Community: Real Life

Pointless protests


Daisy Phillipson

Daisy Phillipson, 20, is an English Literature student at Brighton University. She hopes to do a post-graduate course in journalism followed by a year teaching English in China. Her ambition is to live in Japan at some point.

Daisy is fed up with people taking part in protests with no meaning. If people are going to shout about an issue they need to find some goals.

My housemate likes to think of himself as a bit of a political activist. He used to ask me to join him on protests and I had my doubts when he asked me to come on an anti-capitalist march. That's not to say I'm pro-capitalism, quite the opposite actually and fair enough it is good to voice your opinion on such matters. However, isn't the point of a protest to reach some sort of outcome or change in the issue? I found myself asking him repetitively: "So what's the march actually for, what would we be marching for?" with him replying equally repetitively:" It's an anti-capitalism march." Now I do understand a protest is about voicing opposition, but surely it's not about just congregating to rant? It should be about more than just saying "I hate capitalism". I'm utterly in favour of protests, but in recent years I have lost faith.

Here are some examples of protests my housemate would have easily been able to convince me to participate in. Take the Sinclair protest. John Sinclair was sentenced to ten years in jail for attempting to sell two marijuana joints. The judicial system was thought to be unjust. At the rally John Lennon appeared on stage singing a song called John Sinclair which he had just written in front of 20,000 people at a rally. Three days later Sinclair was set free from jail. Or we could go way back to the suffragette protests in the 1900s, fighting for the equality of women with men. Women even went on hunger strike in an attempt to secure the right to vote in political elections. By 1918 women over the age of 30 had the vote. A further ten years on men and women were on an equal footing in terms of voting rights. 

It seems to me that young people are protesting just for the sake of getting together. Fair enough, you care about political issues, well so do I. But I don't feel the need to gather with a group of other people just to state I agree with them. There needs to be someone to tell, something to be fighting for. At one protest my friends showed up in fancy dress; it was like a party. It turned out to be against commercial airplane flights. John Lennon would be turning over in his grave if he knew.

"The general crowd of pointless protesters tends to be university students with their new found liberalism and interest in politics thinking that they are Che Guevara."

It seems to me the general crowd of pointless protesters tends to be university students with their new found liberalism and interest in politics thinking that they are Che Guevara, leading the country into reformation by rallying with all their friends. It's too superficial. There are still protests, such as the G20 summit, which have a goal and direct a message towards those in authority.

I wouldn't want people to stop protesting,  everyone has a right to do so. Just stop the pointless ones. Luckily I won't be living with the same housemate next year; maybe this issue won't be in my face all day. But I do encourage people to stop wasting their time and go and make a real difference in the world.

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