Coalition of Quakers and others win major campaigning award
Quakers in Britain are delighted to have won a major campaigning award alongside other organisations for their work as part of the Police Bill Alliance.
The alliance was one of three nominated in the National Campaigner Awards held each year by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation for best coalition or collaboration.
“Putting aside organisational ego," was key to making a strong coalition said Rosemary Forest of Bond at the awards ceremony at the Conduit Club in Covent Garden, London, on 24 May.
The Bill Alliance included many civil society networks, organisations and activists seeking to amend the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (known as the Police Bill) introduced in March 2021.
The core group was made up of Liberty, Quakers in Britain, Bond, Friends of the Earth, and Friends, Families and Travellers. Jessica Metheringham, a Reading Quaker, was also cited for her parliamentary work for the alliance.
Solidarity with minority groups
Speaking for the alliance, Forest emphasised the importance of standing in solidarity with minority groups and the crucial role of trust and supporting each other.
Appreciating and respecting the different contributions social movements make and not undercutting these, especially in the media, was vital, she added.
The Police Bill posed a significant threat to democracy and human rights, placing severe restrictions on the right to protest and seriously impacting groups including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
But the Police Bill Alliance “led to an extraordinary and unprecedented series of fourteen defeats for the Government in the House of Lords," the citation said.
The Government lost nearly every one of the anti-protest measures it tried to add to the Bill through late amendments, including protest-related stop and search and Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (aka 'Protest Banning Orders').
Achieving this result involved intense work in parliament and the media. The alliance engaged All Party Parliamentary Groups, Select Committees, UN Special Rapporteurs, businesses and former police chiefs.
However, much of what was removed from the Police Bill became law under the Public Order Act passed in early May. This Act created the offences of locking on, being equipped for locking on and interference with key national infrastructure.
Other nominees in the category were Diverse5050 Campaign and We're Right Here: the campaign for community power.