Protest! The new lifestyle choice
Rebel, Rebel: The Protestor’s Handbook
By Bibi van der Zee
Published by Guardian Books, 2008, £14.99
Reviewed by
Matt Dobson
"ARE YOU worried about global warming? Furious about
GM crops? Sick to death of human rights abuses, unaffordable housing…
but don’t know where to start? Then this book is for you". This is the
promise made by Bibi van der Zee, ‘ethical living and environmental
campaigns’ columnist for The Guardian. This journalist, with a
background in environmental groups and the 1990s anti-road protest
movement, has written a step-by-step guide to political activism and
starting a campaign.
In a lively, accessible and often witty manner each
chapter deals with a form of protest, including demonstrations,
boycotts, squatting, protest camps, direct action, letter writing,
fundraising, petitioning, and organising public meetings.
At a time when protests are increasing – from fuel
price hikes to attacks on abortion rights – it is significant that a
book that "hopes to get people to start a revolution" has appeared.
However, rather than seeking to fundamentally change the way society is
run, the author believes the important thing is that people feel they
are making a difference: "The idea of raising your voice on behalf of
others, gives me profound pleasure somewhere in my middle".
The biggest shortcoming of this book is summed up in
her analysis of the current political situation: "We seem to have
surrendered our self-determination without thinking about it; a powerful
group of multi-national corporations and financial and political
institutions now control our lives. It can seem like we are now in the
powerless position like medieval peasants".
However, the main reason why big business and
capitalist institutions have had so much power is because of the
relative weakness of working-class organisations: the trade unions and
ex-workers’ parties that have moved to the right for a whole period.
Most importantly, this situation is beginning to change.
This book’s main points of reference are the
ideological conclusions drawn by many on the left and in the
anti-globalisation movements in the late 1990s and early part of this
decade. As a reaction to the collapse of the Stalinist regimes in
Eastern Europe and the ideological offensive of the capitalist class in
favour of the unrestrained free market and against the ideas of
socialism, many questioned and even rejected the need for political
parties, trade unions and collective action to try and force change.
The slant in the interviews is with campaigners from
NGOs, single-issue campaigns, environmental groups (of the Plane Stupid
variety), animal rights and people taking action on an individual basis.
Trade unions, the labour movement and political parties are covered but
are portrayed as undemocratic and declining in influence and support.
Of course, if you look empirically at the overall
decline in union membership and the hollowing out of the Labour Party in
Britain there is some basis to these conclusions. But van der Zee
overestimates the impact of NGOs – "4% of the world’s working
population" – and is incorrect in saying that they are the most
effective in "pushing reluctant politicians into action".
The most useful thing about this book is that every
chapter ends with a concise summary of legal issues around a particular
form of protest or campaigning. This includes explanations of
legislation and how activists can use the law.
Rebel Rebel gives the ins and outs of draconian
legislation used against protestors. It begins with the Highways Act
(1980), and the aggravated trespass laws under the Criminal Justice and
Public Order Act (1990) – used violently against anti-road building
protestors in the 1990s, and travellers in the notorious ‘battle of the
bean-field’ – and goes up to the recent raft of legislation on
terrorism, serious organised crime and anti-social behaviour being used
against demonstrators. The recent Notts Stop the BNP protest on 16
August was subject to sections 14 and 14a of the Public Order Act,
giving the police powers to shut down areas around the Derbyshire
village of Codnor, such as footpaths and lanes, that fell outside an
official protest area.
Van der Zee fails to point out that this is a
deliberate step-up in the powers of the state to crack down on civil
liberties and democratic rights. With increasing levels of discontent in
society, the police will be given extra powers to protect the interests
of the ruling class. The impression given in Rebel Rebel is that there
is not much we can or even should do about these repressive laws.
On the question of the anti-trade union laws, the
legal implications of taking industrial action, picketing and balloting
are clearly explained. But there is no guide on how to combat this
legislation. Even worse, van der Zee says that "20 or 30 years ago there
might have been a need to prevent industrial action from spreading to
other companies". This completely fails to understand that this
legislation was introduced by Thatcher’s Tory government (and continued
under New Labour) to defend the interests of the bosses in its class war
on strong, organised sections of the working class, the miners and
printers, etc.
Nonetheless, these laws are not worth the paper they
are written on when workers act decisively. This was seen when prison
officers broke the ban on strike action imposed on them by the
government in August 2007.
Rebel Rebel points to historical examples of mass
movements, such as the Chartists, the struggle for universal suffrage,
and the abolition of slavery, although in a very sketchy way. The
impression given is that these were slow struggles that eventually
achieved reforms, but did not have revolutionary elements. Van der Zee
points out the "journalistic" role of Engels in highlighting the
horrific conditions of the industrial working class, in Conditions of
the Working Class and Poor in England (1844). Van der Zee says this book
horrified the middle and ruling class to the extent that they granted
reforms such as the ten-hour day and the 1848 Public Health Act.
But Engels was an active revolutionary who took part
in the struggles of working people that forced these concessions from
the bosses. His marvellous book puts forward a strategy for the working
class to organise in trade unions and political parties to fight the
bosses and landlords and change society. This is also shown when van der
Zee discusses Annie Besant’s account of the match-girls’ conditions.
There is no mention that this led to a strike which had a dramatic
effect on the political consciousness of the working class and helped
begin the process of forming mass workers’ parties and trade unions.
More recent history is also misrepresented. The
magnificent anti-poll tax struggle only merits a sentence, as "riots led
to the withdrawal of an unjust law". Yet the anti-poll tax struggle was
an example of a successful mass movement of which the backbone and
leadership was a political force, the Militant (now the Socialist
Party). The poll tax was defeated by a mass campaign involving
demonstrations, public meetings, communities organising against bailiffs
and the courts and, most importantly, by mass non-payment organised by
the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation.
Rebel Rebel highlights the two-million strong
anti-war demonstration in February 2003 as an example of why many
believe mass action is ultimately ineffective, as those in power carry
on regardless. Van der Zee states that "a whole group of people who had
never protested before will probably never bother again". But this fails
to understand that the political pressure required to stop the onslaught
of Bush and Blair’s war for oil in Iraq would have had to include
industrial action by the working class and a political alternative to
New Labour. Many young people and workers will draw just such lessons
from the anti-war movement to apply in future struggles.
Rebel Rebel ends up starkly illustrating the
limitations of individual action, giving the example of a family who set
up a hyperactive children’s support group after their child’s behaviour
is affected by food colourings. They are completely ignored by the food
manufacturers and government. Van der Zee hints that we might be better
off trying to gradually persuade politicians and big business to act in
the interests of ordinary people by making a sound moral case.
At its worst, this book presents campaigning and
activism as a trendy lifestyle choice, with van der Zee hoping we will
wake from our apathy and join the cool people in the know. Perhaps
protesting will catch on like a craze like DIY, Sudoku or Free-cycle,
with this book as the official manual. But actually, the reason this
book could be used as a – very basic – starting point for political
activists, is that people will protest because they draw conclusions
from their own experience of the brutality and failures of the
capitalist system.
|