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.