Modern activism
‘Starting a campaign following Sarah Everard’s death gave me an outlet for the grief and rage’
In our new modern activism column, Sophie Walker, feminist campaigner and author of Five Rules For Rebellion: Let’s Change The World Ourselves, spotlights women fighting for change. This week, she talks to Jamie Klingler, 42, who helped create the viral Reclaim These Streets movement after the killing of Sarah Everard. Jamie was one of a group of women who tried to organise a vigil, found herself in a legal battle with the police and ended up raising £500,000 for organisations supporting women and children.
Hello Jamie, tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m American but live in London. Three years ago, I started my own events company. The stuff I do is about amplifying messages that get to a lot of people – that’s where I get excited. In college, I was in student government but when I moved to the UK in 2002 it was harder to find my feet. I didn’t know the lie of the land.
So there was clearly an element of surprise in finding yourself an activist.
Living alone during lockdown when the Sarah Everard incident happened had a big impact. I needed the solidarity of other women. I tweeted that everyone deserves to be able to arrive home safely and it got so much attention that I thought, what about a vigil? I emailed my contact book and then Reclaim These Streets got in touch to suggest we join forces. We had a call that night with local Lambeth councilors Anna Birley and Jessica Leigh.
How did you divide up the work?
Jess had local knowledge so handled risk assessment and safety. I sourced the infrastructure and told people we were going to do it.
What did it feel like?
Like I was putting my skills to good use. It gave me an outlet for the grief and rage. I went from being upset and angry to being in highly motivated, productive mode.
But then the police pulled permission for the vigil and your group took legal action – while still trying to plan for the event…
Everything happened at breakneck speed. It was terrifying and exhilarating. I care about the human right to protest but it had come so far from where we’d started. What we thought would be a vigil for 600 turned into something where we felt the spotlight of the world’s press was on us.
Who was looking after you at this point?
It was the girls of Reclaim These Streets – there were nine of us altogether. We were in this crazy situation and so invested in each other. There were lots of tears when we decided to cancel the event. Instead, we held an online vigil and focused fundraising on women and girls who had experienced a lack of access to justice. The goal was £320,000 – the cost of the fines if events had gone ahead. We’ve reached £540,000 so far.
What did you learn?
That determined women can get almost anything done in no time at all. I’ve felt more collective passion and focus than I’ve experienced in 10 years of my career.
How did you cope with the hardest bits?
It was very hard to hear so many women’s experiences of rape and sexual abuse. It was hard to get a lot of personal criticism on social media. The responsibility of making sure the money was spent on the right services for women felt very heavy. I did some counselling sessions to help deal with it.
How can Grazia readers support you and Reclaim These Streets?
We’re going to be doing a big call for volunteers. Visit reclaimthesestreets.com for information. Our goal is to make ‘text me when you get home’ obsolete, through community action, education and legislation.