Now that the commotion caused by the anti-capitalist demo on Mayday has died down, it's possible to judge the effect it has had on the future of the 'green' protest movement in this country. I have written about the movement for five years - about the Newbury bypass protest, the Fairmile tunnellers, the street parties. At the start, it was characterised by courage, cheek, idealism and wit. But now a battle is being waged within Reclaim the Streets and other groups over the use of violence at protests, and the belligerent minority isn't interested in these virtues. I have always been - and still am - deeply sympathetic to its aims, but it seems to me that the protest movement is betraying itself, its own best beliefs and its own spirit. This is not the end of modern protest. Not even the beginning of the end. But it is the sad end of the beginning.

LRB 22 June 2000 | PDF Download