Fathers 4 Justice

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Fathers 4 Justice (or F4J) was an intenational fathers' rights pressure group founded and focussed primarily in the United Kingdom that campaigned for equal parenting, family law reform and equal contact with children. The United Kingdom branch announced that it was to be disbanded in January 2006, following negative publicity surrounding an alleged plot to kidnap the son of Prime Minister Tony Blair. F4J most notable activities included launching protests while dressed as comic book superheroes and causing disruption by scaling public buildings, bridges and monuments.

1 Origins
2 Activities
3 Flour bombing
4 Internal strife
5 F4J disbands
6 Impact
7 See also
8 External links
- 8.1 In the news

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Origins

Fathers 4 Justice was founded by Matt O'Connor, a marketing consultant and father of three. O'Connor had become incensed with family law after a court temporarily barred him from seeing his two young sons outside of a contact centre, following separation from his wife in 2000. On 17 December 2002, O’Connor and a small group of supporters staged their first protest by storming the Royal Courts of Justice dressed as Father Christmas. In January 2003 O'Connor officially founded Fathers 4 Justice. Initially the group targeted the homes of family court judges and family lawyers' homes and offices with traditional protests.

On 21 October 2003, campaigners Eddie Goreckwi and Jolly Stanesby scaled the Royal Courts of Justice, dressed respectively as Batman and Robin. The following day, the group’s members rallied through London around a military tank in solidarity with Goreckwi and Stanesby.

A significant escalation in the protesting style occurred nine days later when group member David Chick scaled a 120 foot crane near Tower Bridge, London dressed as Spiderman. The Metropolitan Police set up a cordon around the area that disrupted traffic through some of East London for several days. Chick published a ghost-written autobiography in February 2006.

Fathers 4 Justice founded branches in Holland and Canada in 2004, and in the USA and Italy during 2005.

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Activities

The protest form that has most characterised Fathers 4 Justice has been its members dressing as comic book superheroes and other easily recognizable characters to scale public buildings and monuments. Stunts included supporters storming courts dressed in Father Christmas outfits, clapping the Government's ‘Children’s Minister’ in handcuffs, and most notably group member Jason Hatch climbing onto Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman.

F4J's campaigning policy has always been that its organised publicity stunts and protests should be humourous, non-violent, and ultimately harmless. The group advocated non-violent protests aiming to cause disruption rather than damage. The choice of the superhero custumes was based on the claim that "fathers have the role of superhero in the lives of children". Protests have not been restricted simply to fathers as female supporters have adopted similar disguises and joined in the protests.

Protests of a similar nature occurred outside of the United Kingdom, a protest by a member dressed as Robin the Boy Wonder was held for twelve hours on the Pattullo Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. On 6 May 2005 the group made headlines again after a member dressed as Superman climbed up scaffolding in Old City Hall in Toronto,Ontario to unfurl a banner.

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Flour bombing

On 19 May 2004, a major alert was caused when two members of the group threw purple flour bombs at Tony Blair during Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons. This protest, along with a purple powder attack on the Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2004 Hartlepool by-election, Jody Dunn, appeared to signal a departure from the group's declared profession of nonviolence. Following the House of Commons incident The Times wrote that the group "has succeeded in becoming the most prominent guerrilla pressure group in Britain ... within eighteen months of its founding." The flour bomb protest came during the height of the al-Qaeda threat raising initial fears of a terrorist attack.

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Internal strife

Shortly after the May 2005 election, Matt O’Connor called a truce with CAFCASS, the government body responsible for providing reports on the suitability of non-resident parent contact. This act led to some internal strife within the organisation and some members met to declare no confidence in the leadership. A breakaway group was formed ‘Real F4J’. It is not known whether this name was selected to mirro the breakaway of the Real IRA from the Provisional IRA. The rebels also called for democratic control of the pressure group and more financial accountability. The breakaway group did not last long and did not gain any notability outside of the F4J organisation.

In November of 2005, the group suffered further negative publicity when the prime-time ITV programme Tonight With Trevor McDonald exposed some of its members as violent and obnoxious in their behaviour. Some members were expelled but the organisation defended its position and attacked the documentary. On 23 November 2005, Fathers 4 Justice ended its truce with CAFCASS and the Child Support Agency, calling for a public inquiry into family law.

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F4J disbands

During January 2006 the British newspaper The Sun published a story in which it claimed that members on the fringes of Fathers 4 Justice planned to kidnap Leo Blair, the young son of Prime Minister Tony Blair 'for a few hours as a symbolic gesture'. Police said that they were aware of such a plan, but that it had never got beyond 'the chattering stage', and did not comment on who was involved. Downing Street refused to confirm or deny the existence of a plot as it does not comment on matters concerning the Prime Minister's children.

Fathers 4 Justice founder Matt O'Connor condemned the alleged action and threatened to shut down the campaign. Within days, Fathers 4 Justice had been disbanded.

However, an splinter group called 'Real Fathers 4 Justice' continued operating, and on April 13th, Easter Thursday, two members climbed 40 feet up Westminster Abbey with a dummy on a cross, claiming that fathers are being "crucified" in the courts over access to their children.

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Impact

Fathers 4 Justice made an impact through raising the profile of their cause. The use of high profile and disruptive stunts garned media coverage for the group. Matt O'Connor has sold the rights to the Fathers 4 Justice story to Harbour Pictures, the firm behind the Calendar Girls film.

Other areas of impact include the exposing of security flaws in high profile British institutions such as Buckingham Palace and the House of Commons during a time of high security as a result of the al-Qaeda threat.

Donations to the group went to a non-profit limited company owned by O’Connor. F4J does not have charitable status, but in June 2005 the group launched a related charitable foundation, Fathers 4 Justice Foundation to work with Young Offenders from fatherless families.

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