photo Senior Airman Dustin Mullen/CC

photo Senior Airman Dustin Mullen/CC   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Domestic abuse killings have more than doubled during the coronavirus lockdown, according to Counting Dead Women (CDW), the organisation that monitors the killing of women by men. It identified 16 killings from 23 March to 12 April. In ‘normal’ times, over a similar period, there would be an average of five deaths – still an horrific figure.

Unfortunately, the CDW figure corresponds with the huge increase in calls to domestic abuse and online services since the lockdown began. The founder of CDW said: “I don’t believe coronavirus creates violent men. What we’re seeing is a window into the levels of abuse that women live with all the time.

Coronavirus may exacerbate triggers, though I might prefer to call them excuses. Lockdown may restrict some women’s access to support or escape and it may even curtail measures some men take to keep their violence under control”.

The government’s response has been pitiful, coming on top of years of underfunding for refuges (see ‘Tory money a drop in the ocean’ at socialist party.org.uk).

We have to fight for full funding for helplines, refuges and other safe emergency accommodation for victims of abuse during this crisis (see p16). But we also have to fight all cuts, and for the resources necessary for long-term financing of the services so desperately needed (see Unite the union opposes all cuts to domestic violence services at socialistparty.org.uk).

  • Sign and share the Women’s Lives Matter petition at change.org/Covid-19-DomesticViolenceCrisis

Nottingham DV meeting

14 people, including four non-members, came to our meeting via Zoom on 20 April. The meeting was entitled ‘Domestic violence in the lockdown – the impact of the pandemic and Tory hypocrisy’.

We had a serious discussion on domestic violence, its origins in class society, the effects of cuts, precarious work, low pay and austerity on services, and the increased pressures for sufferers from the lockdown.

We also discussed the demands of the Women’s Lives Matter petition.

Clare Wilkins, Nottingham Socialist Party

What we heard

I just popped into Sainsbury’s. At the self-checkouts there was a copper chatting to a Sainsbury’s worker. He asked the copper if they were busy. She replied “mainly with domestic violence, calls have gone through the roof.” Grim

Scott Jones