A militant UK transgender activist group has circulated a “direct action” guide encouraging supporters to carry out repeated illegal actions against MPs, organizations, and public events, with instructions on how to avoid detection. The group, known as Bash Back, lays out tactics targeting political figures and institutions while acknowledging the actions would be unlawful.
The document urges members to form “independent local cells” and “identify a target,” including MPs, organizations, and political party conferences. It further instructs activists to “ensure your target can be hit repeatedly until they desist” from what the group describes as “transphobic” activity, reports the Times.
The guide explicitly states that such actions would be “rarely legal” and warns participants they could face criminal charges, including criminal damage, possession of an offensive weapon, and aggravated trespass. It also includes practical advice on how to carry out attacks and avoid being traced. An equipment section lists items such as a hammer and advises activists to clean tools with alcohol or dispose of them afterward “in unsurveilled residential bins.” It also suggests stealing equipment to prevent it from being linked back to individuals involved.
Participants are encouraged to use encrypted messaging platforms such as Signal, with disappearing messages enabled. The guide also recommends using pink paint during actions so they can be identified as connected to the group.
Bash Back has described itself as a “nonviolent direct action group,” despite promoting tactics that involve unlawful activity. The group emerged following a Supreme Court ruling last year that defined a woman under the Equality Act as based on biological sex.
The group has claimed responsibility for several incidents, including actions targeting the constituency office of Wes Streeting, the prison contractor Sodexo, the Free Speech Union, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. It said some of these actions were carried out in solidarity with Prisoners for Palestine.
In a manifesto included in the document, the group wrote that transgender people had been “made the victim” by politics, healthcare, and society. “We are so tired, and so angry — and while we take to the streets time and time again with our flags and our banners and our speeches, nothing seems to work.”
Author JK Rowling previously warned about threats against public figures, citing harassment and the release of personal information linked to activist campaigns.
Bash Back defended its actions in a statement, saying: “We take action to stand up for ourselves in a country that is increasingly hostile to trans people, because the traditional modes of protest are not working due to the sheer amount of money from billionaires like Rowling funnelled into opposition to our rights and freedoms. We never go out of our way to cause harm to any human being and discourage and condemn actions that do so.”
A government spokesperson responded: “The rhetoric from this group is dangerous and only seeks to distract from our work to improve the lives of trans people.”
The document urges members to form “independent local cells” and “identify a target,” including MPs, organizations, and political party conferences. It further instructs activists to “ensure your target can be hit repeatedly until they desist” from what the group describes as “transphobic” activity, reports the Times.
The guide explicitly states that such actions would be “rarely legal” and warns participants they could face criminal charges, including criminal damage, possession of an offensive weapon, and aggravated trespass. It also includes practical advice on how to carry out attacks and avoid being traced. An equipment section lists items such as a hammer and advises activists to clean tools with alcohol or dispose of them afterward “in unsurveilled residential bins.” It also suggests stealing equipment to prevent it from being linked back to individuals involved.
Participants are encouraged to use encrypted messaging platforms such as Signal, with disappearing messages enabled. The guide also recommends using pink paint during actions so they can be identified as connected to the group.
Bash Back has described itself as a “nonviolent direct action group,” despite promoting tactics that involve unlawful activity. The group emerged following a Supreme Court ruling last year that defined a woman under the Equality Act as based on biological sex.
The group has claimed responsibility for several incidents, including actions targeting the constituency office of Wes Streeting, the prison contractor Sodexo, the Free Speech Union, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. It said some of these actions were carried out in solidarity with Prisoners for Palestine.
In a manifesto included in the document, the group wrote that transgender people had been “made the victim” by politics, healthcare, and society. “We are so tired, and so angry — and while we take to the streets time and time again with our flags and our banners and our speeches, nothing seems to work.”
Author JK Rowling previously warned about threats against public figures, citing harassment and the release of personal information linked to activist campaigns.
Bash Back defended its actions in a statement, saying: “We take action to stand up for ourselves in a country that is increasingly hostile to trans people, because the traditional modes of protest are not working due to the sheer amount of money from billionaires like Rowling funnelled into opposition to our rights and freedoms. We never go out of our way to cause harm to any human being and discourage and condemn actions that do so.”
A government spokesperson responded: “The rhetoric from this group is dangerous and only seeks to distract from our work to improve the lives of trans people.”
In an Instagram post from March 25 urging people to join the group, it stated, "For years we have stood with banners and flags, marched through the streets of every city in the UK. For years we have petitioned and polled and protested. *It is not working*."
Every day these bigots- financed by the powerful and wealthy- work in the shadows or out in the open to restrict our rights, enforce conversion therapy, and ban us from public spaces. Every day trans people are killed by bigoted violence, be it a murder on the street or systemic denial to lifesaving medical care. The time for respectability politics is over. We do not have to take it anymore."
