Britain's winter of discontent
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The recent student protests also spread through social networking sites. When students occupied Millbank Tower, the building that houses the HQ of the ruling Conservative party, some smashed its windows. This act became a metaphor for the end of British political tranquillity.
On November 24 in London, police tactics came under fire after they abandoned a vehicle inside a crowd of several thousand demonstrators, in what appeared to be a deliberate tactic designed to attract vandalism. When the "bait" was attacked, police "kettled" (a form of temporary imprisonment inside a police cordon) thousands of angry school students for many hours, in freezing conditions in the center of Westminster. When mounted police charged at demonstrators, video footage was put on the Internet within hours.
At another demonstration, thousands of students ran around central London playing a game of "cat and mouse", chased by out of breath police officers and journalists, in what was at times a truly comic scene. Later that night 150 young students were arrested for refusing to leave Trafalgar Square. The motive for the arrests appeared to be simple vindictiveness.
In the middle of these stirrings of popular unrest, Prince William and Kate Middleton suddenly announced their engagement. Naturally the Conservatives hope the wedding will come to their aid in troubled times. Prime Minister Cameron announced the great news to his ministers, who thumped their fists on the table with joy. England loves royal pomp and theatre, and the government certainly intends to milk every drop of conservative and royalist sentiment that the grand occasion can muster.
But there is a real sense of social crisis despite the fact that the protests remain tiny compared with those in France, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy. This may be due to the weak political base of the coalition government. In the new year, strikes by public sector workers are inevitable, even the police are facing sharp cutbacks. A profound unease and uncertainty will express itself in industrial and political unrest.
Many are wondering if there is an alternative to the present model of society; in which the blind forces of market fluctuations govern the fate of the majority; and governance is in the hands of a super-rich elite.
China avoided the Great Recession because public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy enabled it to invest in industry and infrastructure to develop its interior provinces. No matter what anyone thinks of China's internal politics, there remains little doubt that China has an alternative and more robust economic model than free-market capitalism. This is a powerful confirmation of Karl Marx's theories. The laws of capitalism can be beaten provided the state owns and controls the means to channel investment effectively. The social unrest in Britain springs from the natural outlook of working people everywhere, that each step forward in science, technology and culture, should be reflected in an advance in the living standards and welfare of the majority.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/node_7084903.htm
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