Occupy Everywhere - Too Lazy to Care

A small group of activists who decided to set up camp in Wall St. and voice there concerns about the financial system in America has created a global phenomenon, with camps popping up all over America and recently in London outside St. Paul's cathedral. However, these are relatively small groups of people and many have voiced there amazement at how few people are protesting. So have we, as a country or even as a world lost the drive to protest or do we now believe it makes no difference. 

The Student Protests, March for the Alternative, public sector strikes the English Riots, all of these have taken place in the past year but is this really anything great when we look at what the government is doing. The Conservatives have cut funding for higher education by 80%, they are moving the NHS to a more private system and public sector pay has been frozen for the foreseeable future and with inflation at 5.2% this will hit workers hard. In the 1980s protests were common place and some of them fairly large, that was at  time when Margaret Thatcher was braking up the welfare state, exactly the same as what David Cameron is doing now. So where did all the radicals and the lefties and the trade unionists go? 

A middle class nation

The economic reforms introduced in the Thatcher years and continued through New Labour have transformed Britain into a service based economy. We don't mine, we don't make things, we sell things, we work in shops and banks, and at computers. This has rubbed out the line between the middle and the working classes. To be working class used to mean you work with your hands, building or making things, however now, if you build or make things you are likely to be a skilled engineer and get payed relatively well. The majority of people in this country are no longer working class, they are middle class. This situation can only happen in an international market, we have to import pretty much everything. In relation to protests, the middle class are generally much less likely to participate in protests. So do we have less marches and demonstrations because we are all right of center, middle class moderates? 

My trade union doesn't get me

In the 80s Thatcher smashed the unions and now it seems they are a group of communists trying to take down the government, or are they? One thing trade unions are particularly bad at is PR, they are quite often 'all guns blazing' and making the public angry because they have shut the tubes. This is not helped by their demonisation by the government. But behind the pickets and the angry men with microphones there are concerned workers, who can't pay for food because they are still on the same wage as last year even though everything is 5% more expensive. Workers who worry because they have been promised a pension which they have planned for which is now being ripped out from under their feat. It is hard to justify a strike when only 30% of members even bothered to vote but does that mean we should make it illegal, which some are suggesting. Trade unions need a makeover, they need to move into the 21st century, then more people may vote and participate and strikes can be more effective and gain more public support, if they don't they will fade away and workers rights will be a thing of the past. 

Lost hope

One thing I have heard countless times over the past year is, "what's the point". People are loosing the feeling that protesting even makes a difference. You go out sing a few songs, wave a few banners and then when you get bored you go home, the black block move in, smash a few windows and your done. Nothing changes, no one cares, but would EMA have been reintroduced to some extent if it was not for the Student Protests, in 1990 would the Poll tax have been dismantled if it were not for the riots, would Britain still have nuclear warheads on British soil if it were not for CND protests? Demos, marches, sit ins, strikes they all can work but people have lost hope. The government seem not to be listening anymore. 2003 saw the biggest protest ever on British soil, it was against the Iraq War, but we still went, why didn't the government see, people did NOT want war. If the biggest protest in our history didn't work what chance do we have?

All of the above

Nothings working, so lets occupy everywhere! Why not, it is a great idea, camp out near the place that has ruined the economy and ruined so many lives. But why isn't everyone doing it, I would go for all of the above, we have become less radical in this country. Our politics has shifted to the right, New Labour is more conservative then the Conservatives were in the early 50s and the only democratic socialist party we have with any possibility of power are the Greens who have one seat. The trade unions are crumbling, they are stuck in the miners strikes and need to catch up with the changing way the world works. Finally, people have lost hope, the government isn't listening. We have moved into a type of protest which wants an overhaul of the system, the Occupy movement doesn't want the banks to pay more tax, or politicians to stop cutting public services. They want a change, a change that will shift the power away from the banks and large corporations, a change away from the profit motive and the way capitalism finds a way to be great and the worse thing in the world at the same time. Are they going to get it, maybe, but the question is, does the majority want it?