Cambridge Trade Council today totally condemns the unnecessary actions
of the Met Police, 13th March at Clapham Common in London. It is totally
unacceptable that grieving women were prevented from holding a peaceful
and socially distanced protest. In Cambridge and throughout the country
vigils were held to show respect for women and grief in memory of Sarah
Everard. The aggressive and disgraceful approach by the police in breaking
up a peaceful vigil, has left women feeling betrayed by the very institution
they should be able to put their trust in. They can no longer trust the police
to protect them and to keep them safe.
May Shafi, Equalities Officer for Cambridge Trade Council said, “male
violence against women, BAME, LGBT, and disabled people must stop. The
pandemic has seen reported cases of the increase of domestic abuse in the
home, and now women no longer feel safe on our streets”. She went on to
say, “this is alarming and these institutional and systematic failings should be
put right immediately”. This government, instead of empowering the perpetrators by these systematic failings, must give women the safety and justice
they have an inalienable human right to.
This Trades Council strongly opposes the Home Secretary’s draconian measures in The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Why should police
powers be increased to handle peaceful protests? It does not make sense
unless the real reason behind these measures is to restrict trade unions public campaigning and to bring all protests to an eventual halt! What happened
on the vigil on Saturday, went against the Human rights Act in the way in
which women were mishandled by the police.
The Home Secretary should instead be focusing on police powers
being regularly assessed and checked so that they are not being misused
and there can be no repeat of Clapham Common. This trades council opposes any changes to the law that threatens the right to protest. Do we live
in a democracy or not? The Metropolitan police should be held to account
and not the public! The Home Secretary should now be focusing on the safety of women in public places and how to rebuild women’s confidence in the
agency of law and order that has failed them.
We oppose the discriminatory proposal of giving men a curfew time
from 6 pm. We do not support all men being punished. All men are not the
perpetrators of violence against women and therefore we condemn this proposal. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the trade union
movement, who are campaigning actively to protect all women and the injustices they suffer due to the financial cutbacks and the structural inequalities
which they experience every day.
We stand with and support the TUC Statement from 12 March 2021, calling
on Ministers to meet their 5 pledges in helping to combat male violence
against women. We also support and stand with Unite the Union’s statement
of 13 March 2021 to keep police powers in check and support our right to
peaceful protests!
It is a woman’s ‘inalienable’ right to live in freedom, to breathe, to be
safe and to have access to justice and equality. So why are they still struggling on our streets today, in the 21st century? This pandemic has seen an
INCREASE in reported domestic abuse cases, an INCREASE in rates of financial hardship and an INCREASE in the rates of suicides and murders of
women.
WE MUST STOP MALE VIOLENCE NOW! We call on the Government
to scrap the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and allow the
right to protest. It is through protest and highlighting issues that we will be
helping to save women’s lives.
Ends
For further information please contact powertopeople2017@gmail.com
May Shafi Equalities Officer- Women’s Lead
Cambridge & District Trades Council
15 March 2021
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2021/march/unite-statement-on-tonights-actions-by-the-met-police-against-peaceful-protest-in-memory-of-sarah-everard/
https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/joint-union-statement-we-demand-safety-we-demand-justice-wedemand-equality
