Marvin Rees has been called “disgraceful and utterly cynical” for likening rent campaigners who disrupted a Bristol City Council housing think-tank meeting to the deadly January 6 attackers. The mayor was asked at a council meeting if members and staff could still do their jobs safely at City Hall following the protest by members of tenants union ACORN who stormed the inaugural meeting of the authority’s living rent commission in July.
Mr Rees said the demonstration was “akin to January 6”, referring to last year’s attack which left at least five people dead and scores injured, including 138 police officers, when an armed mob invaded the Capitol Building in Washington DC in a bid to overturn the US election and keep Donald Trump in power. A gallows was erected as rioters, venting their fury with the then vice-president, chanted “Hang Mike Pence” because he refused to accept false claims the election was “stolen”, while congressmen and women fled for their lives as more than 2,000 insurgents rampaged through the seat of American democracy.
In Bristol, on July 26, about 20 people from ACORN carrying homemade placards and chanting about fair rent walked past security, entered a meeting room and caused the council’s rent commission discussion to be postponed. The community union took the action because the local authority did not invite it to be part of the new group, despite ACORN being the largest representative group for people who rent homes in the city.
Read more: Renters storm City Hall and stop housing crisis commission they were excluded from
Bristol City Council Labour group leader Cllr Steve Pearce asked at member forum on Tuesday, October 18: “Considering that some councillors can let in a group of protesters to purposely intimidate and shut down meetings they don’t approve of, are we safe to carry out our jobs in City Hall?” Mr Rees replied: “The incident was unfortunate to say the least.
“It put councillors at risk, our guests at risk, our staff including the front desk staff at risk. In fact, one young member of staff was particularly shaken up.
“There are obvious risks from councillors bypassing council safety and security measures. The measures are in place because of the risk in public life, of which there have been several recent examples.”
He said ACORN’s protest was an “exercise in entitlement and privilege without any thought to anyone else including those renters whose lives will be improved by the living rent commission”. Mr Rees said: “I don’t know if this action was agreed by the Green Party or if it was a rogue individual councillor, you would have to ask them.
“But either way it is more akin to January 6 than it is to the kind of thoughtful, reflective democracy that people profess to want in this organisation and this city. Last week I chaired a meeting of Core City leaders having seen that a meeting in another Core City was stormed – to put the self-aggrandising phrase on it – and shut down.
“The leader of that authority was subsequently sent a severed doll’s head, and in fact it was the same organisation (ACORN).” He said elected members needed to be very careful if they chose to “chase quick popularity” or “play games with security” because it was not just councillors who were threatened.
“We have staff on the front desk whose responsibility it is to keep this building safe who were then put into very compromising situations,” Bristol’s mayor said. ACORN Bristol head organiser Ewan McLennan said afterwards: "For Marvin Rees to compare a peaceful protest by ACORN to the gun-toting far right of January 6 is disgraceful and utterly cynical.
“He knows full well that we are a community union made up of members from all walks of life committed to getting a fair deal for our communities – and he knows full well that we are totally committed to doing this in a peaceful way. To suggest we put anyone in danger with our action at the living rent commission is absurd.
“In fact we had a number of people sitting on the commission coming up to us afterwards to congratulate us on making sure the mayor wasn't able to get away with cutting renters out of the discussion. The fact of the matter is that Marvin Rees does not seem to be able to deal with anyone in our city holding him democratically accountable.
“We have seen this in his arrogant attack on local journalists recently, in his sinister treatment of families who have children with special educational needs and disabilities, last week we saw how he refused to meet with residents of tower blocks who are calling for basic fire safety measures in their homes. And now ACORN is apparently in his sights too. His ridiculous comments only make us more determined to keep holding him and his administration to account.”
Read next:
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