Marches, protests and demonstrations change history

History shows that protest works, say Lindsey German, national convenor of Stop the War Coalition, and Independent journalist Johann Hari. With a government determined to destroy public services and the welfare state, while still justifying billions spent every year on the war in Afghanistan and on weapons of mass destruction, we need a lot more marching and direct action.

On the evening of 10 November, following that day's huge demonstration against education cuts, Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes declared MP Simon Hughes that change only came about by the power of reason and debate.

"Rational debate wins arguments, not protest," said Hughes.

It was, of course, his forebears in the Liberal party before the First World War who refused point blank to grant women the vote.

After a period of sweet reason, women decided they had had enough and began to take action. They marched, disrupted ministers' public meetings, rushed the House of Commons, broke windows using neat little hammers they kept in their handbags.

The suffragettes understood that appeals to the better nature of politicians simply would not get them very far. They stand in a long tradition.

All the major gains achieved in Britain - from the vote for workers and women, the right to join trade unions, the right to demonstrate, the welfare state itself - were only granted as a result of protest, campaigning and struggles until they were won. Many of those involved made great sacrifices, from the Tolpuddle martyrs transported to Australia for trying to form a union, to the suffragettes who went on hunger strike for their cause.

We should remember this when listening to the outrage about the broken windows of the Conservative Party headquarters on Millbank, when it was occupied by students on the anti-cuts demonstration.

We should also remember that in the past people also used tactics to draw attention to their cause which were widely criticised.

There are two points that we can draw from the November 10 protests. The first is that there is a great deal of hypocrisy about the violence on demonstrations. The proposed cuts by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government will create misery for many people.

Young people will not be able to go to university, those forced to move will suffer real stress sometimes resulting in illness or family break up, the sick and disabled will face benefit cuts. Surely this should be condemned much more strongly than the breaking of a few windows in central London?

Protest works

The second is that protest works. Not because the students have won their demands, although they have created a mass movement which certainly creates the potential for them to win. But because by going on the streets the students have asserted that there is an alternative to simply sitting back and accepting the hideous consensus which passes for political debate in most quarters. They have in one day pushed their views onto the political agenda.

Demonstrations also help to build confidence and solidarity among those who demonstrate – they establish that the protesters are not isolated but part of a bigger movement. This has been one of the most important aspects of the anti war movement. It has created a culture of protest and a network of activists who have helped to spread the movement.

The mantra 'what's the point of protesting' is a counsel of despair, a refusal to acknowledge that we can change the world for the better. The anti-war demonstrations have helped build a mass consciousness in Britain, have got rid of Tony Blair, who was forced to agree to stand down as prime minister just days after the demonstration against Israel's barbaric Lebanon demo in 2005. They have helped fight Islamophobia and attacks on civil liberties. They have made future wars harder to justify.

With a government determined to destroy the welfare state while still justifying billions spent every year on the war in Afghanistan and on weapons of mass destruction, surely the anti-war demonstrators should be making links with the students, demanding to cut the war not education.

On Saturday 20 November, we'll be marching again, to get the troops out of Afghanistan and in protest at the Nato summit which will meet the same weekend. We expect many students and school students, as well as peace activists and trade unionists, to be there.

We need a lot more marching, as well as direct action, if we are to win a world that prioritises welfare provision and public services for all, rather than wars that bring nothing but mass slaughter and destruction.

Lindsey German will be speaking at the launch meeting of Redhill Coalition against Cuts on Wednesday 24^th November at 7pm in the Harlequin Theatre, Redhill