The world looks back on the actions of suffragettes, civil rights leaders and other protesters as a necessary good – even when the actions they took for change were illegal at the time.
But the mainly peaceful actions taken by those who support Palestine Action, a group formed in 2020 to ‘end Israeli apartheid’ in Gaza, have been met with mass arrests after it was deemed a proscribed terror group in the UK.
Hundreds of demonstrators recently sat down quietly in Parliament Square, holding placards reading: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine action.’
Charlie Kimber, 68, was arrested in this protest and charged under section 13 of the Terrorism Act.
He has been attending protests since the 1970s and says that policing of even peaceful protests has worsened in his lifetime.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
He says he and others were sitting at the event, created by Defend Our Juries, which calls for the lifting of the ban on Palestine Action and defends protest rights in general, when he was handcuffed.
‘I was there because I think the ban is a chilling restriction on political freedom,’ Charlie told Metro.
Restriction on free speech – or a legitimate threat?
Charlie told Metro he believes most people recognise that there is a major difference between an organisation which carries out direct action against property in the way that Palestine Action has done – and organisations which threaten and kill human beings.
‘When you look back, of course, the suffragettes used far more radical methods than those of Palestine Action. They invented the letter bomb, dug up golf courses, attempted to attack Winston Churchill, and used mass occupations of parliaments,’ he said.
‘People in the civil rights movement, people fighting apartheid in South Africa, people trying to win trade union freedoms, people standing up for LGBT+ rights are often denounced as those who’ve gone beyond the acceptable limits of protest,’ Charlie added.
‘But if the acceptable limits are to be those which are approved by those at the top of society, then our rights will be curtailed again and again.’
Polly Smith, a 74-year-old retired care worker, was detained twice this year for supporting Palestine at protests.
She told Metro she became active because of the UK’s involvement in the Israel-Palestine war.
‘The sign we held says, ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’ A lot of the media forget those first three words, ‘I oppose genocide.’ They’re only focusing on the last lines,’ she said.
‘We are arrested for holding up signs, and if you compare them to what the suffragettes did, they broke windows. They attacked people and were imprisoned.
‘What Palestine Action has done is paint on an aircraft. When women got the vote, when civil rights were passed, it was because people didn’t shout about it, they protested.’
Use your rights or lose them
‘Use it or lose it’ is a common sentiment when speaking about civil rights.
But Charlie says learning about the history of protest is just as vital: ‘Again and again, protest rights have been taken away.
‘If we run away from the right to hold a cardboard sign saying ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,’ if we can’t do that because we are intimidated by the terror laws, then we’re going to lose more and more rights.
Timeline of how political protests have changed
1215
Unlocking the power of protest
Back in the 13th Century, many of the English were serfs who were at the mercy of feudal lords.
Many barons – descendants of the 1066 Norman invaders – resented being subjects of such a powerful monarchy. In an attempt to make peace, what became known as Magna Carta gave these barons legal protection against arbitrary monarchical rule.
1381
The Peasants’ Revolt
It was one of the great revolts of medieval Europe, only three decades since the Black Death, and many English subjects were angered by the poll tax.
Led by Wat Tyler, rebels marched from Kent and Essex to London. Some leaders even challenged the existence of the class system.
1517
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses
The German Augustinian friar Martin Luther had increasingly come to resent the theology and policies of the Church. A particular target of his frustration was the ability of sinners to give money in exchange for God’s forgiveness. In 1517, Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses – protesting at various Church practices – to a church door in Wittenberg. Contemporaries could not have imagined the religious schism that would follow
1773
Boston Tea Party
‘No taxation without representation’ had become a rallying-cry of British colonists in North America from the 1750s onwards.
These taxes were decided across the Atlantic, and included taxes on the importation of tea. When 46 tonnes of tea sent by the East India Company arrived in Boston Harbour, protestors – some dressed up as Native Americans – stormed the ship, and threw the tea into the sea. It provoked a strong reaction from the British government, in turn triggering further resistance from colonists. The American Revolution had begun.
1778 – 1799
The French Revolution
Those who led the French Revolution did not just fight for the rights of the French: liberté, égalité, fraternité became universal ideals.
Powerful monarchies and the remnants of feudalism were not just challenged and overthrown in France, but across Europe too. The Revolution is often best known for the Reign of Terror, in which opponents and members of the old order were executed. The White Terror – a backlash in which radical Jacobins were targeted – also saw thousands of deaths. But the French Revolution was a turning-point in the rise of democracy and freedom – not just in France, but across Europe and the wider world.
The Suffragettes
Suffragettes are often portrayed as heroes today, but they were often demonised as anarchists and even terrorists in their day.
The fight for women to vote was protracted indeed. In the 18th Century, women were granted conditional suffrage in Sweden, but New Zealand fully gave women the vote in 1893. In Britain, suffragettes were imprisoned and, when on hunger strike, force-fed. They resorted to protest and property damage. In 1913, Emily Davison died throwing herself under the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby. In 1918, women over 30 won some rights, but it was not until 1928 that women over 21 could vote.
1960s
Civil Rights
A century after the US Civil War emancipated millions from slavery, African-Americans in several US states were still deprived of basic civil rights.
Segregation legally discriminated against black people in work, housing and the right to vote. The movement took root in the 1950s and gathered strength in the 1960s, driving through reforms. The struggle is said to have inspired the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, precipitating the Troubles. In South Africa armed struggle against Apartheid lasted for decades, until the regime was dismantled in the 1990s and Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black president.
1980s and 1990s
Standard of Living
After Margaret Thatcher entered Number 10 in 1979, her governments set about dismantling the post-war consensus.
The Miners’ Strike of 1984/85 was the most dramatic trade union struggle in post-war Britain, and the labour movement never recovered from the defeat. When Thatcher introduced the poll tax in the late 1980s many refused to pay in a widespread act of civil disobedience. There were protests across Britain, culminating in riots in central London in 1990. Not only did the poll tax end up being abolished, but the movement contributed to the removal of Margaret Thatcher from power later in 1990.
2015
Solidarity on the Streets
The rise of social media has played a key role in recent protests, helping to bypass news blackouts either by dictatorships or an unsympathetic media.
The overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution owed much to organising through Facebook and Twitter. Inspired by the Arab examples, thousands of Spaniards occupied Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square in protest at the political elite. The so-called indignados encouraged the ‘Occupy’ movement which spread across the globe, made up of protestors angry that the richest were still thriving in the aftermath of the financial crisis, while the majority – the 99% – were made to pay for it.
Credit: (BBC)
‘If they can do that to Palestine Action, why can’t they do it to others? It’s a serious warning,’ he told Metro.
Even as fears of arrest at protests rise, Charlie says resistance among the people is also increasing, citing students during Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movement.
‘But I think the Palestine movement is a complete shift,’ he said.
‘3 or 4 million people in Britain have been involved in local or national demonstrations over Palestine. It’s changing everything.’
Mark Borkowski, a crisis PR consultant, told Metro that the art of protest is different today because it lacks the power of social media.
Speaking after he voiced his opinions on Radio Four’s Outrage doc – the publicist gave ano-prisoners look at the history of the protest stunt.
Historic protests which made real change
The Peterloo Massacre
- In the early 1800s, a crowd of 70,000 people gathered to hear about reforms to representation in Parliament – but the military was called in. A cavalry killed 11 people and injured hundreds.
- A bill was passed shortly afterwards, which helped address some of the issues with representation in Parliament.
Emily Wilding Davison
- During the suffragette movement, Oxford-educated Emily Wilding Davison wasn’t allowed to take a degree as a woman.
- In protest, she threw herself in front of the horse, which belonged to the King during the Epsom Derby, ultimately dying of her injuries.
- Her stunt encouraged other women to speak up for suffrage, and women were able to vote five years later.
He told Metro: ‘Suffragettes would be locked up, and women who got into the base where nuclear weapons were and smothered them with porridge, that wouldn’t be tolerated now,’ he explained.
‘Why? There’s a greater fear because of social media and the power it has in telegraphing that message. People are now being imprisoned just for talking about a protest.’
New policing bill – an attack on our rights?
The new policing bill, which aims to tackle anti-social behaviour and ‘improve police ability to manage protests’, has been slammed as an attack on rights.
Under that bill, historic protests including Pride, Black Lives Matter, demonstrations in Parliament Square, and peace vigils wouldn’t be permitted.
Mark adds: ‘I think in time people will begin to see who’s pulling the strings. And that’s what undoes things.
‘In the Soviet Union, there was a very telling quote that was used when someone asked a diplomat about something: ‘History is uncertain.’
‘But sooner or later, these things work themselves through the system and begin to see things through a different prism. Truth is a great disinfectant.’
As for the current protests, he said: ‘We have to be more human. We have to realise that people trying to do the right things should be respected and not vilified.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
