The last demo I went on was against the Iraq War in February 2003. I was running the coaches down to London (my uni took about 1500 out of 7000 students), and as much stewarding as marching.
I will never go on a demonstration again. In fact, unless the UK is actually in the midst of violent revolution, February 2003 will go down as the last time I take to the streets, and I have precisely no regrets about that.
To be charitable, demonstrations are where protesters and advocates of a cause (usually a Left-wing cause, though the Countryside Alliance marches against banning foxhunting come to mind) waste their time on something that makes little or no practical difference, expends a huge degree of money and energy that could be better spent elsewhere, for the sake of nowhere near enough media coverage to make the whole charade worth it.
Demonstrations are the great epitome of that most dangerous of vices when you are progressive and correct: Sanctimony. Nobody secretly or selflessly goes to a demonstration. It is an act of political vanity. I've always thought this, but I still went, until I realised that demonstrations were going from the Sanctimonious to the Sinister.
If find it a lot easier to call myself left-wing when I'm thinking American politics. There are very few areas, if any, that I would side with the GOP over the Democratic Party, and several where the Democratic party goes nowhere near far enough for my liking. I think I'm a progressive.
It's harder to say where I sit in the UK. I call myself a Centrist, partly because we have no credible progressive parties who aren't useless on other things, and partly because I have moved far, far away from the Left Wing of British politics.
This isn't about New Labour, though they've in many ways been the biggest disappointment imagineable, but rather about the Far Left. I used to be in with the Libertarian Socialist / Anarchist guys - I was always more interested in Bakunin and Goldman than facepainting and flagwaving, but accepted that it took all sorts to make a band. I still see some of them, though our lives have gone in different directions.
At the time of Stop the War, there was a battle for the soul of the anti-War movement, between the Socialist Workers' Party (ably assisted by the Communists and the Trades Unions) on the one hand, and those who wanted a broader coalition against the war that included Quakers, Anarchists, Church groups, Girl Guides and even Conservative Party members if they wanted to come along. The former group saw the anti-war movement as a vehicle to be steered, whereas the latter just wanted to prevent the invasion of Iraq. The former made it "Stop the War - Freedom for Palestine - Strengthen Organised Labour" even though the latter wanted to maintain the broad consensus by keeping the anti-war movement a single issue campaign. The former group won.
That February was the first time I saw demonstrations as more Sinister than Sanctimonious. I didn't feel comfortable marching just in front of a group of guys with Hezbollah flags, so moved to another part of the march. I didn't like the chants of the Muslim Brotherhood of "Allah is the Greatest" drowning out the quiet chants of the Quakers. I didn't like the burning of the Israeli, American and British flags that got such a cheer from the ever-present samba bands (do they just tour demonstrations around the world?).
There was menace in the anti-war demonstration that day, and it left me uncomfortable with whom we were allying ourselves in order to oppose (in my mind) this particular war at that particular time for those particular reasons.
I watched the news over the last two days that mentined yesterday's demo in support of Gaza (about 100,000) and then today (I think) one in support of Israel's right to defend itself (about 20,000). The former broke into sporadic violence, and three police officers were injured. The latter was a peaceful affair.
I am not on one 'side' or the other on Israel-Palestine, believe it or not. I have great concern for the suffering of the people of Gaza, and wonder if Israel is acting disproportionately this time, but I can also understand what that government faces, and why it feels there can be no tolerance of Hamas.
What struck me more this time around is that the people who supported the war were at today's demo supporting Israel. The people I opposed with every sinew were roving a model of civilised restraint, even if their views were beyond what I could support. The people I had once marched with were saying "We are all Hamas now" and shouting slogans attacking America and Britain, whilst lauding Hamas and Hezbollah. They sickened me to my stomach, and these were the people whom I had marched with once?
I wrote in response to a diary of a Brit who was on the pro-Palestinian march yesterday. He is, I believe, a good person and well-intentioned. I said that I could no longer go on those marches because of the people who attend and what they believe, and how they use such causes to stir up so much hatred.
I asked a question or three:
Why were there 100,000 people marching for Palestine, many from the major Muslim associations in Britain, when almost nobody turns up to a demo at the Russian embassy to protest the levelling of Grozny and the utter annihiliation of the Chechens?
Why were there 100,000 people marching for Palestine, when the Kurds get nowhere near that number when repressed by Turkey?
Where are those 100,000 people when the Zimbabwean embassy needs to hear our roars of disapproval for what Robert Mugabe has done to his people?
The difference is that the Trade Unions (a different animal to US Trades Unions) and the parties of the Far Left support the Palestinian cause unequivocally - not because it is more worthy or needy compared to the Kurds, Chechens and Zimbabweans - but because it is a means to criticise and demonise Israel and the United States. They attend not out of humanitarian concern primarily, but rather because opposition to America and Israel is the core of their creed, and the Palestinians are the most useful political football in town.
This doesn't, or shouldn't, diminish the suffering of the Palestinians. This is a worthy cause, and many of the people who marched have the purest of intentions, and peace in their hearts. But for as long as an unsavoury and anti-semitic wing and the hate-filled far left organise those events, I cannot and will not lend them my voice at their demonstrations. They do not speak in my name.
Please God, one day soon I'll only avoid demonstrations because of the Sanctimony,