The Arrest of Sarah Jane Baker and the Moral Degeneration of the “Left”
On Friday 14th July, a demonstration was held outside of Westminster Magistrates Court to protest the arrest and likely imprisonment of Sarah Jane Baker (SJB), a man convicted of torture and attempted murder, on the charge of incitement to violence. This followed a speech he gave on the Trans Pride March which culminated in him saying “If you see a Terf, punch them in the fucking face”. This was interpreted, accurately, as an incitement to commit violence against women and led to his arrest and likely re-imprisonment.
The demonstration was called by, amongst others, a group calling themselves Sisters Uncut who describe themselves as “feminist”, when they quite clearly are not. The 20-30 or so people who turned up outside the Magistrates Court to protest the arrest of this man no doubt all consider themselves to be leftists, antifa, maybe even anarchists or feminists. But they were none of those things and the fact that 20-30 so-called “leftists” turned up to support a violent and dangerous man’s “right” to call for violence against women is truly extraordinary and shows the moral degradation of the so-called “left” in this country.
I mean, obviously I’m going to disagree with them—I’m a Gender Critical Feminist (GC). But, even on their own terms, it would have been possible for them to acknowledge that SJB had gone too far, that what he had done was beyond the pale. It’s not necessary to support a deranged, dangerous and violent man, a man who’s been convicted of torture and attempted murder, in the name of some sort of “Trans Solidarity” (in case you don’t know, Sarah Jane Baker is a Trans-Identified Male). Thought could have been given as to whether or not their movement really should support a call to arms, an incitement to assault women who disagree with them. But that would have required far to much self examination. The TRA movement is violent and misogynist to the core and the actions of somebody like SJB were always going to happen—it’s that kind of movement. For the same reasons, they couldn’t condemn him—he was only doing what they have always done themselves, just a little more so.
Speaking as a GC Feminist, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, there’s nothing more likely to show the moral degradation of Trans Rights Activists (TRAs) and so-called “leftists” than seeing them get together to support a violent and dangerous convicted murderer’s “right” to call for violent assaults on women. This will help our cause enormously. The so-called “leftists” and TRAs have here been exposed as what they always were: A Men Rights Movement, willing to incite and use violence against any and all women who disagree with them. This will do wonders for “peaking” more people (the term used when people realise that the Emperor Has No Clothes, that Transwomen Are Men and TRAs are a violent, misogynist Mens Rights Movement).
On the other hand, I’m a leftist myself (a real one), anarchist even (ditto), not to mention a feminist, and I weep to see such degeneration in movements I care about. It’s also one of the few things that could lead to the Conservatives staying in power at the next election, as they themselves seem to have realised, and that’s a terrible prospect.
How did we get here? The truth is this has been a long time coming.
Trans Rights Activists—Violent and Dangerous Men in a Mens Rights Movement
The violence inherent if the TRA movement and the cowardice and moral degradation of the left in defending it first became apparent at a demonstration at Hyde Park Corner in September 2017, when a 60 year old feminist called Maria MacLachlan was violently attacked by three men, who smashed her phone to the ground, stole her memory card and then ran off. One of them, calling himself Tara Wolf, had posted earlier “I wanna fuck up some terfs”. He later boasted about the assault (and was supported by other TRAs, who gloated about it).
The details can be seen here, where some videos have been posted of the assault. The DARVO used to try and make Maria MacLachlan—a 60 year old woman, remember—the perpetrator of an assault on 3 grown men, all bigger and stronger than her, is comprehensively debunked. But not before a huge number of so-called “leftists” had spread this lie around. Notably, this wasn’t just a lie, it was an obvious lie.
This led to a sequel 6 weeks later at the Last Anarchist Bookfair. Helen Steel, one of the McLibel Two and a victim of the Spycops dirty tricks campaign by the Metropolitan police, had been at Hyde Park Corner and was at the Bookfair when a number of women, handing out leaflets objecting to proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, were surrounded and threatened by angry TRAs. Coming to their defence, she was then surrounded herself by a vicious hate-filled mob of “anarchist” TRAs who proceeded to threaten and intimidate her for over an hour, before a fire alarm set off by the organisers forced them to disperse. During this assault, some members of the baying mob, recognising Helen from Speaker’s Corner, falsely accused her of being a “snitch”. This was untrue—Helen had intervened to protect Maria from assault, nothing else—and, as Helen pointed out, in her statement about the incident, men who violently assault women cannot claim the moral high ground and complain about being reported to the police. Even anarchists accept this, real ones at any rate, and we’re not big fans of the police
This led to the cancellation of the Bookfair, never to return, as a lot of so-called “anarchists” made excuses for this behaviour, although, to be fair, some real anarchists defended Helen. The organisers, facing criticism for stopping the violent intimidation of a woman by a crowd of hostile men, threw it back to their critics, declaring that they could organise it themselves if they thought they could do it better. Subsequent “Anarchist” Bookfairs, sporadically arranged and sparsely attended, have all had “Terf Exclusion” clauses, a violation of Anarchist principles, and the Bookfair has basically ceased to be in any real sense.
Meanwhile, Tara Wolf was arrested and charged with assault. To its eternal shame, the venerable Anarchist magazine Freedom wrote an article in support of this violent man who’d assaulted a woman for daring to disagree with him! And, in a prequel to last weekend’s debacle, a number of so-called “leftists” and “anarchists” turned up outside court to support him.
The judge, though extremely biased against Maria (for example, he chastised her for using the correct pronouns to refer to Tara Wolf instead of pretending that he was a she) nevertheless dismissed his ridiculous claims of self defence and found him guilty of assault. Though he denied Maria damages, due in part to her using the correct pronouns to refer to her assailant. This should be noted: Women who have been assaulted by violent men then have to pretend that they’ve been assaulted by a woman or suffer consequences. Even in 2018, the institutional capture of establishment institutions was apparent.
These two violent acts can bookend the TRA movement’s history so far and its use of violence against women, whether actual assaults, as happened to Maria MacLachlan, or incitement to violence, as called for by SJB. Between these two events there is a huge number of incidents—go to this website for details, if you have the stomach for it. Note the constant use of threats of rape and sexual assault, epitomised by the banner at Frankfurt Pride: “Terfs can Choke on my Girl Dick”. It is, unfortunately, by no means the only use of a threat to sexually assault women used by these men, as the link shows.
Also worthy of note is the tour of New Zealand by Kellie Jay Keen, in which she was abandoned by the police in the middle of a hate-filled mob of violent TRA thugs and barely escaped with her life (she’s recounted that, as her security were escorting her through the baying mob, she nearly lost her footing a number of times and believes that if she’d fallen, she’d never have got up, as the mob would have killed her. She’s probably right. Mobs are like that). At the same event, a man actually did punch a 72 year old woman in the face—twice—fracturing her cheek bone. The TRAs gave the usual mixture of lies and “justification” for this violent misogynist man and the the NZ Police, who’d watched all of this without stopping any of it, didn’t bother trying to track this dangerous thug down (the act was caught on video, with a reasonably good quality still of the thug available to them) until shamed into it by the offer of a $5,000 reward. Upon having him delivered to them, they charged him with the lowest crime they could get away with and look as though they’re going to let him off with the NZ equivalent of a caution. New Zealand is not a place to go if you’re a woman and want to be safe.
In a culture this violent and misogynist, someone like Sarah Jane Baker was bound to appear, sooner or later.
Sarah Jane Baker
I don’t intend to give a full analysis of SJB’s life. Just the outline then:
SJB is the UK’s longest serving Trans prisoner, having served 30 years in jail. Initially he was jailed in 1989 for the imprisonment and torture of his stepmother’s teenage brother (this came on top of previous convictions for drug dealing and armed robbery). The gruesome details—which, as is quite common for violent TRAs, include sexual assault—are available here, if you have the stomach for them. Whilst inside, he attempted to murder another prisoner, which got him a life sentence, as is usual for attempted murder, with a minimum tariff of 9 years. Despite being eligible for parole from 2007 onwards, he wasn’t considered safe to release till 2019. During this time, he cut off his own testicles in 2017, forcing the prison hospital to finish the surgery that he’d been denied and prescribe him oestrogen.
Long before his incitement to his followers to assault women, red flags had started to be raised about his behaviour on the outside. He appeared at TRA events where signs calling for violence against women (JK Rowling in particular) were prominent, and carried such signs himself. Whilst this wouldn’t be illegal for a normal person, SJB is a murderer serving a life sentence and, as such, is under the conditions of his licence for the rest of his life. Appearing at events calling for violence towards women was certainly a breach of his licence, but nothing was done.
Immediately prior to the deed which (finally) got him arrested and recalled to jail, he was engaged in the stalking and harassment of Sarah Phillimore, threatening to attend and disrupt her book launch in Manchester. Sarah was, understandably, concerned about the safety and well being of both herself and the 100 or so guests at her book launch, a worry that was only alleviated upon his arrest and eventual recall to jail. Again, it should be noted that this sort of stalking and violent intimidation is a breach of his licence.
Finally, he attended London Trans Pride and gave his speech exhorting his listeners to punch women in the face. But it should be noted that the Metropolitan Police—being their usual sexist and misogynist selves—initially dismissed any idea that this blatant incitement to violence by a man convicted of torture and attempted murder was worth bothering with. They responded to complaints with a letter that, basically, said that Terfs had it coming and (wrongly) saying he had free speech “rights” which allowed him to make these threats.
It is, unfortunately, what you would expect from the Met, a notoriously sexist force, even by police standards. But they weren’t the only ones. A series of “left wing” commentators rushed to excuse and “justify” his behaviour (after issuing minor token disapprovals of violence). The organisers of Trans Pride said “We… condone righteous anger and the right to the free speech that was expressed yesterday”, confusing free speech with incitement to violence and ignoring the fact that, even if it had come just under the threshold of criminality (it didn’t), a man convict of torture and attemted murder, out on licence, still cannot say such things without breaching the terms of his licence. Clive Lewis, one of the few left wing MPs left in Labour (and one of the few Labour MPs I used to have any respect for) said “violent language and actions are not unique to one side on this issue”, neglecting to mention a single occasion when women have called for Trans people or TRAs to be punched in the face or similar. This “bothsidesism” was a constant refrain. Riz Posnett, the middle class girl who had glued herself to the floor at the Cambridge Union to prevent Kathleen Stock exercising her right to free speech, suddenly became a free speech defender, opining that, whilst she didn’t condone violence, she “won't condemn those like SJB who do… When we are threatened with and subjected to violence… self defence becomes necessary”, again neglecting to provide any instances whatsoever of women behaving remotely like SJB or anything else that could be used to “justify” this supposed “self defence”.
And so on, equivocation after equivocation. The only TRA who came close to acting with some appreciation of the moral degeneracy in supporting a man convicted of torture and attempted murder making violent threats towards women was Peter Tatchell, who said “It was just one person who does not represent the trans community”. This was untrue—SJB’s advocation of violence is very representative of the Trans community, as the section above shows—but at least he recognised that this threat and call to assault women by a violent and dangerous ex-convict out on licence was unequivocally wrong. A pretty low bar, you might think, but he was the only one who cleared it. Just.
And then, because women refused to give up the complaint and after the intervention of the Home Secretary, the Metropolitan Police were forced to do their job for once, and arrested SJB. At which point an assortment of so-called “leftists”, “antifa”, “anarchists” and even supposed “feminists” like Sisters Uncut gathered outside the magistrates court to defend this violent and dangerous man and his “right” to incite violence against women. Truly a sign of deep moral degeneration.
That such people wish to support a violent, thuggish man, convicted of torture and attempted murder, as he tries to whip up violent assaults on women is up to them. But to see such people calling themselves, believing themselves to be “left wing” or even “feminist”…! Words fail me. You cannot be a feminist if you support a man—especially such a vicious and dangerous man—making violent threats to intimidate women. You cannot be left wing if you do this.
I weep at this. When I see these so-called “leftists”, these supposed “anarchists” and these pretend “feminists” who all stand up and support violent threats and intimidation of women, and the man who made them. I weep for the left, for anarchy, for feminism. If this is what they are, what they have become, then we deserve another Tory government. And, unless some sanity returns to these movements, we’ll get one.
Note: Originally, I referred to SJB as a convicted murderer throughout. As stated in the summary of his life, he was convicted of attempted murder. I used murderer as: 1) the fact that it was attempted murder rather than murder is due to happenstance & luck and doesn’t change the nature of his crime or his intent (this is reflected in the Justice system, where sentencing guidelines are the same for both crimes); and 2) “Convicted attempted murderer” just sounds too clumsy and inelegant.
However, I’ve been convinced that accuracy is more important, so I have altered these references to a convicted murderer to reflect the fact that he was actually convicted for torture and attempted murder. Not through lack of trying, it should be noted, as his first victim recounts in the link above.