In April this year, I visited the Marble Arch in London with a close friend to see the Extinction Rebellion climate protests that, in the end, lasted 11-days and resulted in more than 1,000 arrests. We wandered around the makeshift camp where more than 100 activists had pitched tents, set up vegan food stalls, and barricaded themselves in a peaceful protest against climate change. Before we left, we took a leaflet from someone at the entrance and talked about whether or not we should buy a cheap tent and join in, but it wasn’t until later that night that I started to reflect on what it would really mean to be a part of the demonstrations, and how important they are to British culture and freedom.
Photograph by: Amber Lunt
Our country’s history is filled with tales of vibrant and impactful protests – from the arrests of Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst that prompted a now iconic wave of women’s suffrage to the recent Greenpeace protestors who defiantly occupied a BP oil rig in the Cromarty Firth. As far back as the late 1300s, protestors in the UK were shaping British politics and helping to change history.
The 14th century saw British people heavily divided by class or status, and in 1381 the introduction of a discriminatory new poll tax sparked one of the first major protests in the country, a rebellion that quickly spread from Essex all throughout the country. Around 60,000 people turned out to protest in a show of anger and solidarity, prompting the swift abandonment of the tax. Even 500 years on, when Margaret Thatcher’s government attempted to introduce a new version of the same tax, almost quarter of a million people took to the streets of London to riot – a move that arguably played a large part in Thatcher’s following resignation.
Photograph by: Talia Woodwin
The poll tax riots of 1990 were only one of many crucial protests that took place throughout the 20th century, however. The 1900s were defined by a number of high-profile movements, not least the women’s suffrage movement that gained momentum at the very start of the century. Protestors who, just a decade earlier, were meeting peacefully in the streets to ask for voting rights started to handcuff themselves to railings, plant bombs and go on hunger strikes in a more forceful attempt to get the Government to grant the female vote. This new approach helped to put pressure on the Government to act, and in 1918 following the end of World War I, the women’s suffrage movement saw some results – The Representation of the People Act, which granted some women and all men the right to vote. Although it took another decade for all women over the age of 21 to get voting rights, the 1918 Act was a huge victory at the time.
Unfortunately, the inclusivity of activism didn’t quite stretch to include LGBT+ groups for another 50 years. Pride festivals may seem like a celebration nowadays, but the annual marches are a key reminder of a protest that only started to gain traction in the 1970s, heavily influenced by the 1969 Stonewall riots in the United States. The first UK Gay Pride Rally took place in 1972, and it has continued to be an important part of the gay rights movement all the way up until just six years ago when same-sex marriage was made legal in England, Wales and Scotland. Even today, the fight against homophobia goes on, with the UK Government only this year putting pressure on Northern Ireland to legally recognise same-sex marriage.
By far the highest profile movement today, though, aims to tackle a problem that was almost unheard of 50 years ago. The latest wave of activism has taken form through the extremism of Extinction Rebellion and the courage and anger of the youth climate strikers, all of whom are fighting to raise awareness of an increasing climate and ecological emergency. Through barricaded roads, sit-ins and proposed airport drone attacks, these protestors are shaping politics in ways that will resonate for years. Already, they have helped to secure an Environment Bill that aims to protect UK nature and a NetZero law that legally binds us to achieving a neutral climate footprint by 2050.
Photograph Credits:
Featured image – Talia Woodwin
