Arrested For Protesting Against The "royal" Wedding

international | anti-capitalism | other press Friday May 06, 2011 20:09 by pat c

Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group was among those arrested for attempting a street theatre performance to coincide with the royal wedding. They were accused of 'conspiracy to cause a public nuisance' and detained for more than 24 hours. Chris on a previous occasion was accused of incitement to violence because he had an Eat The Rich placard around his neck. Here he speaks to Peter Manson. Full story at link.

I’ve been saying all along that, despite what they claim about this being a private wedding, the fact is that it was taxpayers who paid for this party - the security costs were by far the highest component. So it was our party and we had every right to be part of the proceedings.

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Not everyone in the country is a monarchist. Some of us are socialists, republicans, anarchists … but all of us should have been able to participate in this joyful occasion, in whatever ways made us feel comfortable. Personally, I only felt comfortable with a guillotine. To cut through all the royalist media propaganda we needed a striking image, something the cameras could pick up. I can’t think of anything more likely to do that than our very large guillotine, something that looks as though it might be quite efficient at doing the job.

We were going to go along as royals - to be honest, if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us. Why can’t we be princes and princesses and put various baubles and crowns on our heads? As an anthropologist, I admire hunter-gatherers. When some Kalahari bushmen were once asked, ‘Who is your king?’, the answer came back: ‘Well, actually, all of us.’ When everyone is king, no-one is king. I’ve always admired that logic of levelling up rather than levelling down. I’ve never felt particularly inspired by campaigns for a bourgeois republic: swapping royalist fancy dress for the fancy dress of a president’s suit and tie.