Culture Wars: The Times supports the right to protest. Except protests it doesn’t like
For the second time in the last few days the Times has published an Editorial on the right to protest. It agrees that there is a democratic right to protest. However it draw the line at protests it doesn’t like. At the moment its focus is on Just Stop Oil protests in London which it thinks should stop.
The Editorial on 15th October is particularly exercised by a protest by two activists at the Tate. A can of soup was thrown over a Van Gogh painting. The protest was peaceful and the painting was not harmed. Even so, in an echo of Stalin era Russia, the Times calls the protests vandalism and demands exemplary sentences for the protesters.
The protest was certainly effective in getting publicity, although it might be argued more for the protest than the issues at stake- climate change and energy. The PCS Union, which represents attendants and cleaners at the Tate, issued a mildly critical statement pointing out that it worked with protest groups, but this had not been the case on this occasion.
I think that collective protests involving organised labour have more chance of promoting change but that is an argument to be had within the movement. The Times Editorial shows how authoritarian the official voices of reason are becoming.
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