lol... yeah
arguably, the Tea Party protests played a part in paving the way for the Trump presidency, yet BBC has no-one remotely conservative, much less from the Tea Party, on this protest-promoting program:
AUDIO features giant photo of Trump Baby (blimp) balloon.
AUDIO: 52mins59secs: 14 Jul: BBC The Real Story: Do Protests Still Work?
Presenter: Ritula Shah
Donald Trump has arrived in England but he’s not getting the red carpet treatment a US president might expect. Big protests are planned in London, featuring a march to Trafalgar Square and a six metre high balloon of Donald Trump as a snarling orange baby. The protests may let people vent their feelings about the US president’s controversial style and policies, but few expect much change as a result. So, while protests still occupy a prominent place in the drama of democracy, do they really achieve anything anymore?
How have cultural forces and social media changed the way protests are organised? And can non-violent protests still force elected politicians to change?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswkdc
guests - David Graeber:
Feb 2014: The Nation: From Occupy to Climate Justice
There’s a growing effort to merge economic-justice and climate activism. Call it climate democracy.
By Wen Stephenson
Sometimes, though, the prospect of climate catastrophe shows up unexpectedly, awkwardly, as a kind of non sequitur—or the return of the repressed.
I was reminded of this not long ago when I came to a showstopping passage deep in the final chapter of anarchist anthropologist David Graeber’s The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement, his interpretive account of the Occupy Wall Street uprising, in which he played a role not only as a core OWS organizer but as a kind of house intellectual (his magnum opus, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, happened to come out in the summer of 2011). Midway through a brief discourse on the nature of labor, he pauses to reflect, as though it has just occurred to him: “At the moment, probably the most pressing need is simply to slow down the engines of productivity.” Why? Because “if you consider the overall state of the world,” there are “two insoluble problems” we seem to face: “On the one hand, we have witnessed an endless series of global debt crises…to the point where the overall burden of debt…is obviously unsustainable. On the other we have an ecological crisis, a galloping process of climate change that is threatening to throw the entire planet into drought, floods, chaos, starvation, and war.” ...
Graeber’s solution—“a planetary debt cancellation” and a “mass reduction in working hours: a four-hour day, perhaps, or a guaranteed five-month vacation”—may sound far-fetched, but at least he acknowledges the “galloping” climate crisis and what’s at stake in it...
L.A. Kauffman, who writes for Guardian & CNN, etc:
7 May: Guardian: We are living through a golden age of protest
by LA Kauffman
We are seeing a level of organizing with little precedent – but it’s time for stronger forms of demonstration, such as sit-ins and street blockades...
More than 900 emergency protests are being planned all around the country if Trump should fire Robert Mueller or otherwise compromise the legal investigation into possible wrongdoing by his administration...
21 Jun: CNN: Crowd gathers at LaGuardia Airport to support children believed to be separated from families
By Madison Park and Ellie Kaufman, CNN
Dana Fisher:
4 Jun: NY Post: Associated Press: Pope to meet with oil execs on climate change
Dana Fisher, a sociologist who studies environmentalism at the University of Maryland, said the pope is cementing his leadership on climate.
“He certainly is trying to lead for the planet and Lord knows we need it,” she said...
plus Fatima Shabodien, Country Director, ActionAid South Africa; feminist political activist, who sees “resistance” protests as gimmicks.
btw, the Tea Party did get a mention around 45min into the program, but was brushed off instantly.
Dana Fisher admits American “resistance” is too connected to the Dem Party & that protests in US are basically the Democrats taking to the streets.
BBC Ritula Shah: but you get movements within political parties, if you think of the tea party movement. was that a protest movement within the Republican Party?
Dana Fisher: in my view, not at all.
L.A. Kauffman: i don’t think the “resistance” is really within the Democrat Party either.