Democracy Hijacked - The Rise Of 'Professional' Protesters

In the UK in the last thirty years or so, there has a developed  a sub group of "protesters", who turn up at every "peaceful demonstration" and commit acts of vandalism, violence and mayhem. They rarely, if ever have any affiliation to the cause being marched for, or against, and usually come from one section of  our society ....... the clues are often in the banners that they parade under - many of which are produced by the same organisation that has been producing these banners since the 1980's (and probably before that).

Banners Produced By Communists

These thugs, are often identifiable to anyone who attends one or two of these events ..... they may describe themselves as 'anti-establishment', and be officially 'unemployed' (or 'students'), and living an 'alternative" lifestyle (meaning that they claim state benefits for food and rent, deal 'a bit of weed', sell fringe 'hippie' produce at all the 'summer music festivals" etc etc etc), and turn up at all major marches on subsidised mini buses, where they can practice 'anarchist' politics i.e. try to maim a police officer, vandalise properties such as McDonalds, or Banks, and set fire to anything that makes a lot of smoke ...... anyone who has been near these demo's will instantly recognise the types.

The modus operandi of these thugs, is usually to organise via a network of small groups or cells, under the umbrella of any 'organising' group such as the TUC. These days it will be via social web based networks, but there is probably still use of texts and personal contacts, in order to evade the police and other security operatives, as they believe that they are under surveillance with police infiltrators ..... which is probably true.

Any demonstration where these groups turns up invariably ends in violence, with much physical and human damage, but more importantly the cause of the original march is effectively 'hijacked', with the press discussing only the violence and the police 'tactics' and ignoring the merits (or otherwise) of the demonstration.

Yesterdays TUC run Anti-Cuts march, ended in much the same way as all the other 'peaceful' protests of the last thirty years ..... Trafalgar Square was daubed in graffiti and paint with slogans including 'Tory scum' and 'fight back' scrawled on the statues, shop windows daubed or smashed, and red paint hurled at the 2012 Olympic countdown clock .... many businesses were closed, people frightened, and damage done to properties. All of which has to be paid for by the tax payers ..... so more public money we can't afford (but the TUC and Labour Party think money grows on trees), so more job cuts to pay for the damage.

Public Statues Defaced

By a strange 'coincidence', its those sorts of abusive terms that appear on the front of the Socialist Workers newspaper ....

Headlines Match Graffiti

Of course, that's just, as I said, a 'coincidence' ............... and these black clad 'peaceful protester' are just exercising their right to peaceful protest .....

Anarchist Thugs Smash Windows

Of course, they are either too stupid, or don't care that, by their violence they destroy any chance that the protesters have of forcing the Government of the day to back down ..... a recent example of this is the students march against tuition fee rises ..... the same groups who hijacked the TUC march, also hijacked the student march, with much the same result .....

..... pictures of the violence went around the world, a student went to prison for throwing a fire extinguisher from a building roof, and the students haven't felt able to march again. Personally I would make the organisers of any protest take out insurance to pay for damages and business losses attached to the protest and rally. If they can't get insurance, and still proceed with the the march, then the organisers can be sued for the damages.