The Good and Bad of Protesting

As thousands turn up at a camp near Heathrow Airport to protest at the expansion of the Airport and the effect this will have on Climate Change the democratic principle of protesting is once again under close scrutiny.

In our democratic system we are given the right to protest at Government policy, or against the decisions of the powerful, be they individuals or corporate. There would be something wrong with a democratic system in which there was no protesting. A government is elected on a broad based manifesto as they proceed with the work of government they will develop general manifesto promises into policy particulars and also will face new and unexpected situations. It is likely that some of the electorate, including some of those who voted for the government, will not agree with all the policies implemented by an elected government. Hence the need to protest, to let our elected representatives know that we disagree with them.

The duty that falls upon all those elected to serve in government is to defend the right of lawful protest and to give consideration to the concerns expressed in such lawful protest. Unfortunately the record of recent UK governments is not good; the largest lawful protest held in this country was against taking part in the invasion of Iraq and was wholly ignored by those who led us into this so-called war against terror. Here we see one of the dangers of majority government, such as we have had in Westminster for nearly 30 years now, a government with a large and workable majority can safely ignore any protest.

No doubt frustration with our government in their responding to such protests leads to calls for unlawful protests. A second reason for unlawful protests is that some protestors believe their cause to be morally just, a cause which must not and cannot be denied, and they are prepared to take non-violent, disruptive, unlawful steps to add force to their protesting.
The right of non-violent unlawful protest should be protected in one area only. In situations where the democratic process is being denied or abused, such as the refusal to grant voting rights to a section of the community. Where a just cause is denied access to the democratic process then the only recourse is to unlawful protest.
However, where the democratic process is not being denied or abused those who engage in unlawful protesting, however non-violent are themselves perverting the democratic process. What they are saying is something like, “I want to impose my view on the democratically elected government and I don’t want to do that by using the democratic process of debate and election.” This cannot be supported and will lead only to anarchy and the inability of anyone to govern.

As Christians we have benefited from the democratic processes in our country and should therefore be willing to defend their proper use. Such thoughts however also touch upon our engagement with our national church and our duty and responsibility to engage with the life of our church in these days.