“The Collapse of capitalism? Protest: Healthy expression or an access to violent antagonism?” – Report of the 3rd ICD Public Discussion, October 24th 2011
On Monday 24th of October 2011 the panel discussion was held in the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. Participants gathered to discuss an important topic “The collapse of capitalism?” and related the theme to the current events.
The panel discussion was opened by Giuseppe Colucci, Head of program of the CD News Team. He introduced the topic and encouraged people to take the floor and express their opinions on the protests that took place lately all around the world. “A couple of months ago, a large group of Spanish youngsters occupied the main square of Madrid, La Puerta del Sol, to express their disappointment at the fact that the unemployment rate of people under 30 years of age had reached a peak of 40%. All they were asking for was: the possibility to build a future.” he pointed out. Then, he referred to other protests that were spread around the world during the last few months. To provoke the discussion he also spoke about the concept of democracy, he brought up the topic of Agora and asked if nowadays people really do have equal say. “In comparison to the flat squares of the past, this democratic concept has been lost today, as decisions are made by leaders in skyscrapers and big buildings, far above the citizens who are affected by these decisions.” Giuseppe mentioned that making decisions behind the closed doors in skyscrapers is a modern example of ‘anti-public’ space and can be seen as the complete opposite of Greek forums (democracy prototype). Then, he showed a short 2minutes clip from an American news report on the occupy movement. In the end of introduction a series of questions were raised “Are protesters constructively looking for solutions or are they just expressing their emotions and frustrations? Is there any alternative? Is it possible to restructure the world economic system? What future can our generation have if the previous one has already been condemned to a life of economic uncertainty?”
The first person to speak was Philip from the ICD news team. He pointed out that dragging down political issues to the public space is effective. Next, Tom from the ICD Research Team mentioned the bad side of the protest. He referred to the demonstration that occurred in the UK due to the raising of the university tuition. He said that the students’ manifestation was seen by many people as something negative because it involved a lot of violence and disorder, but he actually found something positive about the violence. He pointed out that violence may raise the awareness and show the very strong feelings of the protesters for this topic.
Mikey from ICD News Team found another positive aspect about the protests. People by manifesting are showing that they still care and that they want to be involved in the politics and decision making. “It is good that young people are trying to change the world” he said.
Sarah, Chief Editor of the Research Team, mentioned that protest can begin as a good, healthy thing but in the end it can become a ridiculous violent manifestation that is being held without any particular reason.
Continuing on the topic of London’s Riots, Hannah, also part of the ICD Research Team, pointed out that those protests were really interesting because they reflected on the society and actually showed how news reports are centered on consumerism. Basically, she criticized, the media focused on destroyed property and damage done by protesters and not on the underlying problems.
Philip raised his voice again and tried to compare protests in London with protests in New York. He referred to the acts of violence committed by police during both of the protests and mentions the issue of police violence as a big problem, which is not sufficiently covered by the media.
Ioana, a press team member, brought up back the topic of the Agora and the public space and she referred to the theory of the public sphere written by Hebermas. Ioana thinks that to be involved in the protest people need to have the knowledge about the issue, just the will to protest is not enough. Supporting that argument she referred to London’s Riots. She also said that there is a necessity for core ideas in the protest, and so far people are expressing only their discontent and dissatisfaction with the current situation. “It might be good in the beginning but in a long run it is not sufficient.” she said.
Amy, our second Chief Editor of the Research Team, agreed with Ioana on the protest content. She said that demonstrations that occur nowadays are more about dissatisfaction of the protesters and less about specific goals. People who are demonstrating don’t have any solutions prepared for facilitating changes. On the other hand she underlined that is a democratic right to protest and demonstrate discontent.
Lena highlighted that London’s Riot is not the only protest we should concentrate on. She spoke about demonstrations in Madrid and brought up the topic of violence during those manifestations. “Many protesters are getting provoked by the police even if they don’t want to run violent demonstrations” she said.
Sarah took the floor for the second time and pointed out that there is a need for the institution that will be able to come up with a good alternative to the problem. Unfortunately all the institutions are already caught in the system. She thinks that there is a need for protesters to express their discontent but people who work in the system should come up with the solutions to their problems because, after all, that is their job. She supports the idea that the system needs to be fixed and those who can actually repair it are not the people who are protesting but those who are already involved in the system, having the power to change the things and resolve problems.
Another intern emphasized again the importance of having the right to protest and expressing your own opinion. She also noticed that media is playing a big part in those protests. In some way media affect people’s decisions. She added that media are the perfect channel to put fear into people. What happens is that people get scared of capitalism and that leads them to withdraw money from their banks what makes financial crisis much worse.
Another participant from Ukraine then was talking about different attitudes towards the protest around the world. She referred to her country and pointed out that in Ukraine people would wait much longer than other parts of the world before coming out on the streets and presenting their opinions.
Sam from the research team then added in relation to Sara’s point briefly the point that there is a need for the leadership during the protest.
Philip from the ICD News Team then stated that Occupy Wall Street is only a big success because it is a topic everyone is affected by. He added that the protest despite lacking a clear agenda has a very large impact. After all, it is the reason for this panel discussion and many others, which then formulate ideas and makes us think about the topic from different perspectives. This is according to Phillip already a very positive effect of the protest.
After Phillips opinion, Darnel, responsible for media and technical support, shared some of his experiences with the audience. As a black growing up in America he was used to be frustrated by the unjust system and went to several protest at the same time of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. Darnel said for him being frustrated and angry at that time, protest was a very important way to express that anger and for him and his friends that was a very good thing. Additionally, Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech still inspires people today so he thinks we can never emphasize the impact of protest enough. However, he added, we also have to be diplomatic when it comes to protest, not become too violent, but at the same time as observers be critical of the media. If an anti-war demonstration is portrayed as violent, something might be wrong with the media! In the end, they protest AGAINST violence.
He closed his talk with pointing out that only because there are many different reasons for people to support occupy Wall Street, that shouldn’t be a reason to not talk about the overarching problem (the economic system) and think of alternatives or solutions.
Maria, the Head of the ICD Internship Program, then responded to the aforementioned point that the fear of the economic system makes the crisis worse by people canceling bank accounts and stopping investments. Maria disagreed with this idea. She thinks the system is in crisis because it is flawed in the first place and not because people respond to these flaws.
Additionally, she pointed out that violence and demonstration is not the same. In theory, protest should always be non-violent. However she also acknowledged the fact that violence sometimes is necessary to be heard, to ‘actively’ defend your rights.
She thinks the capitalistic system is not working and the Occupy movement is thus a healthy expression of discontent. According to Maria, in the end what it comes down to is that we all just want a place to live and to express ourselves. She strongly supports the movement and asked everyone to look at ourselves and see for ways how WE can support the movement.
Tom from the research team followed up on this by reminding the audience that we all wouldn’t be there without protest of our ancestors. Many people fought for the rights and freedoms we are enjoying today.
Arion, a new intern at the ICD working for the Academy team, then emphasized the point that protest can only be successful if also outsiders listen to the issues raised. Thus using modern media and social networks to spread your movement is very important and can be very effective. He also mentioned that often protest starts peacefully but then turns violent as police provoke the protesters.
The next point was raised by Sarah, senior editor for the Cultural Diplomatic Outlook Report 2011. She asked the question why protest, in theory peaceful, turns violent so often? Also it is interesting to look at peaceful protests, like Martin Luther King, who even resisted more violent ways of protest despite some of his close members proposing it. In her opinion, protests need clear objectives, as otherwise it will not change anything. With regards to the Occupy movement this is its biggest weakness.
Another intern stated that Gandhi is a perfect example that violence is not necessary for successful protest.
Lukas from the EU team then reminded the audience that capitalism worked very well during the last decades. Coming from the Czech Republic and having experienced communism Lukas pointed out that our prosperity is based on capitalism, and rejecting capitalism because of the crisis is a wrong approach. In his opinion democracy and capitalism are the world’s best regimes. He accepts the fact that some changes have to be made, but the overall system should stay in place.
After Lukas points, Mikey from the ICD News Team came back to the point that the Occupy movement has no clear agenda. After all, he states, the people protest against an unjust economic system and against a corrupt capitalistic system. According to him, these are quite clear points. He further added that in London for example, despite the wealth and the fact that it is Europe’s most expensive city, homelessness is increasing. The question how this and similar inequalities can be possible despite our weath is the underlying question of all Occupy movements worldwide.
Another girl from the audience then followed up on Mikey´s points by demanding a decent Standard of living for everyone. She also thinks that violence can bring legitimization to protest as it shows how serious the topic is for the protesters. In the end, they give up security and endanger themselves to express their opinion. Violence then should make the elites facilitate change.
After having heard all these opinions, Giuseppe, Head of Program of the ICD News Team and responsible for the 3rd ICD weekly panel discussion concluded the events by thanking all participants inviting everyone to continue the discussion on Facebook or twitter. He further welcomed everyone to join us again next Monday, 31st in the second round of our ‘The Collapse of capitalism?’ debate at 17.30 in the ICD House Kurfürstendamm 207, 3rd floor.
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