I’m in complete agreement that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is an enormous threat to our democratic right to protest. So naturally, I’m not going to condemn people protesting it.
However, your description of Sisters Uncut as “women’s rights activists” is inaccurate and misleading. Many of the activists who operate under the Sisters Uncut banner are not women, and on more than one occasion they have participated in counter-protests against women’s rights campaigners. A Sisters Uncut member was convicted of assaulting a woman in her 60s, Maria MacLachlan, at a protest at Speaker’s Corner in 2017. And in Manchester last year Sisters Uncut attempted to disrupt a group of women taking part in an anti-rape demonstration. Some of the women taking part in this demonstration were survivors of violent rapes, but Sisters Uncut were very keen that their voices shouldn’t be heard.
I’m in complete agreement that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is an enormous threat to our democratic right to protest. So naturally, I’m not going to condemn people protesting it.
However, your description of Sisters Uncut as “women’s rights activists” is inaccurate and misleading. Many of the activists who operate under the Sisters Uncut banner are not women, and on more than one occasion they have participated in counter-protests against women’s rights campaigners. A Sisters Uncut member was convicted of assaulting a woman in her 60s, Maria MacLachlan, at a protest at Speaker’s Corner in 2017. And in Manchester last year Sisters Uncut attempted to disrupt a group of women taking part in an anti-rape demonstration. Some of the women taking part in this demonstration were survivors of violent rapes, but Sisters Uncut were very keen that their voices shouldn’t be heard.