Personal Relations

The next unit is Personal Relations. Those who are assigned a presentation for this unit should have an article to me in two weeks time and will be presenting in three weeks. As for the first class of this unit in two weeks time, please have this article read and be prepared to discuss it in class:

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201111/polyandry-plural-families

Modern Family

Plural relationships have gotten a bad name, thanks to lascivious cult leaders like Warren Jeffs. But there's a whole other type of multi-partner love gaining popularity: polyandry, in which a woman settles down with two or more men. And it's more common than you might think.

By Alex French,

November 2011 Issue

On an unseasonably cool August Sunday morning in Topanga Canyon, just north of Malibu, a family of four arrives at the Inn of the Seventh Ray, an all-cage-free, everything-local restaurant that's typical of the neighborhood. This brunch is a welcome respite from the errands and worries that increasingly fill their days. Jaiya Ma, the center of the clan, is a 34-year-old with dark, wavy hair and caramel skin. Her life is wide open; she falls in love easily, suffers willingly. Next to her is Ian Ferguson, a thin 44-year-old with a shaved head and a goatee, feeding bits of eggs Benedict to their energetic 2-year-old son, Eamon. Ian and Jaiya have been lovers for four years. Sitting across from Jaiya is Jon Hanauer, an extremely fit 48-year-old wearing wire-rimmed glasses, who serves as Eamon's primary caretaker. He and Jaiya have been in a committed relationship for almost a decade.

They all live together just a few minutes up the hill, in an airy modern house with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view of downtown Los Angeles. It's the kind of place where you'd expect a designer to live, and indeed one does live there: Ian owns Dig It Furniture, which has been featured in Elle Decor. The walls are covered with paintings and collages he and Jaiya have made, and toys are scattered everywhere. The only thing out of the ordinary is the sleeping arrangements: Jon and Jaiya have their own rooms on the ground floor, while Ian rotates between his office in the garage, Jaiya's room, and Eamon's room, where, until recently, one of the adults would sleep every night.
Neither Jon nor Ian is legally married to Jaiya. Both are allowed to see other women. But the three of them live a lifestyle that—much of the time—isn't that different from a conventional marriage. They're one of an estimated 500,000 polyamorous families in the United States. Polyamory, which literally means "many loves," usually isn't about having sex with whomever you want, whenever you want, as nonpractitioners often assume. It can also describe relationship configurations like Jon, Jaiya, and Ian's—governed by rules, responsibilities, and expectations—which add up to a kind of de facto polygamy. The more specific term for their arrangement is polyandry, in which multiple men are with the same woman, a far less common arrangement (both today and throughout human history) than polygyny, in which multiple women are with the same man. Jaiya, who founded a successful sex-education company, is typical of the women in polyandrous triads: intelligent, self-possessed, professionally accomplished. The men, on the other hand, have typically suffered a relationship catastrophe that prompted them to seek radical change. Jon could be speaking for any of them when he recalls, "I knew in my heart that I had to find a different way to love."
It's not an easy lifestyle. "Think about all the challenges of any live-in relationship, squared, and you'll see the problem," says Janet Hardy, coauthor of The Ethical Slut (widely considered the bible of polyamory). By chance, the previous night at a bar in Venice, I met Holly (not her real name), a beautiful figure skater turned model Ian dated while Jaiya was pregnant with Eamon. Holly has a new guy, a handsome rocker named Danny. When I reveal this at brunch, Ian looks bummed; he still has feelings for Holly. But Holly's not a member of his and Jaiya and Jon's "species"—she's monogamous—and dating "out of species" is a problem for Jaiya. "It's one of the primary rules of polyamory," Ian explains, because a monogamous woman will almost always force a man to choose between her and his polyamorous life.
For his part, Jon has seen Jaiya get hurt too many times. "She jumps into things and I'm always cleaning up her messes," he says. "She understands that's one of the ways I express my love for her." Jon hasn't taken nearly as many lovers as Ian—all the dating and the play parties . . . that's not his bag. "You've got to manage yourself or you're going to hurt other people," he says.
Jon takes Eamon in his arms and walks to the restaurant gift shop, where they sit in a corner reading children's books. Jaiya and Ian sit in silence as the sun comes out and warms the patio. After we settle the check, they'll all head home. Ian will retreat to his office and work on design proposals, Jaiya will go to her study to work on the book on oral sex she's writing for Random House, and Jon will spend the day playing ball with Eamon.

•••

Plural love is having a moment right now. That's thanks in no small part to the increasing acceptance of gay marriage: If two men or two women can get married, why can't two men get married to one woman? In Canada, where same-sex marriage has been legal for six years, a case that's expected to go to the Supreme Court could make our neighbor to the north the first Western country that doesn't outlaw polygamy. Here in the U.S., Republican leaders like Mike Huckabee and Michelle Bachmann have made ominous suggestions that legalizing gay marriage will lead to group marriage. And the Mormon Church, not wanting to draw any undue attention to its past embrace of plural marriage, fought Proposition 8 three years ago, perhaps out of fear that practicing polygamists would demand that marriage equality be extended to them as well.
But it's hard to see the harm in egalitarian, secular arrangements like Jon, Jaiya, and Ian's. In 2001, the Law Commission of Canada issued a report questioning the illegality of consensual polygamy, and last year the Canadian Polyamory Advocacy Association asked the courts for a repeal of the ban on polygamy. In the U.S., too, legal scholars have challenged the merits of limiting marriages to two partners. Elizabeth F. Emens of the University of Chicago Law School questions why eliminating the "numerosity requirement" (one man and one woman) is considered undesirable when so many people are practicing non-monogamy, either secretly (through cheating) or serially (divorce, remarriage). And we certainly have polygamy on the collective brain—witness the popularity of TV shows like HBO's Big Love and TLC's Sister Wives.

But if plural marriage is ever to gain broad acceptance, it won't be because of Mormon fundamentalists. It will be because of people like Ian, Jon, and Jaiya—affluent, educated city dwellers in mutually respectful relationships. And, indeed, some in plural relationships are adopting an activist mind-set. "We're going through right now what homosexuals went through 30 or 40 years ago," says Matt Bullen, a 42-year-old writer and married dad in Seattle who is part of a polyamorist cluster that encompasses five people and two legal marriages. "We need to start putting photos on the desk of ourselves and our partners together. When I'm out in public with my wife and my girlfriend, I need to say, 'These are my partners.'"
Matt's girlfriend, a 43-year-old filmmaker and actress named Terisa Greenan, goes further, expressing the virtues of her lifestyle in stark terms. "Polyamorous people are just smarter," she says. She dates Matt but has lived with Scott Campbell, a 54-year-old classical-music dealer, for 14 years, and Larry Golding, a 54-year-old Microsoft software developer (to whom she's married for insurance and accounting purposes), for 12 years. (Matt's wife, Vee, also dates Larry.) "You've got to have a certain type of brain that's really analytical," Terisa explains. "There are more people, so you have to be able to look at each problem from many more points of view and communicate for that many hours longer."
Whatever you think of Terisa's theory, it's obvious that those in plural relationships are comfortable flouting convention. Many explained to me that humans aren't hardwired to have just one partner. Mary, a 26-year-old Ph.D. candidate in economics at Boston University (who asked that her real name not be used), says she's known since she was 14 that monogamy was anathema to her. "That's when I realized that maybe it didn't make sense for me to suppress these feelings just because of a societal norm," she says. Hardly an insatiable minx, Mary claims she's "not a sexual person at all" and still lives—in a polyandrous triad—with her first boyfriend.
Ian went plural four years ago, after his six-year marriage fell apart, when he adopted a doctrine of "total authenticity. Anybody I was interested in, I told them right off, 'This is what I'm about.' Within four weeks, I was dating four women at the same time." He met Jaiya at an improvisational-dance class near his house, and they immediately fell for each other. Jaiya got pregnant and Ian moved in. "It was the first time I ever truly surrendered to a man," she recalls. It wasn't until after Eamon was born that Ian made the transition from a playing-the-field version of polyamory to something more like common-law polygamy. Ian would like to be dating more, but fatherhood and the demands of being the household's primary breadwinner have shown him that while "love is infinite, time is not."
Six years before she fell for Ian, Jaiya, who was engaged at the time, met Jon at a tantra class in Cincinnati. A couple of months later—two weeks before her wedding day—they reconnected and hit it off. Jaiya canceled the wedding when her fiancé couldn't handle the competition for her attentions, and she's embraced polyamory ever since. She now uses Jon as a sexual guinea pig in her Red Hot Touch instructional video series. "I tell people I'm an international penis model," he says ruefully.
Most who take part in plural relationships claim not to feel sexual jealousy. Dean, a 26-year-old software engineer in Boston, recalls being disturbed at the start of his relationship with Mary and her long-term boyfriend, Max (all three names have been changed), a 28-year-old intellectual-property lawyer, when he overheard them having sex in the next room. In time, he decided this was a selfish reaction. "Just realizing that there are times when she wants to have sex with one of us specifically makes things a lot easier," he explains. "Knowing that it balances out over time makes it easier too."
The trick, Matt Bullen explains, is being able to ask yourself, "'Why am I happy when my partner is satisfied in any other aspect of life, but then suddenly when it comes to sex it's got to be awful feelings of mistrust?' Can you isolate it so much that it becomes like a little trapped rodent in a cage where you can say, 'See, it wasn't that scary at all'?" He claims it doesn't upset him when his wife uses their marital bed to fuck her boyfriend (and Terisa's husband) Larry. "It's just a bed," he says. Some claim to derive pleasure from seeing their lovers getting screwed at play parties.
But however much they thumb their noses at jealousy, polyamorists can still fall prey to it. Scott recalls feeling stung the first time he heard Larry call Terisa "sweetie." Vee Bullen remembers being distraught when she heard Matt call Terisa "darling." The key, according to author Janet Hardy, is not giving in to your partner's jealousy. "You have to hear your partner be unhappy without feeling like it's your job to fix it," she explains. "Otherwise you're robbing your partner of the opportunity of learning how to survive jealousy."

A potentially bigger problem for long-term polyamorous relationships is a declining libido. On nights when Ian ventures out for affairs with other women, Jaiya and Jon live an almost monastic existence. The three of them have little interaction with the Los Angeles polyamorous community, because, they say, meetings are dominated by old hippies with grown children and newcomers with questions about coping with jealousy. And Jaiya and Jon's relationship has turned effectively platonic since she gave birth to Eamon; where once, Jaiya claims, they had 20-hour marathon sessions, now they have sex only for her instructional videos and classes. Jaiya and Ian have tried to overcome the libido-killing effects of financial worries and child care with weekly date nights, out-of-town trips to hotels, and scheduled sex (Friday afternoons, after she tapes a show for VoiceAmerica radio). They are, Ian admits, like old married people.
That's hardly unusual. According to Thad, 31, and James, 43, both IT professionals and members of a long-term polyandrous triad in Bloomington, Indiana, with a writer named Mandy, 42, none of the three of them (whose names have been changed) date much outside of their relationship. "We've played with some other people," James says. "But nothing serious. All activity outside of the family has to be mutually approved. We have ground rules. No fluid exchange can take place." They also attend monthly family-counseling sessions.
Family counseling? Isn't plural love supposed to be the magic bullet to relieve the doldrums of monogamy? But Terisa reports a similar situation. "Our lives are so boring," she says. "I cook dinner. The guys clean up. We go upstairs and watch The Soup, and then we go to bed. Or the three of us go out to the movies. Or all five of us"—meaning the Bullens, too—"sit down to watch TV together. We do things as a family.
"The great thing is that the guys can go have sex with other people."

•••

Most men in polyandrous relationships get into them for one reason: They fall in love with the woman at the center of the triad. Few are looking for male companionship. Fewer still seek intimacy with their "metamour"—their lover's other lover. This isn't Big Love, and male polyandrists aren't sister husbands.
Although they've lived together for more than a decade, Scott describes his relationship with Larry as one of benign neglect. "We wouldn't be close friends in different circumstances," he says. "We're so different. We're perfectly cordial, but it's not common for the two of us to hang out and talk together if Terisa isn't there." Matt, Terisa's boyfriend, agrees. "I don't think I've ever been out for a drink by myself with Larry or Scott," he says. The relative distance among them, he adds, is why the arrangement works.
Max, the young lawyer, describes his relationship with Dean as being like that of stepbrothers. "We're family but not related," he says. Ian and Jon are like that too. They interact almost entirely through Jaiya and Eamon—"I get to love Ian through him," Jon says, pointing at the boy.
Nowhere was this truer than at Eamon's birth. The two men aided Jaiya in a natural, "orgasmic" labor in an outdoor hot tub that lasted 20 hours—with Jon sitting behind her at one point, massaging her anus and feeding her, and Ian in front massaging her nipples and clitoris, until at last Eamon passed into this world through one long climax while the Santa Anas blew and a pack of stallions whinnied nearby. Jon and Ian are two men who have shared one of the most intimate moments imaginable. They see each other every day. But at brunch, they speak in turn to Jaiya—never to each other. They rarely make eye contact.

•••

One Friday afternoon, Jon takes Eamon to Topanga State Park. He's scooping sand into a mound for the boy to run up and down on. "This is his athletic training," Jon says proudly. "I'd like for him to play baseball." Jon deserves much of the credit for Eamon's sunny disposition—the 2-year-old sings constantly and loves being read to. Ian matter-of-factly describes Jon as the "manny" and pays him a modest salary to look after Eamon. Jaiya says that Eamon occasionally calls Jon his "dada."
One of the great debates about plural love in America is about how it affects the children. In a September 2010 polemic in The American Spectator, William C. Duncan, director of the Marriage Law Foundation, argued that these kids might be at a higher risk of suffering abuse, behavioral problems, and household instability. But Dr. Elisabeth Sheff, a sociology professor at Georgia State University who has spent more than a decade studying kids from polyamorous homes, disagrees. "Many of the children in poly families are doing great," she says. "All the attention they get and the access to shared resources helps them blossom. Research on single parents shows us that it's too much work for one person. Polyamory comes at it from the complete other direction—that two people aren't enough." And polyandry gives a kid more father figures—perhaps not the worst family structure in a country where there's an epidemic of fatherlessness.

Matt Bullen is cautious about exposing his 9-year-old to the family's lifestyle. "It gives me nightmares that our family is from some awful seventies adult movie where my son comes down a swirling staircase and sees all kinds of shenanigans going on," he says. He and his wife, Vee, have sought to be "age-appropriately honest" with their son. When the boy saw his father kissing Terisa and asked about it, Matt explained to him, "There are ways of loving that you just can't understand yet." Some of the teachers at his school know about his parents' lifestyle, and he is reportedly happy, well adjusted, and obsessed with soccer. Having more adults in his life, Matt claims, has helped his son's development.
But Jon's demeanor sometimes seems to betray a current of bitterness. When Jaiya caught baby fever soon after turning 30, she begged Jon for a child. He refused, saying he wasn't ready for fatherhood, so she turned to Wyatt (not his real name), her brash young lover at the time. Jaiya miscarried; Wyatt walked out. Later, she and Jon discussed pregnancy again, and again he demurred. "I pushed her into having other relationships," he admits. But seeing Jaiya twice pregnant by other men has stung, and Jon's time with Eamon has made him realize that he desperately wants a child of his own. But after her miscarriage and her difficult pregnancy with Eamon, Jaiya doesn't want any more kids.
Jon has one option left—to go out and find someone else. It's not easy. He's had only two other lovers over the past six years. He doesn't do nightlife. He has no interest in play parties. "Those people are like teenagers who sleep around—they're just replaying teenage scenarios," he says. Jaiya encourages him to get out there. But if he did meet a woman? Is he prepared to pack up and leave? "I wouldn't want to go," Jon says. "I'd want to move that new person in with us. I'd want to expand our family, enhance what we already have at home."
He picks up Eamon, holds him tight, and walks toward the surf. Together, they enter the water, and Eamon cackles as they take on the breakers.

Politics and Society Wrap up (Hooray!)

Hey everyone. I think we've got more than enough material for this unit so there's no new assigned reading for this week. What I'd like though is for you to consider everything we've read and discussed, perhaps read a bit more on any specific topic that interests you, and come to class ready to discuss questions we can use in the final exam. We need somewhere between six and ten. Please have a few ideas to suggest so that we don't sit around staring at each other with nothing to say. See you Thursday.

Politics and Society Part Deux

A few things. Last week we covered most of the required ground for the unit. It would have been nice to get into the underlying social causes for the UK riots of 2011 but since we probably won't have much time in class you might want to take a look at what I wrote immediately afterwards last year, Blindness. The final obligatory part of the unit is about Syria; there's an article and a short video:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/world/middleeast/13syria.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14831387

For the remainder of the class and possibly for part of the next lesson, I'd like you to acquaint yourselves with some other protests, particularly the one in Quebec that has become known as the Printemps Erable, or the Maple Spring. Please read these two articles:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/how-quebecs-maple-spring-protests-fit-with-the-arab-spring-and-occupy-wall-street-sort-of/258402/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/07/quebec-students-lesson-protest-politics

If you're looking for more to read, you could also read this, this, this or this.

Also, notice a new link on the right to something called RabbitFire.org. This is a project I've been working on with a few other teachers at the university (working on may not be the right expression, drinking and talking on is more like it). Anyway, there are videos of our discussions, including one about protests, that you are all encouraged to watch. Additionally, we are hoping to incorporate exercises to follow the discussions that eventually could be used as class quizzes. For now, it is completely optional so take a look if you have the time. I'll copy and paste the articles below - see y'all on Thursday.

Security Forces Kill at Least 15 People in Cities Around Syria

By NADA BAKRI

Published: August 12, 2011

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Tens of thousands of Syrians in cities and towns around their country took to the streets on Friday after noon prayers shouting “We will not kneel” in a strong show of defiance against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and at least 15 protesters were killed by security forces, human rights activists and residents said.

The demonstrations were smaller than those held in past weeks, but they were significant because they came after security forces took control this month of the country’s two most restive cities, Hama in central Syria and Deir al-Zour in the east, in a military operation that activists say left hundreds dead. The demonstrations on Friday were a clear sign the armed forces could not intimidate protesters into staying home.

Hundreds of security troops were seen converging around mosques in a number of Syrian cities and towns, often firing in the air in an attempt to prevent departing worshipers from forming crowds. Some mosques in Hama were even closed. In one protest on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, members of the security forces outnumbered the demonstrators.

“Today they were successful in dispersing the crowds by force,” Saleh al-Hamawi, an activist from Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city and a linchpin of the uprising, said by phone. “But they failed to put fear in our hearts, which they are betting on.”

The violence came amid new calls by the United States for countries with economic ties to Syria to “get on the right side of history” and distance themselves from Mr. Assad. But there were also indications that the United States and countries in Europe and elsewhere were not yet ready to clearly demand that Mr. Assad step down.

Diplomats say that Turkey, Syria’s neighbor to the north, has given the Syrian government two weeks to inaugurate meaningful political change in a country that remains one of the region’s most authoritarian. The Syrian government’s steps have so far been dismissed by opposition figures as superficial.

“I wouldn’t like to see you regret that you’ve been far too late in very little that you’ve done when you look back one day,” said a letter to Mr. Assad from President Abdullah Gul of Turkey. It was carried to Syria by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during his visit this week and made public on Friday by Turkey’s Anatolian news agency.

The largest protests on Friday took place on the outskirts of Hama, in Deir al-Zour, in Idlib Province near the border with Turkey and in Latakia in the north. The Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists who organize and document demonstrations, said protesters came under fire before gathering in bigger crowds.

“The security used a different tactic today,” an activist who gave his name as Hozan said by phone. “They attacked crowds immediately as they came out of mosques.”

Others corroborated what appeared to be a shift in strategy by the security forces. In Qaboun, a town on the outskirts of the capital, activists said hundreds of people were arrested as they tried to gather.

“We couldn’t do anything today,” said a 40-year-old protester there who gave his name as Ammar. “The number of security men was more than the worshipers in the mosque. The regime is cornered and it will do anything to stay in power.”

The security deployment was especially intense in Hama, where hundreds of thousands had gathered in downtown Assi Square just weeks ago. Mr. Hamawi, the activist from Hama, said that almost every mosque in his city was surrounded by at least 15 security buses carrying 45 armed plainclothesmen loyal to the government and known as shabeeha, who were shooting in the air and at times toward the entrances of the mosques. The Local Coordination Committees said that at least two people were killed in Hama. Mr. Hamawi said that 40,000 people demonstrated in different parts of Hama and its surroundings on Friday, though they were prevented from gathering in a single march.

“The regime can stop us for a week or two weeks, but not forever,” vowed another activist in Homs who gave his name as Abu Mohammed al-Hamawi.

In Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, activists and residents reported that protesters had gathered after Friday’s noon prayers in at least six neighborhoods, despite a government crackdown in the city and its surroundings. A resident from Homs reached by phone, who gave her name as Umm Janti, said that security men were roaming the streets hours before the noon prayers and that as soon as protesters began to gather, the security men began shooting at them. At least one person was killed.

“Curse your soul, Hafez, for the idiot you brought up,” went a chant audible over the phone line. Mr. Assad inherited power from his father, Hafez, in 2000.

In addition to the deaths in Hama and Homs, the Local Coordination Committees said that four people were killed in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus; four were killed in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city; one in Saqba, another suburb of the capital; one in Deir al-Zour; and two in Idlib.

Rights groups say more than 2,000 people have been killed since the popular uprising against Mr. Assad’s rule started in March. The government disputes their account of the uprising; it says that it is facing a foreign conspiracy and blames Muslim extremists for the unrest.

In Washington on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged other countries to join in isolating Mr. Assad’s government.

“In particular, we urge those countries still buying Syrian oil and gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons, those countries whose political and economic support give him comfort in his brutality, to get on the right side of history,” Mrs. Clinton said after a meeting with Norway’s foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Store.

How Quebec's 'Maple Spring' Protests Fit With the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street (Sort Of)

By Eric Garland

inShare16 Jun 12 2012, 10:59 AM ET 11 The demonstrations, first against tuition prices and now against anti-assembly limits, have more in common with other protest movements than you might think.

A protester kicks a tear gas canister back towards police during a demonstration in Victoriaville, Quebec, on May 4, 2012. (Reuters) 

 

When the Quebec student protests began in February over a proposed tuition hike, it didn't look much like, say, Occupy Wall Street, or especially not like the Arab Spring. It still mostly doesn't -- no one thinks Canadian tanks will be flooding the streets anytime soon -- but it has taken an unusual turn since the Quebec National Assembly passed an emergency law in May to limit public assembly. Bill 78 sparked more and much larger protests, with the issues now bigger than just the price of education. So, put aside for a moment the myriad and important differences between Quebec's protest movement and Occupy Wall Street or the Arab Spring, and consider these thematic similarities in the events:

• The government oversteps with an abusive action or announcement of an offensive policy.
• Young people begin protesting to decry the injustice and start a larger debate about the legitimacy of the government, and its habit of doing favors for the rich and established at the expense of the young and poor.
• The government cracks down on protestors, spurring criticisms of illegally crushing free speech.
• Instead of quelling the dissent, the attempts to shut down protests helps expand them, contributing to a nationwide conversation about people's shared distrust of failing institutions.

This is Le Printemps Erable, or the Maple Spring as some call it, one of the largest social movements to hit Quebec in decades. But, in the most general terms, this pattern could describe many popular movements of the past three years: the Green Revolution of Iran, the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street. (Though on wildly different scales -- Canada, of course, enjoys a stable democracy rather than a military dictatorship or a theocracy, and its relatively modest finance sector has suffered no Lehman-style disasters.) Every time we think a protest movement has dissipated, something like it reappears in another section of the world, spurred by similar themes and resulting in a similar dance between authority figures and masses of people disenchanted with their leadership.

Thankfully, Quebec shares little in common with the desperation of Tunisia, Egypt, or Iran, even if this social movement borrows some rhetorical themes from their struggles. Around 100 days ago, students in Quebec began protesting en masse against a proposal by the Liberal government of Jean Charest, a significant rate hike for higher education that would be paid directly by students. While the actual rate hike measures in the hundreds of dollars per year -- sums that sadly wouldn't impress Americans living under a colossal, tragic trillion dollars of student debt -- Quebec is one of the most heavily taxed places in Canada, extracting funds that are already supposed to go to health care, higher education, and social services. Many of the students are stepping forward against what they see as a fundamental change in the deal they are getting from society, being asked to pay more for credentials to enter an ever-weaker job market.

The Charest government, seeing that protests were continuing longer than with most student protests, and threatening to encroach on Quebec's profitable summer tourist season, tried outlawing protests over 50 people without consulting police first. This not only failed to break up individual protests, but as in so many countries before, only expanded the movement to question the entire economic system, leading Quebecois from a variety of ages and backgrounds to join in. What started as a students-only protest is spilling over into a much broader debate about inequality and, ultimately, the future that peoples' leaders appear to be offering.

But this is also part of a larger trend. It's amazing how quickly these regional and specific discussions -- police brutality in Tunisia, income inequality in the U.S., college tuition in Quebec -  spill over into some of the same themes we see globally. A government, possessing economic and military authority, makes a move that finally angers people enough to send them into the streets. In Iran, it was doubts over election returns. In Tunisia, it was a single humiliated street cart vendor committing suicide. At Occupy Wall Street it was a non-event -- the deafening silence from President Obama and Attorney General Holder, finding insufficient evidence in trillions of dollars of crooked mortgages and derivatives flim-flam to put a single Ponzi banker in front of a grand jury. The people leave the confines of their couches to meet each other in the street and make their presence seen, heard, and felt. The authorities react harshly, and then it becomes about something bigger: Governments these days seem readier to punish the poor and powerless, reserving their tolerance for the elements of society that do their protesting through lobbying and campaign finance. Holding the powerful to account for wrongdoing, especially of the economic variety, is not easy -- but when the young, poor, or marginalized are out in numbers, questioning the social contract, then the government finds its authority. That's not to say that Quebec's Bill 78 is analogous to the Arab Spring crackdowns -- the protesters weren't seeking the downfall of the government, after all, nor was the government trying to quell all dissent so much as to clear the streets in time for tourist season. But it's telling that, when the Quebec authorities went to act, they decided that the problem was that protesters had too many rights.

In the broadest terms, these sorts of movements and state reactions appear to be working in similar ways nearly everywhere, whether in the desperate urban poverty of Cairo or the cosmopolitan prosperity of Montreal. As the global economic slowdown squeezes governments and elites and regular non-elite people alike, the world is entering more fully into the politics of less, where deals are rewritten and expectations lowered. It's the young who seem first and loudest, ready to ask whether this is the only future possible. Institutions offer the same old answers in reply. And because of that, Quebec is certainly not the last place we should expect this pattern. If this is really a Quebec Spring, then it may be spring in a lot of places for a long time to come.

Quebec's students provide a lesson in protest politics

Sustained action over tuition fees helped defeat Quebec's Liberal government by appealing to a wide movement for change

• • Richard Seymour
  • guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 September 2012 16.33 BST

While the NUS is converting itself into a tame lobbying organisation, Quebec students have a tradition of grassroots organising, and four relatively democratic federal organisations that rank and file student bodies can affiliate with. Photograph: Rogerio Barbosa/AFP/Getty Images

 

So this is how it's done. Students in Quebec, in rebellion against their government over tuition fees, have scored an amazing victory in the province's general elections.

The Liberal government led by Jean Charest, which ran on a law-and-order platform against the students, has been defeated. Its plans to implement an 82% tuition fee increase are shredded for now, and the harsh emergency legislation it passed to quell the upsurge is history. Charest is resigning from politics. Two members of the leftist group, Québec Solidaire, have been elected, and the party gained more than 6% of the popular vote.

For those used to student movements that erupt suddenly only to deflate within a few weeks or months, this defies belief. How, then, was such an effective action actually sustained, in defiance of police crackdowns and emergency legislation?

Students in Quebec inhabit militant traditions inherited from the "quiet revolution" of the 1960s, when the province's francophone majority pushed for full access to higher education as part of a series of sweeping reforms. This inaugurated a student movement, whose signature was the mass student strike. Each time a government attempted to drive up tuition fees, the students walked out – and most of the time, they won. As a result, there is a thriving democratic culture among Quebec's students. While the NUS is converting itself into a tame lobbying organisation, Quebec students have a tradition of grassroots organising, and four relatively democratic federal organisations that rank-and-file student bodies can affiliate with.

The radical spearhead of the movement is the Coalition Large de l'Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante, or Classe. Emerging from a decade of leftwing student unionism, Classe was explicitly formed in December 2011 to build a students' strike to stop the fees rise. Going further than most student bodies, it demanded the cancellation of all tuition fees, to be paid for by a tax on banks. This stance was very popular, and the group eventually incorporated 65 local affiliates and 100,000 members comprising the most politicised and activist core of the province's 400,000 strong student body.

General assemblies of students were held across Quebec, to discuss and implement a strike. This meant boycotting and picketing classes, and at their height the strikes achieved the support of 300,000 students. The structures of direct democracy built on campuses sustained the momentum behind the strikes, enabling students to meet, discuss and make decisions on a regular basis. Each month, the movement called a mass mobilisation, with tens of thousands of students gathering in the Place du Canada in Montreal. But there was also a heated debate over the strategy and goals of the movement. It wasn't enough to keep the momentum going. In addition to the strikes, radical students sought to disrupt the smooth functioning of the economy and the government, carrying out blockades and occupations of banks and government buildings.

But students also reached out to the labour movement. Theirs was a class issue, they insisted, and Classe called for a "social strike" of both students and workers. They consciously sought alliances with Rio Tinto workers locked out of their jobs, public sector workers facing cuts, campaigns against increased fees for healthcare, and local resistance to the government's attempts to turn over northern resources to the mining industry. Neighbourhood protests became a regular occurrence. A number of union federations passed motions for strike action, though as yet the resistance from union leaders is too strong, and the labour militants too weak, to make it happen.

Importantly, the student leadership refused to be divided. When the government excluded Classe from negotiations, in the hope of engaging the more moderate student federations in a compromise, the latter walked out.

The government's biggest mistake was passing Bill 78, imposing severe restrictions on the right of students to protest. Though supported by the Quebec Council of Employers, the bill was otherwise reviled. Rather than breaking the students, the repression produced a much wider movement. Up to half a million people marched in clear defiance of the law. Those returning home from law-breaking protests were greeted by families banging pots and pans in their support, from their windows and in the streets. Some of the country's largest trade unions joined in the protest. To get a sense of how improbable this is, compare it with our student protests beginning in November 2010, where the NUS and UCU leaderships organised timid demonstrations separate from the main protests.

The Liberals' defeat can be traced to that defiance. But the Parti Québécois, which has just won, is not an ally of the movement. The new government will probably seek to negotiate a smaller fees increase with the agreement of the less militant student bodies. At any rate, the movement has long been about more than fees. Classe intends to keep the pressure on, with new assemblies and protests, aiming to build the widest possible movement to challenge neoliberalism. British students should take the hint.

Politics and Society

One thing I forgot to mention in the first class is that there are three topics for which there are set materials. The 3BA coordinator has chosen articles and prepared some tasks to be done with Politics and Society, Media and Journalism, and Arts and Culture. All the 3BA classes will be doing the same thing for part of these topics. Therefore as we're starting with Politics and Society, we get to start by taking a look at the student protests and riots that took place in the UK in 2010/11.

Here are the links for the first set of articles and video for you to read and watch about the protests:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/11/student-protests-demonstration-editorial?intcmp=239

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332811/TUITION-FEES-PROTEST-Students-streets-girls-leading-charge.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmudJafnQh0

This is the second set about the riots:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/09/sentencing-riots-young-offender-institutions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/facebook-riot-calls-men-jailed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-14601228

I know it seems like a lot, but the articles aren't too long and the Daily Mail is, as usual, 90% pictures for the near-illiterate. I've copied and pasted the articles and embeded the video below if you're too lazy to click on them all. See you Thursday, Shane.

Student protests: Demonstration effect

Government plans to triple tuition fees and slash government teaching grants in higher education prompted a huge turnout

Fact one: up to 50,000 students and lecturers marched through the streets of London in yesterday's protest against government plans to triple tuition fees and slash government teaching grants in higher education. Fact two: a few hundred protesters – at most – broke away and attacked the building that houses Conservative party HQ, did some damage, caused some injuries, generated some striking images, and eventually got involved in a stand-off with police, who were taken by surprise. Fact three: the two protests, the larger peaceful one and the smaller violent one, will inescapably have become tangled in the reporting and public perception of yesterday's events. Fact four: tangled or not, these were politically significant events for Britain and should be taken seriously.
They should be taken seriously because, in spite of a reprehensible violent sideshow, this was a large protest with significant public support and the capacity to have a palpable impact on mainstream politics. You do not have to believe that the country's students and lecturers are the most downtrodden victims of the coalition's spending cuts – there may be better candidates for that accolade in Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reform announcements today – to recognise that they may be a lightning rod for wider public unease with the government's public spending strategy. But the fact that students and lecturers are so concentrated in particular parliamentary constituencies, plus the fact that the Liberal Democrats hold many of these seats, gives the higher education protesters a particular and unusual purchase. Most of what happened yesterday is likely to weaken the resolve of Lib Dem MPs to support the tuition fee plans when the vote comes.
Yesterday may — but only may — also mark a bigger tipping point. Public opinion remains in flux about the cuts. The popular belief that the deficit must be tackled coexists with anxiety that the cuts are too deep and rapid. That tension has not yet been resolved one way or the other. Yet the size of yesterday's protests is likely to encourage opponents of other parts of George Osborne's package to match the students' effort. That does not mean that every protest will command equal public support, or deserve to do so. Public support for strikes is selective and support for violence non-existent. In the end, the mood may harden against the protests. But the public is capable of making a distinction between a well-supported good cause and a small number of provocateurs. Intelligently conducted, the protests retain lots of potential to command the wider support in the political centre that they need to succeed and thus to cause headaches, and perhaps even second thoughts, for anxious ministers.

Rage of the girl rioters: Britain's students take to the streets again - and this time women are leading the charge

By Rebecca Camber, Nick Fagge, Katherine Faulkner, Nick Mcdermott and Laura Caroe
UPDATED: 12:44 GMT, 25 November 2010

• 25,000 go on mass nationwide rampage over tuition fees
• Teenage pupils protest alongside university pupils
• Police face fresh questions about handling of riot

Rioting girls became the disturbing new face of violent protest yesterday.

They threatened to overturn a police riot squad van as they smashed windows, looted riot shields, uniforms and helmets and daubed the sides with graffiti.
Police fled the van as the young demonstrators against university tuition fees yelled obscenities only yards from Downing Street.

A second wave of truanting schoolgirls who were there for the excitement rather than to cause mayhem then swarmed around the van and posed for photographs taken on friends’ cameras and iPhones.

The disgraceful scenes, which were part of internet-coordinated protests around the country, came despite claims that Metropolitan Police officers were fully prepared this time after violent clashes in Millbank a fortnight ago caused millions of pounds worth of damage.

Scotland Yard deployed more than 1,500 officers – seven times the number on November 10 – to control hordes of students smashing windows of government buildings and scrawling graffiti on the walls.

At least 29 protesters were arrested for theft, violent disorder and criminal damage after a female police officer suffered a broken hand and another officer had to be dragged out from a cordon with leg injuries when violence flared.

Paramedics treated 11 people and nine were taken to hospital.

Last night some of the student protesters claimed that the violence was directed by truanting schoolchildren.
Lydia Wright, 22, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, said: ‘It’s all gone terribly wrong. It started off as two small groups from my university and UCL.
‘As soon as we got down to Whitehall, we were joined by some other people, but I think it was mostly the schoolkids who were creating the trouble.
‘They weren’t really supporting the cause. Quite a few of them were just wanting to cause a disturbance.’

Elsewhere, thousands joined protest marches in Manchester, Liverpool and Brighton as pupils walked out of school in Winchester, Cambridge and Leeds.
Students occupied buildings in Oxford, Birmingham, Cambridge, Plymouth and Bristol, where
fireworks were hurled at police horses.
Two protesters were arrested in Cambridge for obstruction, one in Liverpool for egg throwing and four in Manchester for public order offences and obstruction.

There were also violent clashes with police in Brighton as students tried to storm council and university buildings in the city centre.
But the most disturbing scenes were in London where a largely peaceful demonstration descended into violence. The trigger was a police riot van that had trailed protesters into Whitehall – and stopped between the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street.
Police said the van had been following protesters to gather intelligence about where they were heading, but the vehicle was quickly overwhelmed.

RIOT NETWORK

The nationwide demonstrations were organised using online social networks, with more than 26,000 students signing up to a Facebook page calling for a co-ordinated ‘walk-out’.
Students and schoolchildren, many with iPhones or BlackBerries enabling internet access on the move, posted constant updates on Twitter informing each other of direct action and police movements.
Anger was directed against the police for containing a large number of students in Whitehall using the controversial ‘kettling’ technique.
One wrote: ‘Protesters are calling 999 and reporting that they are being held against their will in Whitehall.’
And a furious parent tweeted: ‘You. Yes you lot. You’re illegally detaining our kids. Let them go NOW. And don’t you dare raise a hand to them.’

Within hours, the van was left to be stripped by masked protesters who even attempted to start the engine, turning on blue lights and sirens before it was reclaimed hours later.

Windows were smashed in the Treasury and fires lit.
Unemployed Louise Malone, 25, from Camden, North London, who took the wheel of the police van, told the Mail she broke in ‘because I felt like it’.

She added: ‘I’m supporting the students. There needs to be free education for all.’
Among the protesters was 17-year-old Ali Choan, from Enfield, North London, who was seen throwing at least two missiles at police lines.
He told the Mail: ‘I’m here because the government have stopped my EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance) – that’s money they give me to go to college.’

Riot police responded with baton charges, pushing back protesters ten feet at a time as they threw shoes and stones at officers.
As tensions ran high, police were forced to ‘kettle’ 5,000 protesters for hours just a short distance from the Houses of Parliament.
Extra reserves of riot police and vans hemmed in the protesters following a surge during which the crowd hurled wooden stakes, bottles and rocks.

 

CLEGG REGRETS

As the student protests erupted, Nick Clegg said he ‘massively regrets’ being unable to deliver on his pledge to abolish tuition fees.
But the Lib Dem leader claimed the coalition’s proposals were fairer than the graduate tax his party used to support.
Liberal Democrats have become a focus for student anger over tuition fees, so much so that the Deputy Prime Minister was told this week not to cycle into work over fears for his safety. On Tuesday, protesters burned an effigy of him.
Yesterday Mr Clegg pleaded with protesters to look at the details of the Government’s proposals, which he insisted were fairer than either the existing regime or the graduate tax backed by the National Union of Students.

As darkness fell and temperatures dipped, bonfires were lit using the stolen riot shields and uniforms as students and schoolchildren danced in the streets to sound systems.
Some schoolchildren were seen ripping pages from their schoolbooks to burn while others did their homework, complaining that they were cold, tired and hungry.
At least one demonstrator inside the cordon needed hospital treatment after she was hit on the head by a flying glass bottle.
Beth Deacon, 16, from Billericay, Essex, was carried out of the cordon by police and given urgent medical attention. Police defended the tactic of containment which proved so controversial during the G20 protests.
Chief Inspector Jane Connors of the Metropolitan Police said: ‘It’s a valid tactic. Police officers came under attack and we needed to make sure the violence didn’t spread out across the London streets.
‘In these circumstances containment was necessary to ensure that the protest was peacefully managed. We made sure that we had a flexible plan with sufficient reserves and resources to deal with the different issues.’

She added: ‘It would have been disproportionate of us to put in place a large police presence and use force to recover the van.’
Shortly before the violence erupted police had been confidently predicting they had the resources ‘to ensure that we don’t have the same activity that we had last time.’

The girl who stood up to the mob

A teenage girl risked life and limb to confront protesters intent on smashing up a police van.
Zoe Williams, 19, fearlessly put herself between the angry mob and the abandoned vehicle in Whitehall.
Despite her efforts, rioters leapt on to the roof of the van before smashing its windows, ransacking it for ‘trophies’, ripping off wing mirrors and daubing it with graffiti. One balaclava-wearing thug urinated on the front wheel.

Zoe shouted: ‘It’s not going to help our cause’ and ‘you don’t need to do this’ before asking them to ‘calm down’ as they hurled abuse at her.
The teenager, a first-year History of Art student at the Courtauld Institute of Art, previously attended the £12,500-a-year Colfe’s School in south-east London where she left with four A grades at A-level.
Last night she said she was ‘just trying to calm everything down’.
‘I was frustrated and disappointed that people were smashing things again. I am angry about cuts as well but smashing things is not going to help.

Stop: Protester Zoe demands demonstrators do not overturn the police van

‘Some of them listened to what I was saying but some of them were just plain rude and started shouting abuse. It was quite daunting.
‘Some of them were just sixth-form or school students coming down for a free day off. I didn’t want the protest to be labelled as a load of student yobs again.’
Observers praised her intervention, with one Twitter user saying: ‘Zoe Williams is a modern day hero among the student scum. Let’s see more of her and listen to what sense she has to say!’ Another posting read: ‘Zoe Williams, proper student protest role model.’

London Riot: Tory HQ smashed by British students 

Riots:

Have sentencers 'got it right' on the riots?

Ken Clarke agrees with the tough sentencing approach, yet four out of five emerging from young offender institutions reoffend

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• • Eric Allison
  • guardian.co.uk, Friday 9 September 2011 18.25 BST
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An inmate looks out of the window of the young offender institution in Norwich. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

What lies behind the rioting sentencing?

Of all the statistics emerging from the rush to lock up as many people involved in the recent riots as possible, by far the most depressing is the increase in the jailing of juveniles. Depending on which figure you believe, 170, say the Youth Justice Board (YJB) or 125, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) the fact remains that scores of children are now behind bars as a result of getting caught up in the August mayhem. Even more depressing was the Guardian's revelation that two thirds of those incarcerated had no previous connection with the criminal justice system, no "form", to use the jargon they will now become acquainted with.

A failing system

When the justice minister, Ken Clarke, said the other day that the failing penal system was partly responsible for the rioting, he was partly right. The majority of all those convicted, thus far, do have form, have been through the system. All the more absurd, then, that Clarke thought the sentencers had "got it right" in putting them back into the system that failed them previously. And nowhere does the penal system fail more spectacularly than in the young offender institutions (YOIs), where four out of five of those emerging from custody go on to reoffend (and even those obscene statistics do not tell the full tale: those 80% are the ones who get caught, something most criminals go out of their way to avoid). So the solution to this failing system – which costs, at a minimum, three times the price of sending a child to Eton – is to pack more young miscreants into it.

What will happen to those who have been convicted?

It is to be hoped the kids who are in the slammer for the first time will learn fast, for they will need to. Young offender jails are jungles, where only the strongest and sharpest survive. The newcomers will be pounced on by the old brigade; their clothes and other belongings will be subject to "taxing" by the top dogs. John Drew, from the YJB, says establishments will treat these newcomers as vulnerable prisoners (VPs). That, in itself, is fraught with danger; many prisoners automatically class VPs as "nonces" – sex-offenders – who deserve special treatment. No use complaining you were only a rioter when you have been "sugared up" (scalded with boiling sweetened water).
Jailed street gang members carry their allegiances to custody and the strongest "crew" usually rules the roost. Newcomers with no connections will be treated as pariahs, irrespective of their offences. They will be last in the queue for food, showers and, importantly, the use of landing telephones to call friends and relatives, heightening their sense of isolation. Because of overcrowding, many of those sentenced in London will be sent to institutions, maybe hundreds of miles from home. Their accents alone will mark them out as different from local crews, further risking their safety. And they should not look to prison staff for help; complaining to a screw ranks as a serious breach of jailhouse ethics and will not be tolerated.
I pity these kids and despair at the kneejerk reaction from those in authority who should – and surely must – know the folly of their purely punitive response to a situation created by a multitude of factors. Above all, it is a senseless retort: would you cram more patients into a hospital that failed to cure four out of five of those it treated?

Facebook riot calls earn men four-year jail terms amid sentencing outcry

Sentences handed out in Chester as lawyers and civil rights groups express alarm about 'disproportionate' punishment.

Jordan Blackshaw, left, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, both pleaded guilty to using Facebook in attempts to fuel riots in Cheshire. They have been jailed for four years

Two men who posted messages on Facebook inciting other people to riot in their home towns have both been sentenced to four years in prison by a judge at Chester crown court.
Jordan Blackshaw, 20, set up an "event" called Smash Down in Northwich Town for the night of 8 August on the social networking site but no one apart from the police, who were monitoring the page, turned up at the pre-arranged meeting point outside a McDonalds restaurant. Blackshaw was promptly arrested.
Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, of Latchford, Warrington, used his Facebook account in the early hours of 9 August to design a web page entitled The Warrington Riots. The court was told it caused a wave of panic in the town. When he woke up the following morning with a hangover, he removed the page and apologised, saying it had been a joke. His message was distributed to 400 Facebook contacts, but no rioting broke out as a result.
Sentencing Blackshaw to four years in a young offenders institution, Judge Elgan Edwards QC said he had committed an "evil act". He said: "This happened at a time when collective insanity gripped the nation. Your conduct was quite disgraceful and the title of the message you posted on Facebook chills the blood.
"You sought to take advantage of crime elsewhere and transpose it to the peaceful streets of Northwich. The idea revolted many right thinking members of society. No one actually turned up due to the prompt and efficient actions of police in using modern policing."
Sutcliffe-Keenan, the judge said, "caused a very real panic" and "put a very considerable strain on police resources in Warrington". He praised Cheshire police for their "modern and clever policy" of infiltrating the website.
The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement that the men's posts on Facebook "caused significant panic and revulsion in local communities as rumours of anticipated violence spread".
It added: "We were able to serve upon the defence in both cases sufficient case material that led to early guilty pleas and we were able to present the facts in both cases in a fair but robust manner.
"While the judge heard the two defendants were previously of good character, they admitted committing very serious offences that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years. The consequence of their actions could have led to more disorder and this was taken into account."
The heavy sentences came as defence lawyers and civil rights groups have criticised the "disproportionate" sentences imposed on some convicted rioters as the latest official figures show nearly 1,300 suspects have been brought before the courts.
The revelation that magistrates were advised by justices' clerks to disregard normal sentencing guidelines when dealing with riot-related cases alarmed a number of lawyers who warn it will trigger a spate of appeals.
Also on Tuesday, a looter was warned he could be jailed for helping himself to an ice-cream cone during disturbances.
Anderson Fernandes, 22, appeared before magistrates in Manchester charged with burglary after he took two scoops of coffee ice-cream and a cone from Patisserie Valerie in the city centre. He gave the cone away because he didn't like the flavour.
Fernandes admitted burglary in relation to the ice-cream and an unconnected charge of handling stolen goods after a vacuum cleaner was recovered from his home. District judge Jonathan Taaffe said: "I have a public duty to deal swiftly and harshly with matters of this nature." Fernandes will be sentenced next week.
In sentencing four other convicted Manchester rioters, a crown court judge, Andrew Gilbert QC, made clear why he was disregarding sentencing guidelines when he said "the offences of the night of 9 August ... takes them completely outside the usual context of criminality".
He added: "The principal purpose is that the courts should show that outbursts of criminal behaviour like this will be and must be met with sentences longer than they would be if the offences had been committed in isolation. For those reasons, I consider that the sentencing guidelines for specific offences are of much less weight in the context of the current case, and can properly be departed from."
The Ministry of Justice's latest estimate, at midday on Tuesday, shows the courts have dealt with 1,277 alleged offenders of whom more than 700 have been remanded in custody. Two-thirds of the cases were in London.
By midday on Monday, 115 people had been convicted; more than three-quarters of those were adults. About 21% of those appearing before the courts have been juveniles. The proportion of alleged youth offenders was higher in Nottingham, Birmingham and Manchester. An MoJ spokesperson said: "Everyone involved with the courts and prison service has put in a huge effort to make that possible and that work will continue."
But doubts are now being expressed about the fairness of some sentences. For example, one student has been jailed for six months for stealing a bottle of water from a supermarket.
Sally Ireland, policy director of the law reform organisation Justice, said: "The circumstances of public disorder should be treated as an aggravating factor and one would expect that to push up sentences by a degree, but not by as far as some of the cases we have seen.
"Some instances are completely out of all proportion. There will be a flurry of appeals although, by the time they have been heard, those sentences may already have been served.
" There's a question about this advice [from justices' clerks] and whether it should have been issued at all. We would expect them to be giving advice [to magistrates] in individual cases rather than following a general directive."
Rakesh Bhasin, a solicitor partner at the law firm Steel & Shamash, which represents some of those charged following the riots, said some reported sentences seemed to be "disproportionate".
Paul Mendelle QC, a former chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: "The idea that the rulebook goes out the window strikes me as inherently unjust. It sets all manner of alarm bells ringing. Guidelines are not tramlines. There are guidelines and they take account of aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
"There have been rulings following the Bradford riots and Israeli embassy demonstrations that said which sort of guidelines should be followed. I don't see why [magistrates] should be told to disregard these."
The judiciary and the MoJ have denied that they were involved in circulating the advice to justices' clerk last week.

West Midlands police release new Birmingham riot images

Police footage shows rioting and looting in Birmingham

New CCTV of the riots in Birmingham shows police officers being shot at, the West Midlands force has said.

The footage, which has been released by the police to encourage members of the public to come forward, shows a group in the Newtown area late on 9 August.
The group, all masked and all wearing black clothing, caused extensive damage at the Bartons Arms pub.
Shots were also fired at the police helicopter and petrol bombs thrown at a marked police car, the force said.

Officers have started an attempted murder and arson investigation, and appealed for anyone with information about the attacks to contact them.

A police spokesman said a small amount of money was stolen from the pub, but the use of alcohol and petrol led police to believe that the intention was to start a fire.
Chief Constable Chris Sims said: "Releasing footage that is so disturbing in nature is an unusual step for us as a force, however, the potential for serious harm, or worse, in this incident has led us to this decision.
"Eleven shots were fired at unarmed officers to enable disorder to continue, whilst petrol bombs were also thrown at officers who initially attended the scene.
"This footage shows seemingly co-ordinated criminal behaviour with no regard for people's lives, whether it be through the setting of a fire, shooting at unarmed officers or shooting at the police helicopter.
"This investigation is being treated as attempted murder and arson, and I am only thankful that this is not a murder inquiry.
"This was not only police officers' lives that were put at risk, but also members of the public who may have been passing by.
"To date the public reaction to this operation has been overwhelming and we thank people for their continued support."