Street protests - Politics is the path to real change

THE outrage, the sense of being utterly betrayed and powerless in the face of economic collapse entitles most of us to consider taking a leaf from the French unions’ handbook of conflict resolution.

That inclination is strengthened by the fact that more than two years after the genie escaped from the bottle no one has been charged, much less convicted. Regular reassurances, such as we had this week from Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, that everything is being done to bring these matters to a head have worn thin and rather than assuage anger exacerbate it.

Yesterday a Gallic expression of that anger manifested itself at the Grandpuits refinery outside Paris. Flying pickets have blockaded all of France’s refineries and about 2,500 petrol stations have no fuel to sell because of moves to change the pension age from 60 to 62.

Even if you think the protests are effective that admiration must be shaken by the protesters’ grasp of reality. Political and social beliefs are subjective but arithmetic is not. France, no more than the rest of us, cannot afford the programmes the strikers want ring-fenced.

Last May riots in Greece, caused by the very same economic collapse, left three workers dead after the bank they were working in was set on fire. Despite the riots Greece could not change the arithmetic – despite considerable experience in that area – and is, like Ireland, utterly dependent on EU support. The welfare cuts announced by David Cameron in Britain this week may lead to similar protests across the Irish Sea.

On the other side of the Atlantic it is expected that President Obama’s Democrats will have their Senate majority greatly reduced after next month’s mid-term elections. Just two years ago Obama seemed unstoppable yet, because of economic crisis, America seems set to reject his policies, believing them unaffordable.

Though these events, and many more like them around the world, have their genesis in economic collapse, protests on either side of the Atlantic are being led by opposing wings of the political spectrum.

In Europe the left lead, in America the right, especially the Tea Party movement, has harnessed television and social media to organise protest.

In Ireland the right of centre parties have – yet again – promised reform. The left, despite this week’s briefing by the Department of Finance, still runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds. Though evasive to almost the point of dishonesty their lack of commitment is far better than calling for street protests.

Irrespective of how many French refineries are closed, irrespective of how many hopes President Obama must put to one side, irrespective of the validity and desirability of so many campaigns, and even the commitments made under the Croke Park agreement, our reality, as defined by unemotional arithmetic, will have to be confronted.

We have wasted considerable time pretending that we can put off the day of reckoning and, as the French protesters will find, riots don’t change figures.

Far better to engage with the system and change it that way than to rage against it. We are at a crossroads and we still have a choice – making the system work for us or fighting the system. Political or community activism can make real change, street protests make headlines for a few days and little more.

It’s a no brainer.