Sarah Harte: Is direct action legitimate protest or a slippery slope to violence?

Does direct action draw public conversation towards vital issues or simply turn people off?

In Britain, disruptive direct-action environmental campaigns have included Just Stop Oil which last October saw soup thrown at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery in London and in April, the disruption of the World Snooker Championships by protesters in Sheffield pouring orange powder on a snooker table.

Direct action has been around as long as there have been hierarchies to rebel against but in an age of increasing uncertainty, should we be concerned about this type of activism?

In simple terms, direct action is the use of public protest rather than negotiation with the authorities to achieve goals and objectives. It involves ‘doing’, rather than ‘asking’, and is used by the right or the left. It bypasses representational politics, rejecting the idea that the State is the ultimate mediator of social conflict.

On the first day of the recent Consultative Forum on International Security Policy, gardaí removed anti-Nato protesters who disrupted Tánaiste Micheal Martin’s opening address in UCC. Other protests and interruptions occurred at the Forum in Galway and Dublin with some protesters calling for neutrality to be enshrined in our Constitution.

President Michael D Higgins and others claimed the Consultative Forum — also called a forum on neutrality — was too heavily weighted with speakers with pro-Nato sympathies and that the Government is really inching towards jettisoning our neutrality. While it must have been irritating to be interrupted as a speaker, maybe protest is playing a valuable role in alerting the public.

A fortnight ago, climate activists called ‘Tyre Extinguishers’ deflated tyres of SUVs in Churchtown, Dublin, leaving a note telling owners to cycle instead because of the damage to the environment caused by the gas guzzlers. It included a line: “You’ll be angry, but don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s your car.”

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

Climate

In Britain, disruptive direct-action environmental campaigns have included Just Stop Oil which last October saw soup thrown at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery in London and in April, the disruption of the World Snooker Championships by protesters in Sheffield pouring orange powder on a snooker table.

But do such actions draw public conversation towards vital issues or simply turn people off? Depending on your perspective you may view direct actionists as admirable anti-authoritarian radicals fighting for a world they want to live in or as law-breaking thugs who illegitimately cross the line.

But the fact climate direct actionists, often young, are increasingly pursuing goals outside the bounds of the system to get the governmental engine going isn’t a shocker.

It is clear that current interventions to stop global warming are nowhere near enough. Last week, a freak severe summer hailstorm that would normally only be seen in winter along with flash flooding hit Enniscorthy.

In the last fortnight, sea temperatures off the west of Ireland and the north-east coast of England are several degrees above normal, smashing records. Great for an old dip, but not so great for marine life.

Canada has been vaporised by wildfires. Central England has seen exceptionally violent storms. Two weeks ago, at a Louis Tomlinson concert in Colorado, hailstones broke the bones of concertgoers.

This month, it was reported that Ireland is to miss its 2030 climate targets by a wide margin, including all sectors, comprising agriculture, industry, electricity, and transport.

Misplaced anger

Other recent Irish direct action includes demonstrations by anti-LGBT groups in libraries, objecting to the availability of books related to LGBT+ material. Claiming it is pornographic and aimed at children, they recently entered Cork City library several times protesting and recording videos of staff without their consent which they posted online. It was reported that Cork City librarians might strike over fears for their safety.

Over the last two years, anti-public health protesters reportedly entered pharmacies in Cork City making accusations relating to provision of covid vaccines, filming staff and posting footage online.

Protesters outside Dublin Castle, where the third day of the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy was taking place. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Staff in asylum centres have also been subject to intimidation. In April in Mullingar, workers and asylum seekers were followed and recorded. It seems unfair that regular workers should bear the brunt of this misplaced anger rather than the politicians who frame policy.

(Also, it is worth noting that these latter protests are specifically singling out and targetting innocent employees whereas environmental and neutrality protestors restrict themselves to disrupting events or daily life—annoying, inconveniencing, perhaps, but not threatening or intimidatory.)

Far-right protests

Last month, in Inch, Co. Clare, agitators from Dublin and elsewhere attached themselves to local peaceful protests. A distinction could be drawn between local people frustrated at not being consulted by what they perceive to be a high-handed metropolitan government cocooned in leafy enclaves where services are not stretched to capacity because of the sudden arrival of asylum seekers and far-right, anti-migrant agitators stoking tensions for their own ends.

One thing we have in our favour in Ireland is that unlike in other countries, we don’t have any elected cynical right-leaning politicians manipulating ‘boots on the ground’ to further their goals. But we do have a small number of individuals trying to infiltrate our communities and hijack the response to asylum seekers.

And even if some people are frustrated at the Government’s lack of communication with communities over asylum seekers or lack of investment in infrastructure to support increased numbers in towns and villages, we must guard against co-option by far-right agitators. The drift towards fascism happens incrementally. Resentment penetrates thinking, then language, followed by action.

In the US, direct action has been used most obviously by Trump supporters who, in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, blocked streets and bridges, tried to stop vote counting in ballot centres and intimated poll workers. A most extreme iteration of direct action resulted in the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol Building.

Generalised fear

Arguably those who feel hopelessly cut off from power and influence have to find alternative actions. Covid brought about many disruptions and disjunctions, some economic, some relating to mental health and wellbeing. The after-effects pervade every corner of our lives. Arriving on the heels of years of austerity, it stokes a growing sense of social inequality. And only the truly deluded can fail to see Mother Earth is deeply unhappy.

While multiple factors may drive this uptick in direct action, one baseline cause may be a sort of generalised fear. Fear is a primary emotion creating a sense of vulnerability and loss of control and one way of attempting to deal with these feelings is by subconsciously shifting to anger.

Just Stop Oil activists during a protest in Westminster, central London. Picture: James Manning/PA

If the political system is to retain its legitimacy, then political representatives need to listen, communicate, think outside the box and take action to assuage the fears of ordinary people, many of whom are exhausted by the seeming impossibility of everyday life.

Otherwise, we’ll be seeing a rise in confrontational, if not violent, direct action like we have seen in America, once vaunted as the most robust democracy in the world.