“Deeds not words” was Emmeline Pankhurst’s strategy in the fight for women’s suffrage in the early 20th century.
This is not the first time a large scale movement has demanded necessary change from the government. Passionate forms of direct action, such as protests, are imperative for establishment-fighting and human rights championing in Britain.
“The bill received fervent opposition, and will significantly increase police powers to infringe on the right to protest. It imposes noise restrictions and start and finish times on demonstrations.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel has an endlessly controversial and blatantly inhumane policy track record. Only this week Patel has announced the possible introduction of a new asylum seekers processing system, similar to that in Australia. It would allow for the immediate removal to a third country, despite some immigrants risking their lives to reach the UK. This is not the topic of discussion here, but it paints a picture of Priti Patel’s politics, and we need to address it.
Following the Sarah Everard vigil in London last weekend, Patel announced a new draconian #PolicingBill to the commons. The bill received fervent opposition, and will significantly increase police powers to infringe on the right to protest. It imposes noise restrictions and start and finish times on demonstrations. This will consequently impact large gatherings near parliament. The bill also criminalises and puts Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities at high risk.
This poses a very real threat to contemporary social and environmental justice movements in Britain. In the past, Patel has been very vocal about her disapproving opinions on the BLM protests, and described the Extinction Rebellion participants as “eco-crusaders turned criminals”. So, Patel’s decision to impose an authoritarian style clampdown on the right to protest is not a hyperbole; it seems to be an undeniable attack on the left and any opposition to the status quo.
In the previous century Britain underwent significant social change, instigated by grassroots movements.
The women’s suffrage movement (as mentioned earlier) is often cited as the epitome of women taking on the establishment. The 1918 legislation is well engrained in British history and seen as a pivotal point for feminism. Until ten years later (1928), the Representations of the People Act only enfranchised women aged 30 and over who were also property owners – and structurally discriminated against working class women and women of colour. However, without the commitment, determination and grit of the protest movement, change would not have come.
The Bristol bus boycott is another historical example of a grassroots organisation demanding justice. 18-year-old Guy Bailey sparked the movement in 1963 after he faced overtly racist discrimination at an interview to work on the buses. The Bristol Omnibus Company had an insidious ‘open secret’ – they purposely prohibited the employment of any person of colour. Paul Stephenson was at the helm of the movement, and in the face of adversity they coalesced support from students and Labour MP Tony Benn; initiated a 4 month boycott of Bristol’s buses; and organised a protest march to the bus station and local headquarters. Despite months of grinding negotiations, on 28 August 1963 the company finally announced an end to employment discrimination. This became a symbolic day in both Bristol and ‘across the pond’. On that same day, the march on Washington took place, where the eminent civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” speech. In the following years Parliament passed a series of Race Relations Acts. In 1965 and 1968 the acts deemed racial discrimination “unlawful in public places.” Many attribute this potent legislation to the work of the Bristol bus boycott activists.
“There is still so much to fight for. BLM, Extinction Rebellion, and the women’s movement render agency and space to demand better. Without resistance to Priti Patel’s ‘Tory dictatorship’, activism faces a dangerous future.”
There is no shortage of pioneering campaigns that we can mention. The UK Miners’ strike, anti-Vietnam War protests, and the march against the Iraq War to name a few. Today, Britain remains firmly in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, but that does not mean that an encroachment on civil liberties can pass us by so unwittingly. Several Labour MPs, including Nadia Whittome, John McDonnell and Richard Burgon have vocally condemned the bill, but a significant public outcry is imperative. Direct action is often at the forefront of monumental social justice achievements. There is still so much to fight for. BLM, Extinction Rebellion, and the women’s movement render agency and space to demand better. Without resistance to Priti Patel’s ‘Tory dictatorship’, activism faces a dangerous future.
Beckie Walker
Featured image courtesy of Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
Great article, really thought provoking.