Violent cheesemakers

Apparently a million people marched (some say went for a walk in a park on a Sunday) against the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This event was said to be the biggest single demo on British soil in living memory. It seems that a protest in France that doesn’t attract seven figures is a disappointment.

Today ‘Black Thursday’ saw violent clashes on the streets of Paris. Perhaps rightly so. Why should the engineers of the economic crisis be the ones that government money is thrown at? Would it make more economic sense to pay every man, woman and child a few thousand in cash to get the economy going? And why is it the French are more bothered about letting their dissatisfaction be known than the British? On the last question it is probably because the British now believe that someone else should make the effort.

But the events across la manche raise more general questions about whether direct action actually has any effect. Marches probably don’t. Publicity stunts, are just stunts. But any event that causes economic damage may make those who control the levers of power take note.

Will the current economic crisis see many more countries follow the pattern evident in central and eastern Europe?