Counter-protest disrupts lantern parade marking 100 years of suffrage

Standing in the middle of the road outside the Wills Memorial Building, a small group of around half a dozen protesters managed to bring a parade of thousands to a standstill for several minutes.

“Justice for all, not for some,” the counter-protesters shouted as one woman with a handmade banner reading ‘less voting more riots’ let off a red flare.

Other banners read: ‘Suffragettes won the vote for rich white women’ and ‘What about the votes of women of colour?’

Protesters cited a perceived racism in the suffrage movement illustrated by placcards containing the allegedly offensive slogan, ‘rather be a rebel than a slave’.

In a statement released on Tuesday evening, one protester said: “This quote has been called out in the past for racism and highlights the lack of knowledge from the people who partook in this and supplied these materials.”

The protester’s statement added: “Hosting such an event is an unjustifiable celebration of white, cis, middle class privilege.

“The passing of the Act has served only to entice people into participating in a corrupt democratic system that benefits only the privileged few.

“A hundred years later so many still experience the violence of this so-called ‘democracy’ on a daily basis, because of poverty, race, gender identity, immigration status and imprisonment.”

Bristol deputy mayor Asher Craig called the suffrage movement “a racist movement” in a Facebook post last year, citing the same ‘I’d rather be a rebel than a slave’ quote:

Craig was the keynote speaker at Tuesday night’s celebrations on College Green following the lantern parade:

https://twitter.com/BWV2/status/960968553959747584

Craig’s comments in November 2017 came after Mal Sainsbury shared a post to the Bristol Labour Party Members Group marking the anniversary of when suffragette Theresa Garnett attacked Winston Churchill with a horsewhip at Bristol Temple Meads.

Sainsbury said: “And now there are loads more of us angry women in Labour-controlled Bristol who would quite like to take a horse whip to anyone who votes to strip our city of vital services, close most of our libraries and withdraw funding from all our public parks in the name of ‘austerity’…

“Please join us and bring your metaphorical horsewhip to lick our Mayor and Councillors into shape!”

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees asked Sainsbury on Facebook: “You using the image of horse whipping me!?”, to which Sainsbury answered: “Metaphorically of course – and anyone in power who, as fought by the suffragettes, doesn’t shoulder the responsibilities of promoting equality and justice for all the citizens they are elected to represent.”

Rees then says: “Metaphorically!? Do you think that is an appropriate way of describing an interaction between a person of White European and Black African heritage in a city like Bristol?”

He tagged Craig, who responded by saying that “the Suffrage Movement was a racist movement”.