Shouting ‘SCUM! SCUM! SCUM!’
Woman’s Place UK has a statement on what happened around that meeting in Brighton Monday which they want us to share widely:
On Monday 23rd September, Woman’s Place UK held its 24th public meeting in two years: A Woman’s Place is at Conference. It was timed to coincide with the Labour Party’s annual conference and to publicise our manifesto which contains demands we believe would significantly improve the quality of women’s lives, as well as address the structural oppression and discrimination that we face.
Members of our local organising team liaised closely with the venue and made sure they were fully informed about our campaign, and that previous meetings had been protested.
We also liaised with the local police who assured us they had resources in place to manage any protest should it occur.
At 4.30pm, the original venue cancelled our meeting saying they could not guarantee the security of the building in light of the scale of the planned protest.
Fortunately, we had booked an alternative venue and were able to switch the details before the email with the location went out.
As the organisers arrived at the venue, they were met by a small group of protestors who took photos of them. The only way these protestors could have found the location of the venue is from someone who had purchased a ticket. They must have shared this information despite our clear statement that it is confidential to ticket holders.
The protest grew substantially in size until at least 100 people were outside the building. The security team we had hired was extremely efficient at ensuring the venue itself was secure but ticket holders had to brave a narrow corridor surrounded by aggressive protestors taking photos, shouting ‘SCUM! SCUM! SCUM!’, ‘TERF! TERF! TERF’ and ‘SHAME ON YOU’ in peoples’ faces.
Two women reported water being thrown at them. Others reported being touched or manhandled.
Amongst the audience were survivors of sexual and domestic violence and several women were in tears as they entered the building.
Sheets had to be pinned up at the door to stop protestors taking photos of women within the building.
I really hate the whole deplatforming movement. Yes, when someone’s truly vile I suppose it’s theoretically justifiable to yell, chant, bang pots and pans, and otherwise drown out what they’re saying, but it should be a very high bar. As could be expected, instead the scope of who is allegedly so beyond that pale that their words should not be allowed to be heard has continued to the expand until we have one faction of the left trying to drown out another.
I bet all those people making that noise truly felt they were on the side of Light and Goodness and were striking a blow for Justice. Maybe if they’d been quiet and listened they would have been able to see the point of view of women who are truly feeling threatened instead of contributing further to that feeling.
Sure, but if you listen to what someone says, you are an accomplice to literal violence, so that’s out.
Besides, what do a bunch of women even know about anything?
The thing is, these protestors believe that women have hurdled that bar. They believe that this – I mean, meetings that are women only to discuss why some things should be women only – is the worst thing that can possibly happen. So while I agree with setting a high bar, there needs to be something more – like some reasonable definition of where that bar is, and not set by the people who just want to shout at other people. I don’t think there are many on either the right or the left right now who are capable of identifying when a bar is set too low. They all just shout at each other, and commit actual, literal, dictionary real violence.
A woman’s privilege is so advantageous that she should just… never be protected I guess? Whatever. Bitches.