Smoke Bombs outside Labour Womens Declaration meeting.....

[Dances]

#LabWomenDec

Apparently smoke bombs have been set off.

Anyone there?

Be safe

And far from being socialist or even community minded it is what people used to call bourgeois individualism!

This is what Labour has become, and it frustrates me so, so much when some people conflate this neoliberal obsession with individualism with “the left”, or even “hard left”. These idiots have colonised socialism the same way they are trying to colonise womanhood.

Oh I did Lordfrontpaw! Do you think they realise those were supposed to be figures of fun rather than aspirational?

This is where I trot out this link again. Always relevant.

www.feministcurrent.com/2018/03/23/leftist-women-uk-refuse-accept-labours-attempts-silence-critiques-gender-identity/

Well I thought they were supposed to be figures of fun. Little did I know they would become blueprints for modern yoof! I still like Spoiled Bastard though.

Someone should show Scouse Joss this tweet from Liverpool FC.

Also this tweet from the Wall of Truth account made me feel so bad for the residents.

Please do not come to the Wall of Truth again with this disrespectful behaviour. This is a memorial space, please show respect, and please do not desecrate with swear-words, with shouting, or with any form of smoke bombs ever again. #Grenfell #ForeverInOurHearts

twitter.com/Maxilla_Space/status/1237377248195420165

Reflecting on yesterday. So many thanks to give to the organisers, the stewards, the speakers.

And even though I'm a 'don't give a fuck nowadays' attendee, it did feel intimidating approaching the venue, listening to the protest, having a protester in your face with a camera, and smelling that smoke. (Slow clap - we were still all there, and I'm guessing your actions will motivate more people to want to attend and show support each time you do this sort of thing. Tip: It's not helpful to your argument).

And the 'we realised a bit late about the venue being near Grenfell' - FFS, the minute I saw the venue announced I was aware of that link, you've got to be really shit at West London geography not to know the importance of that location.

I'm always interested in, and wanting to listen to, those who protest. And it led me to one of their group. I'm not going to link them here, as they're young.

They're a petite female sixth former, railing against 'the machine', often dressed in fetish gear, weaing a binder. I get it. They wouldn't listen to me, or my experiences as a teen, as I'm old to them, and don't understand. But I get it. That desire to push out and away from the 'gender' chains that bind you, which are even more harsh nowadays. Experimenting with who you are.

A teeny red flag - one of their pics in their feed with what looks like a much older person 'let's get a bit homosexy'? Fingers crossed that's their parent, but I somehow doubt it.

On the verge of adulthood, but not quite there.

Testing out who you are for many of us looked a little bit like this - but it was before tumblr and queer theory and QIA+ groups did not bring you so much into this sphere of fetish, older men telling you they're lesbians, people wearing strap-on-cocks to demos against feminists' talking.

This sixth former has somehow got involved with LondonBiPandas, with all that brings.

We should all be concerned with these links.

I am also concerned by how incredibly young some of these protesters look. Maybe I'm showing my age but some of those at the Edinburgh protest holding "FUCK TERFs" signs looked barely 16. I find it sad that they've been sucked into this weird mix of victimisation and sexualisation. This is what grooming looks like.

Has any labour bigwigs or local politician (or the current mayor) said a dicky bird about this? All I can see is their constant sniping at the tories, complaints a bit everything, barking back to the Labour glory days of old (huh?), no fixes/solutions proposed, no proposals to help... nada.

Those pictures are so upsetting. I can't even imagine how the locals must have felt about it all.

Lord that's the thing that's made me the most disappointed about this event.

A London councillor has spoken up. Even Patrick Strudwick has condemned the behaviour.

But no Labour leadership challengers. None of them. None of them have recognised threatinging, abusive behaviour and called it out.

None of them.

They all too seem too scared to stand up against abusive behaviour and support so many of their colleagues, mostly women but also men, in saying 'no', this behaviour is not OK. Their silence condones this behaviour.

Its worth remembering that what is happening in the Labour Party is just a reflection of what is going on in different parts of society everyday.

No newspaper coverage, apart from the DM and the only other one RT!! www.rt.com/uk/482738-trans-activists-smoke-bombs-grenfell/ And this (anothe splinter group?) Marxist article rdln.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/british-labour-party-leaders-pledge-purge-of-feminists/

It is the silence of the majority that allows these trans activists to have the upper hand.

Labour Women's Declaration have issued this statement post meeting www.dropbox.com/s/3pko1viptkxy69f/LWD%20Statement%20on%20Expel%20Me%20Rally.pdf?dl=0

If that link doesn't work it is on their facebook page at www.facebook.com/pg/LabourWomensDeclaration/posts/

So maybe it’s ‘show a friend a day’? Show people the clips and photos. Say ‘why is this not being shown in the media? Why are our politicians condoning this with their silence? Why are the police not cracking down?’

Wow, that's shocking.

And I actually thought PBP Joss had a little more intelligence than that. Not just to say that it's totes ok to intimidate women with smoke bombs but to do so on the Grenfell estate.

A further demonstration of the utter lack of self-awareness of TRAs - it is all about them and their feelings and they literally could not give a shiny shit about anyone else.

**to rectify : they were protest flares, not smoke bombs.

mobile.twitter.com/LondonBiPandas/status/1237318474453712897

Protest flares sounds a bit Grosvenor Square 68 to me.

Flares? Who on earth happens to have a flare? And how are protest flares in any way different from distress flares?

They can call them 'fairy dust sprinklers' but they are still things that cause smoke and that horrible burning smell.

I was at the meeting and to hear that people who had left early had been hassled, then later that we should know that smoke bombs had been let off and not to worry about the smell was ridiculous. That a peaceful meeting was having to then be told to wait for the police and stewards to say when it was safe to leave? Flashes going off in peoples faces from cameras.

What shocks me is that the only other time I can recall having to have that level of protection for any meeting or campaign I have attended in nearly 30 years was when the BNP were turning up as counter demonstrators to anti racism demos and events.

I'm angry that the local community had to go through that and I'm angry that women are faced with that level of hostility for just asking that hard won rights around safety and dignity be protected. I'm angry that we have got to this point. But that anger is making me now want to get more involved.

Why were the police trying to shield peaceful, lawfully meeting attendees rather than questioning tho face-covered, phallus-wearing, smoke-bomb-letting-off howlers?

Have the police made any statements as to why they did not arrest any of the people wielding broom handles and setting off flares? (I mean, I know why they didn't - corporate capture and all of that - but at some point they need to be held to account.)

Because they have had 'training' - I won't say by which external group.

"Protest Flares" would be some form of clothing.

The instructions for the use of marine distress flares are available online: You point them downwind. You hold them away from yourself out away from the boat. Put it another way, they are not toys.

We need tougher laws on the possession and use of these explosive devices.

'they are not toys' - exactly, and looking at the ages of some of these kids - they don't look old enough to buy fireworks, so where would they get their hands on distress flares? Perhaps mummy and daddy own a yacht?

They all too seem too scared to stand up against abusive behaviour and support so many of their colleagues, mostly women but also men, in saying 'no', this behaviour is not OK. Their silence condones this behaviour

They take their lead from Jeremy Corbyn in that.....he too would never stand up and call out shocking behaviour ( in constituency parties) when he needed to, It was always mealy-mouthed platitudes about 'equality' and 'oppression'.

Very ironic that the TRAs complain that GC women are in bed with the religious right-wing or whatever other dogwhistle crap it is that they say to smear us.

You know who has form for filming women entering and leaving abortion clinics with the threat to post women’s pictures online as a form of harassment? Anti choice extremists. This is exactly what they do. Trying to instil fear.

And also the smoke bombs. What absolutely disgusting people these lot are. This isn’t protest. It’s just intimidation. If these thugs want the law changed they need to speak to those with the power to change it. Maybe it wouldn’t be as much fun for them filming and screaming at MPs and Lords and letting off smoke bombs to try to stop them speaking to each other, because they know they would get arrested if they tried.
Much more satisfying to try to intimidate peacefully-gathering women, knowing police will let them crack on with it, clearly.

A London councillor has spoken up.

There is no hope for Labour. None at all.