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PP 137
Expertise versus Authenticity: Forms of Testimony in Protest
J. Birks
1
1
University of Nottingham, Culture- Film and Media, Nottingham, United Kingdom
This paper aims to examine the dislocation between publics and politics in the context of the accelerating complexity of societies, and especially of econ‑
omies dependent on financial mechanisms so complex that no single expert understands the whole industry. It examines anti-austerity protest in the UK,
with a focus on a loose network called UK Uncut. Participative and deliberative models of democracy that attribute a strong role to publics have always
struggled with the vexed question of expertise, but this has become increasingly problematic as societies have become vastly more complex (Turner 2003).
Habermas' (1996) public sphere demands expertise to underpin rational deliberation, and he therefore limits the contribution of ordinary people to an 'an‑
tenna' role of detecting problems experienced in the lifeworld and bringing them to public attention. This can be a powerful form of testimony, with
the authenticity and prestige of the 'victim-witness' (Peters 2011), but it is not always effective, especially in terms of a translation into publicly acceptable
arguments, and the response to campaigns against the 'bedroom tax' cuts to housing benefit demonstrate that it can be seen as inappropriately emotional.
Furthermore, if the role of the public is only to highlight problems, public protest will be subject to the criticism of not offering solutions, as was frequently
levelled at the Occupy movement. Protesters have therefore sought to draw on expertise from more formally organised civil society, to substantiate their
argument that public spending cuts are not necessary, as the government has claimed, but part of a neoliberal ideological project to roll back the state.They
have done so by highlighting corporate tax avoidance as an alternative source of funding to pay down the deficit. However, tax avoidance is based on such
complex financial instruments that Tesco paid accountants £354,000 to explain its own tax arrangements to the company in preparation for a libel action
against The Guardian newspaper for misunderstanding them. The paper will draw on a thematic analysis of over 2000 newspaper articles, and a documen‑
tary analysis of civil society and government reports, to examine the role of UK Uncut in amplifying the findings of experts such as Richard Murphy of Tax
Research UK. It will argue that this was a relatively successful strategy, that largely avoided the accusation of naivety. However, the protesters – veterans
of environmental protests such as Climate Camp – were also very conscious of the need to establish their personal authenticity as ‘ordinary taxpayers’ to
avoid being othered as 'professional protesters'. The paper will finally suggest that the focus on credibility on tax avoidance distracted from the central
problem of austerity.