We rarely could!

I've not been on protest for some time. Last one was in Easton, Bristol, several years ago. We congregated in the park, and within a short time the Police had created a cordon around the park's perimeter, and refused to let us out. Most of us were harmless vegetarians in Paisley headscarves and Peruvian knitwear, with plenty of toddlers and children dancing about and spinning diablos. Having been herded to a corner of the park, the Police formed a line, bearing batons and riot-shields, and began to advance menancingly towards us. The attitude of those PCs forming the cordon was that we deserved whatever we got (simply for being there), and there was no dispensation for children. The protest kicked off in another quarter, and their attention was sufficently diverted to allow us freedom of movement, but it was fairly typical of the pre-Kerfufflian attitude to protest: platitudes from MPs about the right to do so, juxtaposed with suppression by any means necessary, on the front-line, of those who dare to do so.

Did you see Mark Wallinger's re-creation of Brian Haws's Parliament Square protest at Tate Britain a couple of years ago? A rare example of truly consciousness-raising Art; but, it was only possible because of Brian Haw having done what he did (and the Government's reactionary response).

What should be the response of artists to such phenomena? Aesthetic violence?

No we can't!

Obama says yes we can! Seems we can't here... Hild tried to join the G20 protest today but the police had blocked off the economic district (the area around the Bank of England). This meant that protesters were dispersed, and the level of antipathy far less visible than it should have been. The blocking also meant that anger was geared at the police when it should have been leveled at the nominal issues for which people were protesting. The reason for these 'emergency' measures was the violence of early protesters. But where is the line? How violent is violent? Furthermore, the peaceable climate camp near Liverpool Street was blocked-off later in the day, neither letting people into the area nor out: there was no violence visible to justify these measures. As well as these major grievances, I am concerned by how unwilling people were, upon seeing the police barricade, to remain close to the central part of the protest: most left, assuming if they were not with the main protesting body, they would not perform a significant enough role; either that or it was less fun to be on the periphery. This was disappointing. In the light of it I would advocate a position suggested at the 'Idea of Communism' conference I recently attended at Birkbeck: 'if we can't we must'.