A women’s rights group blocked bridges across the UK on Sunday in advance of the autumn statement, in protest at cuts to specialist services for black and minority ethnic domestic violence survivors.

Around 600 women from anti-domestic violence group Sisters Uncut, whose last direct action saw them disrupt the red carpet at the premier of the film Suffragette, set off flares and blocked traffic on bridges in London, Newcastle, Glasgow and Bristol at 1pm.

The group is critical of Theresa May’s pledge of £20m of temporary funding for domestic violence services, which activists call a “sticking plaster on a haemorrhage”.



Nadine, a Sisters Uncut member who did not give her surname, said: “As domestic violence services shrink, Sisters Uncut will continue to grow. We will not stand by as black and brown survivors are left stranded in abusive homes without the bridges to safety provided by specialist domestic violence services, whilst migrant survivors with ‘no recourse to public funds’ find all of their bridges blocked by the government’s immigration policies.”

The group argue that the government is failing to secure funding for specialist services. “Many of the services lost in austerity were set up and run by women of colour for women of colour, because generic services did not meet their needs. Those needs remain unmet, and women of colour and migrant survivors remain more likely to be trapped in violence, without any support,” it said in a statement.

A 2015 report by Imkaan, an organisation dedicated to addressing violence against black and minority ethnic (BME) women, revealed nine in 10 BME survivors preferred to receive support from a specialist BME organisation.

Marcia Smith, a domestic violence survivor from Doncaster who attended the Newcastle action, said she went to the police after abuse but had been told they could not see her bruises because of the colour of her skin. “People don’t see black women as victims, and we get racism instead of help. With black services, you don’t have racism, you have the trust and support you need,” she said.

In 2015, Women’s Aid reported that refuges were being forced to turn away two in three survivors who approached them for a range of reasons including a lack of space to an inability to meet a survivors’ needs, because of language barriers, or disability. Women’s Aid data showed that for BME women, that number rose to four in five.



A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said a protest started at 11.15am at Trafalgar Square, before protesters walked towards Waterloo Bridge via the Strand. “When they arrived at Waterloo Bridge, the protestors staged a sit-in. An appropriate policing plan was in place due to traffic congestion. At 13.30hrs, the demonstration ended and the protesters left of their own accord,” he said. No arrests were made.