Chris Packham, Breaking the Law & Repertoires of Contention
Chris Packham fronted a programme on climate protest on Channel 4 this week.
The first thing that needs to be said is solidarity with those who are protesting in a range of ways. Protest on climate is essential.
The question Packham raised rightly is whether protest is being effective and what kind of protest might work.
There was and should be no definitive answer. It’s a question of democratic discussion and decision.
Packham looked at whether protests from Just Stop Oil, essentially protest as stunts, requiring a good deal of bravery from protesters, really work. He talked to those who felt protest was better focused at the power of capital and sabotage. There was also a nod to non-violent mass protest.
He talked to a couple of Tory Peers one sceptical on climate change, the other not. Neither were fans of protest.
It was in short a bit one dimensional. Charles Tilly’s Repertoire of Protest sees an escalating hierarchy of protest from petition to riot and revolution. In reality though various strategies can co-exist and have differential impacts dependant on context.
While there may not be much hope in serious Parliamentary action on climate a discussion with Labour and Green Party persons would have been useful and a recognition that Labour’s Green New Deal was a coherent policy and might still be.
There was also a focus on individual protest and civil disobedience. Both realistic and potentially effective but what of collective action, of union organisation and strikes on climate issues. What about a recognition that several unions in the UK both represent workers in areas which focus on climate and regularly promote action around them?
Good on Chris Packham for raising questions. What is to be done is an urgent question
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