Anarchy in a Cold Climate
On a freezing evening last week, when a debate on university fees was taking place in the House of Commons, thousands of students marched through London in protest. How many of them were anxious about their own education, how many anxious about the impact that higher fees will have on poor families, how many using the protest as a pretext for creating mayhem is impossible to say. Some expressed anger that the anxiety of the many was overshadowed by the vandalism and violence of the few. But the few, augmented, apparently, by people who came from other countries to join the fun, have once again given a bad name to the right of freedom of expression through public demonstration.
How should Christians view these things? And should Christians get involved in them?
The most authoritarian may say, 'Such demonstrations should be banned'. But memories of Tiananmen Square and, more recently, the streets of Rangoon or Tehran, should remind us of the priceless privilege of freedom of expression, a privilege denied in totalitarian states.
While working in African universities I witnessed many student demonstrations, and - perhaps rashly - joined in a few. One particular thing interested me: in one country, the students would demonstrate about such things as food, accommodation and low grades, while in another country they were protesting about unjust land tenure laws and the welfare of beggars. This, I think, illustrates a key principle: whose interests should we be defending?
We pay far too little attention to the biblical injunction to love our neighbours as ourselves.
The cold climate in which we have recently shivered is nothing compared to the economic cold climate, which will last much longer. Everybody in this country knows that drastic cuts have to be made in public spending, and the government can be seen as trying to spread the load fairly. Yet each group seems to consider itself a special case, unfairly targeted. We may disagree with the distribution of the cuts, but the dogged pursuit of self-interest, with further strikes and demonstrations threatened, seems like fiddling while Rome burns.
We are all in this together. Phrases like 'biting the bullet' and 'tightening our belts' come to mind.
On the other hand, Christians should lead the pack, willing to tie ourselves to the railings, or even, as in some countries, risk our lives, in pursuit of justice for our local and global neighbours.
Helen Parry
Comments
Oh, I'm so glad not to the first to respond to this article, I am not alone. Firstly: Drastic cuts do not have to made. Cuts have to be made, waste has to be shed and bureaucracy has to be axed, but this is not happening - 500,000 public sector jobs are going to go whilst bureaucracy increases as idealogical restructuring is pushed through in the NHS and education (I name the ones I know about - I work in the NHS, my husband is a teacher). The government have demonstrated themselves that these cuts are not 'necessary' by choosing to spend £5bn on air-craft carriers we will not have planes to fly off for another decade, bailing out Ireland, and refusing to curtail the bonus culture in the City. Spending is all about choices, and a lot of bad and unnecessary choices are being made at the moment. Secondly: We are not all in this together. Several bodies have spoken up to say that there are groups within the country that will fair much worse under the current regime of cuts, and unjustly so. You only have to look at the council spending cuts - well-off boroughs like Wokingham have to cut 1% from their budgets but Preston has to cut 10%. The rich will always be able to buy themselves what the state cannot provide so the less wealthy are always more vulnerable, but instead of redressing this, the some of the cuts seem designed to spare the older rich from the worst and transfer the burden to the young and not-so-rich. I can't help but be suspicous when I see these developments and note that we have government largely comprised of older people from very privileged backgrounds. I have felt overwhelmingly depressed that the government have been able to push through this programme of cuts without a whiff of protest. I felt overwhelming joy when I saw thousands of students and their friends and families taking to the streets in protest... the nation still has some spirit, there is hope! Yes, there was violence from both the police and the students, but these were minority incidents that have been used by those in power to undermine the valid arguments of those protesting. I will continue to speak up for those who have no voices, taking to the streets if necessary. If it was good enough for the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, it is good enough for me.
"Everybody in this country knows that drastic cuts have to be made in public spending..." Everybody? If we started by trying to recoup the billions lost through the "dogged pursuit of self-interest" by corporate tax dodgers, we could avoid certain cuts altogether. Save some libraries, maybe. That would be a start. It's our Christian duty - surely - to judge every single cut meticulously on its merits, and not be hoodwinked by ideological scare-mongers into accepting the wholesale, irreversible changes that are being rushed breathlessly through. Not in our own self-interest, necessarily. But certainly in the interests of those who will lose out most acutely from all this "drastic" action: the poor, the disadvantaged, the old, the young... Rome isn't burning; London is. And it's burning with a passion we haven't seen since the 1980s. I wonder why?
At long last someone seems to have woken up! I am a 73 year old Anglican priest, who walked the streets of North London and North Shields for three months after the Faith In The City report and viewed the state of the Church from outside, knocked on vicarage doors for a cup of tea, attend services only to be told, 'sit at the back the vicar will see you after the service', but after six weeks of attending, when I mentioned I was a parish priest living rough to see the other side, was welcomed as a saint. My feed back seemed too threatening to Established Church, thinking things will get better? "If the Church is going to play a major role within the Big Society, David Cameron envisages, it needs to think outside the envelope of established religion." For he Church has been building 'congregations' not disciples who can engage with culture, this is nothing new, but no one has dared to take the risk of spreading the 'good news' of 'faith in the Kingdom present, but the safer alternative of waiting to experience it in 'heaven'? To begin with we need to rediscover Prayer: Its the only thing Jesus was asked to teach! Well done!!! Brian
ofcourse as Christians we should be concerned about justice and rights of others not ourselves. However, "the government can be seen as trying to spread the load fairly" is exactly the challenge. We know there have to be cuts but Christians should indeed be out protesting about the changes to housing benefit and the destruction of local authority preventative services for children. We should be worried about the groups this Government is targettng in particularly through local government cuts. Yet each group seems to consider itself a special case, unfairly targeted.
This piece was written from a distinctive viewpoint, but not necessarily one that could be described as 'biblical'. 'How many [used] the protest as a pretext for creating mayhem is impossible to say,' you observe – but don't acknowledge that many people have testified that the violence was – deliberately? – fomented by the police. Have a look at the chat amongst police officers on their social forums and you will see how much some of them relish violence and salivate at the mere thought of water cannons and taser 'cannons'. 'Everybody in this country knows that drastic cuts have to be made in public spending.' Maybe – but how drastic? Britain was deeper in debt after the end of the Second World War, wasn't it – and a government friendly to the poor then built the National Health Service (in the teeth of Tory opposition, one might add) as well as much else. 'The government can be seen as trying to spread the load fairly.' Really? Really? Even the Daily Mail is now backing the popular demand that big businesses and super-rich individuals should be prevented from avoiding the tax that, in the spirit if not the small print of the law, they owe to the common wealth; and yet this Government is pressing ahead with sacking thousands of people at the Inland Revenue. And how hard is it trying to stop bankers continuing to pay each other obscene bonuses? Do you really get a sense that the rich are ready – or even actually being asked – to 'bite the bullet' and 'tighten their belts'? Somehow, I can't imagine Amos being as impressed with this Government as you seem to be... 'Each group seems to consider itself a special case, unfairly targeted.' Try following #ukuncut, #demo2010 and #solidarity on Twitter and I think you will see how untrue that is.
To add to Brian and Huw's points: Firstly: Cuts are needed, but not drastic ones. Not recklessly fast ones which don't allow any thoughtful planning of how to prune out waste and live without bureaucracy. The public sector is losing 500,000 jobs - one has already gone in my department in the NHS (our head, retired and not replaced) and we still have to save £150k this year and for the next three. And this won't affect our service to patients? Don't make me laugh. And that's before the restructuring proposed in the NHS White Paper... I also question that cuts this deep are really "needed" - if our national balance sheet is in such poor shape, how come we can afford to spend £5bn on air-craft carriers that we won't have planes to fly off for a decade and bailing out Ireland? Secondly: We are not all in this together, the government cannot be seen (inless you squint) to be spreading the load fairly. The rich will continue to be able to buy themselves what they need as the council services others depend on are slashed, and will continue to be able to pay for tuition fees as they are now roughly equivalent to public school fees. To add insult to injury, the very rich have escaped the higher income taxes promised by the LIberal Democrats, a fair few of them still have lucrative jobs with big bonuses in the City, and even more live in boroughs that are facing the lowest percentage cut in council budgets (1% in Wokingham vs nearly 10% in Preston). The situation is hideously injust and demands protest. I am glad the students and their friends and families have risen up to do so. I don't condone their violence but I find their passion much more inspiring than the silent apathy with which the nation has reacted thus far.
Date:
2010-12-20 20:29:38
Author:
Heather Williams