London Slut Walk

By New Worker correspondent

SOME 5,000 Londoners turned out for last Saturday’s “Slutwalk” to rally for women’s rights and protest about sexist attitudes to women and rape. The first Slutwalk was held in Toronto in April, triggered by a Canadian policeman’s comment that women should “avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised”.
He has subsequenty apologised for his remark. But the word “slut” was then taken up by Canadian activists “tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result”. At the first march in Canada the organisers said that “being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work".
Now their call has been taken up in north America and other parts of Europe as a rallying cry against sexist attitudes to rape, victim-blaming and discrimination against marginalised groups of men and women. The protesters, colourfully dressed to affirms the right to wear what one likes, marched from Piccadilly for a rally in Trafalgar Square.
Speakers at the rally also spoke against the Con-Dem Coalition cuts, pointing out that they directly target women both in jobs and in the support services that protect them from domestic and other abuse and take away their independence, leaving them more dependent on abusive partners.