Anti-Cuts Protests in the UK: Are We Really All in This Together?

Are We Really All in This Together? Anti-Cuts Protests in the UK: Introduction A high number and wide variety of protests have been organized in the UK Clare Saunders, Silke Roth and Cristiana Olcese since the implementation of austerity measures following the 2008 financial © Copyrighted Material crisis. The UK government’s response to protests against austerity has been to suggest that “we are all in this together.” This sentiment has been widely publicly ridiculed because of the polarity of cutting welfare benefits whilst preserving tax havens. Anti-austerity protesters have picked up on this tide of public ridicule and emphasized the sharp contrast between the minority rich and the majority of Chapter 8 British citizens whose conditions have dramatically worsened as a consequence of austerity measures. This master frame is best exemplified by the slogan of the Occupy protests: “We are the 99 percent.” Whilst no-one would ever suggest that a protest, or set of protests, is able to unite 100 percent of the population, we expect anti-austerity protests to share the ability to mobilize broadly given that they have similar broadly conceived goals. have been well documented in the Global South, much less has been written about the constituenciesWhile the cross-classof anti-austerity and cross-issueprotests in thedimensions richer Global of anti-austerity North. A protest systematic exploration of different street demonstration responses to austerity would shed some light on the possible reasons for and dynamics of separate yet likely overlapping actions. This chapter aims to tackle this issue by focusing on similarities and differences across three major austerity protests in London: the student demonstration Fund Our Future (FoF); Occupy London; and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) March for the Alternative. In particular, the chapter asks: To what extent,© 2015 and why, do the constituencies of demonstrations mobilized From Marco Giugni and Maria T. Grassothrough (eds),similarly Austerity framed anti-austerity and Protest: calls for Popularaction differ? Contention This comparison in Times of Economic Crisis, published by Ashgatealso facilitates Publishing. assessment of See: the potential http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472439185 of anti-austerity coalitions as synergetic and inclusive collective action. heterogeneity of anti-austerity protests thus demonstrating the coalitions’ potential to mobilize cross-classThus the andpurpose cross-issue of this coalitions. chapter is Second, two-fold. we exploreFirst, we similarities seek to assess the and differences especially in terms of embeddedness and individual factors such www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate. © Copyrighted Material 172 as political attitudes, ideology, and collective/universal versus individual/self- interested motivations to participate in protest. movements. However, whilst the extant literature has considered coalitions at the meso-level—thatOur research is between relates directlyand among to previous organizations—we work on coalition apply buildinglessons in social learned from this body of literature to the protest level, and to our individual (protester) level analysis. Coalition building and challenging interlocking systems of inequality across classes, races, ethnicities and genders are well documented as serious challenges for social movements, which often fail to take advantage of connections across issues (Ferree and Roth 1998; Rose 1999; Bystydzienski and Schacht 2001; Van Dyke and McCammon 2010). Whilst we cannot be certain of cause and effect, our analysis also helps to shed some light on how the features of organizing committees and the framing of their calls for action interact to determine the extent of inclusivity of protest participants. Although we expect all three protest events to be inclusive, we anticipate that they may be inclusive © Copyrighted Material in different ways. Thus, our research is important for helping movements and Austerity and Protest associated protests develop a broader reach and a louder voice. It is especially important given that anti-austerity movements aspire to represent the 99 percent. anti-austerity coalitions to bridge different movements and organizations, drawing on previous studiesThe chapter of anti-austerity proceeds as movements.follows. In aSecondly, first step, we weintroduce discuss the potential of concept of coalition, discuss the challenges of coalition formation, and seek to contextualize coalition formation in relation to similarities and differences across anti-austerity coalitions. In a third step, we introduce our research design and data and briefly describe the three demonstrations we examine: Occupy, FoF and TUC. For each demonstration we examine a) the framing of calls for action; b) the nature of the organizing committee; and c) their mobilized constituencies. We find some similarities across both a and b and then turn to assess why it is that there are differences in terms of embeddedness and political attitudes of participants in the three demonstrations. After analysis of results, we return to discuss the key questions and examine the opportunities for anti-austerity protests to mobilize diverse and heterogeneous protest constituencies. Anti-austerity Protest as “Bridging” Events Copyright material: You are not permitted to transmit this file in any format or media; Research to date has found a clear link between the incidence of protest and it may not be resold orbudgetary reused cuts. without As Ponticelli prior agreementand Voth (2011: with 3) Ashgate find in relationPublishing to panel and data may not becollected placed across on any Europe publicly from 1919 accessible to 2008: or commercial servers. www.ashgawhente. expenditurecom wis increasing, the average country-year unit of observation in our data registers less than 1.4w wevents..a sWhenhg expenditureate.co cutsm reach w 1%w orw more.as hgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ash of GDP, this grows to 1.8 events, a relative increase by almost a third compared gate.com to the periods of budget expansion. © Copyrighted Material Pontincelli and Voth (2011) note that the frequency of demonstrations, as a specific form of protest, rises fast once expenditure exceeds the 3 percent threshold. Consequently, it should come as little surprise that anti-austerity protests proliferated across most of Europe in response to cuts in public spending. But what are the characteristics of such protests? And what is their potential for developing inclusive heterogeneous constituencies? been shown to assist the development of “unlikely coalitions” (Mayer et al. 2010). This requires Inclusive“establishing framing a common such as interpretation that deployed of by an anti-austerity ideology or protestperspective organizers has that unites movement members in a shared identity and purpose” (Mayer et al. 2010: 751). Moreover Corrigall-Brown and Meyer (2010) argue that it is not only the actions of actors that matter, but also the political context. They suggest that “coalitions are not de novo formations but instead are created out of existing relationships in conducive political contexts” (Corrigall-Brown and Meyer 2010: Anti-Cuts Protests in the UK 16). This therefore stresses the importance of examining the political context © Copyrighted Material of austerity. programs had the effect of depressing the incomes and living standards of significant sectorsAnti-austerity of the population protests arein low(er)well documented. income countries Walton whereand Ragin structural (1990) adjustment pointed out how anti-austerity protest took place in 26 of the 80 debtor countries between 1979 and early 1985, resulting in 85 protests, peaking in 1983–1985. Although the predominant participants in such protests were the urban poor (from street vendors through to shantytown residents), these were often joined by members of higher income groups, including teachers, students, shopkeepers and professionals (Seddon 1986). This is confirmed by Auvinen’s (1996) research, which used regression analysis of 70 developing country cases from 1981 to 1989 and found that adjustment programs generated “political protest where there are high levels of urbanization and economic development, as well as in the presence of a democratic political regime” (Auvinen 1996: 395), uniting different groups affected by austerity measures. As he puts it: “The basic political problem is that the usually diverse interests of these groups may become amalgamated in anti-austerity protest” (Auvinen 1996: 377). Similarly, in his study of anti- austerity protest in Northwestern Costa Rica, Edelman (1990) found that large producers and small agriculturalists—usually juxtaposed as having divergent class interests—were united in their opposition to anti-austerity measures. However, Bassel and Akwugo© 2015 (2014) warn that austerity measures such as budget cuts in the From Marco Giugni and Maria T. Grassothird sector (eds), might Austerityhamper solidarity and and Protest: “the ability Popular to mobilize Contention at the intersections in Times of Economic Crisis, published by Ashgateof different Publishing. social justice agendas See: ishttp://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472439185 undermined” (p. 134). been well documented in studies of anti-austerity protest in the Global South, much less hasWhilst been thewritten cross-class about the and constituencies cross-issue

Load more