Something called New Socialist tells us how awesome Bash Back is.
An interview with the trans liberationist non-violent direct action group BASH BACK.
If it’s non-violent why is its theme-image a snarling man in a mask aiming a hammer at us? Are we supposed to think he’s in the middle of putting together an Ikea bookshelf?
The trans-led non-violent direct action project BASH BACK emerged almost exactly a year ago when they took action against the then Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s constituency office, in response to “huge backpedals in the healthcare rights afforded to trans people — and young people especially — in an NHS system that was never kind to us in the first place.”
By “took action” they mean they smashed the windows and painted graffiti all over the office. That’s not non-violent. It can be called non-violent in the sense of not physically injuring people, but only in that sense. It’s not non-violent to smash other people’s windows or vandalize other people’s offices. It’s a threat, for one thing, and it’s physical material harm for another thing. It’s intimidation. They do not get to dress themselves up as Gandhis.
There is, as BASH BACK have said, little hope that the Andy Burnham administration will choose to change direction without considerable pressure.
And by “pressure” they mean…you know…smashing up offices and so on. Non-violent “pressure”.
BASH BACK have been extensively demonised by the state and by a press that seeks to portray them as a violent mob, or as thugs. Yet they have a serious strategy based on a rigorous analysis of the situation which trans people face in Britain today.
It’s not the state or the press that keeps issuing images of Bash Back snarling through a mask and brandishing a hammer. Those are their images, not ours. They are most definitely advertising their threats of violence, so they absolutely do not get to sit back and say they’re not violent at all in any way. Violent threats are not a branch of non-violence. To put it as clearly as I can, that image of the snarling man with the hammer is intended to make us imagine it smacking us in the face. Not likely to by accident or as a by-product but intended to.
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