Reaction to the Smash EDO funeral march (From The Argus)

Reaction to the Smash EDO funeral march

4:31pm Tuesday 19th January 2010 in

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As the dust settles on yesterday's Smash EDO funeral march through Brighton, reaction has started on the blogosphere.

Brightonian Dan Wilson compared this protest with ones he had been on in his youth, and found the Smash EDO demonstration lacking.

He said: "The demos have been for causes various. I was against apartheid and shutting Brighton’s St Luke’s Pool (aged 9) in the 80s. I passionately opposed the CJB/CJA and French nuclear tests and other things in the 90s. More recently I’ve opposed student tuition fees and the Iraq war. I could mention direct action against fox hunting and car rallies on the South Downs. I even joined my mum to protest about midwife pay once.

"But I never hid my face.

"Protest is about standing up, being open, speaking out, hopefully raising the profile of the cause or issue, and being counted. For me, a protest doesn’t have to be legal but it must have peaceful intentions. I know how demos turn out. With opposing forces of protester and police, sometimes it gets edgy and ugly. As a protester, sometimes you get arrested. Usually you don’t. But passion doesn’t mean aggression."

Blogger Superlative was so annoyed, he wrote an expletive-laden post slamming the protest.

Here's a clean quote from it: "Someone must have bought them a map or something, as last time it seemed they couldn't be bothered to walk the three miles up the road from central Brighton to where the factory is actually located.

"This time they managed to protest near and around the factory, but unfortunately they got bored after a while and decided to annoy the rest of the city by coming into the centre.

"Despite taking a different route home, I still had to take several diversions in order to avoid the places where the police were trying to hold them back. I was also unlucky enough to catch sight of a few of them, wearing black, faces covered and hoods up, looking not at all like the group of peaceful protesters they claim to be.

"Why did they need to come into town? No one in town CARED about their protest, all they did was annoy AGAIN.

"It stops even being about the protest after a while, and they instead just seem to enjoy trying to outwit the police and get to places the police don't want them to get to."

However, some of the protesters themselves also posted their accounts.

The Brighton Love Police posted this video on YouTube showing the protest from the start right through to the kettle in North Road.

One, a charity shop manager writing on My Vegan Blog said: "I attended the demo alone - though I briefly saw one or two acquaintances on the march - a first for me, and something I'd never have considered before. And despite my semi-isolation faced with a huge police presence, I didn't have the same tremulous fear as on previous demos. Perhaps it was just because I felt a bit more prepared, knowing what to expect now.

"After being released from a ridiculous kettle on North Street (about 30 of us, stuck in an area not much bigger than a pedestrian crossing), I headed to the Cowley Club for food, warmth and, most importantly, a toilet."

Click here to view all our pictures of the protest

Comments(23)

sussexskin says...
4:43pm Tue 19 Jan 10

bar of soap....