[g8-sheffield] Re: the right of unlawful protest

[Chris Malins]

Doesn't legality remain important when there may be legitimately held 
positions based on some sort of social contract thinking (cf. Socrates) 
which make people feel obliged to act within the law.

That does not necessarily legitimise the distinctions which are drawn by 
the authorities, but does make it unreasonable to persecute (as opposed 
to engage with) people who feel inclined only to act within the law, 
however it stands. Certainly, while there are problems in society caused 
within the laws, there are also problems associated with breaking them, 
and it should not be held as necessarily obvious that there is no 
legitmacy to a position that follows them.

Chris

Kathleen Holliday wrote:
> I didn't mean it in that way. I am just one of the people with limitations
> on what actions I can take. If I had no responsibilities at home I would
> have sat in the road, or organised people to ring the police ring and shout
> in unison city-wide. I did what I saw as my only option.
> 
> I think that the police were treated unfairly by the powers that be by
> having to protect these gangsters in the way they did from legitimate
> protesters. I had no argument with Sheffield blokes doing their job.
> 
> Personally, I don't think there is such a thing as an "illegal" protest. It
> is one of our basic rights as citizens of this planet. I certainly wouldn't
> knock the efforts of anyone on the side of what is RIGHT, which is to end
> this mafia-type charade that the "leaders" of g8 are enacting.
> 
> ps They did look like nasty scuttling things running into the undergrowth at
> the Winter Gardens!
> 
> 
> Dougald Hine wrote:
> 
> I don't think we should start accusing each other of betrayal, but I
> don't think any of us - whatever form of action we take, arrestable or
> non-arrestable - should accept the good/bad opposition of 'legal' and
> 'illegal protest'.
> 
>