Leamington Spa holds anti-Trump demonstration
Hundreds of people gathered in Leamington Spa on Monday 30 January to protest some of Donald Trump’s new laws, such as the temporary banning of certain Muslim immigrants from entering the country.
It was held from 6pm in front of the Leamington Spa town hall, with over 200 people in attendance.
The event on Facebook was organised by Emma Mort, a language teacher living in Leamington. It was called “Emergency Demo against Trump’s Muslim Ban and UK complicity” and had over 150 people “interested”.
The description of the event included references to the British government, such as: “Theresa May has betrayed her own people. That doesn’t mean we have to.”
Emma was incredibly pleased with the turnout of the event, saying: “I didn’t know whether to be more scared of loads of people being here, or more scared of nobody being here. But actually, I’m more scared of doing nothing.”
She saw demonstrations going on in London, Birmingham and even Coventry, but thought they were inaccessible to her at the time. This led to her deciding to set up the Leamington event herself, making sure to phone the police first.
People of all ages stood in solidarity holding posters with statements such as “Reject Racism”, “Bridges Not Walls” and “Ban Trump. It’s not 1984.”
Some Warwick students attended the protest too, even though there had been one on campus a couple of hours earlier. Georgia Hurrell, a second-year English Literature student, joined in because she could not make it to the demonstration at the Piazza.
Students from other universities were also present. Heather Cullinan, currently enrolled at Oxford Brookes, was home for the weekend and attended the event. She said: “How could you not come? I don’t know why there aren’t more people here.”
Sue Henderson, who was holding a sign saying “3 years 11 months 20 days 6ish hours to go”, was on her second anti-Trump demonstration of the month, after attending the London march a couple of days before. She, along with her sign, was featured in The Guardian saying: “We’re not going to let Trump have things his way.”
When asked by The Boar if she was planning on attending any more demonstrations soon, Sue answered: “If Trump does come [to the UK], we’ll be in another one in July!”
Emma commented: “I felt so emotional hearing people talking. To create that feeling of solidarity. Donald Trump doesn’t care that we’re here, he’s not bothered that we’re here, but people here are directly affected by his words and his actions.
“They feel the fear, the Islamophobia, the racism, the sexism. They worry that if they go out to a club, they’re going to get their p*ssies grabbed because he says it’s okay to do that. People in our communities feel that and we have to stand together and say that’s not okay.”
Comments (1)
sick what your doing
mind control on small kids this is just wrong
they no nothing about this and you forcing small children to protest wtf is wrong with you people
hitler did this .
Tump has more brains than you people it is clear