Libby Brooks’ piece in The Guardian today is shameful. Writing about the violence that followed last
weekend’s march, she argues that the ‘relevant question is not whether or how to condemn those acts – but if any coherent agenda lies behind them and how important it is for
that to sit neatly with the agenda of the whole’. She even quotes approvingly the idea that the violence can be beneficial as it might push the government to do a deal with the moderate
elements of the movement and wants us to remember that ‘the vast majority of damage on Saturday was sustained by property, not persons (84 people were treated for mainly minor injuries); nor was
this vandalism mindless, but targeted at banks and other emblematic high street institutions.’
Brooks finishes by saying, ‘The formulation of a lasting alternative agenda and the ultimate success of an economic argument against coalition cuts won’t be achieved on the streets, or while occupying the library at the end of the precinct.
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