The interesting thing about these anti capitalist demos is that they
are growing in several dimensions - in frequency, in geographical
spread, and in the range of icons attacked. A year or two ago it
was quite exoected that McDonalds would be attacked, since the
Golden M isthe nearset thing to a flag that globalised capitalism
has got, and it provides a convenient target for environmentalists
too.
The cenotaph is similarly an icon for the state now. What it
commemorates happened many years before most of May 1st's
demonstrators were born, in an almost unimaginably different
world, in which UK and Germany were fighting, not both in the EU,
in which the USSR was our ally, not a fifty year old foe before its
collapse etc etc.
It must be extremely upsertting for surviving relatives of WW 2 war
casualties to see this, but what is truly sad also is to recall the old
Chimese proverb. "he who does not remember history is
condemned to relive it".
|In attacking this icon of the MODERN state, the message is
something like "we dont like the way states pander to the needs of
big corporations, and force us modern day peasantry onto low
wages so megabucks can be made by big business".
Unfortunately the predictable outraged response by politicians, and
I guess we will see more from Blair and Hague, almost the same
party really, on how demos must be suppressed. Thus we are
close to fulfilling the Chinese proverb above. When demos are
suppressed becuase of the danmage they MIGHT cause, we just a
littler closer to the Germany of the late 1930s.
I do not support either the actions of the cenotaph desecrators, or
the actions of the big corporations in promoting, or at least not
alleviating, world poverty, inequality and disease with the wealth
they possess and control. A bit of moderation is called for on all
sides, and cenotaph - daubing does little to advance what would be
a noble cause by those who care about poverty etc.
A quiet shift to green consumerism, less spectacular, would be a
far better way to protest, surely
Hillary Shaw, P/G geography, University of Leeds
Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|