Prompt / Provocación 2

State-led violence is rife across the globe, from decisions made in the West to bomb and invade other countries, to the death sentence still being practised on prisoners, the burning of Rohingya villages, and the seemingly endless violence waged by Assad against his own people.

This behaviour - and those who seek to resist it - is of particular relevance to my research interests. Based within the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), Queen Mary University of London, my PhD research focuses on public art interventions which criticise state policy on migration in Europe, and which look to support and further migrant led and migrant solidarity movements. When thinking about liberal democracies (which European countries claim to be), state violence is often hidden within its systems; it is covert and insidious, but often ‘lawful’. This is certainly the case in the manner in which the UK government responds to irregular migration, though its violent and unlawful nature, either through action or inaction, is often revealed as well. This strategic violence, state crime, is defined by Professor Penny Green as: ‘state organizational deviance involving the violation of human rights’. Power is found in the labelling of these actions as criminal.

Considerations of violence as state policy conjure up another issue close to my heart, as it is something I have written about and campaigned on for years. This relates to the treatment of protesters. Horse charges, baton rounds, tear gas, all used against those enacting their right to protest, standing up for issues of social and environmental justice that affect us all - or at least most of us. Intimidation and deterrence are systematic strategies to curb movements dissenting against state power, with violence playing a key role. There are, of course, different understandings of ‘violence’, as Žižek would have us consider. The structural violence inherent in much of our current global situation is not always understood as such, and so it is with the strategic violence concerning political dissent. Alongside more readily observable actions of ‘violence’ exist a huge raft of actions which may fall short of some definitions. These include undercover policing, kettling, domestic extremism lists, abuse of stop and search, lengthy police bail, excessive restrictions on protest and criminalisation of protesters.

In regards to protest, and with a focus on resistance, it is fundamental to understand state policy for what it is, to see police violence as part of a wider strategy of intimidation - not a few rotten apples but a putrid orchard. Our actions within protests - themselves often against state-led violence either at home or abroad - exist on the frontline of a larger and wider resistance against contemporary neoliberal governance.

One strategy (by no means the only and not always the most suitable) is the refusal to divulge one’s personal information. ‘No comment’ - a refusal to comply, a refusal to make injustice easy - is powerful. Not only does it thwart the desires of an intelligence hungry state, but it permits an understanding within individuals that the state can be challenged, itself a powerful revelation for many. Therefore, in solidarity with and respect for those individuals who stand up against their governments, and who experience state violent first-hand, I created an image in the style of the many political stickers which are left at protest sites once the crowds are gone - remnants of an eruption of citizen action, and reminders of what we are fighting for, and against.