The Republican
Was it a stunt?
…. on July 10, when Clive Lewis refused to swear an oath to the King?
You may remember the Labour MP’s small protest. He was eventually made to retake the oath:
None of the write ups at the time suggested this was any more than Lewis making his thoughts known. Take the BBC’s report here:
But Mr Lewis initially said he took the oath “under protest” as he wanted his constituents to live in a republic, but gave a more traditional speech on his second attempt on Tuesday.
On Politics Joe, Lewis explained "I would love to see this country as a republic”:
But was his protest in Parliament a personal one, decided alone? Or to raise the profile of the anti-monarchy activist group Republic?
Republic is a founding member of the Alliance of European Republican Movements (AERM), which Lewis linked to weeks after his parliamentary moment:
Here’s the group celebrating the outburst:
I only became aware of Republic in recent weeks - having seen others promoting it on X:
Here’s publicity it received in The Byline Times and on LBC:
Republic was even mentioned in a Guardian piece about Lewis’s protest:
But there was nothing to suggest that Lewis and Republic might know each other already - which they did. In May last year Lewis spoke at Republic’s Coronation protest:
A press release at the time read:
We're also excited to have a number of other speakers from the wider movement, including from the Alliance of European Republican Movements.
It’s not as if Lewis has made this a secret, obviously (see above) - it’s just no connection was made at the time of his parliamentary protest.
Lewis likes to tag lots of campaigns in his posts - but not that day:
It’s as if the plan was to raise the profile of the issue (republicanism) - so that we’d all be thinking about it - before later publicising links to Republic.
What is Republic?
Although Republic is technically an anti-monarchy campaign, its political remit is quite broad, venturing into LBGT+ activism:
Photo Credit: Bristol Pride March Photography (Jody Rawlings) (6) cropped
Take this Republic bag below. The footage below is from last month when pro-republic campaigns from all around Europe came to Manchester “to discuss best practices and strategies”:
It also has an environmentalist wing - which is rather strange when King Charles is obsessed with the topic:
Extinction Rebellion regularly features in Republic’s social media output:
As well as Sian Berry, the Green MP who - like Lewis - is in the cross-party MP alliance of “Green New Deal Champions”:
In June 2023 Republic organised a protest at the Scottish Coronation:
It’s also hosted a discussion on “A Bicycle Monarchy”:
Apparently this is a “phrase which is used quite a lot in the UK”:
Really?
The discussion centred around whether the decision of Dutch royals to cycle made the Royal Family look deceptively relatable. Saying that, I have this weird hunch that it’s just to crowbar cycling in (which environmentalists are obsessed with - so we can all have lovely active travel/ liveable neighbourhoods).
The Alliance of European Republican Movements (AERM) - to reiterate, the umbrella group for Republic - began at a meeting in Stockholm in June 2010 and member organisations are from Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
Its official name is the Stichting Alliance of European Republican Movements and you can find it on the Netherland’s Chamber of Commerce website here.
Funds are managed by the treasurer, Cees de Beer, the “Founder and president of Mensen Zeggen Dingen, cultural entrepreneurs and council member of Stadspartij Nijmegen”:
As a cultural entrepreneur, he helps small parties grow, provides urban advice to institutions and governments, and markets several creators. At the end of 2019, Cees was elected Night Mayor of Nijmegen.
He is passionate about the abolition of the monarchy:
And a pretty busy chap generally!
According to LinkedIn, de Beer founded Mensen Zeggen Dinnen a “caravan” involving “a group of traveling artistic traders”:
Plus, he’s a Board Member (Raadslid) of the political party City Party Nijmegen:
Here are some of its policies:
“liveable neighbourhoods” (yes, yes, getting my tin foil hat out):
Animals do pretty well out of it:
Anyway, that’s enough rabbit holes for one day (this happens with effectively everything I write!). Please feel welcome to search for anyone else in AERM as I’m not trying to pick on de Beer - other than the fact he is the treasurer. Here are details of the movement’s funding model by the way:
Anyway…
The point is that Clive Lewis has been promoting Republic - in August directly linking it to his oath stunt, when the dust had settled - and therefore linking to co-ordinated republican movements in Europe:
Lord knows how the man has time for himself…
As you will see from my other pieces, Lewis is also:
A campaigner for We Own It (public ownership of water)
A defender of Just Stop Oil:
Working with the activist group Compass:
An anti-fascism protestor
And a Green New Deal champion…
… as well as campaigning for other causes.
Want to know more about the Republic? Here’s a thread from another member of its illustrious fanbase:
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