Protesting as a way of life
Over the last few years protesting has, in many ways, become almost trendy. The "trendiest" cause at the moment is the anti-road movement. The popularity of this movement can be traced back to the Criminal Justice Bill (now Act) demonstrations in the early 90s. Many young people including myself, felt that the CJB was not only unfair but constituted an infringement of our basic civil rights.
Whilst the momentum against this bill was growing stronger every day there was a small group of people hanging out in Wanstead and Leytonstone in East London, people who this Bill was directly aimed at silencing. The no-M11 Link Road Campaign was the first of a series of very high-profile anti-road protests. Obviously there had been other such protests before, but non that captured the imagination of so many people. The M11 link road was different from most other plans that road protesters target because instead of cutting through vast areas of countryside it was going to literally cut through houses, decimating communities. Because of this difference many people who would have perhaps written off road protesters as "eco-hippies" became interested in what was going on in East London.
I went down to see their attempts to thwart the road building in 1994. By this time the group had set up what I believe was a TAZ. They had reclaimed a whole street which had been cleared out by bailiffs earlier that year. There were approximately 20 or 30 people living in houses that were due to end up under a motorway extension within the next six months. The houses were being fortified by their new inhabitants against the machinery which was expected to come to tear them down when they were finally evicted.
Now, in 1997, Road protests area feature of everyday life. The Newbury by-pass was another high-profile protests, as was the A30 extension. The focal point at the moment though is the planned second runway at Manchester. Swampy, the new hero of protesting was in residence at Manchester and brought all the media attention with him. So, to what extent are theses protest encampments Autonomous Zones.
TAZ
In his essay on the subject, Bey suggests the Temporary Autonomous Zone can be seen as a community on the margins of authority. The encampment at Manchester is on the margins of authority to a certain extent, The fact that they are camped illegally demonstrates this. However, they are still subject to having to deal with the law, which was shown when Swampy was arrested a couple of weeks ago. Bey goes on to say:
"Getting the TAZ started may involve tactics of violence and defence, but its greatest strength lies in its invisibility - the State cannot recognise it because history has no definition of it. As soon as the TAZ is named (represented, mediated), it must vanish."
This is where the problem with road protest encampments as TAZs arises. All of the sites, in particular Manchester are incredibly high-profile. They are represented by organisations such as Friends Of The Earth and they are also represented prolifically in the media through Swampy and friends. But, this is the nature of protest, to gain as much publicity for your cause as possible and therefore hope to sway public opinion in your favour. Although on the surface these protests seem like TAZs, in reality road protest encampments have just become too much a part of mainstream culture in order to be considered autonomous.
One aspect of road protesting that I would argue is a TAZ are the Reclaim The Streets parties. I went to one of these parties two years ago, and was definitely an experience. Generally the location of the party is not revealed and thousands of people travel en mass from a meeting point to the site without really knowing where they are going. We got off the tube at Angel to find a section of Upper Street already blocked off and a sound system in a tank(!) blaring out Bob Marley. Areas of the street were turned into sandpits for children to play in, and the whole atmosphere was that of a gigantic street party rather than a protest.
The reason I believe this was more of a TAZ is because of its very temporary nature. The area was only a TAZ for the afternoon and therefore there was not a chance for it to be recognised or represented.
TAZs are quite difficult to pin down, which is part of their charm. I think the reason that road protesting is so popular is because they seem to be TAZs. The idea of living outside the boundaries of authority and in a group that is not run based on a hierarchical structure is very appealing. In some ways this is a postmodern phenomenon. Many people in our society are getting increasingly fed up with our capitalist, technological lifestyle and are trying various ways to escape this by returning to a more basic way of life. The TAZ offers a way to achieve this.
This article was originally published in Concrete Soup.
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