By Marion Lloyd, PCS National President candidate
On Saturday 13th March, young women and men from many backgrounds gathered on Clapham Common in protest at domestic violence, sexual harassment, violence against women more generally and against the indifference and hostility women face when they seek justice and safety.
Sparked by the murder of Sarah Everard, who appears to have been kidnapped when walking home, protests erupted across the UK. For the most part these protests seem to have passed off peacefully, in a socially distanced way, with police showing restraint and good judgment in terms of how they were handled – except in London.
Police were filmed handcuffing demonstrators, shoving women in attendance at the Saturday night vigil from behind and corralling demonstrators together regardless of social distancing. A statement from the activists who attempted to organise the “Reclaim these Streets” vigil suggested those in senior posts with the Metropolitan Police had refused to engage with them, when they were notified of the plans.
“Reclaim these Streets” had organised fifty stewards and had plans to ensure that the protest could happen safely even in the era of Covid-19.
Our right to protest is under attack.
The right to protest is under threat, a matter that should be of a major concern to all PCS members. Under the cover of a pandemic, the government are moving against our democratic rights – including the right to protest. It has already moved against workers taking industrial action. The threat is not just from heavy-handed policing on the ground, it is a systematic threat from the Tory government.
At the same time as protests were emerging following the murder of Sarah Everard, the government has been rushing through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. This passed its second reading on Tuesday 16th March. This gives police sweeping powers to curtail protests and imposes a new criminal penalty for causing “serious annoyance.”
Earlier this month, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Act received royal assent and became law. The CHIS Act, also known as the “Spycops Bill”, authorises agents of the state to commit crimes when undercover. At the same time as this new lawbreaker’s charter was being passed, the Undercover Policing Inquiry is continuing its investigation into the actions of 139 spies from different branches of the police.
These actions included launching sexual and romantic relationships with women involved in anti-racist, trade unionist, socialist and environmentalist causes. It included the fathering and abandonment of children as part of developing their cover. There is also evidence that police spies sought to actively instigate disorder, urging extreme and violent courses of action on those they met as part of their official duties.
A serious, campaigning trade union leadership would have sought to mobilise working-class people to oppose these measures. This is not just based on some abstract notion of civil liberties. It is based on the fact that workers will be the first to suffer from the ability of a Tory government to wield without hindrance the enormous and increasing power of the state.
Already, we have seen police use COVID rules to justify breaking up pickets. Before Christmas, Unite successfully legally challenged the police using these rules to disperse their picket in Leeds. Now their picket in Edinburgh has also been dispersed by police. The workers’ movement had to fight for the right to protest, strike and picket and we have to fight to keep these rights.
Mobilise a Trade Union response
Repeatedly during the pandemic, trade union leaders have shirked their responsibilities to tackle head-on attacks from the Tory government. In PCS, this can be seen from the decision by the NEC under Fran Heathcote, the current national President to throw out the union’s national pay claim for a 10% pay rise, the abandonment of any attempt to build a serious campaign and the decision instead to organise a petition in the hope of getting a debate in parliament. In the event this was attended by a bare handful of MPs.
Elsewhere, we’ve seen the decision by healthcare unions to call for a “slow clap” for the government, when they announced a 1% pay raise for swathes of the NHS, meaning a pay cut. This isn’t just an abdication of leadership; it is an attempt to demoralise workers by persuading them that nothing more can be done, because of the pandemic.
When a small group of nurses in Manchester organised a protest – socially distanced, with personal protective equipment – against the announcement that they’d receive a real-terms pay cut after literally risking their lives throughout the pandemic, they were fined by Greater Manchester Police and people were arrested at the scene. Such heavy-handed tactics are being driven by the government, to crack down on dissent.
While there is enormous pressure – including from worried people who might otherwise be supportive – not to demonstrate publicly, the reality is that the pandemic has not stopped the bosses from pursuing their agenda of job cuts, of wage cuts and of maximising profits at the expense of workers. It has not stopped the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, from seeking cuts to public services even while billions in contracts are being handed out to Tory donors.
Workers and working-class communities must respond, and the kind of political policing we have witnessed during the pandemic must be halted.
There is no end-date for the pandemic. Millions of people – billions around the world – are hoping that as the vaccine is rolled out, there can be a return to some sort of normality, but there are no guarantees, particularly as the current vaccines are less effective at some variants. The consequence of a return to normality is increased transmission – so to argue that we cannot protest during a pandemic is to put protests on hold indefinitely.
Meanwhile women’s refuges are facing cuts, rape crisis centres are facing cuts and many have already closed their books to new referrals because they have been overwhelmed. Trauma counselling services are facing cuts. Street lighting is being cut. The Crown Prosecution Service, which needs enormous investment to be able to reliably handle crimes like sexual assault and rape, is being cut. Protesting this is not optional.
With trained trade union stewards, social distancing, personal protective equipment, antibacterial substances and, crucially, with supportive, community-focused, democratically accountable policing, such protests would not add to the burden everyone faces in trying to get through the pandemic.
Mobilising in our workplaces to fight these cuts is not optional either. We need emergency services, social services and mental health services that are fit for purpose – and the only way to get these is for workers to fight, and for the communities that rely on these services to be mobilised behind the workers at the sharp end.
We need a campaigning leadership in PCS: join the Broad Left Network
The worst from amongst the trade union leaders have openly said that there is no possibility of building any serious campaigns to defend workers’ rights until after the pandemic is over. They hide behind the difficulties imposed by people working from home, they hide behind the restrictions on travel and public gatherings, and the shallow reach of social media – but, even if there wasn’t a pandemic, these leaders would find other excuses to hide behind.
The has been replicated in PCS. For the last year, the union’s National Executive Committee under Fran Heathcote has done absolutely nothing to advance the national campaign on pay. The result has been that bosses in HMRC have seen the opportunity to divide off members of the second biggest group in the union by offering them a small pay rise in exchange for the sale of certain terms and conditions.
Broad Left Network was formed by activists from across the union, in large groups and small groups, both in the public sector and the private sector, who simply could not sit back and allow the massive betrayal of members being perpetrated by the current leadership. Leadership is about building strong union branches, strong employer-based groups, about giving reps and union members the tools, they need to defend themselves and to fight for their rights.
If you want to be a part of this battle, please contact us and get involved in the fight.
PCS Broad Left Network 