Sisters Uncut block Waterloo Bridge

By New Worker correspondent

WOMEN’S rights activists from Sisters Uncut last Saturday closed Waterloo Bridge in both directions as part of a protest at the constant cutting of funding for women’s refuges from domestic violence.

The protest began with a rally in Trafalgar Square with a solemn reading of a very long list of women who have died in Britain in the last year from domestic violence.

Dozens of placards said: “They cut, we bleed” while others pointed out that two in three women seeking safety in a refuge is turned away because there is no room. But for women from black and ethnic minority communities the figure of four out of five turned away.

The banners and placards informed that black and ethnic minority women have suffered appalling cuts to the basic domestic violence services and called for the restoration of specialist centres to meet their needs.

And they demanded that migrant women and asylum seekers should not be denied help on the grounds of “no access to public funds” when their lives are in danger. “No sister is illegal,” they proclaimed.

And they accused the Government cuts of blocking women’s bridges to safety and promised to block the Government’s bridges in retaliation.

And they did – Waterloo Bridge in London and in similar actions around the country they blocked other bridges, including Bristol’s Red Cliff Bridge, the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle and the South Portland Suspension Bridge.

After brief speeches in Trafalgar Square and a loud, chanted, list of legal advice points, the sisters set off along the Strand, brandishing green and purple (the colours of the suffragette movement) smoke flares, heading for Waterloo Bridge.

They sat down in the middle of the road in the centre of the river crossing, chanting: “Sisters united will never be defeated” and other slogans, and stayed there for about an hour.

The Government claims it has set aside £20 million to help local authorities to provide services for survivors of domestic violence. Sisters Uncut said this meant services had to "fight each other for funding" and that it was "treating life-saving support like a prize to be won".

Save Apna Haq

 by New Worker correspondent

A LARGE group of women from South Yorkshire came to London on Saturday 21^st November to hand in a petition at Downing Street against the threatened closure of the Apna Haq women’s refuge, which specialises in helping women in the black and Asian communities in Rotherham.

Campaigners say that Apna Haq provides the only ethnic minority support group in Rotherham offering help against domestic violence and assisting the women in breaking free from abuse.

The town of Rotherham in Yorkshire is sadly now well known for one reason more than any other – the horrific child sexual exploitation that has taken place in the town over the last few years.

Many men have gone to prison with long sentences for rape and other crimes, and the council and police were slammed in several damning reports that exposed how they had turned a blind eye and done little to protect vulnerable girls from abuse.

These reports, including Alexis Jay’s report (August 2014) and a report by Ofsted, also found that many ethnic minority women and girls are subject to abuse in Rotherham, and that support for ethnic minority women in the town has been lacking. They noted “insufficient cultural understanding” about the obstacles preventing women from reporting abuse.

In 1994 a group of local ethnic minority women set up what started as a domestic violence support service and called it Apna Haq, which means “My Rights”. More than 2,000 women and children have been helped by Apna Haq to escape, overcome and survive domestic and sexual abuse, so-called “honour-related” abuse and forced marriage, and sexual exploitation and abuse.

Many women have been so empowered by their experience at Apna Haq that they have gone on to become volunteers and workers there too, sharing their knowledge and experience to help new service users.

Apna Haq is literally a life-saving service, and it is run the best way a women’s service can be – by and for women who understand their community’s reality and needs.

The women who run Apna Haq have deep personal understanding of the particular patterns of abuse, the excuses that are made for it and the barriers to escaping abuse in their community. They are the best at creating a holistic service that offers women and their children a lifeline when they need it. This kind of specialism cannot be bought on the “open market” and is not easily transferable.

Services like Apna Haq are known to provide the best long-term outcomes for women and their families. At the end of July this year Apna Haq received a devastating letter from Rotherham council informing them that their £145,000 contract for providing domestic violence support was to be ended and that a mainstream service with no specialism in the experiences and needs of minority ethnic women would do the work instead (for a slightly lower price).

The community of workers and volunteers around Apna Haq are horrified and genuinely fearful for the fate of women and girls seeking help in the near future – because they know that some of these women will not get the specialist support and understanding they need to guarantee their safety and survival.

“We cannot allow Apna Haq to close. It is expert,” the campaigners say. “It is life-saving. It is run by women who know the lives of the women who seek help there. It is essential. We cannot try to put right horrific abuse of girls from across the different communities in Rotherham and simultaneously create new barriers to women and children who need help.

“Join us and call on the lead Commissioner in Rotherham Sir Derek Myers, who now runs Rotherham borough council, to stand by Apna Haq to ensure that their future is secure.

“Nothing about us without us!”

Please sign the petition.

Emily Wilding Davison centenary

 by New Worker correspondent

ON 4^TH JUNE this year it will be 100 years to the day since the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison died at Epsom racecourse after stepping out from the crowd during the Derby race in front of the King George V’s horse, Anmer.

 Last Thursday there was a memorial meeting in Bloomsbury and on 18^th April a plaque to commemorate Davison’s sacrifice to draw attention to the cause of women’s right to vote was unveiled at the race course, on the spot by Tattenham Corner from where she stepped out to her death.

The suffragettes organised a huge and dignified funeral an honour of their comrade who had sacrificed her life in the struggle for women's rights and democracy, at St George's Church in Bloomsbury.

The campaign to get a minute's silence at this year's Derby held a rally celebrating the life and struggle of Emily Davison at the very same church last on Thursday 16^th May.

 Speakers included Katherine Tupper, Emily Wilding Davison's great great niece, Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Attorney General, Lindsey German, national convenor of Stop the War Coalition, Katherine Connelly, campaign coordinator and author of biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, Yvonne Ridley, journalist and human rights activist and others.

Davison was born in Blackheath, London, the daughter of Charles Davison and Margaret Davison. She attended Kensington High School and won a bursary to Royal Holloway College in 1891 to study literature. She took up her place in January 1892 but in 1893 she was forced to drop out when her father died and her recently widowed mother could not afford the fees of £20 a term. She then took up employment as a private governess after which she became a school teacher raising enough money to study Biology, Chemistry, English Language and Literature at St Hugh’s College.

 She obtained first-class honours in her final exams, though women were not at that time admitted to degrees at Oxford. She also obtained a first class honours degree from London University. In 1906 she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union, which was formed in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst.

Davison gained a reputation as a militant campaigner. She was arrested and imprisoned for various offences nine times, including a violent attack on a man she mistook for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George

On 2^nd April 1911, the night of the 1911 census, Davison hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster overnight so that on the census form she could legitimately give her place of residence that night as the “House of Commons”. In 1999 a plaque to commemorate the event was set in place by Tony Benn MP.

No one is certain whether Davison intended to commit suicide when she stepped in front of the King’s horse at Epsom on 4^th June 1913. But she must have known she risked death or serious injury and her courage has been an inspiration to campaigners ever since.