On Saturday 13 March a vigil held at Clapham Common in London in remembrance of Sarah Everard, a woman kidnapped and murdered allegedly by a serving police officer, was violently attacked by Met police. The brutal police response sparked a protest movement that exploded on the streets, focused on opposing both violence against women and the proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
On 10 March Reclaim These Streets (RtS), set up in the wake of the murder, announced the vigil on the Common, near where Everard was last seen. The event was ‘to reclaim these streets and our public spaces’ in remembrance of Everard and in opposition to police brutality and gender-based violence. The next day, RtS shared a statement announcing they had sought permission from Lambeth council and the police. The police had informed RtS the planned event was unlawful under coronavirus legislation and RtS would be liable to pay tens of thousands of pounds in fines. They challenged this decision in the High Court using the Human Rights Act.
The court made it clear there was no ‘blanket ban’ on protests; RtS continued trying to negotiate with the police and in the end backed down. Not only did they cancel their organisation of the vigil but encouraged others not to gather at Clapham Common at all, and instead participate in an online event before shining a light on their doorsteps. The streets cannot be reclaimed online or on a doorstep.
In response to the RtS capitulation, the feminist group Sisters Uncut tweeted ‘We are angry. We will not be controlled. We will not be silenced. See you at Clapham at 6.’ Thousands of people, mostly young women, turned up accordingly with placards, flowers and candles. The RCG was among them. The crowd was chanting Assata Shakur’s ‘we have a duty to fight for our freedom, we have a duty to win, we have nothing to lose but our chains’ when the police started attacking protesters.
In photos and videos that went viral, the police can be seen aggressively manhandling women and pinning them to the ground. Some women were fined for their attendance. Groups of police officers followed and harassed women in the crowds, threatening arrest, until they left. There was widespread condemnation. The next morning Sisters Uncut announced a protest for 4pm at New Scotland Yard. The RCG joined thousands of people angrily demanding an end to state violence against women and the withdrawal of the proposed Police Bill which would give the police greater powers to shut down our right to protest and to operate using the thuggery demonstrated at Saturday’s vigil.
Protests in London on the following two days centred on opposing the draconian Bill and were attended by thousands. On 16 March, during a tightly controlled protest lasting less than one hour, Sisters Uncut gave the platform to four Labour Party MPs – Nadia Whittome, Zarah Sultana, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Aspana Begum – whose party was, until the mass protests had forced them to change their position, going to abstain from voting on the Bill. Labour leader Keir Starmer defended Police Chief Cressida Dick, saying she should not resign over the police’s actions at the vigil. Dick and Starmer have history: in 2005 Cressida Dick was the Met Police Operations Commander who gave the order which led to the shooting of an innocent Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes. In 2008, as Director of Prosecutions, Keir Starmer refused to prosecute police officers for the shooting.
At the same time, the small group of Sisters Uncut organisers controlling the mic censored any left group from speaking. The RCG, along with Socialist Appeal and the Socialist Workers Party, were refused the right to speak. The crowd were not content with Sisters Uncut’s anti-democratic and time-limited protest. They wanted more, and after being told by the organisers to disperse decided instead to spontaneously march back to Scotland Yard, before making their way to Downing Street.
The next day another protest was called to coincide with Parliament’s sitting to vote on the Bill. RCG comrades operated an open mic, made available to anybody who wanted to speak. An RCG speaker was well received when she told the crowd ‘As the coronavirus pandemic intensifies the capitalist crisis it is the poor, the working class, black people, women, young people who the ruling class will try to make pay for the economic crisis. It is us who will need to rise up and protest to protect ourselves against these attacks… We cannot rely on the Labour Party to fight for our rights – we have to fight for them ourselves!’ In the subsequent spontaneous march that took place the RCG again operated an open mic. Meanwhile, while thousands were reclaiming the streets, RtS were meeting with the Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and police chief Dick.
Events opposing the Bill and violence against women were organised by different groups around Britain. In Glasgow, after Facebook events advertising a protest were deleted, around one thousand people turned up at Kelvingrove Park anyway, including the RCG. The overwhelmingly young crowd marched and chanted before announcing this protest would take place every Friday. In Nottingham the RCG joined a vigil and set up a banner for those wanting to share their experiences. The local Labour Party Women’s Officer tried to cut the banner away but was unsuccessful in this attempt to censor our participation. Shortly afterwards the RCG operated an open mic to amplify the voices of participants. The police had kept their distance while the vigil remained silent and passive, but as soon as women started speaking out on the mic the police claimed that the socially distanced event was no longer ‘Covid safe’. Labour Party organisers then did the Nottinghamshire police’s job for them in forcing the crowd to disperse and shutting down the protest. With Labour Party activists having silenced the protest, the police were able to get their now widely circulated shot of an officer kneeling and lighting a candle for Everard. RtS were among those applauding Nottinghamshire police for this performative act. Others on the protest recognised the Labour Party’s destructive role and have been in contact to express their interest in joining the RCG.
In Bristol on 22 March peaceful protesters sitting outside a police station were provoked by riot police with batons, attack dogs and horses. The scenes that followed saw a passionate defence of the right to protest, which ended in two police vans being set on fire. It has since been revealed that the police and media lied about officers sustaining broken bones and a punctured lung. A BBC reporter was forced to delete a tweet that said the protest ‘was peaceful before police arrived.’ The Labour Party and sections of the left rushed to join the ruling class and bourgeois press in voicing their opposition to the protest. Labour Party MP and Shadow Minister Toby Perkins congratulated the Bristol police for their use of batons, while Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar complained that the anger on display in Bristol might ‘crush the tentative alliance between the left, the Labour frontbench, and grumbling Tory backbenchers.’ Two more days of protests in Bristol were viciously attacked by police. Once again, the Labour Party frontbench came out to condemn the protesters.
Reclaim These Streets, Sisters Uncut and Novara Media are cut from the same cloth – working to dissipate any real anger against the British state by channeling it through respectable means and into the Labour Party. The Labour Party has shown its complete irrelevance in relating to anything that matters to the working class or oppressed, be it poverty, racism, police brutality or women’s oppression. The Revolutionary Communist Group organises outside these confines. We are committed to building a movement on the streets, educating ourselves and organising to this end. All of us have a role to play and a responsibility to act. The RCG are active in cities across the country. Anybody who is serious about wanting to oppose the barbarity of the British capitalist state must join us.
Ria Aibhilin
Liverpool
Comrades played a central role in the Kill the Bill march, participating actively while raising the voice of other protesters in the form of an open mic. It was a protest notable for its lack of political direction – not least due to the abysmal absence of other organisations on the left. Nonetheless, the Liverpool branch acted decisively in providing an organised, coherent and highly determined response to Parliament’s vicious assault on the right to protest.
Newcastle
When Reclaim These Streets cancelled their protest after seeking and failing to receive permission from the police other local groups took on the organising. Over one thousand people turned out to defend their right to protest and speak out against violence against women. An RCG speaker highlighted British state violence against women both within Britain and all over the world before declaring: ‘we defend our rights by using them! We stand in solidarity with all the women standing up for their rights around the world – we are not simply victims, a woman’s place is in the struggle!’
London
Comrades in London participated in four days of protests demanding that the Police Bill be scrapped. After facing censorship from Sisters Uncut, the RCG brought a sound-system and operated an open mic available for everybody who wanted to speak. Comrades then took to local highstreets to engage with the public around this issue.
Birmingham
The RCG in Birmingham brought the example of the Federation of Cuban Women to the protest at Victoria Square, to show how a socialist society ran by and for the people can advance the position of women. The only alternative to capitalism is socialism.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 281 April/May 2021
