My awkward opinion is that Palestine Action shouldn’t have been proscribed and doing so was a draconian mistake, but that the protests valorising them show there is no cause the English middle class can’t make to be about the English middle class.
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My even more awkward opinion is that proscribing them was a mistake despite the fact that they are, in fact, a violent terrorist organisation that is only tolerated because it's comprised of English middle class people.
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Can you explain why you think they've made it about the middle class?
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I don’t think many people are specifically valorising Palestinian Action.
Mostly they are doing what the Government were doing which is using PA to make a wider point.
Stifling protest has backfired on the Government.
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My awkward opinion is that you are wrong.
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My awkward opinion is that there should be an understanding amongst protest groups that breaking into military bases and destroying military equipment is military action and not protest. Protest outside a base by all means.
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It's a different issue though, isn't it? There's a separate free speech point going on here - the right to express support for Palestine Action. The right wing free speech people should be joining it, if they really believed the "one may disagree with their views but..." argument.
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Hey but you’re being so authentic tapping in your armchair. Perhaps a tad envious of their guts ?
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In what way have the protesters sought to make this about themselves?
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Oh well said, they've made it all about them and accuse anyone who doesn't agree of supporting genocide. It's worth reading the Government statment on whey proscribed PA, they most certainly aren't a peaceful protest group.
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Yes, it does seem like a distraction from putting real pressure on the government to do more to stop the awful things happening in Palestine.
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I’m inclined to agree. I thought proscription was a stretch and set a contentious prescedent, but I also think that Palestine Action meets the definition of terrorism described by the Terrorism Act. It is possible to protest peacefully against Israel. Palestine Action has chosen violence.
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My own awkward opinion is people being arrested want to be arrested for performative showpiece now. They revel in it. They are distracting from Gaza as PA did and continue to do.
The test is many same people labelled ( rightly) settlers trashing food aid for Gazans as terrorists. If PA had in fact
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Am reminded of the famous Corbyn protest picture which apparently shows him standing up against apartheid when nobody else was*
*defending the right for a very particular 24 hour protest to be held in a particular place against the wishes of the ANC leadership of the time
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Absolutely agree about the last bit. Not sure about the first having read the Hansard report.
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And what’s wrong with that? 😀
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I disagree . Sabotaging military aircraft puts the lives of servicemen at direct risk and through its lack of availability for use, the lives of citizens .
It crosses a line from mere criminality to terrorism, no less than planting a bomb that doesn’t actually kill anyone does
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If you believe Yvette Cooper that Palestine Action aren’t quite the non-violent protest group they claim to be, it’s not completely outrageous to proscribe them.
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But are you aware of how MANY actions they have taken that affect/potentially affect our national security? I wasn’t!
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each and every one of them is a terrorist supporter
you don't believe the police?
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are middle class people allowed to protest? or is it only allowed if you’re working class
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disagree. These are brave people putting themselves at risk to stand up against appalling actions of Netanyahu & the slaughter of 100k+ civilians in Gaza, and I don't think fellow members of the English middle class should be glib about it online unless they have ever taken a stand in the same way.
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I am very grateful to the protesters. I would love to be there. But I literally can't afford (and am too scared) to get arrested. I can't afford to lose wages or get legal representation. We need people who are wealthy, retired, or both to act in the cases where we can't, whatever their motivation.
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They were charged with a crime when entering the airbase and there is a well established process of jury trials to deal with this. By its reaction the government has turned a question of trespassing into one of freedom of speech.
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Typical Welshman, making it all about the English.
(You’re right, of course)
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Nope.
It’s mostly retired comfortably off people. Many of them might be middle class.
But it looks largely to me that a retired teacher doesn’t fear for his/her job or pension if they protest.
That’s the crucial issue.
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What would Paddington do?
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Okay, name me a better demographic to a) get themselves arrested without severe life consequences and b) attract the political and media class's attention and sympathy.
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The other awkward point is if the protesters get what they want, i.e. a government that does nothing to support Israel, it's unlikely to make any impact on the genocide in Gaza
People are vastly overestimating UK influence
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The law says they are terrorists, the Terrorism act says that the use of violence to further a political cause is terrorism. Just like the Death of Jo Cox was, and many of the other things that have since happened.
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My own probably not all that awkward opinion is that if the original protagonists were actively protesting against the war in Gaza, why did they target military equipment that will never go anywhere near the place?
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You mean it's only the English middle class who oppose genocide?
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Respectfully disagree. It's getting traction in the media (while polite middle class marches are not getting any) and exposing the ridiculousness of the govt position. I may be wrong, of course, but I think tactics have to change somehow to make progress with this lousy govt.
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It’s fun to think this through.
If ‘bad’ (or ‘self-entitled’) protest is a middle class privilege, then what is ‘good’ protest? Is it a uniquely classist thing?
Thus, does ‘working class’ protest outside migrant hotels class as ‘good’ bc it’s not ‘privileged’?
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Think it's part of a broader issue for the left, viewing all protest as good but no explaining how you get from "vandalise Brize Norton" to "Israel stops bombing Gaza". They all think they're MLK/Gandhi despite lacking anything approaching a strategy.
I keep using this gif to describe these groups:
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My awkward opinion is that Palestine Action are doing very little to advance their cause, their energies would be better spent elsewhere, but that the ban has encouraged them to continue in this folly.
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Pretty much. See also the flotilla and professional activists
