On Monday night police moved in to clear Extinction Rebellion protesters at Trafalgar Square and Vauxhall Gardens. They werent obstructing anything but the police claimed their action was justified under Section 14 of the Public Order Act.
Protest and Survive seems the obvious response to this kind of diktat.
At the same time it is a reminder that the police and the State that employs them are not the friends of protesters or those who challenge even peacefully aspects of the power of capital.
It is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ralph Miliband’s classic study, The State in Capitalist Society. He wrote:
The State…is primarily and inevitably the guardian and protector of the economic interests which are dominant in them. Its ‘real’ purpose and mission is to ensure their continued predominance, not to prevent it.
Of course it is not quite as simple as that in a Parliamentary Democracy (Constitutional Monarchy to be precise). The police have to be seen to be acting within the law which has at least the appearance of equality and will no doubt, rightly, face a challenge to their activities on clearing Extinction Rebellion protests.
As ever, protest goes on
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