'Raising Awareness'. Easier than doing something about it?

Some time ago a so called 'celebrity' died of cervical cancer and , though a tragedy for her and her family, perhaps the most distubing comment to be found in the endless tabloid guff surrounding her death was the idea that this event had 'raised awareness' of cervical cancer.



The implication being that had this unfortunate creation of the gutter press and lowest common denominator television not suffered this awful fate, cervical cancer would be something that the women of the UK would ignorant off. The second implication of this was that this 'raised awareness' signalled a rise in understanding of the disease.



A student of mine tested the theory that raised awareness of the term 'cervical cancer' would in no way automatically indicate any more knowledge. As part of a marked and examined research project this particular student proved her theory to be correct and despite a very high percentage of those who answered her questionaires knowing the phrase the level of understanding of causes, treatments and preventions were shockingly low. Indeed, an ignorance of the wherabouts of the cervix was sadly also apparent.



It appears that 'raising awareness' of issues has replaced the idea of actually doing something about those issues. In fact awareness raising campaigns now appear to be self-serving endeavours that allow pop stars, celebrities, wannabes their chance in the sun, givers of money their feel good dosage and the charities themselves a chance to raise money without any real sense of what is to be done with that money.



This is in no way an attack on charity giving; though I loath everything about any televised charity event that has the word relief in it or which stars a bear with a bandana, it is clear that the money actually is destined for real projects. However, the attendant celebrity cricket and/or football tours do seem to be nothing more than exercises in the self serving awareness raising mentioned above.



Whenever I see the latest rubber band on someones wrist I cringe at the thought that the purchaser of said band is under the illusion that poverty will be made history, that sexually active teens will protect themselves with condoms, that racism will become a thing of the past and that child abuse will stop because people have suddenly become 'aware' of those issues.



History tells us that the inequities of the past were changed, not just because of awareness, but because of the addition of direct action. A black youth in Brixton in the 70s and 80s didn't need an awareness campaign to know that the SUS laws used by the police were motivated by racism. An Asian getting seven bells kicked out of him by National Front supporters needed no awareness training to know he was a victim of racism, a low income family faced with every adult having to find £60 or £70 a month to pay the poll tax neededed no one to tell them they were victims of a grossly unfair tax and an unemployed person is well aware of his/her situation.



The reaction to all of the above when I was growing up was the formation of organisations such as the Anti-Nazi League, The Anti-Poll Tax Campaign and The Right to Work. As with today's wrist band and ribbon wearing fashion these groups had their campaign badges and slogans that have become iconic in their own right. However, in addition to posters, badges and leaflets there was a sense of doing something.



The National Front was destroyed by the Anti-Nazi League because as Mark Steel says in his excellent book 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' the average NF supporter became disillusoned by the idea that he/she was likely to face a crowd just as willing to put the boot in whenever they tried to march down Southall or Lewisham. The poll tax was finally ended after the biggest riot London had seen since the peasants' revolt and, in an echo of the Jarrow Crusade, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of towns and cities in the UK to take part in the 'Right to Work' marches.



In addition there was the Rock Against Racism concerts, organised non-payment of the poll tax and, as a the ultimate expression of people power, the Brixton, Southall, Handsworth and Toxteth riots.



Ask yourself, how did women gain the vote, how did working class men gain the vote, how did the people of Poland and Czechoslovakia rid themselves of the Soviet yoke? They did it by forming and actively taking part in organisations; the Suffragettes, the Chartists, Solidarity and Charter 88 respectively.



Every act of defiance, small or big, verbal, intellectual or physical rang the death knell for the discriminations and attack on libery that the members and supporters of these movements were suffering.



I am not suggesting a call to arms or a mass chaining to railings and am certainly not implying that it's time for Molotov cocktails. We in the UK are in the happy position of living in a democracy and coming up on May the 6th is one of the ways in which we as citizens can express our support or or disquiet of those who govern us. To not use one's vote is a betrayal of those men and women who risked and lost life or liberty in order for all of us to put an X in a box. Or, if you prefer,to take the option of spoiling your ballot paper.



However, a 4 or 5 yearly trip to a church hall or local primary school is not enough. There are a myriad of organisations that one can join to help make this country and the world a fairer place; Trades Unions, Unite Against Fascism (Anti-Nazi League light?) and Fathers for Justice to name but three.



The correlation to all of the above is that they all use direct action to change things for ordinairy people and have historical precedences to call upon; Cable Street, the economic boycott of South Africa by the Anti- Apartheid Movement, the boycott of buses on Montgomery, Alabama by Martin Luther King's SNCC, education and food programmes by Black Consciousness, workers rights by the Indian Workers Association all changed things by doing as well as voting and debating.



Even if the Stop the War Coalition didn't stop the invasion of Iraq, even if the Coal Not Dole campaign faileed to stop the butchering of the coal communities in Britain and even if CND failed to rid us of unusable and expensive nukes, being part of those groups and campaigns and others like them mean two things; the powers that be can't just do things without anyone noticing, questioning and examining and ordinary people can empower themselves in a very real way by taking part.

Now, that's how you raise awareness, by making the buggers listen.