Features
Did you hear the one about the comedian who tried to change the world? His name is Mark Thomas and as Helen Taylor discovers, his enthusiasm for collective action is as infectious and entertaining as his comedy
Creative dissenter
Mark Thomas takes his comedy seriously, as anyone who’s seen his show on Channel 4 will know. Funny he is. Frivolous he is not. He may share other comedians’ love of the anarchic gesture, but there is true method in his madness.
Explaining how he chooses the themes for his series which combines stand-up comedy with investigative journalism he talks of personal conviction not posturing. “It’s not a matter of putting a message in a candy coating of comedy,” he says. “I choose a topic intrinsically linked to what motivates me.”
These are two words that Thomas uses again and again “intrinsically linked”. Whether it’s comedy and politics, human rights and the environment, or trains and trade unions, he sees an endless chain of connections.
Take the environmental issues investigated by the latest series of 
The Mark Thomas Product. Just how did a class warrior like Thomas get into fluffy green politics? “I’ve always been concerned with human rights and class politics, but for me human rights have always gone along with the environment,” he explains.
A clear example is his involvement in the Ilisu dam campaign. This is the issue that has had “the greatest impact” on him out of all his projects. The Ilisu dam project proposes the construction of a dam in south-east Turkey involving the forced clearance of 78,000 people from villages inhabited by Turkey’s persecuted minority Kurdish population.
A not insignificant side effect of the dam will be the flooding of the 10,000-year-old town of Hasankeyf, as well as untold ecological consequences.
Thomas’s involvement in the campaign started with an investigation into the UK government’s Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD), way back in his show’s first series. He had found out that British construction company Balfour Beatty had asked the ECGD for £200 million of insurance for their role in the Ilisu dam project.
Thomas joined with the Kurdish Human Rights project, Friends of the Earth and others to protest against the building of the dam and a powerful political coalition was built. All manner of activists, from archaeologists to anarchists, worked side-by-side, forcing Balfour Beatty to withdraw from the project last year.
“The partnership we built up was really exciting,” he enthuses. Thomas explains that these coalitions can be built whenever any group of people feel concern over something. They can succeed against anything. “It’s about what affects your community. It’s as much about local incinerators as it is about mercury tips in the Amazon,” he adds.
Thomas believes those on the ‘left’, trade unionists, greens and anarchists should work together and concentrate on the things they agree on. Whatever differences we may have, together we can bring about change. “If you represent any form of progressive politics the [common thread is] that we all recognise human beings are of value,” he states simply.
Thomas believes trade unions could go a lot further in their campaigning. He acknowledges that 90% of a union’s work should revolve around pay bargaining and health and safety, but thinks that there is room for creativity in the other 10%.
“There’s an old union mentality that demos are about walking up and down with your placards,” he says. “But it’s not always what we say that counts, it’s what we do.”
To illustrate the point he tells of a friend who was on a trade union demo the day green protestors or ‘guerrilla gardeners’ took over Trafalgar Square and started planting flowers on the pavement. The marchers ground to a halt and were told by police that “a load of anarchists” had taken over the square. The trade unionists were furious, saying they had “booked” it weeks ago.
Thomas believes they should have seen this as an opportunity, but his friend just looked on enviously at the pleasure the others were taking in their protest. “It’s about creative dissent if you like,” he explains.
Thomas loves talking about the things his friends get involved in. Dockers, miners, fellow campaigners, he refers to them with genuine warmth and respect.
The parents of Simon Jones are a case in point. Jones, the subject of another episode of the TV series, was a student working at Shoreham docks, west Sussex when he was crushed to death by a crane, leading his family to campaign for corporate killing to be made a crime.
“They’re lovely people,” says Thomas, referring to Chris and Anne Jones, growing angry when he recalls Channel 4’s refusal to film their protest about corporate killing the day parliament was recalled for the Queen Mother’s death. No amount of political debate could have saved the life of a woman of 101 who had already died peacefully, according to Thomas, but it could save the hundreds of workers who die each year.
It was an argument that cost Thomas his relationship with the TV station and brought about the end of the Mark Thomas Product.
“People think TV is shallow and stupid and driven by money,” he says. “Well it is, and more than you could imagine.”
Not one to be discouraged, he is already planning his next move: the People’s Audit. He wants to get UNISON members involved. Taking advantage of a law under which anyone can inspect their local council’s accounts for two weeks of the year, he wants people to exercise their right to know, access the information that is available to them and see, for example, who won contracts in their area, for what and why.
This is an example of his desire to shift power to ordinary people and away from what he describes as “a commissioner class” in organised politics who have discouraged people from dissent.
“It’s lovely to create that element of possibility,” he chuckles, clearly enjoying the challenge.
Contact the article's author: Helen Taylor
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