On the Ground - Liverpool Counter Demo 08/10/23
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TRANSCRIPTION FOLLOWS.
[Intro music]
On the 8th of October 2023, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, KJK, or Posie Parker held a so-called ‘Let Women Speak’ rally in Liverpool. Her rally, comprised of between 50 and 100 people, was outnumbered by a counter-protest supporting trans rights of about 150 people with chanting and booing audible on KJK’s livestream. This is an audio account of the day.
[On the ground]
All right. Well, good morning from Liverpool. It is currently 12:27. And after amassing and an initial face off between around 40, let's say, members of KJK’s group and about 30 counter-demoers with bloc and stewards providing each side of the line, KJK’s group has now split off into the obligatory half circle to do their talks. It's tense. It's tense here. There's not much room down on this dock. A lot of tension in the air as we come up to the beginning of the afternoon.
[In studio]
It's important to note that during this initial face off prior to the majority of both demonstrations arriving, there was not a significant police presence. There were perhaps around five or six police officers. And the the line, the demarcation, between KJK’s let women speak and the counter-demonstration was made up of on one side, KJK’s marshals, all the regular faces. If you've been, you know. And black bloc on the counter-demonstrations side. This initial lack of police intervention will change throughout the day. Moving on.
[On the ground]
Well, it's been about 15, 20 minutes and the size of the counterprotest has grown quite considerably. I'd estimate perhaps about 100 people here now. And this is all happening a 5 minutes walk away from Labor Party conference. So two a******s in Liverpool today.
[Repeated chanting from crowd] Trans lives matter!
[Repeated chanting from crowd] Let women speak! Shut fascists up!
[Crowd booing, before repeated chanting] Fascist scum off our streets!
Right. It's 1:30. KJK’s just finished her speech and all the way through: A lot of booing, a lot of chanting from the 100 to 150 counterdemoers that are currently here. I think a lot of community turnout today, a lot of Liverpudlian accents as you walk around, a lot of chants of “no fascists” in Liverpool. I think this is an incursion into quite a supportive city from KJK. But as always, she's walled off with barriers and protected by the police. A lot of marshals around as well. A lot of, you know, wannabe cops for KJK. And you'll never guess which way the cops are facing. That's right. It's towards the counterdemo. So 1312 I guess. A brief intermission before the next speaker currently. Chanting continues.
[In studio]
Just for some additional context about some of the speakers and some of the right wing figures who were on the dock at Liverpool: This is reporting taken from the Trans Safety Network and the work of Jess O’Thompson. There was a speaker from Thoughtful Therapists, an organization which supports conversion therapy alongside right wing streamer figure Charles Veitch. Veitch ended up in a scuffle with a counter-protester who was blocking his camera and quite naturally which came out with the words “Thank God for the police”. So as always with KJK’s ‘Let women speak’ events, there was a lot of begging from the transphobe side for the police to intervene, for the police to do more in terms of protecting the rally and essentially asking for the police to shut down the counter-protest. And you see that every single time with these demos. Marshalls constantly begging police to do more, begging police to intervene on their side, despite the fact that there was a by this point, considerable police presence. By the end of the day, there were horses, police horses out on the dock. And of course the rally had its own segregated area with barriers and police enforcing those barriers. Now, here's some more raw audio.
[Repeated chanting from crowd] Trans lives matter!
[One shouts] Stop talking shite!
[Repeated chanting from crowd] My body, my choice!
[One shouts] Posie Parker is the gayest name I’ve ever heard!
[Repeated chanting from crowd] F**k off fascists!
[Booing from the crowd]
After about an hour and a half of speeches, KJK and her lot started to pack up and left. From the brief bits of speeches I heard through the chanting and the booing, I wouldn't say there's much point in going to seek out clips other than a couple of darkly humorous moments, and of course, for monitoring purposes. But this is audio from the moment the KJK left. You can see video of it on the Hell Island Report's Twitter page at HellIslandReps.
[Booing from crowd]
Well, it is currently 2:50. A series of speeches. I’m not gonna lie, I didn't hear them being on this side. As I've said before, a lot of shouting, a lot of cheering, a lot of booing, a lot of a lot of chanting. But I think, yeah, the overwhelming feeling is is is a community coming out to tell Posie to f**k off. Just a lot of shouts of “get out of Liverpool” and “go home”, as you've heard. And it really is that sense of community that's come through today.
Overall impressions from Liverpool on the 8th of October 2023 is that this was not an event that went well for okay. A lot of local community came out to tell her to leave. And she was outnumbered and out chanted by the counter-protest. And from the brief bits of live stream I've seen, the chanting and the booing comes through in the audio. It's hard for her to paint this as a win simply because so much of the community came out to tell her that she was not welcome, that this was a fascist incursion into Liverpool. And I think that's really the takeaway from Sunday. That's really what shone through.
Accompanying video for this report will be available on Hell Island Reports’ pages. That's at HellIslandReps on Twitter, Instagram and Threads. It was brilliant to be on the ground at Liverpool to speak to some people from the local community and just to get out and tell Posie to f**k off. Thanks to Jess O’Thompson for their reporting on the speakers and those present on the flash side at Liverpool.
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