Can barely hear for the banging on the windows
There’s a Woman’s Place UK meeting happening in Brighton right now. It’s being loudly and threateningly disrupted. There are police present but they’re not stopping the disruption.
WPUK:
Thank you to all the people and speakers for persevering tonight in the face of a noisy, threatening protest. The police are here but seem incapable – unwilling? – to stop protestors banging on windows. Democracy for some it seems. The law is an ass @BrightonPolice #WPUKlab19
Unbelievable mob outside the @Womans_Place_UK meeting in Brighton tonight, banging and pounding the windows, the din inside is deafening. Coming in we ran the gauntlet of hostile aggression, this is hate-filled public disorder and the police are not stopping it. #WPUKLab19
#WPUKLAB19 ran the gauntlet of a very threatening group of people objecting to a group of women and men calling
byme and others scum – for wanting safe space for women and to discuss gender and sex issues. Free speech threatened!
Attending an all women (feminist) meeting @AWomansPlaceUK and run the gauntlet of a disgusting protest outside. Can barely hear for the banging on the windows. Absolute fuckwits. So women can’t gather to discuss women and girls issues without being threatened now? #WPUKLab19
Women trying to attend @Womans_Place_UK meeting this evening are being met with intimidation – and @sussex_police not intervening.
Women have the right to meet without the fear of violence or intimidation. #womensrightsarehumanrights #freedomofassembly #freedomofassociation
We are present and ensuring that those wishing to attend are not obstructed.
WPUK:
You are not stopping the protestors intimidating our audience. You are not stopping them banging violently on the windows of the room we are in. The venue may wonder why you are allowing them to do this to their building. #WPUKLab19
New boss just like the old boss: women must not be allowed to gather or organize or speak.
This sounds remarkably like descriptions of early women’s meetings, back in the time of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other early feminists. Disruption. Police not willing to help. Yeah. It’s men giving grief to women who just want to be allowed to be safe and free.
Doesn’t it though.
https://mobile.twitter.com/teaandabikkie/status/1176208980609314816
Yeah, doesn’t really make them seem safe.
Not to be any more depressing, but I’m going to guess that a nontrivial portion of the protesters is female. [this is where the :/ emoji would go, I guess.]
“This sounds remarkably like descriptions of early women’s meetings, back in the time of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other early feminists. Disruption. Police not willing to help. Yeah.”
I thought this too – back to the dear old days of suffragettes. Expect some groping by police/male protesters.
A reminder that women’s rights are always provisional.
Nullius, women were a not insubstantial part of the fight against the early suffragettes, too. In fact, when the right to vote was on the line, the men often stood back and let the women who were opposed to women’s rights take the front. I suppose because then you can say, “see, it’s not just men” and marginalize the women fighting for rights by making them seem like they were only a small fraction of women who were just malcontents.
Though back then, I don’t think you’d see the violently disruptive actions from the women. The anti-suffs were determined to protect their feminine image.