2010: a year in protest

It’s that time of year again: a moment where we pause for sombre reflection, overblown self-congratulation and making stupid lists in a bid to fill up space as no one can be arsed writing anything proper anymore. While the last of these couldn’t be further from the truth here at SSY (trust me, there’s some epic blogging coming your way prettty soon), the opportunity to stick a list together of funny pictures is not one we’re ever gonna overlook. So here we are, with SSY’s annual round-up (following last year’s ground breaking inaugural countdown) of the best placards, signs and protest banners of the last twelve months! Totally impartial and 100% authoritative , as you’d expect.

It’s been a busy year as far as protests go for SSY: fascists, Tories, anti-abortion nutcases, Palestinian liberation, drug prohibition, Lib Dems, Basque liberation, cuts… we’ve had many many different bases covered. For a lot of us on the left in Scotland, things got going with the huge counter-mobilisation against the racists of the Scottish Defence League in Edinburgh in February, which saw thousands come out onto the streets to take direct action against, in the end, a few dozen fascists that braved sitting in a pub on the Royal Mile for a few hours. I tried finding photos of witty placards from the demo, I really did – but sadly all the ones I found are a bit rubbish and don’t really do the awesomeness of the day justice. Instead however, this anecdote brings us in a roundabout way to our first contender for placard of the year, courtesy of the SDL’s chums in the English Defence League…

SPORT ARE TROOPS - few things will possibly ever encapsulate the EDL as well as this placard

The beginning of the year also saw the furore surrounding the then ‘legal high’ mephedrone, or m-cat, reach fever pitch. SSY was among the very few political organisations prepared to tell the truth, and stand up for science, throughout the whole debate – and we received extensive press coverage for our stand on the issue. Given the ridiculously one-sided discourse that had surrounded the issue, which saw the government cave into weeks of media hysteria and rush into a ban, we felt that the message of our annual anti-drugs prohibition demo, which took place in July, was more relevant than ever. And as you can see, we had a banner on the subject too, the second in our contest for protest sign of the year: M-Cat Not Fat Cats!

But by far the most significant development of 2010 has been the emergence of a real movement in the UK against the cuts and austerity being forced upon the working class to pay for the excesses of the bankers, the super-rich and their failed system. With the election of the Tories in May, who soon entered coalition with the Lib Dems, the battlelines became clearer. SSY were among the first to start galvanising opposition to the new government, with a flash demo in Glasgow just one day after the election, and a run-in with David Cameron in Edinburgh a few days later. The ‘AH HATE TORIES’ placards have been cracked out on a few occasions now and always prove a hit, so it’s only right that they get to feature in this run down.

The next few placards come from America, surely the spiritual home of witty protest signs. While last year’s countdown was dominated by ultra-conservative, unintentionally hilarious Tea Party efforts, 2010 was the year of the ‘liberal’ fightback in the USA. A really rubbish fightback, you’ll understand, with its main demands being moderation and peace and quiet, culminating in 200,000 marching on Washington to demand that Glenn Beck calms down a wee bit. But they did have some pretty funny signs, and here they are:

Disclaimer: this could be a real Tea Party supporter.

The last one being a reference to this anti-masturbation witch who wants women to be more like hobbits. Glenn Beck himself also organised a big demonstration (read: book launch) in Washington, his main demands being something about patriotism and how great it is to ‘honor’ the US military or some shit, but funny signs sadly appear to be missing from all the photos Presumably they were all too embarrassing to publish.

In September, it was the Pope’s state visit to the UK that was dominating the headlines. Debate raged over the appropriateness of ‘protesting the pope’, particularly in Scotland given sensitivities surrounding the issues of religion, anti-Irish racism and sectarianism. Just ask Hugh Dallas. But big protests went ahead, and some of the placards were undeniably genius:

Nothing says faith in God like four inches of bulletproof glass

Onto October and November – the months in which mass, organised opposition to cuts and austerity began to emerge, from October’s STUC demo in Edinburgh onwards. One of the  most impressive aspects of movement has been the sudden rise of UKuncut, the social-network driven, grassroots protests against corporate tax evasion which from an initial action in London at the end of October, spread rapidly across the country. And with virtually all of these protests being called spontaneously by people through the internet, it’s left plenty of room for placardy creativity!

It's another fantastic SSY effort!

The scale and militancy of the student fees protests - which grew out of the massive NUS demo on 10 November – took everyone by surprise. As for home-made placard efforts, references to Hogwarts, Dumbledore and Harry Potter were ubiquitious, and the one about the Tories “putting the n in cuts” was briefly amusing – but by the time you’d seen it replicated for the four millionth time, it began to get a bit tired… Anything else, however, was onto a winner.

The semen have eton our future?!?!?!

But who could forget this year’s most famous placard-related incident, when the BBC’s, ahem, ‘apolitical’ political editor Nick Robinson went mental and smashed up an anti-war placard? This guy gets lots of extra bonus points for having a placard-related joke on his placard:

That was 2010.

What will 2011 bring? Lots more demonstrations, and plenty of pun-based placards with any luck. The pressure is on: can your sign make it onto next year’s list? As for this year’s definitive winner, it’s up to youse to decide in the comments.