Here follow a couple of views of the petrol protests in the
UK that I got from AUT-OP-SY
Tahir
I wonder if any other UK-based listmembers have any thoughts
on the
current protests against the fuel tax.
For those who haven't seen any news coverage, this is a form
of direct
action copied from the French truckers/farmers, and rather
loosely
co-ordinated, involving go-slows on motorarys, taxis jamming
up city
centres, and blockades outside refineries and fuel depots
with the aim of
getting the government to bring down the tax on petrol (3/4
of the retail
price of petrol is tax, making the UK's the most expensive
petrol in
Europe). Many garages are now running dry--apparently
thanks to "panic
buying"--and some services are being hit. The impact has
been remarkably
swift, causing widespread disruption within two days. The
media are
comparing the protests to the 1984 miners' strike.
The protests have left quite a few looking rather dazed and
confused.
John Reid, the Scottish Secretary, seems to be the
government's
flak-catcher (on both Channel 4 News and Newsnight, at
least), and is
doing a very bad job of it, though getting away with some
ridiculous
statements. Blair's keeping a hardline about giving in to
protests, and
had people jump on his car in Hull tonight.
The government seem to want the police to crack down on
those protesting
outside fuel depots and refineries, but the police argue
that no-one's
breaking any laws (their spokesperson tonight was the
Assistant Chief
Constable of Greater Manchester police, who did a very good
job on
Newsnight), especially in that anti-union laws don't cover
this kind of
(more or less) spontaneous, semi-organised activity.
Meanwhile, environmentalists who, unlike it seems the vast
majority of the
population, oppose the aims of the protest do of course
generally support
the means.
It's quite interesting. Last week, when it was just the
French protesting
(the British have had a very ineffectual "dump the pump"
non-campaign
going for ages) everyone was up in arms because they were
blocking the
Channel ports and tunnel and preventing the "free movement
of goods and
services" between EU member states. At the time I thought
"hah, but what
if we had the free movement of modes of struggle across the
same
boundaries?", and of course now the notion of harmony with
the policies of
our European neighbours has gone out of the winter, and the
new context
painted by the media is the very national one of not only
the miners'
strike but also the winter of discontent of 1978.
I'm not sure what to make of it all, though I am quite
amused (the more so
in that I don't have a car). All on the same day that
Newsnight (sorry, I
am watching too much TV) reported on a survey that argues
that
(essentially) needs are historically produced (well, duh,
but it was a
kind of interesting presentation). This is a pretty massive
attempt by
consumers to intervene in the price-setting mechanism of a
fairly basic
commodity, locating the state as the key agent in that price
setting
(while the state is trying to blame OPEC/the market).
(Meanwhile, of course, all this is apparently down to the
rather
ambivalent figure of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela bringing OPEC
together again
gain--the first meeting of OPEC heads of state in 25 years
will be in
Venezuela next year.)
Whatever, all this is a bit of a ramble. Any thoughts?
Take care
Jon
Jon Beasley-Murray
Spanish and Portuguese
University of Manchester
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
Full marks to Jon Beasley-Murray on raising the question of
the fuel protests.
What seems to come across, however, in his contribution is
some kind
of admiration for the "means" employed in the action -
"loosely
coordinated",
decentralised, spontaneous etc. Maybe I am missing something
but protests by
self-employed farmers, lorry drivers and taxi drivers don't
seem to
me to be anything worth supporting by the working class.
However, I would like to see his point about the historical
production of needs
to be more fully developed and I also find the point about
conscious
intervention by consumers in the price mechanism
(counteracting the
conscious intervention of the state) to be quite
interesting.
Traditionally of course the "left" has emphasised the role
of
workers as "producers" rather than "consumers" and it would
be
fruitful to examine whether "consumers" can be agents of
class
struggle.
What also intrigues me is the reaction of environmentalists
like
Friends of the Earth who
are reduced to hand-wringing warnings AGAINST the "direct
action"
tactics of the
protesters. Any radical analysis of what's going on must
break from
the paralysing
equation of taxes on consumers (rather than the oil
companies themselves) with
environmental protection.
Just a few thoughts....waiting on the more prescient list
members for
a deeper analysis!
Bis
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