To be shocked that this is happening in Britain in 2018?

[Spending2muchtimeonMN]

Masked men try to prevent women from attending a lawful, public meeting to discuss the impact of proposed changes to the law on women's rights:

www.facebook.com/julie.bindel/videos/pcb.10160135970780316/10160135907955316

However do they not have the right to free speech also
Standing on the stairs blocking the entrance to the meeting room is not exercising free speech. They could have done that quite easily outside, stood their with their placards and said their piece, without preventing other people going about their lawful business. Too right there should have been some arrests made.

The intimidation and threat of violence that was aimed at stopping women’s freedom of speech, movement and assembly, was not the fault of:

-the organisers of this peaceful ticketed discussion event

• the women that attended and spoke at this peaceful ticketed discussion event

-the women, children and trans people, whose rights, safety and dignity the women at the discussion event were talking about, (because these women have serious concerns about very bad effects on these groups if gender self ID is brought in as law. These women also believe that biological sex is real and that gender is harmful bullshit, and think there’s nothing wrong with being able to talk about that),

• the police for not being able to be in several places at once
• the venue, the organisers or anyone else for not paying for their own private security

The intimidation and threat of violence at this event that was aiming to stop women’s freedom of speech, movement and assembly, definitely WAS the fault of:

A group of masked male (and a few female) thugs at entrances and exits trying to stop women from attending and speaking at a lawful, peaceful public meeting purely on the basis that the bullies did not agree with some of these concerns.

HTH.

Men have always protested women's rights and their exercise of their free speech rights.
Violence and intimidation of women is an every day occurrence in the streets, in the home, and the workplace.
The only difference is the men don't usually wear masks.

Apparently, the organisers did hire a couple of security guards but obviously not enough to deal with the number of protesters.

The thing with having to pay for extensive security to be able to hold a small public meeting is that it's beyond the scope of many groups of people to pay for that. We're not talking about some massive political party or lobby group here.

So any time a group of thuggish, misogynistic men decide they don't want women to be able to meet, organise or discuss issues which affect them, they just need to get the yobs out in force and, unless those women have a lot of money behind them, they are going to struggle to be able to cope with it. Therefore, democratic freedom is more limited for some people and these privileged, thuggish, white men get to exert control over who can meet to discuss a proposed change in the law.

There were seven police officers outside the venue keeping order.
The masked terrorists sneaked in to surround the women on the stairs to try to intimidate them into leaving.

Completely agree. However do they not have the right to free speech also?

Of course they do! I don't think anyone has said otherwise?
Both sides should have the rights to free speech.How are you going to achieve that though if you are trying to physically stop other people from speaking and discussing?
If they were so bothered about free speech, saw themselves as a woman, they would have wanted to join in and put their point across instead of intimidating and trying to silence.

So was there a massive demonstration round the front as well? Because I find it very hard to believe that two bobbies couldn't have managed the people on the stairs. Which would have left 5 round the front.

The masked men on the stairs were eventually managed by one of the venue security people. That security person was then accused of violence against the masked men. The accusation was withdrawn when the video was provided.

It's fucking appalling. If a load of burly white blokes stopped some black men from entering a meeting about race inequality, even without using actual violence, there would be justified public outrage and no doubt police involvement. How is this any different?!

A meeting last year (which I think was the first of these meetings) was supposed to be a debate where speakers from both sides were invited to put their views across and have a discussion. The transactivists chose not to participate, to hound the venue to cancel the meeting and then, when the women were meeting at Speakers' Corner to find out where the new venue was, carried out a pre-meditated assault on one of the women. (One of the attackers was convicted a couple of weeks ago). They then followed the women to the new venue and threatened to burn it down.

I already had some concerns about the introduction of gender self-ID but the unwillingness to debate the issue and the determination to violently crush any attempts to discuss the subject has made me more sure of my position on this. If they believe the women are talking rubbish, why are they so scared to allow them to speak and, why aren't they able to debate with them to refute their arguments?

Btw, trans people are attending these meetings - One of the speakers at the Bristol meeting, Miranda Yardley, is a transwoman who is against self-ID and others have spoken at other meetings. It's just the pro-self-ID transactivists who prefer bullying, threatening and assaulting women to actually having a debate.

Maria Mac has written about all the attempts to shut down these meetings - WPUK and WNTT - on one page here. There are also links to videos of the talks.

Thank you for clarifying thebewilderness.

YANBU. This is absolutely terrifying. It shows how fascism can take hold. I can’t believe it’s happening in the UK.

It’s appalling that women have to think about their personal safety when simply going to speak or talk to each other. Who the fuck- male or female- puts on a mask to go out and try to physically stop that happening?

@ChattyLion and why the fuck is it not headline news every time it happens? Why are men still deciding what we're allowed to talk about, a hundred years after women had to fight to get the vote?

I don't understand why, if a heterosexual man wants to dress up and be glamorous he doesn't just fuck off and do that, without claiming to be female and lesbian, demanding access to all lesbians and all female 'safe spaces', while holding on to his penis. It's so demented...

There would be more anger if these were pro life activists stopping women entering an abortion clinic.

Free speech is everything.

Hear hear @Juells and @Zippy. If these were pro-lifers there would be an outcry!