‘The right to protest is one of the most crucial freedoms we have’

Progressive politics is rooted in campaigning and campaigners challenging the establishment. Whether that’s people campaigning for votes for women, against racism or parents campaigning for a safe crossing outside of their primary school.

Why then is a party supposedly on the political progressive left making a point of attacking people fighting for a better world?

One of the things that drew me to Bristol, that makes it the place it is, is the city’s radical and activist tradition – from the reform riots of 1831, to the bus boycott, to pulling down Colston’s statue, Bristolians don’t stand for injustice.

It is the active, thoughtful and brave members of the public pushing institutions and politicians to move faster that has created a more just society – one that elected the first Black mayor in the UK, was first to declare a climate emergency and created the likes of Banksy.

Yet Bristol’s Labour administration, and Labour nationally, are waging a war on the very idea of campaigners.

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Read more: Rees: ‘Extinction Rebellion’s stunt on the roof is privileged activism’

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In the recent council report into officers spying on Bristol parents of children with special educational needs, “campaigning” was often used without explanation to refer to an action that was clearly something reprehensible, and therefore justified demanding the removal of parents, and then withdrawing council funding, from the Independent Carers Forum.

During the November Full Council meeting, a Labour cabinet member tweeted that they were “appalled” by Bristol cycling campaigners.

Why? Because they left the (three-hour long, late evening) meeting after their petition was heard, just like most who come to highlight any issue.

Nationally, even the leader of the Labour Party is calling for higher sentences for protesters, banning front benchers from joining picket lines and, worse, failing to condemn the government’s extreme authoritarian Public Order Bill which all but criminalises protest outright.

Under this Belarus-style legislation, anyone who has been to a protest within five years can be made to wear an ankle tag and report regularly to police. They can be banned from certain locations, meeting with other people or even supporting protests online or face up to 51 weeks in jail.

Bristol’s Green Party group leader Heather Mack being arrested at an Extinction Rebellion protest in London in 2019 – photo: György László

I am a proud campaigner, and started protesting as soon as I was old enough to make that decision for myself. I was involved in Extinction Rebellion protests in spring 2019. I sincerely apologise to those who were inconvenienced by that protest, but I am still convinced of its necessity.

Our country’s climate commitment changed as a result of the increased public awareness and concern about the climate emergency.

Protest changes things.

Following Just Stop Oil campaigners throwing a tin of soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (which was not damaged), they have been on many prime time TV shows spreading their message.

Once you’ve heard it five times over doesn’t it make sense to everyone that we should not be issuing new oil drilling licences?

Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement in disruptive but non-violent protest from 1954 to 1968, from sit-ins, to bus boycotts, to demonstrations. Thousands of people were arrested but segregation laws which existed for decades were overturned.

In the UK, men and women throughout history, from chartists to suffragettes to gay rights campaigners, have protested and were imprisoned or died, fighting for rights many take for granted today.

Several of Bristol’s Green councillors are also members of the campaigning union ACORN, best known for supporting renters’ rights, and this informs their work in the council.

Councillor Barry Parsons has taken part in member defence direct actions with the union; so it was a natural step when he submitted a motion to full council calling for rent controls and better protections for renters.

There is no inherent contradiction between being an activist and being an elected representative. Indeed, the interaction between activism and the political “art of the possible” can be a productive one.

Residents and ACORN members recently gathered as part of a vigil outside Twinnell House – photo: Rachel Sutherland

The right to protest is essential for a healthy democracy – you only have to look at countries where protest is curtailed to see the effect that has.

If the UK had a more robust and modern democracy, where people’s views were genuinely and proportionally represented through the political system, then there would be much less need to resort to protest.

Unfortunately, the UK, with its outdated first past the post electoral system (shared with only one other European country – Belarus), the unelected House of Lords and influential corporate lobbyists, is far from a healthy democracy.

Labour cabinet member Nicola Beech and former councillor Mhairi Threlfall helped to organise the March of the Mummies in Bristol in October – photo Colin Moody

The Green Party recognises that the right to protest and campaign is one of the most crucial freedoms we have – and it must be protected.

Whether we agree with protestors or not, in a free society they must have a right to air their views, and as the above examples show, campaigns and protests dismissed and attacked in their own time are often later embraced as on the right side of history.

One City Boards, the council’s method of partnership working, acknowledges that the council does not have the budget or resources to provide all the services and support we believe the people of the city deserve, especially with this year’s cruel budget cuts from the government.

However, locally and nationally, Labour excludes the most valuable partner of all – caring, active and knowledgeable local people, or campaigners, as I would affectionately call them.

Local campaigners are those who speak out about problems in our city and seek to work together to fix things.

Whether we agree with them or not, local politicians have a democratic duty to hear them out – not undermine or dismiss them. Greens will not forget our campaigning roots when we gain power in the city.

Heather Mack is a councillor for Lockleaze and the leader of the Green Party group in Bristol

Main photo: Green Party

Read next:

• Labour councillor calls Cycling Campaign ‘arrogant and dismissive’
• By-election to take place as councillor steps down
• Rees: ‘The quality of political discourse in the chamber dismays me’
• Famous footbridge could finally be fixed

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