‘Performance protests’ get the most attention but they are neither radical nor innovative. They may even focus attention away from more important campaigns

Student occupations of inner London department stores, barricades at Dale Farm, camps outside the Stock Exchange, and even the summer’s riots show that civil disobedience in the UK is on the rise. But are we witnessing a new kind ‘performance protest’? Charlie Beckett argues that these protests are now more focused on media reaction, such that they are more like performance art, often with little cohesion, programme, or objectives.