Kill the Bill: Birmingham

Saturday, March 20th saw a coalition of grassroots organisations and individuals gather in Birmingham's Victoria Square to raise their voices in solidarity. These past few weeks have seen other major cities such as Manchester, Brighton, Bristol and Liverpool holding protests of their own as outrage spreads across the nation following the murder of Sarah Everard.

Sarah was walking home through Clapham Common in London on March 3rd when she disappeared. Her body was found just a week later inside a builder's bag in the woodlands of Kent, about 40 miles from where she was kidnapped.

No sooner had this news reached the rest of the UK, than the vigil that was held Clapham Common in her honour turned violent between attendees and police officers sent to oversee COVID guidelines. 

Occurring in tandem with this catastrophe is the proposal of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSCB) which was published March 8th of this year. If this bill were to come to fruition, it would - among many other things - give the police more authority over street protests, including deciding when rallies start and finish and controlling noise levels. 

In short, the kidnapping and murder of Sarah Everard, the aggression seen at her vigil and the proposal of this bill altogether have sparked the series of protests across England lead by a hashtag: #KilltheBill.

Sign the petition against restricting our right to peaceful protest.

Having attended the protest in Birmingham myself - and it being my first protest ever - I was relieved that ours didn't break out into violence. In fact, I found it to be a great networking opportunity for socio-political organisations and activists, like ACORN pictured below. 

While the majority of those gathered in Victoria Square that afternoon were protesting specifically the Bill, many politically active bodies were in attendance and pitched their perspective to the masses. There was an overall atmosphere of acceptance of each other and general frustration with the state of the world. A young couple held their rainbow flag high and proud, while an older gentleman arrived brandishing his DIY "Stop HS 2" banner. Even the Birmingham Marxist Society made an appearance with their bid to end capitalism.

Click here for more details regarding the RCSCB.

But what was momentous, in my opinion, was that we showed up. Every independent protester, every organisation had traveled to the square that afternoon to exercise our right to disagree with how the nation is being run. To me, feminism and all other types of activism means showing up. It means supporting others' causes if you believe in them, and showing your solidarity by standing with them and helping them fight their fight. Birmingham's #KilltheBill protest was, thankfully, a peaceful and informative experience that I would gladly do again.

A special thank you to the Women's Strike Assembly Brum for organising this event and flooding it with powerful speakers. Looking forward to the next.