On June 4, Birmingham saw its biggest political demonstration in several years as thousands of young people took to the streets, many for the first time, to protest against racism and police brutality. Inspired by recent actions in the US and London, this spontaneous action called by a group named ‘The UK Isn’t Innocent’ followed months of heightened attacks on the BAME working class through a racist state response to the novel coronavirus, and comes in the wake of many incidents of police brutality by West Midlands Police.
The protestors gathered at Centenary Square. As more and more people arrived, they started chants including, ‘Racist police, off our streets’ and ‘No justice, no peace’. A number of impromptu speeches were made throughout the crowd, in a true grassroots response with no centrally controlled platform.
One of our comrades gave an address to a crowd of hundreds drawing attention to the imperialist roots of British state racism and pointing out the hypocrisy of Birmingham City Council leader Ian Ward, who said that ‘racism has no place in Birmingham’ even while the city police force is being investigated for racially motivated brutality! (Guardian, 29 May). Many victims of police violence were remembered through chants, speeches, and placards, including Kingsley Burrell, killed by police in Birmingham in 2011, and Trevor Smith, killed by police in Birmingham last year.
Watch a video of the speech here.
The protest was very fluid, with several impromptu marches setting off from the main body and demonstrating outside prominent local government institutions such as the Council building, Digbeth police station, and West Midlands Police HQ at Snow Hill. These culminated in a combined march to Handsworth and back, passing through the Jewellery Quarter. Despite the disruption to traffic, passers-by and residents were very supportive, honking their horns and cheering from balconies.
During the march Birmingham RCG provided a sound system, which was used prolifically by the crowd to make speeches, lead chants, sing songs and amplify their message: that they were there to protest against the racism and oppression of the British state.
We invite all anti-racists to our public meeting, “Unmasking The Racist British State,” this Sunday at 3pm. Click here to register for the Zoom call.
