On the 3 April 2021, our comrades and supporters went to the second protest against the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts bill to take place in Birmingham. It was much bigger and far more lively than the previous one just two weeks ago. Speeches were given from a sound system outside of Council House which was open for anyone to us. A broad list of already organised activists spoke; disabled activists, feminists, environmentalists, socialists and communists – including members/supporters from the Revolutionary Communist Group. Importantly, members of the public who were relatively new to politics got up to speak on the platform, including BAME people with awful experiences of police harassment and enthusiastic young teens with an instinctive drive to fight for a better future. This open, inclusive and democratic attitude is what will allow the movement to continue to grow and meet its aims. It’s a pleasant change from the usual pre-filled roster of councillors and trade unionists who assure us that real politics happens within the Council House and not out on the streets.
As if to prove them wrong, this protest set out on an impromptu march around the city and asserted our rights to resist this attack from our imperialist state by doing just that. Energetic chants were shouted out throughout the protest, including open and proud declarations of ‘no justice, no peace, fuck the police’. Chants were kept in time by drummers and our sound system helped a variety of people on the march lead chants, speak-out and grow and open political culture.
While the protest was at Victoria Square, the police presence appeared small with just a few community support officers at the edges. West Midlands Police wanted to appear to be taking a hands off approach and make themselves seem different from the police around the country that have violently attacked protestors. However, we know that this arm of state oppression is always just that, even when pretending to be otherwise. West Midlands Police have no qualms about pushing around and abusing the homeless and have recently been under investigation for racial profiling and abuse; attacking black people who themselves called the police and dragging a young BAME boy off his bike. They’re are also guilty of abuse towards women. PC Oliver Banfield assaulted a woman, called her a slag and was only fined £500 pounds. Apparently that’s all it costs.
As soon as the march took off, and the protest was in the control of the mass of its attendees, the police – this organised group of brutes – came out in force and began doing what they were set up to do; defending the private property of the capitalist class. They warded the protest away from the police station and lines of officers and vans denied the protesters their just right to take their anger to those who cause it. It would have been well within the right and power of the protest to break these police lines. In the end this didn’t happen, but the march still served to expose the West Midlands Police who were laying in wait. Boos and hisses at these lines of pigs – pork-saussage-link-fences – were followed by louder and more passionate chants of ‘fuck the police’ as the march searched for alternate routes. Because of the march, the police failed to maintain their hands off image and exposed for what they were.
The British police are a violent arm of a racist, bigoted state and arrests are no joke. Deaths in police custody, and apparent suicides afterwards, are more likely than police deaths in dealing with the public. They are dangerous. Organised class solidarity is required to defend ourselves from them and to end the class-conflict that brings them into being. Luckily, this protest followed an open planning meeting which allowed all people to talk and will be followed by more like it; just what we need to build this kind of organisation. People of varying ages, races and genders, who were new to activism or not, were given the chance to get involved. The Birmingham branch of the RCG applaud this type of organising and we will work hard to defend this open space and to help develop an educated, agitated and organised political culture.
