The US historical sociologist Charles Tilly developed a theory of what he called the repertoire of contention, or protest. It started with petitions and lobbying and went all the way through to general strikes and armed revolts.
We can situate within that the milkshaking of far right politicians during the recent EU Elections, people like the obnoxious UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin in the South-West and the ‘independent’ fascist Stephen Yaxley Lennon in the North-West. Both ended up a very long way indeed from being elected with derisory votes.
The reason for their non-election can be put down to the good sense of electors in those areas. In defeat Lennon complained that voters kept on asking him why he was a Nazi.
Of course behind all that is a lot of hard work by anti-racist organisations like Stand Up To Racism and Hope Not Hate and unions like Unite. Many thousands of leaflets were delivered to electors, billboards paid for and erected, and when Benjamin and Lennon appeared in public they were met consistently by protesters, some of whom got attacked by fascist goons for their troubles.
Within all that the milkshake plays a minor but very media visible part. It makes the far right and fascist candidates who like to appear as a strong man and occasionally woman as someone who is rather engaged in the clown like activities of slapstick.
Of course not all kinds of attack on public figures is justified and here again we look at the repertoire of contention. As Aditya Chakrabortty noted in the Guardian, the worst being hit by a milkshake can do is to dent the pride of the figure hit and probably provoke a requirement for a change of suit.
Deaths threats and actual physical attacks are another matter. They damage a lot more than pride and move from political theatre to something much more serious.
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