Mancs Reclaim The Night march a success
Feminist | 02.03.2008 19:16 | Gender | Other Press | Social Struggles
and a threatend counter protest by a 'transqueer'.
An estimated 150 people walked the streets of Manchester demanding
an end to male violence against females.
The Reclaim The Night marches in the UK began as a protest
againt the Yorkshire Ripper Murders and police publicly telling
women to stay indoors and not go outside after dark.
There was a women only bloc on the march and
and a mixed bloc which included male allies (including Anarchist/Alternative men) who understand and support women only space, and who know that men can
end violence against women.
Feminist
Additions
false statement
02.03.2008 20:40
This is either a case of transqueer phobia or just a misunderstanding because the trans queer block was there in solidarity, just like other groups were. I found the solidarity from the transqueer block to be quite moving as they are a sector of society who also suffer gender discrimination. It was never called as a counter protest.
The transqueer block was at the back and attracted support from others in the second march, i will post photos soon.
jen
Comments
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Nope
02.03.2008 22:34
The transqueer bloc were certainly not considered a supportive allie, more of a reminder that women only spaces and feminism are under attack from the queer lobby.
Charlie
e-mail: charliegrrl@gmail.com
not that much of a success
03.03.2008 00:18
on another point, i noticed that a group of young men walked right through the mixed / transqueer bloc shouting "hey ho, i'm a ho" some meters in front of me and nothing happened. i mean NOTHING. nobody shouted at them (from what i heard and saw) nobody went to confront them in a group nobody even told a cop (which i would not encourage, but which others should be free to do). i'm a bit ashamed i didn't manage to get to them myself, but i wonder why this was not made public by the people right next to the men shouting, or via the stewards or people with the microphones. applied anti-sexism should probably look a little different.
...
Queers were succesful
03.03.2008 09:38
The march as a whole claimed to be non-violent, there were placards saying "proud to be non-violent" and there was much chanting about how violent every man is. Clearly not all men are violent, and clearly not all women are non-violent - as was demonstrated at the end of the march when one of the queers was set upon by one of the more hardcore seperatist-feminists.
The chants from the queer block included:
"Hey ho, sexist bullshit has to go"
"2,4,6,8 Queer and trans against the state"
"We're here, we're queer, we will not live in fear"
"no cops, no stewards, gender is fluid"
Not once did I hear anybody say "hey ho, i'm a ho" - you may have confused our discussion on whether you should be using the word ho - don't you normally find it offensive?
A small walk around Manchester, led by stewards and police and with women kept seperate from the rest of the world is not reclaiming the night. If you really want to reclaim the night then we should all work together to form a much larger group of people, by keeping yourselves seperate and using the state to protect you you are simply demonstrating your fear.
Richard
More Deliberate Provocation from the Pseudo-Left
03.03.2008 09:39
Caz
duplicate coverage, second report published on march
03.03.2008 11:26
Source: Evenings News online
HUNDREDS of students marched through the streets of Manchester to demonstrate against violence towards women.
Around 400 people came from across the country to take part in the city centre demonstration organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) Women's Campaign.
The Reclaim the Night marches have taken place in different cities across the country since beginning in Leeds, in the 1970s, when women protested against a police curfew to keep them indoors after dark while the Yorkshire Ripper was murdering prostitutes in the area. They said they did not want to be kept off the streets by the threat of male violence and were no more at risk than men.
Saturday's march, which set off from Manchester University students' union, in Sackville Street, at 6.30pm, aimed to decrease women's fear of street crime and raise awareness of domestic violence, which happens behind closed doors. Organisers also hope to put pressure on the government to improve conviction rates and provide uniform support for female victims, claiming one-in-three local authorities have no specialist services to help them.
NUS national women's officer Kat Stark said: "This demonstration is called Reclaim the Night but we'll be highlighting the fact that most violence against women actually occurs behind closed doors. We are demonstrating simply because not enough is being done to significantly reduce levels of violence against women today."
RTN
moderator
and men....
03.03.2008 16:12
what about men reclaiming the night? the majority of violence occurs to men by men.
sexism comes in two ways folks, this binary of male - bad, female - good looks worryingly like the inverse of patriachal values. Sexism is a form of power relationship that affects everybody.....
I was a little dissapointed to see a seperate womens bloc, with any men that wished to come along marching at the back...
is this what gender equality looks like?
z
zebedee
NUS...give us a break
03.03.2008 19:28
flapsaboppin
Reclaiming feminism
03.03.2008 22:35
Ps We didnt ask the police for permission to march last year and so it was more empowering. There's a horrible irony in policeMEN (as far as i could see) protecting/allowing/policing women in reclaiming our streets!
kate
Trans discrimination
03.03.2008 22:51
There is video of the transgender block on Saturday, so people can see for themselves what was being shouted.
Tiger
Correction
08.03.2008 00:35
despite threatened 'transqueer' counter protest." (part of main article)
should read:
"Was Manchester Reclaim the night March a success
even with self-labelled 'feminist' attacking queers"?
charlie