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From James Mills, Guardian
Our peaceful direct action has achieved two government U-turns – but nowhere near the same media attention as the black bloc
The English poet and 19th century radical William Blake, who was largely unrecognised by the media in his own lifetime, wrote: "Great things are done when men and mountains meet; this is not done by jostling in the street." This seems to be ignored by the young, reckless radicals of our age, who do not realise that while the media give them all the attention they crave, it ignores the more successful peaceful protests.
Last week, for example, the Save EMA campaign managed to get two government U-turns. First, on Tuesday, we forced the government to provide support to the quarter of a million teenagers next year who are currently in receipt of the education maintenance allowance (EMA) by threatening them with legal action. Previously, the government had said it was going to axe this support for existing, as well as future, EMA recipients.
Then, on Thursday night, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, called on the government to review its decision to scrap the EMA. This statement was in contrast to his initial response to the Save EMA protests at the London Conservative party conference in February, when his spokesperson dismissed us, saying the mayor "had no control over education policy". This was followed up on Saturday in the Guardian with news that Johnson had called Michael Gove personally to protest at EMA's demise.
According to a recent YouGov poll, the public support peaceful direct action rather than the violent alternative advocated by groups like black bloc. "All serious educational movements have in England been also social movements," wrote RH Tawney, something that can't be achieved if one ditches popular support.
Our campaign, predominantly made up of teenagers under the age of 18, has managed to do what the more radical campaigners could not. We have changed government policy and got the Tory mayor of London to express an opinion on an issue that only a month previously he had given the impression was not even pertinent to the capitol.
Nevertheless, the column inches dedicated to these achievements pale into insignificance when compared with the attention given to the more destructive demonstrators against government cuts. Of course, the fact that Johnson has taken six months to pick up the phone to call Gove on an issue that affects almost 100,000 Londoners, especially when compared with the rapid response shown by Ken Livingstone, is only a small step in the right direction. Getting financial support for a quarter of a million students next year is small beer when students starting in September will still not get EMA, while the EMA replacement scheme will still see its funding cut by 70% (instead of 90%).
Despite these small achievements, however, our campaign continues. It shows that by legitimate and peaceful direct action, rather than jostling in the street, change can be dragged, be it kicking and screaming, out of both a Conservative-led government and a Tory-run administration in London.
