Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Moscow Writer's March a success as peace breaks out



The relative success of Sunday's "Writer's March" through the streets of Moscow -- not in terms of overall numbers, perhaps, but as a sterling example of non-violent protest -- was cheering.
After last Sunday's protester-instigated violence and the disproportionate police response that followed, it was heartening to see images coming out of the capital that recalled the high spirits and optimism of February's Great White Ring protest, which saw 30,000 members of the urban middle-class hold hands to create a human chain around one of the city's major ring roads. Indeed, with the exception of a few minor flash mob actions last month, the protest was the first since before the presidential election not to end in a series of arrests.
This is telling. With anti-corruption blogger Alexey Navalny and Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov currently serving 15-day jail sentences for attempting to incite last weekend's riot -- a charge that the accounts of even several oppositionists would suggest is valid -- the action was one of the first in months that wasn't characterised by leaders who were actively seeking arrest for propaganda or self-aggrandising purposes. Instead, it was characterised by restraint.
As 10,000 middle-class liberals, led by the detective novelist Boris Akunin and the poet Dmitry Bykov, strolled amiably through their city, there was no delusional talk of taking the Kremlin, no charging of police lines. Indeed, there was no need for police lines at all. If numbers were lower because of last week's violence, they were arguably higher than they might have otherwise been had those who helped to instigate it been involved.


Read the full story 


Crikey is a daily electronic newsletter out of Sydney to which The Bookman subscribes. Subscription Queries: Click here

Photo - Moscow State University


No comments: