Thoughts from My Belly is Mine demo

Jade Hope reports from the protest outside the Spanish Embassy in London on June 27

Whilst on the train to London, I noticed that many people were looking at me. I do not blame them, after all I was making a pro-choice placard on the train, and I guess this is not a sight many are used to seeing. However two women from Austria decided to speak to me about what I was doing, they responded well and wished me luck when they left the train.

I arrived at London Euston and Susan Pashkoff had come to meet me from the train, which I was very grateful for – after all, I am a country girl. This kind of solidarity, going to a demonstration together, is something that I love about the left and it’s something that we often overlook and do not appreciate as much as we should.

We made our way to the Spanish embassy and we noticed the crowd forming outside under the Spanish and European flags. We were greeted with happy faces including Anna Fisher’s and later Charlotte Sands, also from Left Unity. I had been tweeting on the train to London and that meant that Cristina Rios, the organiser from My Belly is Mine, recognised me as she had already retweeted me, showing the importance of social media. I received an instant buzz from the positive energy that surrounded me. My placard that I made on the train received welcome compliments which made me very happy!

I was approached by students who asked me how I heard about the demonstration and this led to me talking about Left Unity and the Women’s Caucus. They responded with interest. There were quite a lot of young people at the demonstration which was great to see.

We gathered together in a circle and listened to speeches on the megaphone. All the speeches we heard were both in English and Spanish, this was great!

Jade and Anna outside the embassy. Anna’s poster says ‘If the pope could get pregnant, abortion would a sacrament’ in Spanish

At the last national council meeting is was suggested that Left Unity put out material in other languages and we really must do this, it is so much more welcoming  for those who are not from Britain. For some reason I found myself more moved when a woman was speaking in Spanish, because even though I did not know what she was saying, I could sense the emotion in her voice. She also told us that the majority of the Spanish people did not want or ask for this legislation. You could feel what this meant to all those who spoke both in English and Spanish.

There was a particularly great speech from the representative of the UK movement Abortion Rights who said that if you are against abortion it is simple, don’t have an abortion – but don’t force your views on others and take a decision from them that it not yours to take because ultimately this results in forced pregnancy.

After the speeches had finished we began to make some noise and chanted towards the Spanish embassy. We chanted ‘Not the church not the state, women must decide their fate’ and my personal favourite ‘Keep your rosaries, leave my ovaries!’

Overall I would say around 150 people were there, but that is just my guess. It was great to see so many different groups united for this one campaign; My Belly is Mine, the Women’s Assembly and Speaking of I.M.E.L.D.A.

It is important that we, Left Unity as a political party, support individual campaigns like this because it shows everyone that there is a political party out there that shares your concerns and is prepared to voice them with you.

Then only negative thing I would say about this experience is that there were not that many men there. Men should support campaigns like this just as much as women; there was not a single man there from Left Unity. It may be about women’s bodies but the whole of society suffers when women are denied their rights. Let’s be clear about this: this is a human rights issue and human rights issues have no borders. The most basic right to have is the control of your own body!

This right is about to be taken away from the women of Spain, which will mean that the number of women who die every year from unsafe abortions will rise – already this is 47,000 a year! So in the future I would like to see more support if you think this unfair, violent, reactionary and patriarchal legislation should not be passed. Future events will take place: the next big one is on 2 August.

Peace Out.

Jade Hope
Northampton Left Unity and Women’s Caucus Representative