the Iraq demo on the eve of the war, chances are we would have not ended up participating in mass murder and war crimes. Well worth it IMO.
It's all to do with raising the profile of the issue in question, Whowhere. The more noise is made, the more the issue will enter the collective consciousness.
Funny you mention protests against power stations. Last year there was a large, completely peaceful one that was met with one of the most bullying, harrassing and disgraceful police responses ever seen in this country. It included such gems as people having crayons confiscated by the coppers, lest they can be used as offensive weapons; aggressive and unwarranted questioning; unlawful demands and general harrassement.
Good to see the police serving the interests of Big Corp as faithfully as it could be expected...
Our freedoms are being eroded by the day and everyones a fucking sleep!
Protests raise awareness ...it doesn't matter if it pisses some people off ...it gets the conversation going.
Sitting on your arse will change nothing.
Arguing on the net all day gives a lot of people some warm illusion of freedom.
It was through protest that the hated poll tax finished.
We have become comfortably numb and can't be arsed anymore.
Dumbed down is not an exageration.
How can the tv news be taken seriously when every ten minutes twelve dancing bunnies appear selling fucking toilet roll ...someone famous once said.
The UK was once the most fabulously wealthy empire the world ever saw but it was built on slavery and poverty and degradation for the masses.
Every hour less that people had to work ...was fought for by peaceful and sometimes violent protest.
We got this far by protesting.
Maybe the play station generation have nothing left to protest about.
I agree with Climate Camp. I don't weep any tears for multinationals who lose money because of it, a greater amount of money will be used in tackling climate change says the Stern Report... And that is before you count the biodiversity we will lose and the human life cost.
The problem is not with the protestors, it is with the government not having the common sense to regulate polluting big business, to protect our environment, or to do more thasn pay lip service to the issue of climate change.
People protested for a gay Iranian to stay in the country and it happened... Trade unions have helped keep people in their job, extend leave and improve working conditions. Climate change legislation and government 'action' on it is always announced around the times of the climate change demonstrations... Why? because governments fear people and losing money.
But so long as people lay down and let governments in this 'democracy' make decisions on our behalf and use our money for wars we don't want and in the future, nuclear arms.
No protest is useless if it gives a cause publicity.
I've only ever been on one protest and that was the Countryside Alliance, which is something I believe very strongly in. If I didn't believe in something, why would I bother turning up?
How is English Lit a Mickey Mouse degree? *glares*
Also, I agree with this:
I did say that mainly to annoy you
Especially after those abusive texts you sent me on my birthday.
That doesn't surprise me .
Also, I only send abusive texts when people DELETE MY PHONE NUMBER.
That said, the reason protests don't work here is because they don't happen anywhere near enough. Governments should be afraid of their people, not the other way round. We should take a leaf or two out of the book of French protests. They're usually out all the time, and their government is forced to take notice. Had the revelations about our MPs expenses been made in France, you wouldn't be able to move for all the riots on our streets. They would have been demanding the guilty were thrown out of Parliament and into prison for their shameless embezzlement of public money. They would have demanded an immediate general election so that they could have had their say.
What happened over here? A bit of faux pas outrage from certain quarters, a bit of posing from that dishonest cunt Call Me Dave, self-pitying bleating from the likes of Nadine Dorries about the possibility of MPs killing themselves over the revelations - heck, it's a shame that last one didn't come true. The same lot are still in charge of things and still getting away with it.
Say what you like about the French, but they certainly know how to speak their minds.
It must be that time of the year again when I find myself agreeing in full with a post by SG...
I suspect you will see (and hear) a lot more of the LRAD.
Paid for by you too.
There are many people now who have come to see what an illegal and rimoral war it was and is.
Many more people will now be prepared to march now they can see what complete fools they were had over for.
Anyone who thinks the public should just cast their vote and then shut the fuck up ...should be shot.